The greatest player of all-time and an American legend, Ruth was one of the first five players inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1936.
George "Babe, The Bambino, The Sultan of Swat" Ruth
1936 Elected to the Hall of Fame as a Right Fielder, Career Leader in Slugging Percentage & Walks, Single Season Leader in Home-Run Percentage, Slugging Average, Total Bases, Walks & Runs Scored, 1924 AL Batting Title, 2 Time All-Star (1933-34)
At Cooperstown, New York, in 1936, a clerk named Alexander Cleland worked for a wealthy local citizen named Edward Clark, who had inherited some of the Singer Sewing Machine fortune. Cleland approached Clark about an exhibition of baseball artifacts that might appear in the folk-art museum Clark had helped to fund. Clark approved of the idea, partly because Cooperstown had long been thought to be the birthplace of baseball. When he bought a hand-sewn ball at auction that had belonged to Abner Graves, a local man who first claimed that Abner Doubleday had invented the game, he decided to go a step further. He determined to build a National Baseball Museum
"for the purpose of collecting and preserving pictures and relics reflecting the development of the National Game from the time of its inception, through the ingenuity of Major General Abner Doubleday in 1839 to the present."
Ford Frick, president of the National League, went one better. He suggested the construction of a permanent National Baseball Hall of Fame, to be built and dedicated in time for the centennial, in three years. Work began on a site and a special committee was formed to select the first five members: Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson and, of course, Babe Ruth.
On June 12, 1939, ordained the game's centennial, the Baseball Hall of Fame officially opened up in Cooperstown. Ten thousand fans descended upon the sleepy little town to see their heroes enshrined. The Babe made a grand entrance, marching in to a thunderous ovation as a band played, Take Me Out To The Ball Game. Once again, he stole the show, the only inductee without a tie. The crowd loved it and celebrated him again.
He was to enjoy one more day in the sun before it was all over: His final farewell at Yankee Stadium.
Last Modified 2-10-99Quotes by the Babe
"The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime."
"The only real game, I think, in the world is baseball."
"Baseball was, is, and always will be to me the best game in the world."
"I thank heaven we have had baseball in this world... the kids... our national pastime."
"If I'd tried for them dinky singles I could've batted around six hundred."
"To my sick little pal. I will try to knock you another homer, maybe two today."
"Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen. You know how bad my voice sounds. Well, it feels just as bad. You know this baseball game of ours comes up from the youth. That means the boys. And after you've been a boy, and grow up to know how to play ball, then you come to the boys you see representing themselves today in our national pastime."