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Who doesn’t remember Babe Ruth? Even if you are too young, and are a baseball fan, we bet you’ve heard of Babe and the House That Ruth Built. Even one of his superstitions remains popular among Major League players-”whenever I hit a homerun, I always make sure I touch all four bases.” Babe was a curious man, ferocious in baseball, women, and ideals, and we remember his as “The Babe,” fondly so, because there will never be another man like him, in any sport.

Born George Herman Ruth Jr. to parents George Sr. and Kate Schamberger-Ruth in Baltimore, Maryland in 1895, Ruth and his sister Mamie were the only two survivors out of eight children. Ruth did not have an idyllic childhood, often being left to his own devices to get by. When he was only seven, his parents sent him to St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys, which Ruth looked at more as prison than school. He saw his parents only rarely and rapidly became known by the nuns at St. Mary’s as a problem child.

Ruth never was one for rules and was not a good fit for the strictly ordered life offered by St. Mary’s school. However, he did learn his lifelong love of the game of baseball while at the school. Jack Dunn, manager of the Baltimore Orioles (then a minor league farm team for the Boston Red Sox) was amazed by the then nineteen year old Ruth’s talent and immediately signed him on. He was given the nickname of “Jack’s newest babe” by teammates – a name that stuck.

With the Orioles for only five months, the Boston Red Sox purchased his contract and at 19, he both pitched and played the outfield for six years. During this period, fans took note of Babe’s performance on and off the field, with his off the field stories being more colorful through his eating and drinking all-night parties that included many women. Playing in his first World Series Game in 1916, he set a record that still stands today, a fourteen inning game that became the longest in the history of the World Series. His pitching skills at this time left him an astounding record of 29 2/3 scoreless innings in World Series bouts alone, a record that stood for forty-three years. In December of 1919, a weird trade of sorts would land him with the Yankees-leaving the Red Sox in a World Series denial until 2004!

In 1920, he began his Major League career with the New York Yankees where Babe and his teammates would win 7 American League Pennants and 4 World Series Titles, a legacy called “The Curse of the Bambino.” Babe hit an amazing 54 home runs in 1920 and was both a fan and player favorite not just for his home run hitting skills, but also for his candor. In 1923, mostly due to the popularity of The Babe, the Yankees opened Yankee Stadium that would eventually be named, The House That Ruth Built-how appropriate that The Babe would hit a home run on opening day, along with yet another World Series Title. Married to Helen Woodford in October of 1914, by 1919, Babe had enough money to buy them a country house and adopt a daughter they named Dorothy. After a separation, but no divorce in 1925, Babe did not remain the good boy when it came to women and continued an affair with model Claire Hodgson. Upon Helen’s death by fire in 1929, Babe married Claire and hit her an out-of-the-park homerun in his first at bat in April of that same year.

Throughout his 22-year career in baseball, Babe will forever be remembered for his 60 home runs in 1927, a record that stood until Roger Maris hit 61 home runs in 1961. Sports fans everywhere argue to this day who actually holds this record since Babe hit his 60 in 154 games and Maris hit his in 162 games. No one, however, can deny The Babe’s impressive .690 lifetime batting percentage-something that may never be seen again. Along with The Babe, sports writers gave him nicknames like The Great Bambino and The Sultan of Swat.

Babe’s famous moment in baseball came in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series where the Yankees played the Chicago Cubs. In the 5th inning, after he already had one home run, Babe came to bat and was at a count of two balls and two strikes. Before the next pitch came his way, Babe pointed to the center of the field bleachers and slammed that puppy right where he pointed and some believe it is the longest home run ever hit out of Wrigley Field.

Ruth left the Yankees in 1935 – he had wanted to be manager of the team and he decided to leave rather than stay in another capacity. He instead signed on with the Boston Braves as first base coach and player, with the promise of the manager’s chair in the following year. Seeing that the Braves were unlikely to keep this promise, Ruth went out in style. In one of his final games, Ruth hit three home runs against the Pittsburgh Pirates for a career total of 714 home runs. The Babe’s 2,211 RBIs, 2.28 career ERA as a left-handed pitcher and his 8,399 at-bats along with all of his many achievements have made him a player who will always be remembered as long as there is a game called baseball.