Babe Ruth :: essays research papers

On February 6, 1895, George Herman Ruth, Jr., was born in his grandparents house in Baltimore, Maryland. Ruth as a young child. Ruth’s dad worked as a bartender and owned his own bar. They spent very little time with George because they worked long hours. Eventually, his parents felt that they couldn’t take care of George, and on June 13, 1902, he was taken to St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys. His custody was also signed over to the Xaverian Brothers, a Catholic Order of Jesuit Missionaries who ran St. Mary’s. St. Mary’s was both a reformatory and orphanage, which was surrounded by a wall like a prison with guards on duty. George, who was always involved in pranks and fights, was classified as "incorrigible" when he was admitted. The only positive thing that happened from going to St. Mary’s was meeting Brother Mathias. Brother Mathias was the disciplinary guy at St. Mary’s. He spent a lot of time with George. He even helped Ruth learn to be a baseball player. Baseball was a popular game for the boys at St. Mary’s and George played well at a young age. He played all positions on the field, was an excellent pitcher and had the ability to hit the ball very well. By his late teens Ruth had developed into a major league baseball prospect. On February 27, 1914, at the age of nineteen, the Baltimore Orioles signed Babe to his first professional baseball contract. Because Ruth’s parents had signed over custody of him to St. Mary’s, he was supposed to remain at the school until he was twenty-one. To go around this, Dunn, the man who signed him, became Ruth’s legal guardian. 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 the mornings, Ruth would frequent Landers’ Coffee Shop in Boston, and it is here that he met Helen Woodford, a seventeen-year-old waitress. They married on October 17, 1914 at St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church in Ellicott City, Maryland. As Babe’s career began to blossom and his salary increased, by 1919 he was making $10,000 per year, he and Helen were able to buy a home outside of Boston in Sudbury, Massachusetts. In December of 1919 Babe was sold to the New York Yankees, owned by Colonel Jacob Ruppert and managed by Miller Huggins.