EARLIEST KNOWN NEWSPAPER COVERAGE MENTION OF BABE RUTH.


The Baltimore News, vol LXXXIV, no 151. Baltimore: April 4, 1914. Folio (570 x 455 mm). 16 pp. Pages fragile with toning and chipping.BIRTH OF THE LEGEND OF BABE RUTH. After learning to play baseball at St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys, a reformatory to which he was sent at 7, George Herbert "Babe" Ruth's professional career began in 1914, when he was signed to play minor league ball for the Baltimore Orioles. This coverage in the Baltimore News dates from the very earliest days of the 1914, the writer even tweaking the youthful Ruth by calling him a "St. Mary's schoolboy."In a p 14 column by "Danny" titled "Robbie to Have His Day in Baltimore," the writer gives the probable line-up for the game to be played between the Orioles and the Brooklyn Dodgers in Brooklyn. He lists Ruth as the starting pitcher, and gives him his own paragraph in the middle of the column: "Babe Ruth is Dunnie's selection and the Oriole leader makes the announcement with plenty of enthusiasm that the St. Mary's schoolboy is going to do the twirling. Ruth is one subject of which the International boss never tires of talking, and he proposes to send him over the entire route this afternoon."Ruth was only with the Orioles for a few months: by July 4, he had been traded to the Red Sox, who would famously (foolishly?) trade him to the New York Yankees just two years later. A rare, fragile survivor.
|Babe Ruth is Dunnie's selection and the Oriole leader makes the announcement with plenty of enthusiasm that the St. Mary's schoolboy is going to do the twirling.