Babe Ruth

George Herman Ruth, (b. February 6, 1895, d. August 16, 1948), better known as Babe Ruth, also commonly known by the nicknames The Bambino and The Sultan of Swat, was an American baseball player and United States national icon. He was one of the first five players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame and he was the first player to hit over 30, 40 and 50 home runs in one season. His record of 60 home runs in the 1927 season stood for 34 years until it was broken by Roger Maris in 1961. He also was a member of the original American League All-Star team in 1933. In 1998, The Sporting News named Ruth as Number One in its list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players."

The Infamous Asterisk

In the middle of the 1961 season, while both Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris were chasing Ruth's home run record of 60, Ford Frick made a ruling that if a new record of 61 were set, it would have to be done in 154 games or less. If it were set in more games (the 1961 season was 162 games), the two records would be shown separately in the record books. It is an urban legend, probably originating with a New York sportswriter named Dick Young who first used the word "asterisk", that an asterisk was literally used to distinguish the new record. Major League baseball itself, however, had (and has) no official record book of its own, and Frick later acknowledged that there was never any official qualification of Maris' accomplishment. For several years, various record books did indeed show the two totals, one for a 162-game season, one for a 154-game season (the The Sporting News Record Book showed it that way for decades), but eventually Ruth's earlier figure of 60 disappeared entirely and Maris was shown as being the exclusive record holder. Maris' record has now been surpassed several times since 1998 but Maris is still the American League record holder.

Related Topics:
Mickey Mantle - The Sporting News - American League

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Preceded by:Ned Williamson

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List of homerun leaders

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Succeeded by:Roger Maris

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