His name is synonymous with baseball. Babe Ruth. The Great Bambino. Yes, George Herman “Babe” Ruth logged 22 seasons in Major League Baseball. Famously quoted as saying, “All ballplayers should quit when it starts to feel as if all the baselines run uphill,” Ruth retired in 1935 with 714 home runs under his belt. But Babe was much more than a baseball legend. Here are some photos that showcase the many interests, talents, and causes in which Ruth was involved both during his time on the field and off.
Comeback Kid
Artie McGovern, a former flyweight boxer (pictured above right), owned McGovern’s Gym, where he trained the big wigs of Broadway and Wall Street. He was also known for bringing Babe Ruth back to top form. Ruth began working out with McGovern in 1925 at a time when he was overweight, out of shape, and in a career slump. McGovern coached him on his diet and exercise regimen and by the following season, Ruth had shed 44 lbs and emerged a slimmer, more fit version of himself, going on to score 47 home runs the following season.
Piano Man & Music Composer
Babe was most well-known for swinging a bat, but he could also tickle the ivories quite well. Pictured, he’s playing piano as his wife Helen looks on (circa 1910s). In addition to playing piano, Ruth had some composing skills as well. He — along with American composer Zez Confrey — composed a catchy tune in 1937 called “Home Run on the Keys,” which was a riff on Confrey’s popular “Kitten on the Keys.”
Chicken Farmer
While Ruth was known as a prize-winning baseball player, few people know that he also raised prize-winning roosters during the off-season. Above, the Great Bambino is pictured with fellow ball player Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators — each holding their beloved roosters.
Flock Farmer
Babe Ruth raised his birds at Home Plate Farm (pictured), a property he purchased in Sudbury, Massachusetts in 1922. The property was home to Ruth and his family until 1926. Rumor has it that during a wild night of partying, Ruth and some pals sunk a piano in a pond on the property.
Family Man
Babe and his first wife, Helen (pictured), married as teens and adopted their daughter Dorothy (pictured). Babe and Helen separated in 1925 due, by all accounts, to his infidelities. After all, he’s quoted as saying, “I’ll promise to go easier on drinking and to get to bed earlier, but not for you, fifty thousand dollars, or two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars will I give up women. They’re too much fun.” (Find more famous baseball quotes here.) Helen died under mysterious circumstances in a house fire in 1929. Three months after Helen’s death, Babe remarried Claire Hodgson and adopted her daughter Julia. In 1988, Helen Ruth wrote in her book My Dad, the Babe that Babe was her biological father and that she was born to a mistress of Babe’s named Juanita Jennings.
Betting Man
Babe was at the estate of lawyer John M. Kelley in 1922, when Kelley bet May Wirth, a famous circus rider, that she couldn’t ride his bull, known as “King Jess.” All in attendance watched as Wirth successfully rode the beast, an outcome that Ruth bet on and won. After Wirth, Ruth wanted to try his hand at riding King Jess, and by all appearances also succeeded.
Doting Dad
As a teen, Ruth’s daughter Julia had a serious case of strep throat. With penicillin not yet available, and with Julia not getting any better on her own, the doctor suggested she get a blood transfusion. Babe was tested and found to be a match. “The next thing you know, Daddy was right beside me on a gurney giving me a direct blood transfusion,” Julia says in this article from 2019. That moment was captured here, at the Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital in New York.
Actor
While not an actor in the truest sense, Ruth did make an appearance as himself in the 1942 film “The Pride of the Yankees.” The film was about the life of Lou Gehrig, played by Gary Cooper, and was nominated for 10 Oscars, snagging one for Best Film Editing.
Dapper Dresser (and Heavy Drinker)
While not in a sweaty baseball uniform, Ruth cleaned up quite nicely. Pictured here in dress pants and spats, Ruth also enjoyed his alcohol. Known to be an excessive drinker, Ruth’s mom was an alcoholic, and his father was a saloon owner who was killed in a drunken brawl. Ruth was known for his massive consumption of beer and hot dogs, but it was Scotch whisky that wet his whistle in later years.
A Legend
Babe Ruth died of throat cancer on August 16, 1948. His funeral lasted three days — from August 17-19, 1948. A reported 75,000 people paid their respects when his body lay in state in the Yankee Stadium rotunda. His funeral took place at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City (pictured), and he was buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York. (Click here for 21 of the most famous baseball quotes.)