Babe Ruth Gives His 'Farewell To Baseball' Speech

June 14, 2021

In this photo, colorized by Ahmet Asar, Babe Ruth walks on the field on June 13, 1948 to deliver his “Farewell to Baseball Speech.” Ruth, suffering from cancer, had lost significant weight, and was using a baseball bat for support as he walked on the field. The original, taken by Nat Fein, won a Pulitzer Prize.

Original image by Nat Fein. Colorized: (Ahmed Azar).

Babe Ruth, nicknamed “The Bambino” and “The Sultan of Swat” was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on February 6, 1895. At the age of seven, he was sent to St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys, where he spent much of the next 12 years. Although the details of why he was sent there are sparse, he was recorded as “incorrigible.” It was here that he began playing baseball. When he was 18, in 1913, he was allowed to start leaving the premises to play on community teams. Then, in 1914, he signed with the minor league Baltimore Orioles, which were part of the International League and owned and managed by Jack Dunn. When Dunn was facing financial problems, he had to sell some of his best players; Ruth was then sold to the Boston Red Sox and on July 11, reported to the team. beginning his 22-season career in the majors, from 1914-1935. 

A Pitcher Who Wanted More Game time

Babe Ruth in 1918. Spource: (Library of Congress/Wikipedia).

 Although he started his 22-season career in the majors, which stretched from 1914-1935 as a left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, he found his fame in the outfield for the New York Yankees. While pitching for the Red Sox, he won 23 games in a season twice, but he wanted to play every day, and he converted to playing as an outfielder. He hit his first homerun before becoming an outfielder; the homerun happened in a game against the Yankees on May 6, 1915, while still a pitcher and it was only his 18th at-bat. The conversion happened gradually, as he was still pitching in some games; in the 1919 season, he pitched in 17 out of 130 games he played, and he ended the season with an 8-5 record. That year, as he played regularly, he broke the single-season home run record. After that record breaking season, Harry Frazee, the owner of the Red Sox, sold Ruth to the Yankees for $100,000, the largest sum ever paid at that point. This began the “Curse of the Bambino” superstition related to the Red Sox 86-year championship drought. With Ruth’s help, the Yankees won seven American League pennants and four World Series championships. Ruth also helped to boost baseball’s popularity, transforming it from a low scoring game of strategy into a sport where the home run played an important role.