Babe Ruth

George Herman Ruth Jr. did not so much play baseball as reshape it. Before Ruth, the game belonged to pitchers and small ball. After Ruth, it belonged to power. That transition, from the Dead-Ball Era to the age of the long ball, happened largely because one man proved that swinging for the fences could work.

The Pitcher

Ruth entered the majors as a left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox in 1914, and he was very good at it. His career pitching record of 94-46 with a 2.28 ERA would be a Hall of Fame resume on its own. He went 3-0 in World Series starts with a 0.87 ERA, including a record 29 and two-thirds consecutive scoreless innings in World Series play that stood for 43 years.

Boston's manager, Ed Barrow, started moving Ruth to the outfield in 1918 because his bat was too valuable to sit on the bench four days out of five. It was the most consequential lineup card decision in baseball history.

The Hitter

The numbers are familiar enough to feel abstract: 714 career home runs, a .342 lifetime batting average, a .474 on-base percentage that remains the highest in history. But the numbers only make sense in context. In 1920, Ruth hit 54 home runs. No other team in the American League hit that many. He didn't just lead the league in home runs; he hit more than entire rosters.

The Sale

On January 3, 1920, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold Ruth to the Yankees for $100,000 and a $300,000 loan against the mortgage on Fenway Park. The Yankees won their first pennant in 1921. The Red Sox didn't win another World Series until 2004. Whether you call it a curse or a consequence, the transaction's shadow stretched across 84 years.

The Legacy

Ruth died of cancer on August 16, 1948, at age 53. His body lay in state at Yankee Stadium, and more than 100,000 people filed past the casket. He was a charter member of the Hall of Fame's inaugural 1936 class.

His statistical records have mostly been broken. Aaron passed 714. Bonds passed Aaron. But Ruth's cultural impact remains unmatched. He was the first athlete who was bigger than his sport, the first whose fame extended beyond the box score and into the fabric of American life. Every slugger who steps into a batter's box swings in the world Ruth built.