This story was excerpted from Bryan Hoch’s Yankees Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
It has been more than a century since Babe Ruth first played in a Yankees uniform, and yet somehow, the Sultan of Swat looms as large as ever.
As the franchise prepares to welcome alumni and fans for Old-Timers’ Day this weekend at Yankee Stadium, it’s clear that the man who once made the Bronx his playground continues to cast a long shadow.
In life, Ruth was a magnetic force. In legacy, he’s immortal.
“There’s never been anyone like him,” said Tom Stevens, Ruth’s grandson. “And I don’t think there ever will be.”
That legacy continues, and not just in monuments and memorabilia. A new book, Out of the Mouth of Babe, is a collection of Ruth quotes and musings compiled by Kelly Bennett that aims to reveal the man behind the myth -- raw, irreverent, and often unexpectedly wise.
“If ever there was a period in time made for the Babe, it was certainly the ’20s,” Stevens said.
Stevens, who wrote a foreword to Bennett’s book, says the book offers an opportunity to connect fans with the spirit of his grandfather.
“We just get the word out about Babe,” Stevens said. “Babe makes his own fans – we’ve just got to get them there. He’s as relevant to the game as he ever was, in part because he was just the best.”
As Stevens explains: “Computers permit us to do all sorts of things with number-crunching – WAR, wins above replacement, OPS+. And with every new parameter they develop, guess who’s out there in first place?”
In many ways, Ruth is still the Yankees’ foundational story -- the towering slugger whose 1920 arrival helped usher in a new stadium, a winning tradition and an entirely different era of fandom. He didn’t just change the Yankees. He changed the game.
“Scott Boras has said that, if he were as dominant today as he was in his own time, he easily would have garnered a billion dollars over the course of his career,” Stevens said.
“He did well against Walter Johnson. He faced Satchel Paige in barnstorming games. He did fine against all the pitching he faced. Ted Williams told me Babe was the greatest hitter there ever was. He didn’t think there would ever be anybody to compare to him.”
Indeed, Ruth’s influence remains woven into the fabric of the modern game. Home runs are currency. Swagger is expected. Superstars are built not just on stats, but on persona.
So what might Ruth think of baseball in 2025?
“There are certainly aspects of the game that he would embrace,” Stevens said. “He would have benefited from all of the inroads and innovations in nutrition and training, which is a tremendous advantage that ballplayers have today. And I think he would have loved a nice white ball every two minutes, given some of the black little pills he was pounding.”
And if he were here this weekend? He’d probably be holding court on the dugout steps, telling stories, laughing loudly, and almost certainly scarfing a hot dog or two.
“The Yankees are the most storied franchise in baseball, and really all of sports,” Stevens said. “It’s terrific that he is remembered in this way.”
He might have strong opinions on the pitch clock, mid-game bullpen use, or the way players sip protein shakes instead of whiskey before and after games. But Ruth would recognize the heart of the game -- bat versus ball, crowd on its feet, one swing to change everything.