Babe Ruth’s grandson talks legacy
Despite Babe Ruth’s fame as one of the greatest players in baseball history, his grandson said Friday he grew up hearing more about him as a family man than a legend.
Visit Hot Springs will hold a celebration today at 11 a.m. in honor of the 100th anniversary of Ruth’s first 500-foot home run at Whittington Park, and members of his family are in town just for the occasion.
Tom Stevens, his grandson, said this is the first time he has been to Arkansas even though his grandfather spent much of his time in Hot Springs both for spring training and for leisure.
As a child, he said, “It was always more how he carved the Thanksgiving turkey or decorated the Christmas tree, the sort of things you’d hear in any family. It was more Babe Ruth the father, Babe Ruth the husband.
“Most of what I have learned over the years — Babe, of course, died before I was born — has been through my grandmother, Claire, who I knew very well, and my mom,” he said. “So that means the stuff with the (Boston) Red Sox, unless it came up in conversation I don’t know an awful lot about it because it took place before (Claire) ever had any idea about him. Their association began, obviously, after he was traded to the (New York) Yankees.”
Stevens said he and the family are often invited to events celebrating his grandfather’s legacy, something that has enriched his life.
“I guess what I feel in large part is an appreciation, that people still want to do these things,” he said. “I almost think of it as if there’s an invitation, work permitting, I always want to go for the family to show their appreciation of this remembrance. It’s almost ungracious not to go, and people are so happy that someone from the family is going to take the time and the trouble to show up.”
Stevens said he recently came across the dress his grandmother wore when she and Ruth were married, and donated it to the Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum in Baltimore.
“(The dress) was in pretty sorry shape — it goes back to 1929 — but I shipped it off to the museum because they have access to people who can restore things,” he said. “I thought that would make a nice display for them. I wasn’t able to attend
when they opened it, but my son was able to go up. As long as somebody from the family is there, that’s the important thing.”
With Stevens this weekend are his wife of 45 years, he said, along with his son, Brent Stevens, and his wife and two granddaughters from Atlanta. Stevens’ granddaughters are 9 and 4 years old, and he said are just now starting to understand their great-great-grandfather’s legacy.
“They’re new to it,” he said. “I think this is probably going to be one of the first functions that they have attended. They’re starting to pick up on it; the older one in particular knows who he is.”
Stevens, along with baseball historians Bill Jenkinson and Tim Reid, will be leading a panel discussion at 3:45 p.m. today in room 208 of the Hot Springs Convention Center on the Sultan of Swat.
Stevens recently wrote the foreword for a new book, “Babe Ruth — A Superstar’s Legacy” by Jerry Amernic, which he said takes a different look at Ruth’s legacy.
“Given the transition that’s taking place in media to the Internet, and podcasts and blogs, what have you, it can be pretty hard to find a publisher that’s interested in putting you in a hard copy,” he said. “And if they’re going to do that, you’ve got to have a different take of some kind because there’s been more books written about Babe than any other sports figure. I think Jackie Robinson is probably second.
“(The book) is an approach that examines why he is still so popular. It takes a look at his legacy and the various components that contribute to it. It’s quite remarkable in baseball circles, whenever there’s talk of superlatives and records and what have you, his name always comes up. Scarcely a week goes by that you don’t hear his name four or five times mentioned. It could be pitching or it could be hitting since he covered both.”
Stevens said the author of the book talks with officials from the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., the museum in Baltimore, and historians to “try to investigate various aspects of the legacy and why he’s where he is.”
“The highest prices for (baseball) memorabilia that have been auctioned, of the top 20, seven or eight belong to Babe,” he said.
Stevens said he and Jenkinson are good friends, and the two have often helped each other in piecing together Ruth’s history.
“We’ve helped each other, but I’ll be honest with you, (Jenkinson) is a Babe scholar,” he said. “His first book came out in 2007, and I wrote a little foreword for it.
“Basically the premise is his
1921 season, which was considered by many the greatest offensive season a ball player would have had, if he were playing in today’s parks which are 20 percent smaller and with today’s rules, (Jenkinson’s) position is that if
1921 took place now, Babe would have hit over 100 home runs,” he said. “He researched that book for 20 years, so that’s kind of what makes him the preeminent scholar that I’m aware of.”
What’s remarkable, Stevens said, was that Jenkinson — who has also written a book about the great power hitters — by his own admission, he wasn’t a big Ruth fan in the beginning until he started researching.
“The more he started researching these tape-measure home runs, thinking it would be Barry Bonds or Mark McGwire… more and more he kept coming up with Jimmie Foxx and Babe, and Babe predominantly,” he said.
“And so he segued off to that, and that’s how that first book came about. In researching him, the more (Jenkinson) learned about him, the more he became a fan.”
Ruth’s family has a website, www.baberuthcentral.com, where Stevens said people write in asking questions about memorabilia they have stumbled across or information they have found. Many of the questions he is unable to answer so he sends them to Jenkinson, or his mother Julia Ruth Stevens, who will celebrate her 102nd birthday on July 17.
“Even though she’s going to be 102 this summer, she still gives a good interview,” he said. “She’ll come out with things every once in a while. Five or six months ago she mentioned — and I don’t know where this came from — she said ‘You know, I used to hold daddy’s feet while he did sit-ups when the Yankees were in town. I would hold his feet while he did sit-ups before he went to bed.’ Little things like that come out every so often, and when she’s gone there’s going to be a million things I think ‘why didn’t I ask her?’ It was the same thing with my grandmother when she passed.”
Since Hot Springs was a favorite spot for Ruth, Stevens said his family planned to explore the city while they are here.
“We’ve got the girls with us, so we’re going to scope out the (Arkansas) Alligator Farm and see if we can find that ball that he hit there in 1918,” he said.