Some quotes that The Babe said and what some others had to say about Babe Ruth. "The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime." Babe Ruth In August 1948, Ruth died of throat cancer and lay in state at Yankee Stadium, the baseball cathedral built on the fruits of his work. Ruth's funeral took place on a day of such heat that pallbearer and former teammate Joe Dugan said, "I'd give a hundred dollars for a beer." The old pitcher Waite Hoyt replied in Ruth's spirit: "So would the Babe." by Mark Maxon "I had a better year than he did." Babe Ruth, when told that President Hoover made less than the $80,000 he was demanding in 1930. "Hotter 'n hell, ain't it, Prez?" Babe Ruth, after meeting Calvin Coolidge I have only one superstition. I touch all the bases when I hit a home run. Babe Ruth All I can tell them is pick a good one and sock it. I get back to the dugout and they ask me what it was I hit and I tell them I don't know except it looked good. Babe ruth As soon as I got out there I felt a strange relationship with the pitcher's mound. It was as if I'd been born out there. Pitching just felt like the most natural thing in the world. Striking out batters was easy. Babe Ruth Don't let the fear of striking out hold you back. Babe Ruth How to hit home runs: I swing as hard as I can, and I try to swing right through the ball... The harder you grip the bat, the more you can swing it through the ball, and the farther the ball will go. I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can. I won't be happy until we have every boy in America between the ages of six and sixteen wearing a glove and swinging a bat. Babe Ruth "Every strike brings me closer to the next home run." Babe Ruth "No one hit home runs the way Babe did. They were something special. They were like homing pigeons. The ball would leave the bat, pause briefly, suddenly gain its bearings then take off for the stands." Lefty Gomez "To understand him you had to understand this: he wasn't human." Teammate Joe Dugan "Every big leaguer and his wife should teach their children to pray, "God bless Mommy, God bless Daddy, and God bless Babe Ruth." Waite Hoyt "He wasn't a baseball player. He was a worldwide celebrity, an international star, the likes of which baseball has never seen since." Broadcaster Ernie Harwell "He came up again in the ninth. I was a little mad. I told my catcher, Tommy Padden, he was not good enough to hit my fastball. I came through with a fastball for strike one. I missed with the second. The next pitch I nodded to Tommy. I was going to throw the ball past Mr. Ruth. It was on the outside corner. As he went around third, Ruth gave me the hand sign meaning 'to hell with you.' He was better than me. He was the best that ever lived. That big joker hit it clear out of the park for his third home run of the game. It was the longest homer I'd ever seen in baseball." -- Guy Bush of the Pittsburgh Pirates on giving up Ruth's last home run (it was the first to clear the right field grandstand at Forbes Field and some estimated the distance at 600 feet.) Quoted in Bush's "Sporting News" obituary after his death. |
