Happy Easter from All of Us at Old Time Baseball Photos!

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Babe Ruth and Kids Photo Gallery
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 Happy Easter from All of Us at Old Time Baseball Photos!

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

When I did a Google search for “Baseball and Easter,” I wasn’t expecting too 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…When it comes to kids, you can always count on the Babe!

The featured 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 1940’s. Click on the photo for a much better view.

Okay, maybe the above quote wasn’t the proper King’s English, but his 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! 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 kinds and all ages. And the feeling was reciprocated, 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. He would do anything just to make a kid happy.

Did you ever stop to think where his great baseball nickname “Babe” came from? A little research on the “Babe Ruth Central” web site, and I found the answer.

Apparently it all started in 1914 when young George Ruth was still living at St. Mary’s orphanage in Baltimore and was visited by Jack Dunn, the owner of the minor league Baltimore Orioles. He had heard about George Ruth’s playing abilities and came to see for himself just how good he was. 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 which 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!

Happy Easter!

Gary Livacari

Photo Credits: All from Google search

Information: Excerpts edited from the Babe Ruth Central web page.