Dinner with the Sultan of Swat….The Greatest Baseball Player of all Time

If I could host a dinner for anyone throughout history it would probably be Babe Ruth. Ruth by all accounts was a “life of the party” type of guy. He enjoyed having a good time and was not shy about it. Of course, he is famous for his legendary statistics as a major league baseball player, but he did not grow up with a “silver spoon” so to speak.

His family lost six children in infancy and his parents died fairly young turning him into an orphan. He grew up in the early 1900’s as The United States was growing into a global imperialist power. Radio was a relatively new invention as was the motor car. During the 1920’s when Ruth became a national icon: speakeasies, flapper girls, and jazz were to be fine in all major cities in the U.S.

Ruth came on the scene on July 11, 1914 as a two way player (both pitcher and hitter). He put together six dominant seasons for the Boston Red Sox, winning three World Series Championships in those six years. The Red Sox traded Ruth to the Yankees and became the lynchpin in many a championship season.

The remarkable thing about Ruth is that he did all of this will living a wild night life. It was said by one of his teammates that, “I don’t room with Ruth, I room with his suitcase,” indicating his proclivity for being out on the town at night. Ruth was far and away statistically, the best home run hitter of his era. Ruth ended his career with 714 home runs, which no one could even come close to during that era. When you think about the fact that he was a dominant pitcher for the first six years of his career as well, it is pretty amazing. The Babe died August 16, 1948, due in part to his partying lifestyle, but in that time captured the imagination of a nation. Hosting dinner for this baseball legend would be and absolutely incredible experience.

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