Babe Ruth Quotes

1895–1948 United States

George Herman Ruth (6 February 1895 – 16 August 1948) was an American Major League Baseball player from 1914 to 1935, named as the greatest baseball player in history in various surveys and rankings. His career record of 714 home runs stood for 39 years until surpassed by Hank Aaron with 755 home runs in 1974.

United States
Baseball players

Also known as: George Herman Ruth, Ruth, Babe

Random Babe Ruth quote

34 quotes

I am through—through with the pests and the good-time guys. Between them and a few crooks I have thrown away more than a quarter of a million dollars. I have been a Babe—and a Boob. I'm through.

I always swing at the ball with all my might. I hit or miss big and when I miss I know it long before the umpire calls a strike on me, for every muscle in my back, shoulders and arms is groaning, "You missed it." And believe me, it is no fun to miss a ball that hard. Once I put myself out of the game for a few days by a miss like that.

Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen. You know how bad my voice sounds. Well, it feels just as bad.

Farewell Address (1947)

Hotter than hell, ain't it, Prez?

"Don't worry about my weight. Fifteen pounds more and I'll be grand. I never felt better in my life. I'm going to lead the league in batting again and maybe I'll make a new home run record.

I decided to pick out the greatest hitter to watch and study, and Jackson was good enough for me. I liked the way he kept his right foot forward, being a left-handed hitter, and his left foot back. That gave him more body and shoulder power than the average hitter has.

That kid sure can bust 'em.

Say, if I hadn't been sick last summer, I'd have broken hell out of that home run record! Besides, the President gets a four-year contract. I'm only asking for three.✱

They did that to me in the American League one year. I coulda hit .600 that year slicing singles to left. [Interviewer asks why he didn't do so.] That's not what the fans came out to see.

I think my mother hated me.

In The Babe Ruth Story; reproduced in Babe Ruth: His Life and Times (1995)

My answer to that [i.e. the question of whether Ruth hoped to set a new single-season HR record] was "No." I don't believe I can ever better my 60 mark that I made in 1927. And, frankly, I don't believe anyone else will beat it for a long time either.

I'm glad that I've played every position on the team, because I feel that I know more about the game and what to expect of the other fellows. Lots of times I hear men being roasted for not doing this or that when I know, from my all round experience, that they couldn't have been expected to do it. It's a pity some of our critics hadn't learned the game from every position.

You can bother me to autograph anything you want. When you quit bothering me to sign autographs, then I'll know I'm through. Slip me the old apple and a pen. And tell 'em to keep on bothering me.

The earliest quotes similar to this are presented as unattributed folk wisdom, such as this example from 1959

Disputed

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Babe Ruth (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.