On this day in history, May 25, 1935, at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, baseball great Babe Ruth hit his 714th home run — a record for career home runs that would stand for almost 40 years.
“This was one of Ruth’s last games, and the last home run of his career,” noted History.com of the accomplishment.
“Ruth went four for four on the day, hitting three home runs and driving in six runs.”
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By the time he returned to Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field in 1935, Ruth “had become an aging player whose titanic hits would become his final hurrah before retiring eight days later, after several less impressive performances,” Sports Illustrated noted.
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“Had Ruth retired in Pittsburgh, the epitaph on his playing career would have been even more heroic.”
Babe Ruth takes a mighty swing during pre-game batting practice in Yankee Stadium. He hit 60 home runs in the year 1927, a record that stood for 34 years and still stands as a monumental achievement today. (Mark Rucker/Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images)
As a youngster, Ruth was known as “Gig” to his family, and faced some trouble in his youth, says the same source.
At age seven, his truancy from school led his parents to send him to an orphanage, St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys.
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Other players started calling him “Jack’s newest babe,” and the name stuck.
That same year, Ruth courted and wed waitress Helen Woodford, Britannica notes.
Ruth shined as a pitcher.
In 1920, Ruth headed to the Bronx to join the New York Yankees.
Then, it was announced on Jan. 5, 1920, that Ruth was headed to the Bronx to join the New York Yankees, according to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
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The transaction had been formalized one week earlier; Ruth would become a rival of the American League franchise.
“He went on to set a Major League record for the month with 11 homers,” says the Society for American Baseball Research. “He finished the year with the unfathomable total of 54 home runs. He out-homered 14 of the other 15 major league teams.”
Ruth hit 14.6% of the American League’s 369 home runs, the same site indicated.
Ruth’s final blast, which was also his last hit before he quit baseball for good, soared out of the ballpark.
American baseball player Babe Ruth (1895-1948) smokes a pipe as he plays a piano while his wife, Helen Ruth (1897-1929) stands next to him, 1910s. (Keystone/FPG/Getty Images)
He hit three home runs that game, and his final blast, which was also his last hit before he quit baseball for good, soared out of the ballpark. That home run ball, says the same source, rests in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
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His tally of 714 would obliterate the 138 career homers logged by the former record holder, Roger Connor, the publication adds.
Ruth’s record for career home runs was not broken until Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run on April 8, 1974 — 39 years later — says History.com
