Babe Ruth (1998) – Full Documentary | The Legend of Baseball |

Babe Ruth (1998) is an inspiring and powerful sports biopic that brings to life the journey of one of baseball’s most legendary figures. Directed by Mark Tinker and starring Stephen Lang, the film captures the rise, fall, and redemption of George Herman “Babe” Ruth — from troubled youth to American icon. Packed with emotional storytelling, stirring performances, and iconic baseball moments, this film is a must-watch for sports fans and lovers of true stories.

⏱️ Timestamps:
00:00 – Opening: introduction and early life of George Herman “Babe” Ruth
05:00 – Archival footage: youth baseball years and Catholic school
10:00 – Red Sox career: rise as a power hitter and early fame
15:00 – Key interviews
20:00 – 1927 season focus: Ruth setting home run records
25:00 – “Called Shot” controversy and myth‑debunking
30:00 – Personal life: marriages, Helen Ruth’s death, Claire Hodgson marriage
35:00 – Stories of the “hospital promise” game and off‑field antics
40:00 – Media scrutiny, public persona vs. private struggles
45:00 – Testimonies: family, historians and personal acquaintances
50:00 – Legacy discussion: impact on baseball and popular culture
55:00 – Closing montage: reflections on myth and the man
59:00 – End credits

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♪ ♪ Donald Honig:
If Babe Ruth had not existed, it would’ve been
impossible to invent him. He was the 4th of July,
a brass band, and New Year’s Eve
all rolled into one. Studs Terkel:
He was bigger
in his dissipations, bigger in his volatility, bigger
in his unpredictability. He was eccentricity
and total excellence wrapped up
in one person. Robert Creamer:
He made the world
more fun to be in, and everybody who was
in his orbit felt more alive
because of Ruth. Julia Ruth Stevens:
He’s my father. He was
the only father I ever knew. He was such a lot of fun. I enjoyed
every minute of it. Terkel:
He was celebrated for being
the mythical figure he was, who, at the same time,
was flesh and blood. And because
he was flesh and blood, he gave us that feeling of something
larger than life of which we are a part. (crowd cheering)
♪ ♪ Jean Shepherd:
He would get up to the plate, he would kick
the dirt a little bit, take his stance… and then smile
down at the pitcher. He’d take the bat,
and he’d point it out like that. Ben Bentley:
And you saw people
standing up, just applauding. He hasn’t done
anything yet, but there he is.
They’re applauding. Creamer:
He swung
and missed once, you know,
that tremendous swing, he swung around,
he’s looking up
into the stands, and he was looking right at me,
as far as I was concerned. “Just look, there’s Babe Ruth
looking at me. Wow.” Bill Mazer:
And what are
you waiting to see? “Hit a home run, Babe.” Waiting for the pitch,
there was a sense of a great coiled spring, and when he swung… -Bam!
-Boom! -Boom!
-Bam! There it went. It was so frightening.
They all ducked. All of a sudden,
you see that ball go. Up, up, up, up, up. 150 feet high
as it passed first base. and it just floated, floated,
floated and went forever. Like a homing pigeon,
it would choose direction
and leave town. That ball had to travel
at least 600 feet on the fly. Over the fence, the parking lot,
the restaurant next door, and four blocks
down the street. And then, very suddenly, from this moment
of immense power
and the ball flying out… {an8}Terkel: He ran
with little mincing steps– thin legs,
these delicate ankles– and he minced his way,
as though he were a dancer. Gleason:
Doffing his cap left and right, bowing and waving
to everybody. ♪ ♪ And disappeared
into the dugout. (bell tolling) Liev Schreiber narrating:
At Babe Ruth’s massive
funeral in 1948, a puzzled drama critic
asked a sports writer “What did this man Ruth do, “what did he have
to merit this?” History tells us
that Babe Ruth was
the greatest player in an era when baseball stood
alone as a national pastime. His talents were
beyond unique, first, as a brilliant pitcher
with the Boston Red Sox, then a thunderous slugger
with the New York Yankees. But was it just
Ruth’s astounding ability that allowed him
to sit among the gods? How did the Babe’s life pass
from that of an ordinary
human being… to star, to legend, and finally into myth? ♪ ♪ Ruth was far from perfect. He could be loud, and abrasive,
and impossibly immature. He was a perfect fit
for the times. A man of mighty appetites
and unrestrained desires, the Babe was a metaphor
for the big, broadening
shoulders of America. (cheering)
(bat cracks) Schreiber:
Ruth himself once said, “I like to live
as big as I can.” In an era when our country
was burgeoning with power, no one hit the ball
farther and louder than Babe Ruth. {an8}Honig: No novelist
or Hollywood screenwriter, {an8}at the furthest extremes
of their imagination {an8}would have dared invent
somebody like this. (crowd cheering) This was science fiction. {an8}It’s another dimension.
Exponential is the word. {an8}The leap is
wild and crazy, {an8}something Einsteinian. {an8}(chattering)
Wagenheim:
You had scientists {an8}coming and examining Ruth, {an8}and all kinds of strange,
bizarre articles {an8}in the press about Ruth
having superhuman vision {an8}or superhuman coordination. It was as though someone
had come from another planet. (crowd cheering)
Schreiber:
The Babe’s mammoth swing transformed baseball.
He practically invented
the home run. In 1920, he hit 54. a total no other team
in the league could match. And he did it
with an exhilarating presence
and unmatched muscle that had never
been seen before. {an8}John Kennelly:
John McGraw may have been {an8}the best inside
baseball manager {an8}that ever came over the Pike. This guy was
the Baltimore chop, the bunt,
move the runner along, work for one run
at a time. Ruth came along
and started breaking up
ball games with one swing. Game announcer:
There it goes! McGraw hated him! Here he’d been,
30 years, managing
and working for one run. This guy wrecked
the whole afternoon
with one swipe. Shepherd:
Pitchers were afraid of him. {an8}They’d lie at night, {an8}knowing that the next day
they’re facing Ruth, {an8}and they would toss
in their sleep. Bill Werber:
I was on first base,
and Ruth hit a home run. I ran around second,
hitting a pretty good clip, {an8}Art Fletcher was at third base,
saying, “Whoa! Whoa!” {an8}’Cause the ball was way up
in the right-field stands. {an8}I kept on going, you know,
and I came and sat down. And when he came
into the dugout, he reached over,
patted me on top
of the head and said, “You don’t need
to run like that, son, when the Babe hits one.” Honig:
He was doing it
with such joy and simplicity, almost as if he didn’t know
what he was doing. He just went up and did it. Creamer:
His hitting was
just unprecedented. No one had ever
done that before, and that thrilled people.
It excited people. {an8}It gave you a vicarious sense
of accomplishment {an8}to see Ruth hit home runs. {an8}It became an exciting thing. Schreiber:
For baseball, the timing
of Ruth’s accomplishments was perfect. At the beginning of the decade,
a dark cloud of deceit had threatened the game. Accused of throwing
the 1919 World Series, several Chicago White Sox
players were tossed
out of baseball. Disenchanted fans stayed away, until they were lured back by the game’s
two new powers. Newsreel announcer:
In move to clean up game, team owners in 1920 made
Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis high commissioner
of national pastime, and he brought baseball back. But Babe Ruth, too,
was a big help to the commissioner
with his spindle legs, beaming face,
and booming bat. Even when the Bambino
hit a single, thousands cheered,
and thousands more fought
to see him play the game. Honig:
The home team is in
seventh place, going nowhere. On a weekday afternoon,
we’d draw maybe 2,000
or 3,000 people. The Yankees came into town. {an8}The crowds suddenly were
getting larger. (chattering) Honig:
Every seat was full
on a hot Wednesday afternoon, and there was
only one reason for that. Bentley:
“Hey, the Babe is playing. “Hey, this is somebody big,
somebody we can root for.” Honig:
Their beloved game
was embodied in this man, and they would
sell out the house. People wanted
to see this guy. ♪ ♪ Schreiber: In 1923,
the Yankees took advantage
of Ruth’s popularity by building a brand-new
$2.5 million stadium. It held 65,000 fans, and because so many of them
were there to see the Babe, it was quickly christened
the House that Ruth built. Hayward Hale Broun:
His existence enlarges us just by looking at him,
thinking about him. It was because
you saw perfection, and it’s so glorious
that it’s almost painful. And when you were
at the ballpark and Babe took
that big swing, and the ball didn’t
fall down at the end– {an8}it whacked against a seat
in the bleachers– {an8}you thought, “I saw this.
I was here. “I was in the presence
of greatness.” And to be in the presence
of greatness means that some tiny fleck of it is attached to you. Honig:
The most exciting thing
in baseball was watching
Babe Ruth hit a home run. And the second
most exciting thing was watching
Babe Ruth strike out. One of the few quotable lines
from Lou Gehrig– he said, “I batted
after him, and it never
mattered what I did, “’cause they were
always talking about
what he had just done,” even if he had
done nothing. (piano music playing) Schreiber:
More than any other athlete
during sports’ golden age, Babe Ruth’s appeal
ranged far beyond the man-made limits
of the great ballparks
he played in. (chattering)
By the mid-’20s, Ruth was everywhere. Pushed along by the explosion
of tabloid journalism, he would eventually become
an inescapable part of popular American culture. In the eyes of the press,
the Babe was a dream subject. {an8}He was made for them– {an8}just as Al Capone was
made for them {an8}or Charles Lindbergh
was made for them– {an8}because of the way he looked
and because of what he did. Bentley:
When he would
come to Chicago, one of the Chicago
papers just had “Ruth in Chicago!”
with an exclamation point. “Ruth Home Run Wins Game.” That kind of stuff
got into every paper
across the country. Every man had it
with his breakfast coffee. ♪ ♪ “‘Ruth Home Run.’
Jeez, he hit another one?” Hamill:
The sports writers played
a crucial part of it, and the photographers, ’cause he was
enough of a ham. He’d lend himself
to publicity stunts. ♪ ♪ Honig:
Put a beard on him,
pose him with a monkey– he was
a photographer’s dream. Hamill:
He was a quote machine.
He was not some remote guy. He sat, talked,
and drank beer with them, and they cherished him
for that. He made their job easier. Shepherd:
So the media
really built Babe Ruth. Every reporter
who covered Ruth had the illusion
that he was a great friend
of Ruth, personally. And so, the minute he started
to write about Ruth, he was always writing
about what he considered
his friend. ♪ ♪ And you can’t
forget that face. He had the face
of a happy catcher’s mitt. He had a face
that looked like a horse
had stepped on it. That helped. Broun:
He was as easy to recognize as the King of Siam’s
white elephant. Honig:
The face seemed
to fit Babe Ruth. I can’t imagine
a handsome Babe Ruth. {an8}Bill Gleason:
Who has ever looked like him {an8}since Babe Ruth? {an8}Try to think of somebody
who has looked like him. It’s like he was
created for this role
that he was given, and he played it
to the hilt. Creamer:
The name helped, “Babe Ruth.” I mean, gee, if his name was
Harold Thompson, I don’t think
he would’ve had
the same impact. But “Babe Ruth”?
(cheering) Many Italian immigrants
in New York, instead of saying,
“How’d the Babe do?” They’d say,
“How’d the Bambino
do yesterday?” And so,
“Bambino” became his name. and the “Bam!” sound
fitted in there. “Bam! Hits one.”
Everything fit. You didn’t forget him.
He was indelible. ♪ ♪ And everybody who saw him
had a story about him. remembered something about him.
Everyplace he went, he sort of left a trail. Schreiber:
As baseball’s biggest draw, Ruth made a fortune
criss-crossing the country. No town was
too small or too far away. If the Babe’s fans
couldn’t get to a game, he would get to them. Major league baseball
ended at the Mississippi River, where the St. Louis
Cardinals were. Babe Ruth went
on barnstorming tours after the season. He was spreading
baseball across the country. (train whistle blares) Honig: People would be
standing along the tracks
or out in the meadows, because they had heard
that Babe Ruth was
on that train. They were hoping to get
a half-second glimpse of him. He would wave at them.
He would show them his cards, saying, “I’ve got
a great hand.” Gleason:
And the Babe being
on the back platform, and kids running
from all over the place and jumping up on the train
to get his autograph, to touch him,
to look at him. (people cheering)
(kids shouting) Honig:
You read about them
and you heard about them, but suddenly to see
these big-league ballplayers on your local sandlots–
and you’re talking about
the best players, like Gehrig, Lefty Grove. There, in the middle
of it all, was Babe Ruth. Moby Dick
in a goldfish bowl. Did you ever see
one of his movies? (piano music playing)
Schreiber:
At the top of his chosen game, the Babe even tried acting, although his flair
for the dramatic didn’t
come through on-screen. Ruth’s movies were
far from an artistic
or financial hit, but that didn’t seem
to hurt his popularity. ♪ ♪ Hamill:
More people knew about Ruth
than knew about the president in this country,
and a lot more cared. Broun:
He transcended sport
in the sense that people who didn’t care
about sport knew who he was. He went outside
the limits of sport culture. ♪ ♪ (chattering) Moe Berg shared
a suite with Babe. Babe was
in the bedroom with–
What shall I call it? –multiple feminine
companionship, and the phone rang.
Moe thought it was for Babe, he didn’t pick it up,
and Babe came in in some deshabille–
with his pants down–
and said, (whispering)
“You’re Babe Ruth. “He’s Father Flanagan. “Tell him
you’ll be right down.” Moe–
“Hello, Father. “This is Babe.
I’ll be right down.” Later he said to Babe,
“Why couldn’t you
have said that?” And Babe said, “Me,
with what I was doing, “talk to a priest? Never.” Honig:
Ruth was a complex mix. He was crude,
and rough, uncultured. Werber:
I was under the shower, and I had my face
to the wall and the warm water
coming down on me, and I was lathering
my face, and my chest, and under my arms with soap. And all of a sudden,
I felt something a little hotter than the water
from the shower. And I turned around,
and here was Ruth standing outside the shower, using the middle
of my back for a urinal. And he laughed, guffawed. He thought that was
real funny, you know? Honig:
But at the same time,
he was a very good man. He loved children.
He loved making people happy. He loved
doing things for them, far beyond what
you would expect
from a man of his stature. {an8}When we went on road trips,
he always made certain {an8}that I got to mass
on a Sunday morning. (bell ringing)
So we pray… Kelly:
If nobody else got to mass, He made sure that
I got to mass with him. Perfect gentleman,
like a father to me. ♪ ♪
Schreiber:
Babe Ruth could be both crude and kind. His personality
was a paradox, shaped by two compelling
and conflicting forces. Early in his childhood,
George Herman Ruth learned
the way of the streets, growing up an incorrigible kid
in a tough neighborhood along Baltimore’s
seedy waterfront. The son of a saloon keeper, wherever Ruth went,
trouble followed. Creamer:
When he was a little kid, he would drink things
in the bar. He used to
throw things at the cops
and at the truckers. He stole. A real
pain-in-the-neck little kid. the kind you could admire,
maybe if you weren’t
in charge of him, but he was a real nuisance
to his parents. Schreiber:
When he was eight, Ruth’s parents had him
committed to St. Mary’s, a reform school for boys. Showered with tough love, he experienced kindness
and compassion for the first time. The resulting inner struggle
between right and wrong provided an interesting
contradiction which would define
Ruth’s behavior throughout his personal
and professional life. Thomas Foley:
He had grown up a bad boy, and he didn’t want
any of us to go through
what he went through, and he used to lecture us
along those lines. {an8}”Do what your mother
tells you to do, {an8}”and do what your father
tells you to do.” He’d hear a kid swearing,
and he’d yell out, “God damn it!
Stop that goddamn
swearing over there!” ♪ ♪ Kennelly:
He had trouble
managing a family, didn’t seem to much give
a damn about that. He was a paradox. Schreiber:
Ruth had become
a major leaguer at 19. Just months
after he joined the Red Sox, Babe married
his first wife, Helen, herself a babe–
barely 16. ♪ ♪
(chattering) It was typically impulsive, and Ruth quickly tired
of the commitment. Even after adopting a child– rumor had him fathering
by way of a maid– the Babe
abandoned his family, apparently uncaring
of his actions. For a man
of Ruth’s background, the temptations
that fame and fortune brought were too great to ignore. Broun:
If you’ve been a poor kid,
and he had been a poor kid, what you want
more than anything is more to eat,
more to drink, more to enjoy than you ever had
in those times when
your pleasures were in the dribs and drabs
of an extra piece of bread or a bed next to the wall. Here’s a kid who grew up
in an orphanage and probably had
more animal appetites
than 14 animals. He devoured food.
He devoured sex. He devoured fun. He was always
reaching out for something
of enjoyment. {an8}Babe Ruth is the only guy {an8}that ever lived up
to his reputation. He was a monster
off the ball field. {an8}Charles Devens:
We left the Back Bay Station {an8}here in Boston, {an8}went down to New York, {an8}and he got off
at 125th Street, {an8}and in that time… {an8}I saw him drink {an8}a quart of scotch. He was perfectly okay,
wasn’t drunk or anything. When he got off the train,
he was just very genial. ♪ ♪ Heinrich:
White Sox got a great idea. They were gonna
take the Babe out. They were gonna
make a night of it. They took him out. (chattering) He gets up there,
“Here we go!” (mumbles)
Told the bartender, “Charlie, mix me up
one of those things.” (mimics mixing) Poured the thing in there,
the Babe lifted that up… (mimics drinking) He went all the way, ice cubes included. For Pete’s sakes,
that guy’s got a throat like a trombone. Three minutes
before the ballgame,
here comes the Babe. (cheering)
Miller Huggins looks
and says, “Look at him. “He ain’t even been
in bed all night.” He says, “That guy’s
gonna play today.” Okay, he played. He butchered
the White Sox, okay? ♪ ♪ The game is over,
Babe hurries up the steps to get to the White Sox
before they disappear. “Hey, where we going tonight?” (laughs) Broun:
Then of course, he ate god knows
how many hot dogs. {an8}He had drawn me back
into the dressing room
during a game, to get a couple of hot dogs
and a bottle of soda pop. I’d go back two,
three, four times
during a ballgame. Hot mustard,
relish, sauerkraut– he had the works. Creamer:
Oh good lord. Oh my. (chuckles)
Yes, he ate. He was hungry, and he had an appetite
for everything. He wanted to taste everything.
He chased women. ♪ ♪ He used to go out
with the kind of women everybody would like
to go out with if they could– the chorus girls,
Broadway cuties, Kennelly:
What Ruth liked
more than anything else was lying on his stomach and having a geisha
walk on his spine from top to bottom
and back again. {an8}Ruth thought that was
beyond belief. {an8}I do believe the geisha
was naked at the time. {an8}(chuckles)
I don’t know about Ruth. (cheering)
Werber:
Women looked for him, and he used to like
to have his visitations in the morning
before ballgames. {an8}He was exhausted {an8}and didn’t really have room
in his schedule, {an8}he still would allow one
into his bedroom {an8}and do his duty. Devens:
Called me up one day and said, “Devens,
could I use your room?” I said, “Who’s this?”
“Babe,” he said. “Why yes, sir,”
I said. ♪ ♪
Shepherd: This guy was
the king of the world. Imagine being Babe Ruth. That’d be a ball,
wouldn’t it? Schreiber:
There were times
when even Ruth took excess
to the extreme. He missed two months
of the ’25 season with a mysterious illness the writers called
“the bellyache heard
round the world,” although others
hinted that syphilis was
the more likely cause. ♪ ♪ There was even
one time his insatiable
appetite for women nearly led
to his demise. Werber:
He had this Latin girl in Ybor City in Tampa. He told her that
the relationship had to end, because he was going
into spring training. In reality, he had found
something that he liked
somewhat better. And this Latin girl
came in the front entrance
to the dining room, she looked
around the dining room and saw Ruth
and this other woman
over there. And as she was
coming toward him, she reached
into her pocketbook, and she pulled out
this revolver and kept on coming.
This woman fired… (gunshot)
And Lazzeri said,
“Did she hit you?” He said, “Yeah.
It didn’t amount to nothing.” He says,
“There it is, right there.” And he showed
the calf of his leg where the bullet had gone
right through, and the scar was there, They laughed about it
and talked about it. He did everything
to excess– the bad things and all
of the good things, too. Schreiber:
The two sides
of Ruth’s personality were markedly different, yet equally compelling. At times egotistical
and selfish, the Babe could also be
thoughtful and considerate. He was extremely generous
with his time and money, especially with kids. ♪ ♪ Ruth reveled
in the smile of a child. In their eyes
he saw himself. He enjoyed the innocence
and spontaneity of adolescence.
(shouting) Forsaken by his parents, the Babe wanted
kids to experience
the love and affection he felt
he never really had. Honig:
Ruth’s relationship
with children was remarkable. It was genuine. He made children
feel comfortable, He made them feel happy. (laughs) You see these pictures,
he’s surrounded by
hundreds of kids. There’s always
a smiling, relaxed face, so happily
in his element. And there is Ruth
with this big, happy smile, spreading his joy, and doing it
with a naturalness. It was so genuine,
that it just flowed into them. ♪ ♪ Foley:
Almost every weekend, Babe Ruth would
come in and help us
bagging peanuts. He’d work for a couple
of hours with us then he’d throw a $10
or a $20 bill on the table where we were working.
“Take care of the kids.” He’d walk out. Mary Smith Macklin:
Had to have an operation. My father, who worked
at Yankee Stadium almost all his life,
was a very hard-working man, but they didn’t have
that kind of money. {an8}Dr. Smith, he was
the head of the hospital, {an8}said because my name
was Mary Smith, {an8}said we had to be related,
and I wouldn’t have to pay. But I was told later
from another doctor
that wasn’t true. It was paid for
by the Babe, and they told me he was
a friend of my father’s. I just kept looking
at his face, because he had
such a beautiful smile. ♪ ♪
Ardith Rutland: We had
a little orange juice stand. It was right near
the golf course.
He was playing golf. He said to me
his name was Babe Ruth, and I said, “Well,
where’s your candy bars?” ‘Cause that’s all I knew,
was Babe Ruth was a candy bar. {an8}Well, they laughed.
They thought this was {an8}real funny.
And I put my head down {an8}and sorta started
to cry, I guess. He patted me on the head
and said, “Are you going
to be here tomorrow?” And I said, “Yes.” And so he came back
the next day, gave us a whole big box
of Baby Ruth candy bars. He just said,
“Now, little girl, “don’t you forget
who I am.” He had
such beautiful blue eyes. They sparkled. (piano music playing) Schreiber:
In the roaring, raucous ’20s, when America celebrated
consumption and excess, no other public figure
was worshiped like the Babe. Thanks to his friends
in the press, Ruth’s repulsive behavior
was never reported, his vulgar side rarely seen. To his adoring fans, Ruth’s indiscretions
were harmless. He was a humble everyman, a kindred spirit. Gleason:
He was loved
because people who had flaws– men and women,
even children who had
flaws in their character, knew he had flaws. He was one of them. He was not above them. He was a spiritual force. Creamer:
They loved him. They liked
the feeling about him. He was a joy
to be around. He lifted things up.
He was alive. ♪ ♪
(people chattering) Bud Greenspan:
I saw him a couple of times
with Jack Dempsey, when Jack Dempsey had
the restaurant on Broadway
and 48th Street. They used to
sit in the window
together and talk, and you’d have crowds,
hundreds of them looking
in the window. “There’s Babe Ruth!
There’s Jack Dempsey!” (people chattering) {an8}He relished the whole idea
of being part of the scene, {an8}as opposed to others
who could come in and come out, {an8}and no one would
even know they were there. When he came into a room,
he was loud, and positive, and where he was
was the place to be. Broun:
A professional
barbershop quartet was singing as part
of the entertainment, and suddenly a husky
and uncertain voice
joined them. ♪ Strike two ♪
And even though
he was a lousy singer, everybody was very happy
that he did it. (bat cracks)
♪ It’s a home run ♪ Mazer:
You know how an aura exudes? {an8}There was a quality about Ruth {an8}that just invited you in. In. (bat cracks)
Hey, Red. Henrich:
They didn’t care a whole lot
about exhibition games. By and large, you played
half a game and that’s it. but the guys
are complaining, saying, “Jesus Christ,
let’s get out of here.” The Babe said,
“You wanna get out of here?” He says, “I’ll stop
the game next inning.” Next inning,
some young kid ran out for his autograph… and the Babe… he signs for him.
Well, another kid comes out, and first thing you know,
center field was filled up
with kids. (chattering)
That’s the end
of the ballgame. Will you sign
my autograph?
Why sure. Werber:
He’d stand there for an hour
and sign those autographs. Now Gehrig, by contrast, and Grove, by contrast, they didn’t want
to be bothered with people
or bothered with kids, and they’d come out
under the same circumstances, and they’d wade through ’em. ♪ ♪ Honig:
The instrument they used
was a fountain pen, and fountain pens had
a tendency to leak and squirt. Splashed with ink
on his suit or on his face, he never minded.
He never complained. They would ask him,
“Why did you sit “for so many hours, Babe,
just signing autographs?” And he said,
“I like to make
everybody happy.” ♪ ♪ {an8}He happened to see me
over there in the corner, {an8}and he came over and says,
“What’s your kid’s name?” He said, “Let me get you
a ball for your kid.” And I said,
“Well, I don’t have any kids. “In fact,
I’m not even married.” He said,
“Well, we can fix that.” So he took a ball,
and he wrote something on it. And when I looked at it,
he had on there, “Hello to be.
From Babe Ruth.” He says, “When your kid
comes along, “tell him Babe Ruth
had something for him.” So this now is
a very treasured possession
of my daughter. Mazer:
But if you took Ruth
for more than what he was, you were kidding yourself.
♪ ♪ You wouldn’t walk up
to Ruth and say to him, “Babe, “what do you think
of Einstein?” He’d probably say,
“What’s he hitting?” ♪ ♪ Tommy Heinrich:
A friend of Ruth’s sees him at the station,
and they get off the train. {an8}”Hey, Babe, did you hear
about Waite? Waite Hoyt?” {an8}”No, what about him?” {an8}He says, “He’s got
a case of amnesia.” And Babe says, “He has? “You tell him to save me
one of those bottles.” Werber:
He came out to the dugout and complained to Doc Painter,
who was the trainer. He said, “Doc, my eyes feel
a little cloudy today. “My vision’s
not too good anymore.” Doc Payter said, “Well,
why don’t you go down
and get some of that… “Visine– that Eyelo.” And Babe gave his eyes
a good washing with that Eyelo, and I think he got
two for four or three
for four that day, and he attributed it
to the Eyelo. So the next day
when he came out,
his eyes were all right, but he used
the Eyelo again. {an8}Lazzeri, a day or two later,
sneaked out there, {an8}and he took the Eyelo bottle, {an8}and poured all
the Eyelo out {an8}and filled it with water, {an8}and put it back in
the medicine case. Ruth came out
and started to use the Eyelo, then Lazzeri yanked it
out of his hands and says, “Let me have
some of that stuff.” And when he got the Eyelo
from out of Babe’s hands, he drank it all. Babe is slapping
his big ol’ thighs and says, “Look at the dago, “drinking the Baby’s Eyelo.” And Lazzeri got
two or three hits. So then, Ruth,
following that, started bathing his eyes
and drinking it, too. (moos)
♪ ♪ {an8}He could never remember
anybody’s name, {an8}and the people he played with,
played side by side. He called everybody “keed.”
“There’s my keed.” Keed. K-double E-D.
“Hey, keed.” “Hiya, keed.”
He’d say that to a guy
who was 92 years old. Werber:
Lazzeri said, “I’m gonna have
a little fun with the Babe.” So he called Myles Thomas,
who was some distance away. Now Myles was
a relief pitcher
on the Yankees and had been with the Yankees
for some three or four years. He called Myles over,
and he said to Babe, “I want to introduce
Charlie Devens, “who’s just showed up
from Harvard and gonna be
with us a while.” Ruth stuck out
that great, big meat hand and said,
“Nice to see you, keed. “Welcome to the Yankees.” And Thomas had
been on the ball club
for three or four years. (laughs)
Ruth didn’t appear
to know that, but he was glad
to see him nonetheless. ♪ ♪ Broun:
He did what he wanted to do. If it got him in trouble,
he was always startled. Who’s the heavyweight champion?
Man: Max Schmeling. Hey, what’s the idea? (laughter) He was totally spontaneous. {an8}I was the captain
of the high school golf team. {an8}So, Babe liked to play golf, {an8}so he said, “Would you like
to play golf with Babe Ruth?” Now any kid would love
something like that. And I helped him
on several holes, ’cause we were partners.
He won maybe $50 to $100. Next day at the high school, I was in class,
about 12:30 to 1:00. “Babe Ruth down the hallway,
looking for you “to go play golf
for the day.” I said, “What?”
I couldn’t believe it. I was the most surprised kid
you ever seen when he walked
into that classroom, and the principal
was right with him. “Babe’s here to take you
to the golf course.
It’s okay to go.” So I jumped up
and went with him. ♪ ♪ Werber:
He never had any serious
thoughts in his head, really. But you’d have liked him.
(laughs) He wasn’t a bad fella. (chattering) Creamer:
Everybody has
a story on Ruth, and stories
piled on stories
become legends. And of course,
the classic one is… The 1932 World Series and the so-called
called shot. Some extremely
bad feelings had arisen between
the two contending teams, the Yankees
and the Chicago Cubs. And they’re yelling at him
from the Cub dugout the most obscene things, and he’s yelling back. Creamer:
He was riding the Chicago bench
from the batters box. Honig:
And the pitcher, Charley Root, throws across strike one,
throws across strike two, and here comes
baseball’s fabled moment. He suddenly stopped… {an8}Kelly:
And I vividly heard him
yell out to Charley Root, {an8}”It only takes one!” {an8}And then he elevated
his arm… {an8}”This one’s going out!” {an8}Pointing to
the center-field bleachers. {an8}And by god, the next ball, {an8}he hit right where
he had pointed. I don’t think
he could’ve done it
in a million other times, but he did do it,
and I saw it. Kelly: I asked him.
I said, “You called that shot,
didn’t you, Babe?” “Why? Don’t you think I did? “That’s where I pointed.
and that’s where it went.” Schreiber:
Others, however,
weren’t so sure. In home movies
of the at-bat, Ruth appears
to be gesturing
at something, but at what
remains inconclusive. (cheering) The next day
in the papers, there was barely a mention
of Ruth’s declaration, just straightforward
reporting of the home run. But as time passed,
the notion caught on, and soon took
a life of its own. Newsreel accounts
unashamedly showed Ruth’s gesture as fact, and Hollywood later took
the myth to epic proportions. Don’t forget Johnny! {an8}(crowd roars) Radio announcer:
He pointed to the flagpole
in the center-field bleachers, plainly indicating
that’s where he means to park that next pitch. (crowd roars) Shepherd:
It’s a harmless little myth. {an8}Hell, a lot of people
believe in Santa Claus. {an8}Nothing wrong with it.
(chuckles) Terkel:
Babe was part
of that old American folklore of the braggarts,
the big ones– Mike Fink, Pecos Pete,
Paul Bunyan and the blue ox. {an8}Broun:
It doesn’t matter whether
it is based in reality, {an8}because a thing is what it is {an8}because we wish it to be. Napoleon said once
that history is the myth
that men choose to believe. Honig:
Whether he actually called it,
it’s irrelevant, because reality evaporates, and the myth
becomes the truth. I want you all to remember
what I said about smoking– it’ll stunt your growth! Look what it did to him. (kids laughing) Schreiber:
A great deal
of the Ruth legend is just… well, legend, half-truths
that became myth. Ruth frequently
visited hospitals, so his home-run promise
to a dying kid might
have been true. But he couldn’t possibly
have taken a dog
to the hospital in uniform before a game. Could he?
Where’s your operating room? Why over there,
but you can’t go in there. Get your best doctors
in there in a hurry.
I’ve got a sick dog. Creamer:
I think he’s
a tremendous mythic figure, but I think the history is
as big or bigger than the myth. The myth diminishes
what he really was. and establishes
a sort of false Ruth. It’s big,
but it’s not the truth, and I think the truth is
bigger than the myth. Schreiber:
The true Ruth
started out as a pitcher. maybe the best left-hander
in Boston Red Sox history. In just five seasons, the Babe won
close to 90 games and helped the Sox
win the World Series in 1916 and again in 1918 by throwing 29 consecutive
scoreless innings. He was on his way
to the hall of fame
as a pitcher until he picked up his bat
and rewrote the record book. Creamer:
For the last six weeks
of the 1918 season, he pitched one day, then played the outfield
the next three days, then pitched again,
then played the outfield
for the rest of the season. So here’s a man pitching
and playing the outfield, playing every day and hitting
at the same time. It’s one of the most
extraordinary things
in baseball history. ♪ ♪ Schreiber: Ruth’s trade
from Boston to the New York
Yankees in 1920 was the catalyst for sports’
most renowned dynasty. For the next nine seasons, the Yanks played
in six World Series, winning three,
including 1927, with Ruth the cornerstone
of one of history’s
greatest teams. Announcer:
The Yankee’s
hard-hitting quartet– Lou Gehrig, Combs,
Lazzeri and Babe Ruth. Creamer: He was
a fabulous, beautifully-
coordinated athlete. They all look at him,
and they call him fat. He stole home! He was fast,
he had a good arm. There was nothing
about baseball he couldn’t do. (cheering) Mazer:
You know about
his year in 1921? .378, hit 59 home runs, scored 178 runs, drove in 171 runs, got over 40 doubles,
16 triples, stole 16 bases. That was Babe Ruth. Announcer:
Babe Ruth batting. Wow! There goes one
into right field. {an8}He had six of the most
extraordinary seasons, {an8}from 1926 to 1932, {an8}that any ballplayer
has ever had. He averaged over 50 home runs
a year for six years. It’s so hard to imagine.
He was so far ahead, and hit twice
as many as the others. 56 homers,
58 homers, 60 homers. ♪ ♪ Henrich:
Slugging average is .690. You believe that?
Most of the Hall-of-Famers, they’re very happy with .500. He’s .690. (mutters) {an8}People swim faster
than Johnny Weissmuller, {an8}people run faster
than Paavo Nurmi, {an8}but to hit 60 home runs
and bat .340? The things that he did
are still remarkable. Kennelly:
Nobody’s ever come close
to what he’s done on the field. Name me one other guy who had as many records that could be broken?
He set them all! Lifetime average over .340, 714 home runs. There was a lot of myth… but there was a hell
of a lot of mister, too. ♪ ♪ Stevens:
Daddy loved
The Lone Ranger, and I loved to listen
to that with him. We’d always cheer him on. We always had
a wonderful time. {an8}He was a marvelous dancer, {an8}had perfect timing,
and he taught me
how to dance. And I loved
dancing with Daddy. Schreiber:
Julia Ruth became
Babe’s daughter after Ruth married
her mother, Claire, in 1929, the year
the stock market crashed. By most accounts,
Babe handled marriage
the second time around much better than the first. But just when
his family life
seemed settled, his baseball life
started to come apart. ♪ ♪ (shouting) At first, the crash of ’29
and the resulting depression had little effect on Ruth
or the money he was paid. His enormous checks,
which were often
10 times greater than any
of his contemporaries, had reached
$80,000 in 1931. But at the same time
the country began to sink
deeper into economic despair, Ruth’s skills
began to erode… ♪ ♪ giving Yankee owner
Jacob Ruppert good reason to cut his salary
and eventually cut him. After 20 productive
major league seasons, the Yanks
no longer needed Ruth. The team that had
been his for so long now centered
around Lou Gehrig. Werber:
Ruth was playing his last year
with the Yankees in Boston. The ball went
between his legs
and went to the wall. The fans in Boston
booed him unmercifully, and it made me sick. ♪ ♪ Honig:
Even Ruth in his decline,
it was monumental. Players would stop
during pre-game workout and watch him
struggling in the field,
running after a fly ball. trying to bend over
and pick up a ground ball. They couldn’t believe
what they were seeing. The great statue
beginning to crack and topple. The god turning human. Stevens:
Colonel Ruppert sent him
a contract for a dollar a year. and gave him
his unconditional release. Ruth:
I can’t go on forever, but you can bet
your sweet life that I won’t play
until I drop, but I’ll play until
I damn near drop. (laughter)
Thank you. Schreiber:
In 1935, Ruth took
his diminishing skills to the Boston Braves. Ever the showman,
he defiantly hit three homers in one of his final games. But at age 40,
the Babe retired as a player and spent three years
away from the game. Feels good to be back
in this uniform. That “Dodgers” looks
pretty good on the front
of you, don’t it, boy? (crowd cheering) Schreiber:
In 1938, Ruth happily
returned to New York as a coach
for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Oh! Schreiber:
The Babe had
been led to believe the Dodgers would
one day let him manage. In reality, the struggling
franchise had signed Ruth
as a gate attraction. Fans did come to see Ruth, but the novelty
soon wore off. The Babe was let go,
and the promise never kept. ♪ ♪ Stevens:
They never had any intentions of making him a manager. They just wanted him
for his name. It was almost
like they lied to him. He’d come home
and he’d ask mother, “Anybody call today?” Of course,
nobody ever did. And all he wanted to do
was just be in baseball. He wanted
to be a part of baseball, because it was
a part of him. He was so disappointed. He almost went
into a depression. Ray Robinson:
They used to say about him, “How could
he ever manage a team “when he never learned
to manage himself?” {an8}So, in his post-baseball years, {an8}whenever he went
to Yankee Stadium, it was always my impression,
when I sat close enough
to look at him, that he was
very morose and sad. He would sit there,
hunched over, staring at the action. You got
the feeling about him that he had been
involuntarily removed
from his real environment. ♪ ♪ Schreiber:
The Yankees never
came calling either, so Ruth went on doing
what he did best– playing the role
of the Babe. (cheers, applause) Occasionally, he would
return to the stage
he once dominated, happy to display
his old form. Although the significance
of his homers had now
greatly diminished, Ruth still managed
to thrill his fans. Stevens:
Even after he’d
been out of baseball for eight or 10 years, he still attracted crowds. He’d go over
to the training camp
and talk with the fellows. (people chattering) People still asked him
for his autograph. They were
still showing their love
and appreciation for him, even though he wasn’t
playing baseball anymore. (chattering) ♪ ♪
Schreiber:
But by 1946, it was becoming
increasingly clear there was something
seriously wrong with the Babe. (birds chirping) Stevens:
I was in New Hampshire, and there was a picture
of him in the paper. I called Mother,
I said, “Mother, “what on earth is
the matter with Daddy?” I said,
“He looks terrible.” “I really don’t know,”
she said. “He has
these terrible headaches.” ♪ ♪ Schreiber:
That winter, Ruth had
a throat operation, and the prognosis was grim. Although he wasn’t told
of his condition, the Babe had cancer. Creamer:
They kept the fact that
he had terminal cancer away from him,
’cause they thought
he would jump out a window. Stevens:
He couldn’t eat.
He couldn’t swallow. Of course he was
losing weight like crazy. He just didn’t look
like Daddy. {an8}He would sit in the chair, {an8}by the hour, and look out
over the Hudson River. His spirits were very good. He felt that he was
gonna beat this thing, but the fact that he had
the scar tissue up
around his neck made it very difficult
for him to talk. Schreiber:
On April 27th, 1947, baseball celebrated
Ruth’s accomplishments with a day in his name
at every major league ballpark. Ruth himself
attended the ceremony
at Yankee Stadium. ♪ ♪ {an8}I knew how sick he was, {an8}and I guess that’s the reason
I didn’t go in. And I just stood outside. ♪ ♪
(cheering) He started to speak… (hoarsely)
Thank you very much,
ladies and gentlemen. You know how bad
my voice sounds. Well, it feels
just as bad. You know this
baseball game of ours… Macklin:
They turned up
that loudspeaker so everybody outside, blocks around,
could hear him. The train
up on the platform, people–
they just stopped
in their tracks, listening
to this great man. And after you’re a boy and grew up
to know how to play ball, then you come to the boys
you see representing themselves today in your national pastime. The only real game, I think,
in the world– baseball. There’s been
so many lovely things said about me, and I’m glad that I’ve had
the opportunity to thank everybody. Thank you.
(cheering) ♪ ♪ Stevens:
Even when he was so sick, he still wanted
to be part of baseball. He took a job
at the Ford Motor Company, traveling
for the American Legion. {an8}He made personal appearances. {an8}the first year, ’47,
he made 15 appearances. When I saw him
get off the airplane, I was shocked.
He came out puffing… (exhales sharply)
breathing hard. His color didn’t look good. There he was
with this white cap and the white and black
wingtip shoes. Then we went back
to the ballpark. There was
like 15,000 people there, most of them kids.
It was a different man
that appeared. Here he was, smiling. Don Cameron:
I think he was happier
at the ballpark than he was anywhere else. {an8}He didn’t feel that good,
but the strength {an8}of being
around those young people {an8}that he was working with
and imparting knowledge to them, {an8}I really think
gave him strength. Benish:
He just seemed to gather
strength from it. He really was
crazy about kids,
and you could see it. As sick as he was
and as weak as he was, he wanted
to be with those kids. ♪ ♪ Thomas Hartley Jr.:
Babe was a very sick man. We had a child in town that was dying of cancer. {an8}Who comes out in the yard,
but the Babe, {an8}and he spends time
talking to all of us. “I got something for you. “Here. You look
like you can catch. “There’s a ball.”
His attitude, knowing that he was
close to death, and us knowing
that our friend was dying and not understanding– it was just so wonderful. Man:
How you doing, Babe?
Pretty good. ♪ ♪ Schreiber:
His health failing, his glory days behind, Ruth continued to make
public appearances. (cheering)
On June 13th, 1948, he helped celebrate
the 25th anniversary of Yankee Stadium, and wore his uniform
for the final time. Broun:
I was there when he made his last appearance
in Yankee Stadium. Even though by that time
he was wasted away, somehow on that day, he filled the uniform, to be, once more,
for some last gasp, a heroic figure.
You had just this moment, which you tried
to hold and keep. ♪ ♪ Nat Fein:
I worked
for the Herald Tribune, and I did
mostly human interest pictures. {an8}I think it was terrible to know
that all of this ovation {an8}comes to him and he knows,
down deep in his heart, {an8}that he isn’t long
for this world. They lined ’em up there
in the front– all the photographers
were in the front. I went around the back. The thing that steered me
was the #3 being retired. #3 is out.
The Babe bows out. I said, “It’s unnatural.” (camera flash pops)
I knew I had something there. ♪ ♪ (chattering) Schreiber:
Later that summer, Ruth’s health took
a serious turn for the worse. ♪ ♪
In July, he entered
the hospital once more, and this time
he was made aware
of what he was facing. Stevens:
When he went
into the Sloan Kettering, he saw that it was for cancer
and allied diseases, and he said,
“Have I got cancer?” They never told him. If anything
could’ve saved him, believe me,
the prayers would have. They’d stand
outside the hospital. Once in a while,
he’d go to the window, look out, and wave. He knew that he had
all their best wishes and that they were
pulling for him. {an8}Warren Eberhart:
Here was somebody
who had been through {an8}an awful lot of pain,
discomfort {an8}for over a two-year period. He’d had enough of it.
“I’m tired of all this now.” He was very quiet.
He awaited the end
in a dignified way, but it was
just a terrible thing
for him to realize what had happened
to his joy of living. Radio announcer:
We interrupt this program to bring you
a special bulletin. New York. Babe Ruth,
the all-time baseball great, just died
in Memorial Hospital
of cancer. ♪ ♪ Schreiber:
Ruth’s casket was brought
to Yankee Stadium, a spectacle
in death as in life. The Babe had come to rest
where his legend had begun. Stevens:
The people who came to get
their last look at him, just absolutely
was staggering. It amazed me. Hamill:
We went up
to the Bronx on the subway, and there were
people from every race,
every neighborhood. The line moved very quickly, and looking down at his face,
he looked exhausted. ♪ ♪ And out past
where he was lying was the field.
You could smell
the odor of it– the sort of loamy, hot earth
of August in New York. Cameron:
I walked in there
to see his memorial, and the hair just stood up
on the back on my neck and stood up on my arms, because I had finally gotten
to see where Babe hit ’em all. Chuck Doehler:
I remember being ushered
up to the casket. Imagine.
There was Babe Ruth. {an8}I was handed a ball.
I had looked at the ball, {an8}and some sensitive person
had written on this ball {an8}”Safe at home.” I put the ball
right next to his hand, and I thought, “Wow. “Here he is. He’s home.
He’s where he belongs.” ♪ ♪ Honig:
His passing was an event in the lives of many people,
because he represented so much and he took so much with him. There never was
a character like that, and there never was
gonna be one again. But in many ways, he’s never left the game. The standards that he set,
the legends that he created, are still very much with us. Gleason:
Babe Ruth will never be gone. He’s still here. He’s always here. He was a living man who became a mythic god, and nothing can change that. Creamer:
He will be a symbol
of baseball as long
as baseball is played. ♪ ♪ Hamill:
To me, the Babe’s still alive. He truly
is like Shakespeare. He’ll never die. ♪ ♪ {an8}♪ ♪ {an8}Announcer: This has
been a presentation of…