CAREER

Just five months after being signed by the Baltimore Orioles, Babe Ruth was sold to the Boston Red Sox. He made his debut as a major leaguer in Fenway Park on July 11, 1914, pitching against the Cleveland Indians.

In December of 1919 Babe was sold to the New York Yankees, owned by Colonel Jacob Ruppert and managed by Miller Huggins. Prior to Ruth�s arrival in New York, the team had never won a pennant. With "The Babe" as part of their arsenal they became a dominant force in major league baseball, winning seven pennants and four World Championships from 1920 to 1933.

Had Babe Ruth been born fifty years later he would unquestionably have been a star in several sports, at least as a youngster. However, at the time of his youth, baseball was basically the only true "sport of choice." Nevertheless, the Babe was interested in almost all sporting activities and participated in most of them. He had a passion for hunting and fishing, boxed, bowled but perhaps one of his biggest athletic passions was golf. He loved the game and played whenever he could. As a matter of fact, his daughter Julia still believes that were it not for golf he would not have known what to do with himself after he retired from baseball.

Babe Ruth�s last year as a Yankee was 1934. He had a burning desire to manage in the major leagues. In 1935, at the age of forty, he announced that his playing days were through and that he wanted to become a manager. In late February, Judge Emil Fuchs, owner of the Boston Braves, enticed Ruth to join the team by making him believe that the following year he may become the team�s manager. Unfortunately for the Babe that never came to pass. Ruth played his last major league game on May 30, 1935, for the Boston Braves and announced his retirement on June 2, 1935. From that day on he kept hoping to get a chance to manage in the major leagues, but the opportunity never came. On February 2, 1936, Babe became a charter member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

In 1946, Babe was diagnosed with throat cancer. Even though doctors performed surgery and he received radiation treatments, the cancer could not be arrested. With doctors being unable to do any more for him, Babe was released from the hospital on February 15, 1947. Subsequently, April 27 was declared "Babe Ruth Day" in every baseball park in the United States and Japan. Although too frail to don his old uniform at the time, Babe did make an appearance on that day at Yankee Stadium.

His final appearance at Yankee stadium actually came later, on June 13, 1948, during the 25th anniversary of "The House that Ruth Built." During the celebration the Yankees also retired his uniform, number 3, and for that reason Babe put on the uniform for one last time.

At 8:01 p.m. on August 16, 1948, Babe Ruth lost his battle with cancer. For two days, his body lay in state at the main entrance to Yankee Stadium. Hundreds of thousands of people stood in line to pay their last respects. Babe�s funeral was on August 19 at St. Patrick�s Cathedral in New York. He is buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York. He now rests along side of his wife Claire who was buried next to him after her death in 1976.