Pat's View: Inspirational Stories

How do you keep from striking out? While the answer may seem obvious, let’s talk about George Herman Ruth first. He was born in 1895. Some say he learned to play ball at St. Mary’s Reformatory/Orphanage and other stories say he ended up at St. Mary’s because of all the windows he broke playing stickball in the streets. When George was 16 years old he was signed on to play with the Baltimore Orioles (Minor League at that time.) His teammates nicknamed George the “Dunn’s new babe” and the nickname stuck. Babe Ruth was a “give it all you got-slugger” at bat. He said, “Baseball is the greatest game in the world and deserves the best you can give it.” And he did. But that "all-in" attitude earned him the unsolicited title “King of Strikeouts” five times. He struck out 1,330 times in his career! Strikeouts are serious failures for a ballplayer. But his fans and history forgave him for the strikeouts because those all-in powerful slugs also made him the coveted “Home run King” with a record of 714 career home runs.