One of baseball’s most famous players, Babe Ruth is fondly called the “Sultan of Swat” for his big-hitting prowess. His name was immortalized in radio broadcasts, collectible trading cards, and baseball lore. Though the Great Bambino is one of baseball’s all-time greats for on-field performance, there are a number of bizarre anecdotes and urban legends about Babe Ruth that few people know.
Here are eleven odd, off-the-field tidbits about Babe Ruth.
Ruth got into baseball because he was bad
When he was seven, Babe Ruth was constantly running afoul of the law in Baltimore, Maryland, due to his habitual offenses of drinking, chewing tobacco, loitering in the dockyards, and making fun of the police. The kid’s behavior became too much for his parents, so they placed him in St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys, a Catholic orphanage.
Babe Ruth remained there for the next 12 years, under the tutelage of Brother Mathias, who was instrumental in teaching Ruth the fundamentals of baseball. In the next three years, he showed promise as a pitcher and a batter for the baseball team.
How George Herman Ruth became Babe Ruth
When Jack Dunn, owner of the minor league Baltimore Orioles, saw the teen, he signed him up with the intention of developing him into a player for the Boston Red Sox. Babe Ruth’s teammates began jokingly referring to him as “Dunn’s new babe” after Dunn became his legal guardian, which eventually evolved into the name “Babe” Ruth.
The Behemoth of Bust spent very little time in the minors before being called up to play for the Red Sox. Babe Ruth won three world championships in Fenway Park in 1915, 1916, and 1918 during his six seasons there.
Babe Ruth’s wife a relative of MLB great Johnny Mize
Claire Merritt Hodgson, Babe Ruth’s second wife, was a second cousin of another legendary Yankee and Hall of Famer Johnny Mize, who had five rings.
From 1936 until 1953, Mize was a professional baseball player for the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Giants, and New York Yankees. He hit.312 with 359 home runs, and 1,337 RBIs and was into the All-Star team 10 times.
Mize, who won the Babe Ruth Award in 1952, shared ancestry with another legendary MLB slugger, Ty Cobb.
Grew up in an orphanage but not an orphan
Contrary to popular belief, Ruth did not grow up without his parents. While Ruth did spend time at Baltimore’s St. Mary’s Industrial School for Orphans, Delinquent, Incorrigible, and Wayward Boys, he did not qualify as an orphan and was not one of the school’s target populations.
After being completely overwhelmed by his notoriety, Babe Ruth’s parents enrolled the troubled youngster in a Catholic school. The school was legally responsible for the boy, and it was there that he discovered baseball and, on Valentine’s Day of 1914, signed a contract with the minor league Baltimore Orioles.
Babe Ruth had a birthday problem
For a long time, Babe Ruth attributed his birthdate to February 7, 1894. After the 1934 season, an All-Star MLB team went on a tour of Japan. When Ruth applied for a passport, he discovered that his birth certificate had February 6, 1895, as his date of birth. But he never skipped celebrating February 7 as his birthday.
He was jailed for careless driving
The number of traffic violations and car accidents that Babe Ruth accrued was almost as high as the number of home runs he hit. He was arrested for overspeeding in Manhattan on June 8, 1921, for the second time in a month. Ruth was released 45 minutes after the start of the game that day, and he rode off with a motorcycle escort and his Yankee uniform underneath his suit.
Hookers behind his divorce
Robert Weintraub claims in his book The House That Ruth Built that Ruth’s first wife, Helen Woodford, divorced him because of his infatuation with hookers in New York. The Bambino’s infidelity soon after he signed with the New York Yankees in 1923 ultimately led to his divorce from his wife that same year.
A family member killed Babe Ruth’s father
A fight between two family members led to the death of Ruth’s father. In August of 1918, while George Herman Ruth Sr. was at his Baltimore saloons, there was a fight between his two brothers-in-law. After getting into an argument with one, Ruth followed him out into the street, where a brawl broke out. This resulted in his falling to the ground and suffering a fatal skull fracture that caused his death.
Twice people attempted to kill Babe Ruth
Several times, Babe Ruth nearly lost his life as a direct result of his sex life. Ruth’s husband pursued him with a gun through a Detroit hotel after he slept with another woman, and Ruth was the one who slept with the woman. Ruth escaped the hotel naked to spare his life. When he contracted syphilis in 1925, a bacterial sexually transmitted infection commonly spread by a hooker, he had to miss time with the Yankees. Another time, a woman who believed Babe had cheated on her attacked him with a knife in a crowded subway car.
His playboy acts led him to court
The Big Fellow got into some legal trouble in 1922 due to his promiscuous behavior. Dolores Dixon, a department store employee who was only a teenager at the time, sued Ruth for fifty thousand dollars, claiming that Ruth had broken a promise she had made to her. She stated that she and Babe Ruth had conceived a child together. The woman claimed that he raped her and then proposed to her. In addition, she claimed they had numerous sex encounters in his car. The trial for this case took place in 1923. However, it was found that the woman made the claim only to get money from him exploiting his playboy image.
Ruth’s first wife died mysteriously
After his rookie year, Ruth wed Helen Woodford, a young lady of 16. In 1922, they adopted a daughter who was likely the product of one of Ruth’s extramarital affairs. They were no longer together after only a few years. But Helen lost her life in a fire in a dentist’s house in Watertown, Massachusetts in January 1929. While it was initially thought that the victim was Kinder’s wife, Helen, her true identity was only revealed a few hours before her burial.
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