In his first game, he pitched a 6-0 win that set the stage for the up and coming baseball superstar. When the Orioles could no longer afford to keep some of their top players, they sold them to the Boston Red Sox. And, being a left-handed pitcher on a team with three others, he didn’t get to pitch as much as he had with the Orioles. He didn’t get to play a lot with the team in games, so they sent him down into the minor leagues. When he took the team to win the championship, the Red Sox put him right back in the pros where he would win the World Series of 1917 with his pitching.

In the following years, the coaches realized how much of an asset Babe Ruth was as a hitter – something most people remember him by. He became known as a power slugger and broke every hitting record in the league. As his fame grew, so did his contract, which some leagues couldn’t afford. When Ruth gained some weight, it added to his powerhouse hitting skills but did little for his ability to run the bases or play in the outfield. Due to the trouble that Babe Ruth was putting the Red Sox through, they decided to trade him to the New York Yankees, who welcomed the greatest player in baseball with open arms. Following, the Yankees experienced huge success with Ruth while the Red Sox never won another world series for nearly 90 years. With the Yankees, Babe Ruth set new hitting records that would last nearly the same length of time.

Personal life

Ruth married Helen Woodford in 1914. Owing to his infidelities, they were reportedly separated around 1926. Helen died in a fire in Watertown, Massachusetts on January 11, 1929 in a house owned by Edward Kinder, a dentist whom she had been living with as "Mrs. Kinder". Kinder identified her body as being that of his wife, then went into hiding after Helen's true identity was revealed; Ruth himself had to get authorities to issue a new death certificate in her legal name, Margaret Helen Woodford Ruth.

Ruth had two daughters. Dorothy Ruth was adopted by Babe and Helen. Decades later, she wrote a book, My Dad, the Babe, claiming that she was Ruth's biological child by a girlfriend named Juanita Jennings.

Ruth adopted Julia Hodgson when he married her mother, actress and model Claire Merritt Hodgson. Julia currently resides in Arizona, and threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the final game in the original Yankee Stadium on September 21, 2008.

Ruth and Claire regularly wintered in Florida, frequently playing golf during the off-season and while the Yankees were spring training in Tampa, Florida. After retirement, he had a winter beachfront home in Treasure Island, Florida, near St. Petersburg.