Babe Ruth

Babe Ruth

Born: February 5, 1895
Died: August 16, 1948
in Pigtown, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
George Herman Ruth, Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948), best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", was an American Major League baseball player from 1914–1935. Ruth originally broke into the major leagues with the Boston Red Sox as a starting pitcher, but after he was sold to the New York Yankees in 1919, he converted to a full-time right fielder and subsequently became one of the league's most prolific hitters. Ruth was a mainstay in the Yankees' lineup that won seven pennants and four World Series titles during his tenure with the team. After a short stint with the Boston Braves in 1935, Ruth retired. In 1936, Ruth became one of the first five players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Ruth has since become regarded as one of the greatest sports heroes in American culture. He has been named the greatest baseball player in history in various surveys and rankings, and his home run hitting prowess and charismatic personality made him a larger than life figure in the "Roaring Twenties". Off the field he was famous for his charity, but also was noted for his often reckless lifestyle. Ruth is credited with changing baseball itself. The popularity of the game exploded in the 1920s, largely due to his influence. Ruth ushered in the "live-ball era", as his big swing led to escalating home run totals that not only excited fans, but helped baseball evolve from a low-scoring, speed-dominated game to a high-scoring power game.

In 1998, The Sporting News ranked Ruth number one on the list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players". In 1999, baseball fans named Ruth to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. In 1969, he was named baseball's Greatest Player Ever in a ballot commemorating the 100th anniversary of professional baseball. In 1993, the Associated Press reported that Muhammad Ali was tied with Babe Ruth as the most recognized athletes, out of over 800 dead or alive athletes, in America. The study found that over 97% of Americans over 12 years of age identified both Ali and Ruth. According to ESPN, he was the first true American sports celebrity superstar whose fame transcended baseball. In a 1999 ESPN poll, he was ranked as the third-greatest US athlete of the century, behind Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali.

Ruth was the first player to hit 60 home runs in one season (1927), setting the season record which stood until broken by Roger Maris in 1961. Ruth's lifetime total of 714 home runs at his retirement in 1935 was a record, until first surpassed by Hank Aaron in 1974. Unlike many power hitters, Ruth also hit for average: his .342 lifetime batting is tenth highest in baseball history, and in one season (1923) he hit .393, a Yankee record. His .690 career slugging percentage and 1.164 career on-base plus slugging (OPS) remain the Major League records. Ruth dominated the era in which he played. He led the league in home runs during a season twelve times, slugging percentage and OPS thirteen times each, runs scored eight times, and runs batted in (RBIs) six times. Each of those totals represents a modern record (as well as the all-time record, except for RBIs).

Description above from the Wikipedia article Babe Ruth, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Movies for Babe Ruth...

Say Hey, Willie Mays!
Title: Say Hey, Willie Mays!
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: October 27, 2022
Type: Movie
Follow Willie Mays’ life both on and off the field over five decades as he navigated the American sports landscape and the country’s ever-evolving cultural backdrop, all while helping to define what it means to be one of America’s first Black sports superstars. He left an indelible mark in New York City and San Francisco, building a love affair with both cities’ fans.
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Always at The Carlyle
Title: Always at The Carlyle
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: May 11, 2018
Type: Movie
The iconic Carlyle hotel has been an international destination for a particular jet set as well as a favorite haunt of the most discernible New Yorkers.
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Springfield of Dreams: The Legend of Homer Simpson
Title: Springfield of Dreams: The Legend of Homer Simpson
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: October 20, 2017
Type: Movie
In honor of Homer's journey to the Hall of Fame, MLB all-stars and Springfield locals look back at the greatest corporate softball game ever played.
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Babe Ruth Footage
Title: Babe Ruth Footage
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 2015
Type: Movie
One of SPEEDY’s many delights is a surprise cameo by Babe Ruth. In this new piece, David Filipi, director of film and video at the Wexner Center for the Arts at the Ohio State University, presents and discusses a selection of rare Hearst Metrotone newsreel footage featuring Ruth from the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
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Reel Baseball: Baseball's Golden Era the Way Americans Witnessed It
Title: Reel Baseball: Baseball's Golden Era the Way Americans Witnessed It
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: September 25, 2012
Type: Movie
Broadcaster Joe Garagiola narrates the greatest games of baseball's golden era in this nostalgia-packed documentary. Its unique focus is legendary ball games the way most of America witnessed them . . . in the movie newsreels. The venues are America's grand old ball parks: the original Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, Brooklyn's Ebbets Field; the Polo Grounds, Tiger Stadium and other baseball landmarks that may be gone, but come to life again in this DVD. Witness Babe Ruth at bat; Lou Gehrig's ""luckiest man"" speech; Roger Maris breaking the Babe's home-run record; Pete Gray, the St. Louis Brown's one-armed outfielder; Ted William's final at-bat when he went out in grand style, ending his career with a home run, and other classic moments in baseball history.
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Reel Baseball - 1899-1926
Title: Reel Baseball - 1899-1926
Character: Himself
Released: April 3, 2007
Type: Movie
A cornucopia of early - and, in many cases, extremely rare - baseball films, offering privileged peeks into early twentieth century American lifestyles and values. It includes newly remastered and scored versions of two important early baseball features: The Busher (1919), a delightful comedy-drama featuring silent cinema legends Charles Ray, Colleen Moore, and John Gilbert; and Headin' Home (1920), spotlighting a young, shockingly svelte Babe Ruth in his first motion picture starring role.
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Babe Ruth
Title: Babe Ruth
Character: Himself (archive footage)
Released: August 16, 1998
Type: Movie
As its title implies, this video attempts to go beyond the public persona of one of major league baseball's greatest stars. Accepting Ruth as a larger-than-life figure, this 59-minute video doesn't attempt to rationalize, apologize, or analyze his behavior. Rather, it endeavors to present an unbiased account of the life of George Herman Ruth, contradictions and all.
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Race for the Record
Title: Race for the Record
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1998
Type: Movie
Babe Ruth set a record in 1927 by hitting 60 home runs in one season. 34 years later, Roger Maris broke that record. Another 37 years passed before that record was broken by Mark McGwire. Five days after McGwire's feat, Sammy Sosa broke the brand new record. And the race was on! Fans watched breathlessly as the record passed between the two men and time left in the season dwindled. Relive it all, from Ruth, to Maris, to the final days of the 1998 Sosa/McGwire slug-fest.
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Sports on the Silver Screen
Title: Sports on the Silver Screen
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: March 16, 1997
Type: Movie
HBO (in association with the American Film Institute) presents this 1997 anthology, narrated by Liev Schreiber, which looks at sports in cinema from the earliest silent films until the nineties. Watch not for dramatic scenes but for the glimpse of historical figures shown both cinematic and athletic- in this tribute to the merging of sports and Hollywood.
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Super Stars of Sports: Baseball
Title: Super Stars of Sports: Baseball
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: January 1, 1991
Type: Movie
Made in 1990, this compilation video highlights the "Best of the Best" in Baseball.
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Babe Ruth: The Man, the Myth, the Legend
Title: Babe Ruth: The Man, the Myth, the Legend
Character: himself
Released: April 25, 1990
Type: Movie
Mel Allen hosts this look at Babe Ruth's life and career, focusing primarily on Ruth's years with the New York Yankees.
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Going Hollywood: The '30s
Title: Going Hollywood: The '30s
Character: (archive footage)
Released: January 1, 1984
Type: Movie
Robert Preston hosts this documentary that shows what people of the 1930s were watching as they were battling the Depression as well as eventually getting ready for another World War.
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Zelig
Title: Zelig
Character: Self - Swinging Bat (archive footage) (uncredited)
Released: July 15, 1983
Type: Movie
Fictional documentary about the life of human chameleon Leonard Zelig, a man who becomes a celebrity in the 1920s due to his ability to look and act like whoever is around him. Clever editing places Zelig in real newsreel footage of Woodrow Wilson, Babe Ruth, and others.
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The Golden Twenties
Title: The Golden Twenties
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: April 8, 1950
Type: Movie
Feature-length compilation of 1920s newsreel footage, with commentary about news, sports, lifestyles, and historical figures.
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Title: The Ed Sullivan Show
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: June 20, 1948
Type: TV
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the CBS Sunday Night Movie, which ran only one season and was eventually replaced by other shows. In 2002, The Ed Sullivan Show was ranked #15 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
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The Pride of the Yankees
Title: The Pride of the Yankees
Character: Babe Ruth
Released: July 14, 1942
Type: Movie
The story of the life and career of the baseball hall of famer, Lou Gehrig.
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Home Run on the Keys
Title: Home Run on the Keys
Character: Babe Ruth
Released: April 24, 1937
Type: Movie
In this short film, Babe Ruth proposes to put a song about baseball on the radio.
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Fancy Curves
Title: Fancy Curves
Character: Himself
Released: February 1, 1932
Type: Movie
Babe Ruth teaches babes how to play baseball.....
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Just Pals
Title: Just Pals
Character: Himself
Released: February 1, 1932
Type: Movie
Babe Ruth plays ball with some kids.
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Slide, Babe, Slide
Title: Slide, Babe, Slide
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 1932
Type: Movie
Babe Ruth plays ball with some kids.
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At the Ball Game
Title: At the Ball Game
Released: May 24, 1929
Type: Movie
The story is set on opening day of the 1929 season and Joe wants to see the Yankees play. So, he manages to sneak inside. Once there, instead of sitting and watching the game, he stands up and does a standup comedy bit.
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Speedy
Title: Speedy
Character: Babe Ruth
Released: April 7, 1928
Type: Movie
Speedy loses his job as a soda jerk, then spends the day with his girl at Coney Island. He then becomes a cab driver and delivers Babe Ruth to Yankee Stadium, where he stays to see the game. When the railroad tries to run the last horse-drawn trolley (operated by his girl's grandfather) out of business, Speedy organizes the neighborhood old-timers to thwart their scheme.
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Babe Comes Home
Title: Babe Comes Home
Character: Babe Dugan
Released: May 22, 1927
Type: Movie
A baseball-styled sports filmed centered on Babe Ruth and Anna Q. It is considered a lost film.
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Ways to Strength and Beauty
Title: Ways to Strength and Beauty
Released: March 16, 1925
Type: Movie
The perfect body as an object of cult worship. Based on the mass sports and body worship movement of the 1920s, the film propagates physical training and shows in stylized documentary scenes aspects of physical hygiene, gymnastics, sports and dancing as well as scenes in which supposed sportsmen of antiquity pose naked.
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Headin' Home
Title: Headin' Home
Character: Babe (as George Herman 'Babe' Ruth)
Released: September 18, 1920
Type: Movie
The "true story" of baseball great Babe Ruth; Ruth plays himself.
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Play Ball with Babe Ruth
Title: Play Ball with Babe Ruth
Character: Himself (archival footage)
Released: January 1, 1920
Type: Movie
A serial of short instructional films using footage of Babe Ruth to explain the fundamentals of playing baseball.