In the 1932 World Series, Babe Ruth famously gestured toward centre field before hitting a home run in that precise direction.
100 Mind-Blowing Babe Facts
Professional athletes used to perform in vaudeville during the off-season. Before today’s big-league salaries, professional baseball and football players often had to take on jobs during the off-season, The Atlantic reports. Some of them took advantage of their name recognition and hit the vaudeville circuits, doing everything from comedy routines to reciting poems. Babe Ruth even sang—if you could call it that. Frankly, many of the athletes had no business being on stage, but it’s not like it was against the rules.
Babe Ruth out-homered every American League team. The first time that this happened was in 1927. This totalled around 35 different pitchers that Ruth had out-homered.
Babe Ruth wore a cabbage leaf in his cap to keep it cool. Babe Ruth’s unusual way of keeping cool during games is one for WTF facts: He would take leaves off a head of cabbage and put them in a cooler. From there, he would take one and put it under his cap every two innings.
A 17-year-old once struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. At 17 years old, Jackie Mitchell pitched against the Yankees during an exhibition game and struck out baseball legends Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. One of the more inspiring but still WTF facts.
Famous sports players, like the baseball player Babe Ruth and tennis star Rafael Nadal, are left-handed.
Babe Ruth was the first baseball player to hit a home run in the All-Star game, at Chicago’s Comiskey Park in 1933.
Babe Ruth began his career as a pitcher: Ruth was both a left-handed pitcher and a left-handed batter.
Babe Ruth put chilled cabbage leaves under his hat to keep him cool while playing baseball.