The Great Bambino - Early Years

Early Years

George Herman Ruth, Jr. was born at 216 Emory Street in Pigtown, a rough neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. Ruth's parents, George Herman Ruth, Sr., and Katherine (Schamberger) Ruth were both German-American. George Ruth, Sr. had a series of jobs, including lightning rod salesman and on Baltimore's streetcars, before working as a counterman in a combination grocery/saloon on Frederick Street, owned by relatives. George Jr. was born in the house of his maternal grandfather, Pius Schamberger, a German immigrant and trade unionist. Only one of Ruth's seven siblings, his sister Mamie, survived infancy.

There are many things unknown about the circumstances of Ruth's childhood; even the date of his parents' marriage is undiscovered. Few other personal details regarding his parents are extant. The family moved to 339 South Goodyear Street, not far from the rail yards, when young George was a toddler; by the time he was six, his father had a saloon with an upstairs apartment at 426 West Camden Street. Details of why he was sent, at the age of seven, to St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys, a reformatory and orphanage, are similarly scanty. Babe Ruth, as an adult, suggested that not only was he running the streets and rarely attending school, he was drinking beer when his father was not looking. There are also stories that after a violent incident at the saloon, the city authorities decided the environment was unsuitable for a small child. At St. Mary's, which he entered on June 13, 1902, he was recorded as "incorrigible"; he would spend much of the next twelve years there.

Although St. Mary's inmates were educated, a substantial amount of time was devoted to work, especially once the boys turned 12. Ruth became a shirtmaker during his time there, and was also proficient as a carpenter. As a baseball player, making a large salary, he would adjust the collars of his shirts himself, rather than having a tailor do it. The boys, aged 5 to 21, did most work around the facility, from cooking to shoemaking; when St. Mary's was renovated in 1912, the work was done by the residents. The food was simple, and the Xavierian brothers who ran the place insisted on strict discipline; corporal punishment was omnipresent. Ruth's nickname among the boys was "Niggerlips", as he had large facial features and was darker than most boys at the all-white reformatory.

Ruth was sometimes allowed to rejoin his family, or was placed at St. James's Home, a supervised residence with work in the community, but he was always returned to St. Mary's. George rarely was visited by his family; his mother died when he was 12 and by some accounts, he was permitted to leave St. Mary's only to attend the funeral. How Ruth came to play baseball there is uncertain; by one account one of the misdeeds that led to his placement at St. Mary's was repeated breaking of Baltimore's windows with long hits while playing street ball; by another, he was told to join a team by the school's athletic director, Brother Herman, on his first day, becoming a catcher although left-handers rarely play that position. During his time there he would also play third base and shortstop, again unusual for a left-hander, and forcing him to wear mitts and gloves made for righties. He was encouraged in his pursuits by the school's Prefect of Discipline, Brother Matthias Boutlier, a native of Nova Scotia and large man who was greatly respected by the boys both for his strength and for his fairness. For the rest of his life, Ruth would praise Brother Matthias, and his running and hitting styles would closely resemble his teacher's. Ruth stated, "I think I was born as a hitter the first day I ever saw him hit a baseball." The older man became a mentor and role model to George, whose biographer Robert W. Creamer commented on the closeness between the two:

Ruth revered Brother Matthias ... which is remarkable, considering that Matthias was in charge of making boys behave and that Ruth was one of the great natural misbehavers of all time. ... George Ruth caught Brother Matthias' attention early, and the calm, considerable attention the big man gave the young hellraiser from the waterfront struck a spark of response in the boy's soul ... blunted a few of the more savage teeth in the gross man whom I have heard at least half-dozen of his baseball contemporaries describe with admiring awe and wonder as "an animal."

The school's influence remained with Ruth in other ways: a lifelong Catholic, he would sometimes attend Mass after an all-night bender, and became a well-known member of the Knights of Columbus. He would visit orphanages, schools, and hospitals throughout his life, often avoiding publicity. He was generous to the school as he became famous, donating money and his presence at fundraisers, and spending $5,000 to buy Brother Matthias a Cadillac in 1926—and then replacing it when it was destroyed in an accident. Nevertheless, his biographer Leigh Montville suggests that many of the off-the-field excesses of Ruth's career were driven by the deprivations of his time at St. Mary's.

Most of the boys at St. Mary's played baseball, with organized leagues at different levels of proficiency. Ruth later estimated that he played 200 games a year as he steadily climbed the ladder of success there. Although he played all positions at one time or another (including infield positions generally reserved for right-handers), he came to star as a pitcher. According to Brother Matthias, Ruth was standing to one side laughing at the bumbling pitching efforts of fellow students, and Matthias told him to go in and see if he could do better. He not only became the best pitcher at St. Mary's, but by 1913 at age 18 was allowed to leave the premises to play weekend games on teams drawn from the community. He received several newspaper mentions, for both his pitching prowess and an ability to hit long home runs.