The Babe Ruth Birthplace & Museum
In the early Twentieth Century, baseball was a very different game than the one we know today. Prior to the 1920's, baseball management focused much more on the running game and strategically-placing balls as a hitting technique in order to score runs. Also, many times, the same ball would be used for the entire game, quickly becoming worn and beat up. This period was known as the "dead-ball era." At the beginning of the 1920's, however, Major League Baseball was looking to generate more excitement with the hitting aspect of the game. In 1920, Major League Baseball made a rule which required that balls be changed-out frequently throughout the game. In addition, the "spitball" pitch (considered to be one of a hitter's worst enemies) became illegal in the Major Leagues.
In this same time frame, Babe was becoming recognized as more of a hitter, than a pitcher. In 1919, Babe hit 29 homeruns, establishing a new single season record for the number of homers hit by one player. What is more interesting about this particular record is that Babe's 29 homeruns were also more than any other team hit, combined, that season.
The fans absolutely loved it. And, other players began to pay attention to his technique of full-swing hitting, as well as the significant results it produced. Many began to utilize a form of Babe's swing and more and more balls began to fly out of the park.
Although by no means was it the only factor, Babe's baseball-hitting style was certainly a contributor to the revolution of baseball and the "Live-Ball Era". In fact, many baseball historians associate Babe somewhat synonymously with the homerun, because his hitting prowess had such an impact on players, managers, owners and fans alike and because it was big news at the same time as this major change in the style of play.
When you compare the some of the average stats for a player between 1918 (Near the end of the "Dead-Ball Era") and 1921 (the beginning of live-ball), it's clear that the game of baseball was changing:
1918: 1,989 stolen bases, 7,382 runs scored and 235 Homeruns
1921: 1,487 stolen bases, 11,928 runs scored and 937 Homeruns
In three years time, stolen bases decreased 25%, runs scored increased 61% and homeruns increased almost 300%. Given the evolving approach, fans responded with an increased enthusiasm for the game. Attendance at ballparks improved significantly. In 1908, the New York Giants established the record for the most spectators in a season with close to 900,000 fans. In 1920, the Yankees broke that mark and set the new record of 1,289,422. In fact, ballclubs in six other cities broke their previous attendance records during that same year.
Baseball had evolved into a new, more offense-weighted game and Babe Ruth led the way. After his 29 homerun season in 1919, the Babe smacked 54 homers in 1920. And, in 1921, the Sultan of Swat blasted 59 balls over the wall or out of the park, breaking each of the records that he had set in the previous years.
Many fans acknowledge Babe Ruth as being a saving grace for baseball after the 1919 Black Sox Scandal. As one reporter wrote, "This new fan didn't know where first base was, but he had heard of Babe Ruth and wanted to see him hit a home run. When the Babe hit one, the fan went back the next day and knew not only where first base was, but second base as well."
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In 1913, the New York Highlanders baseball club moved to the Polo Grounds from their previous home of Hilltop Park, where they had played since their founding in 1903. As part of this move to the field on Coogan's Bluff along the Harlem River in Manhattan, the team was renamed the New York Yankees.
This new home of the newly-named Yankees was also the home field of the New York Giants, where the Giants had been playing since June 28, 1911. Both teams shared the Polo Grounds through the decade, but the Yankees started to out-draw the Giants in attendance after Babe's arrival on the team in 1920.
Shortly thereafter, this ballpark-sharing arrangement began to unravel as John McGraw, the owner of the Giants and the Polo Grounds itself, began to resent the Yankees' ever-growing popularity. Mr. McGraw was not interested in being second dog on his own turf.
In addition, the Giants management was looking to increase revenues by utilizing a larger, more flexible schedule for their games, which they could not do as long as they had another team that they needed to work around to determine their own game schedule. Thus, the Giants began to push the Yankees out of their Polo Grounds. In May of 1922, the Yankees responded by breaking ground on their own ballpark, on 10 acres just across the Harlem River and in view of the Polo Grounds. The new ballpark was built quickly, as construction took under 11 months. The end result was Yankee Stadium, considered by many to be an architectural work of art for its time, with an arched façade that decorated the third deck and became its primary architectural signature.. It was one of the first ballparks to be called a stadium and it was the first to feature three-tiered seating.
On April 18th, 1923, the first day of the new baseball season, the gates of Yankee Stadium were opened and 74,200 people flooded through turnstiles, while another 25,000 were turned away - an amazing number, given that previous attendance record for a single game was 42,000 for the 1916 World Series in Boston. In an ironic twist, the first game was fittingly played against the Boston Red Sox, Babe's former team. Even more fitting was that Babe Ruth hit the first homerun in the stadium on the opening day of the new ballpark - a three-run homerun, giving the Yankees the 4-1 win.
As a response to Babe's opening day homerun, sportswriter Fred Lieb referred to Yankee Stadium in his column as "The House That Ruth Built". It was a nickname that quickly stuck. Given Babe's great ability to draw a crowd, this reference to Yankee Stadium became a regular term and is still used as the great ballpark's less-formal name.
Marty Appel, a longtime Yankees publicist, had the opportunity to speak with ex-Yankee, Bob Shawkey, who had pitched on Opening Day. Not only was Bob the winning pitcher, but he also scored the first run. When Marty asked about the event, Bob responded: "Once the Babe homered, the fans cheered forever. Can you imagine anyone paying any attention to me that day? Babe owned the day. And that was just fine; he was born to be in the spotlight. It was his day from beginning to end."
Claire Ruth, Babe's second wife, was asked about the event at one point and she said, "I think that was the proudest moment of his life, and I think he believed that it would never have been "The House that Ruth Built" if he hadn't hit that homerun that day. He definitely talked about it more than any other homerun he ever hit, including his 60th, which, after all, only broke his own record of 59."
Babe's granite memorial is one of the six free-standing granite edifices in Monument Park, an area inside the stadium of gardens and commemorative plaques to some of the Yankee's baseball greats who played with the Babe or who followed him. Fans can visit the Memorial Park area every game day, as it is open before and after the game.
Announced in 2006, a new Yankee Stadium is now being built across the street to bring New York baseball fans the facilities and comforts that a modern-era ballpark enjoys. BRC hopes that the Yankees will honor its soon-to-be-former home in some special way. As it is and always will be "The House that Ruth Built."
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Baseball was first introduced to Japan in the 1870's. Two men are largely credited with its introduction in the country. The first was Horace Wilson, an American professor teaching in Tokyo, who brought the game to his Japanese students. The second gentleman was Hiroshi Hiraoka, a Japanese engineer, who returned from studying in the United States toward the end of the decade and quickly formed an organized team with some of his co-workers.
It was within the Japanese universities that the game began to spread and become popular. By the turn of the Twentieth Century, the Big Six University League was dominating the game in Japan. A number of these schools also played teams formed by American ex-patriots in Japan and even traveled to the United States for competition. And, Japan began to see American university teams visiting to play their Japanese counterparts.
By 1908, professional American all-star teams began traveling to Japan to play exhibition games and promote professional baseball. There were tours in 1908, 1913, 1920, 1922 and 1931, but the American teams always played Japanese amateur or college ballclubs. The games were quite lopsided. Even so, the game had a following.
Matsutara Shoriki, who owned the Yomiuri Shinbun newspaper, decided to see just how popular and successful baseball could be with the Japanese population, by organizing the biggest exhibition with professional American players yet. In 1934, Connie Mack, the long-time manager of the Philadelphia Athletics, was asked to staff a team of some of the best players in Major League Baseball and bring them to Japan for an 18-game match-up against the Big-Six University League. Mack compiled an amazing roster of some of the best baseball talent in America, while Shoriki did the same with the team comprised of Japanese talent from the "Big Six".
Besides the Babe, the Major League All-Stars team included: Eric McNair, Philadelphia Athletics; Charlie Gehringer, Detroit Tigers; Lou Gehrig, New York Yankees; Jimmie Foxx, Philadelphia Athletics; Earl Averill, Cleveland Indians; Bing Miller, Philadelphia Athletics; Moe Berg, Washington Nationals/Cleveland Indians; Frankie Hayes, Philadelphia Athletics (who replaced the injured Charlie Berry of the Philadelphia Athletics); Lefty Gomez, New York Yankees; Earl Whitehill, Washington Nationals; Clint Brown, Cleveland Indians; Joe Cascarella, Philadelphia Athletics; and, Harold "Rabbit" Warstler, Philadelphia Athletics.
The American All-Star Team of 1934:
The welcome for the American ballplayers was impressive. In total, over 500,000 Japanese came out to greet the baseball stars when they first arrived and the biggest crowd-pleaser was the Babe. Babe Ruth rode through Tokyo waving American and Japanese flags to the enthusiastic fans, who yelled out "Beibu Rusu!" The games in Japan were staged at various stadiums including: Meiji-Jingu Stadium in Tokyo, Koshien Stadium in Kobe, Yagiyama Baseball Field in Sendai and others throughout the country.
At the same time, the Americans pounded the Japanese, winning all eighteen games, against the team comprised of Japan's best (eleven of whom would go on to be members of Japan's Baseball Hall of Fame). Babe, for his part, hit 13 homeruns during the 18 game stint in Japan and electrified the Japanese crowd in the process.
After the trip to Japan, Babe Ruth, his wife Claire and daughter Julia went on to travel onto other parts of Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Click here to see photos of Ruth's trip with Claire and Julia:
View Album 5A: Babe's Trip Around the World
To listen to further details of this trip, please visit Julia Ruth Stevens' interview in Section 09 Voices.
Go to Section 09 to hear interview clips of Julia Ruth Stevens including her trip around the world with Babe Ruth.
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The 1934 Major League All-Star team tour of Japan was a complete success. It both encouraged and motivated media magnate Matsutara Shoriki. Rather than disband the Japanese team that played against the American stars, Shoriki kept the team together and established Japan's first professional team, the Great Tokyo baseball club in December, 1934. This team traveled to the United States in 1935, playing against amateur, college and Minor League teams. At the end of the tour, the team's name was changed to the Yomiuri Tokyo Giants - a team that still exists today and is one of Japan's best. Shoriki later became known as "the great genius-father figure of Japanese baseball."
Many Japanese accredit the 1934 barnstorming tour as a big factor in making professional baseball possible in Japan. When BRC asked Honorable Ryozo Kato, Japanese Ambassador to the U.S., if he thought that the 1934 Tour was a contributing factor to professional baseball in Japan, he responded, "Yes, very much so. I attribute this to the 'Babe Ruth effect.' His performance during that tour excited both the diehard and casual fan."
Babe Ruth left Japan a legend. And, given that Japanese culture places very high importance on its legends, the Babe was forever immortalized within Japan after his trip. In fact, it is said that during World War II, Japanese soldiers would yell, "To hell with Babe Ruth!" during combat to insult their American enemies. In determining ways to end of the war with Japan, the Department of Defense had even considered sending Babe Ruth to Guam in order to deliver radio messages to the people of Japan to try to play to their baseball enthusiasm and convince them to end the war. While Japan's fledgling professional baseball league had to suspend play in 1944 due to World War II, the occupying forces encouraged the league to resume play after the war was over as a way to boost morale. And, baseball began again in Japan in 1946 and has thrived ever since, clearly becoming one of Japan's most popular sports.
To this day, Babe Ruth is still a very popular sports figure in Japan and considered to have been an international ambassador for the game of baseball. For example, In 2002, a statue of Babe Ruth was built and placed in Yagiyama Zoological Park in Sendai City. While it may seem strange at first, the statue was erected at the exact point where Babe hit his first home run in Japan. That homer came on November 4th 1934 during Game 4 of the tournament at Miyagi Prefecture Yagiyama Baseball Stadium - ground that is now the zoological park. The statue was funded with donations from local citizens through the "Let's Build a Babe Ruth Statue in Former Yagiyama Field" committee.
In the Summer of 2006, Japanese Ambassador Kato spoke to BRC about Babe's continued popularity in Japan today:
"Concerning the sport of baseball, most knowledgeable Japanese fans are familiar with Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Hank Aaron, and Willie Mays among others. Many of the current MLB stars are also popular in Japan. In other sports, some boxing champions are popular along with golfers such as Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods, and sumo wrestlers, Akebono, Musashimaru and Konishiki (all of Hawaiian descent) can be mentioned. However, over the last century, baseball remains the most popular game in Japan and Babe Ruth is still considered the 'King.' That fact alone is an amazing feat."
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In 1951, a group of individuals from Hamilton Township outside of Trenton, New Jersey, who were passionate about baseball and the welfare of children, decided to establish a baseball league for kids aged 13, 14 and 15. The leader of this group is acknowledged to be Marius D. Bonacci and the original name of organization was the "Little Bigger League." In 1954, Babe's widow, Claire, had heard of the league and its positive and important impact on the children in the organization. She allowed the league permission to change its name to the "Babe Ruth League." In reference to the Babe Ruth League, Claire has been known to say, "Babe Ruth was a man who loved children and baseball; he could receive no greater tribute than to have a youth baseball program named after him."
The 13-15 Year Old Division was the start of the League in 1951. It is here that these young ballplayers first play under regulations and rules on a standard baseball diamond. From there, the kids move on to the 16-18 Year Old Division, which was added in 1966.
In 1974, a 13-Year Old Prep League was added and, in 1982, the Bambino Division (now the "Cal Ripken Division") was created to attract younger players. Finally, in 1984, a Softball Division was created, designed for girls in age groupings from 5 to 18.
It should be noted that each Division of the baseball and softball programs has its own tournament play and World Series each year. The 16- to 18-Year Old Baseball Division has gained the attention of Major League Scouts from all thirty professional clubs.
At this point, the Babe Ruth League has proudly seen a number of its young players turn into professional baseball players, including Baseball Hall of Famers: Carl Yazstremski, Rod Carew, Jim Palmer, Joe Morgan, George Brett and Nolan Ryan.
Over 50 years since its inception, the non-profit Babe Ruth League has a national, as well as an international presence and is considered one of the premiere amateur baseball/softball programs in the world. Combined, the entire organization boasts over 886,500 players annually, with more than 45,000 teams in over 7,300 leagues.
According to the League itself, "The Babe Ruth Baseball/Softball program, above all, is of, by and for youth. It especially tries to make better citizens through proper supervision of regulation competitive baseball/softball in addition to promoting mental and physical development. In adopting rules, in establishing standards and in all planning, the primary consideration is the welfare of the participants."
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Babe Ruth was born in 1895, in Baltimore, MD, in a tiny row house near the site of the original Orioles ballpark. In the late 1960's, this house was still standing in the old Ridgely's Delight neighborhood, a few blocks from the Inner Harbor that would eventually be redeveloped in the early 1980's and become a tourist attraction. This house was also scheduled for demolition in the late 1960's, until a group of local Babe Ruth fans and Baltimore history buffs put a stop to the plans and convinced the city to support a museum in Babe's honor. The non-profit Babe Ruth Birthplace Foundation opened the Museum in 1974.
In 1983, the Museum also became the official museum for the Baltimore Orioles, followed by the Baltimore Colts in 1985. Ironically, though, in the early 1980's, the Babe Ruth Museum was also financially struggling, due somewhat to a lack of up-keep and proper marketing which would drive strong attendance and generate sufficient funding to ensure ongoing maintenance of the building and its facilities.
In 1983, Mike Gibbons, a local Baltimore documentary producer who was conducting research on the Babe, had agreed to assist the organization to ensure the preservation of Ruth's birthplace. Over the course of a year, Mike's turn-around of the Museum was already apparent and the members of the organization asked Gibbons to stay on as its Executive Director. 23 years later, Mike Gibbons is still Executive Director of the Babe Ruth Museum.
Over time, through the efforts of Mike, his dedicated staff, the Museum's Board of Directors, local and state government and other passionate Babe Ruth fans, the Museum has been preserved and interest, as well as exhibits have flourished. In the 1990's, the Babe Ruth Museum also became the home to the vast memorabilia collection of NFL quarterback legend and Baltimore Colts star, Johnny Unitas. With the opening of Orioles Park at Camden Yards, just a few blocks away, attendance at the Museum steadily rose and now exceeds 60,000 annually.
Through the 1990's, the Museum flourished, adding more memorabilia and important archives to its collections. It became clear that an expansion was needed and plans were made. These plans came to fruition in 2005 with the opening of a larger sister site, known as "Sports Legends at Camden Yards", in the old, extensively-renovated, B&O Railroad Station next to Orioles Park.
This facility now houses the Orioles Hall of Fame, the Maryland Collegiate Hall of Fame and Johnny Unitas' collection, among others. It, of course, also has exhibits on the Babe, as well. Given that Johnny Unitas and the Baltimore Orioles collections have moved to Sports Legends at Camden Yards, the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum now has the opportunity to make some changes of its own. As of Fall 2006, the original museum that was Babe's birthplace, will soon begin a major renovation to increase exhibition space, upgrade portions of the 19th century building, and install ramps and an elevator for handicap accessibility. With these changes which are expected to last just over six months, fans will see a greatly updated and enhanced facility which will include items never on public display before, new multimedia exhibits and general infrastructure enhancements.
Fans can contribute to renew and refresh the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum, making this mecca for fans of baseball, Babe Ruth and history an even greater place. In the summer of 2006, Mike Gibbons, Executive Direction, said: "What we're asking fans this to do this summer, this baseball season, is to join our 714 club where they can help with the renovation to help us preserve Babe Ruth's legacy by contributing $7.14 or $71.40 or you move the decimal point, to help with the renovation." BRC strongly supports this effort.
Click here if you're interested in donating to the 714 club or learning more.
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Quote: "Every strike brings me closer to the next homerun." - Babe Ruth. 
