Baseball Legacies: Babe Ruth

A legends’ legacy left behind.

Whether you are a die hard fan of baseball, or just enjoy the sport from time to time, you will know the name Babe Ruth. If you look on Fanduel’s MLB fantasy picks, you won’t see his name, but you will likely see a few players who are desperately hoping to be the next babe Ruth.

Babe Ruth was an absolute legend on the field and inspired so many in the baseball game. While everyone leaves a legacy behind in one way or another, no one will ever leave behind a legacy quite like he did.

If you don’t know much about Babe Ruth, read on, there is much to be said for this sporting superstar. His family still keeps his legacy alive to this day, and when we think about it, we are not surprised. He was born 6th  1895 and passed away on August 16th 1948. His full name was George Herman Ruth Jr, he was also known as the ‘Bambino’ and the ‘Sultan and Swat’, but more commonly, he was Babe Ruth.

Babe Ruth’s Legacy

The legacy Babe Ruth left behind is incredible. He was a leader both on the field and off the field. He was known for being a hardworking baseball player who practiced very often, an inspirational trait. He was a charitable man, always helping children and sympathetic to those who were in need.

Yet, it was none of this that spurred his legacy, instead it was his called shot in the 1932 World Series against the Chicago Cubs that did it, it cemented his legendary status and kicked off his legacy.

During batting practice for game 3 of the World Series that year, some of the Chicago fans were throwing lemons at him, (what an odd choice). There had certainly been a lot of trash talk between the two teams, and both the players of the Cubs and their fans were super focused on hurling taunts at Babe. Of course, like you might expect, some of these taunts were rather tough, and with a count of 2-2, Babe Ruth stepped out of the batter’s box and pointed to center field. The next pitch was thrown, and he smashed a massive, booming home run over the wall in center field.

This was recorded by sports writers saying that it was the longest home run that they had ever seen in history, and it was with this outstanding swing that Babe Ruth received his status as a legend. Of course, some believe that Ruth had pointed and called his shot, others would say that he was pointing to the Cubs dugout. He never denied calling the shot, however, he never admitted it either, simply leaving it up to our imaginations.

So, this was where it all began, and it’s undeniably an amazing source to start off a legacy. So, many people came to see him play after the instance of the ‘called shot’. And Yankee Stadium soon became known as ‘The House That Ruth Built’. He was an inspiration to baseball players, fans, and the sport as a whole.

His latter years.

Babe Ruth only lived another 16 years after the ‘called shot’. However, by 1936 he was selected as one of the five charter members to the newly established Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. He was a spendthrift, and luckily he gained an agent ‘Walsh’ who obtained huge contracts for him and managed his finances, meaning that Ruth got to live out of comfortable retirement.

In his later years he actually played a fair bit of gold, and made numerous personal appearances for products and causes, yet he was not so actively involved in baseball.

When he passed away from throat cancer, at least 75,000 people viewed his body at Yankee Stadium, and around the same amount attended his funeral service. Showing how truly deeply he had inspired the baseball world.

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