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“Babe Ruth and Kids” Photo Gallery
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Happy Easter from Baseball History Comes Alive!

“Me and kids get along just fine!” –George Herman “Babe” Ruth

As many of you know by now, I always like to find a connection between baseball history and holidays. Today, Easter Sunday is no exception. But when I did a Google search for “Baseball and Easter,” I wasn’t expecting much to come up.

Except, lo and behold, I found a nice photo of old “Mr. Reliable,” Babe Ruth, with some Easter Seal children. Yep…just as he did throughout his career, the great Bambino always seems to come through when you really need him, even 76 years after his death!

The photo below is of the Babe at the opening of the Southern District Easter Seal Campaign for the Florida Association of Crippled Children and Adults. No date was given, but it appears to be from the 1940s. Most likely, these children were polio victims. The featured photo above is also one of my favorites. 

Okay, maybe the above quote wasn’t the proper King’s English, but the Babe’s feelings came through loud and clear. Look at the excitement on the faces of those kids. What a thrill that must have been to actually have Babe Ruth himself pay a visit in person! Whenever there was an event with children involved, you could always count on the Babe to show up.

The Babe genuinely loved kids. This was no “put on,” like so many other celebrities. He loved kids of all ages. And the feeling was reciprocated as the kids loved him right back. He was always glad to sign autographs, take pictures with children, visit sick kids in hospitals, or just act like a clown and fool around with them. He would do anything just to make a kid happy.

The Babe’s Name

Did you ever stop to think where his great baseball nickname “Babe” came from? A little research on the “Babe Ruth Central” website, and I found the answer. Apparently, it all started in 1914 when young George Herman Ruth was still living at St. Mary’s orphanage in Baltimore, and he was visited by Jack Dunn, the owner of the minor league Baltimore Orioles. Dunn had heard about George Ruth’s baseball prowess from the good brothers and came to see the kid in action himself. According to information on the website, here’s what developed:

“Mr. Dunn was impressed — so impressed that he signed George to a contract shortly after. George had just turned 19 and, due to the laws at that time, Mr. Dunn needed to sign papers that made him Babe’s legal guardian. When George joined the Orioles, he was very excited, but also very nervous because he hadn’t really lived outside of St. Mary’s School since he was 7.”

“In the first weeks in the real world, Babe didn’t know what to do with himself besides play baseball. He also didn’t really know how to act with people. He had been used to always following the orders that were given to him by the brothers at St. Mary’s. And, his only friends had been some of the other boys at St. Mary’s. So, George looked to his manager and legal guardian, Jack Dunn, for his new “orders” and George followed him around everywhere.

“The other players thought this was very funny and they’d say, ‘There’s Jack with his newest babe’. The name ‘Babe’ stuck, and over time, as a baseball player, he became known as ‘Babe Ruth,’ a name that everyone would recognize all over the world.”

I hope you get a chance to glance through the nice photo gallery I put together of George Herman “Babe” Ruth with kids!

And from all of us from Baseball History Comes Alive:

Happy Easter!

Gary Livacari 

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