From Pigtown to St. Mary's

Ruth’s parents, George Sr. and Kate Schamberger Ruth, ran a saloon in Baltimore’s working-class “Pigtown” district. By age 7 Ruth was running wild — skipping school, drinking, getting in fights. His parents committed him to St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys in 1902, listing him as “incorrigible.” He never lived with them again.

Of Ruth’s seven siblings, only one (his sister Mamie) survived to adulthood. The Ruth family’s barkeeping struggles and Catholic discipline left St. Mary’s as Ruth’s de facto family. He saw his mother only intermittently after age 7; she died in 1912 when he was 17.

Brother Matthias

St. Mary’s was run by the Xaverian Brothers and housed roughly 800 boys at any time. Most of them were apprenticed to trades — Ruth learned shirtmaking. His mentor was Brother Matthias Boutlier, a 6’6″ Canadian-born Xaverian who’d been the school’s prefect of discipline. Matthias was Ruth’s first baseball coach and the man who taught him to hit a baseball.

Ruth would later say of Matthias: “He was the greatest man I’ve ever known.” He sent Brother Matthias a Cadillac as a thank-you in the 1920s; when it was destroyed in an accident, Ruth bought him another. Matthias died in 1944.

From St. Mary's to the Orioles to the Red Sox

On February 14, 1914 — three weeks after his 19th birthday — Ruth signed a $600 contract with the minor-league Baltimore Orioles. Owner Jack Dunn had to act as Ruth’s legal guardian for the contract; the older players nicknamed the new arrival “Jack’s newest babe.”

By July 1914 Ruth was sold to the Boston Red Sox. He pitched well enough to be a key part of three World Series wins (1915, 1916, 1918) before owner Harry Frazee sold him to the New York Yankees on December 26, 1919 — for $100,000 and a $300,000 loan, the famous “Curse of the Bambino” transaction.

Background facts cross-referenced with the Wikipedia article on Babe Ruth and Pro-Football-Reference / Basketball-Reference public records. Lead image via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).