Babe Ruth by Tracy Brown Collins

Author:Tracy Brown Collins [Collins, Tracy Brown]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: cookie429, Extratorrents, Kat
ISBN: 9780791098974
Publisher: Checkmark Books
Published: 2009-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

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babe Ruth

In a game during his first year with the New York Yankees, Babe Ruth

gets a hit against his old team, the Red Sox. In 1920 and 1921, his

first two years as a Yankee, Ruth had phenomenal seasons at the

plate—shattering his old home-run record and changing the way the

game was played.

had also caused an increase in attendance at Yankee games.

Attendance at home games had more than doubled—from

619,164 in 1919 to 1,289,422 in 1920. The season did not

end in a championship—the Yankees came in third in the

American League—but Ruth’s debut as a Yankee had been a

great success.

If the 1920 season had been a good one for Ruth, the

1921 season was certainly his best ever. His batting record

Ruth the Controversial Celebrity

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surpassed that of the previous year, with 59 home runs, 16

triples, 44 doubles, 204 hits, and an overall batting average of

.378. The 1921 Yankees were a strong team in general and fin-

ished the season with a record of 98 wins and 55 losses, good

enough to win the American League title. In the World Series,

the Yankees faced another New York ball club, the New York

Giants. Ruth had a strong Series but was taken out of play for

two games because of injuries. The Yankees lost the World

Series in the end, but Ruth and his team had made a strong

showing, and the season and Series were both celebrated. The

year was special in other ways as well, as the Ruths adopted a

baby girl, Dorothy.

THE LIVE BALL ERA

This period was a time of change for baseball as whole—

it marked the end of the Dead Ball Era. Something that we

perhaps take for granted about modern-day baseball is that it

is a game fueled by powerful hitters who are often the most

popular and best-paid players. This view of baseball can be

directly attributed to Ruth. Before Ruth’s time, baseball was

far more a game of defensive strategy, with teams focusing

and relying on savvy pitching and solid fielding to prevent the

other team from scoring rather than approaching the game

more offensively by relying on strong batters to score runs.

In the early 1900s leading up to Ruth’s first major-league

home run in 1915, baseball games had far lower scores on

average and batting averages were notably different, averaging

around .250 for major-league players. That average increased

to .285 in 1921.

After World War I, baseball entered what is called the

“lively ball” period, or Live Ball Era, which takes its name from

the mistaken idea that batting averages increased because a new

type of ball had been developed—the lively ball. In fact, base-

balls were being manufactured the same way they had always

been. Instead of one ball being used for most of game, however,

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