Babe Ruth is the most celebrated sports figure in the history of the United States, if not the world. Mention his name anywhere – on a grade school playground, at a formal dinner or a sporting event -- and everyone will know whom you are talking about and why. He is the Bambino, the Sultan of Swat, the greatest baseball player of all time; America’s first and foremost sports celebrity.

George Herman Ruth played his last baseball game more than 70 years ago. He has been dead more than 60 years and everyone still knows his name. He still holds the Major League Baseball records for slugging percentage and on-base plus slugging. Many pundits doubt they will ever be broken. The Babe’s homerun records of 60 in a single season and 714 in a career were ultimately broken, but stood for more than 30 years. Unlike most modern homerun hitters, Ruth also hit well for average achieving a lifetime average of .342 placing him 10th on the all-time list. He remains in the top ten in nine hitting categories in Major League Baseball’s record books.

Ruth began his rise to fame as a pitcher. He won three games in the 1918 World Series posting a remarkable Earned Run Average of 0.87. In 1916 he set the American League record for most shutouts in a season by a left-hander that stood until 1978. At the time, he was playing for the Boston Red Sox, who had signed him as a 19-year-old “Babe” in 1914. In 1919 he was sold to the New York Yankees in what remains the most controversial deal in American sports. The Yankees switched him to the outfield so he could hit in every game, and the rest is history.