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Chronicling America is a searchable digital collection of historic newspaper pages through 1963 sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.
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Also, see the Directory of U.S. Newspapers in American Libraries, a searchable index to newspapers published in the United States since 1690, which helps researchers identify what titles exist for a specific place and time, and how to access them.
Babe Ruth starts as a pitcher, but quickly becomes one of the most prolific hitters in the history of baseball! His sheer power earns him comparisons to Thor and Hercules and awe-inspired monikers: the "Sultan of Swat," the "Battering Bambino," the "Mighty Mauler," and the "Home Run King." Read more about it!
The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.
The timeline below highlights important dates related to this topic and a section of this guide provides some suggested search strategies for further research in the collection.
| 1916 | Red Sox manager Bill Carrigan begins to play Babe Ruth in the outfield on days when he’s not pitching. |
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| July 1, 1917 | Ruth is suspended for a week and fined $100 for punching umpire Brick Owens. |
| September 5, 1918 | Ruth pitches a shutout in Game 1 of the World Series. |
| September 12, 1918 | The Red Sox win the World Series. |
| 1919 | Ruth demands a salary increase from $10,000 to $20,000, even though he has two years remaining on his contract. He refuses to play the 1920 season in Boston unless his demands are met. |
| September 24, 1919 | Ruth sets the single-season home run record with his twenty-eighth. He would finish the season with twenty-nine home runs and would break his own record three times, in 1920, 1921, and 1927. |
| December 2, 1919 | Ruth announces his intention to fight Jack Dempsey for his heavyweight boxing title. |
| January 5, 1920 | The New York Yankees buy Ruth for $125,000 from the Boston Red Sox. No team had ever paid more than $50,000 for a player prior to the Ruth deal. |
| July 1920 | Physicist A.L. Hodges alleges that Ruth has a "44 Horse-Power Swing" and that he hits the ball off the bat at 360 mph. |
| June 13, 1921 | Ruth sets the record for the longest hit with a 442-foot homer. The next day he would eclipse his own record with a 450-foot homer. |
| 1922 | Ruth’s contract earns him a $75,000 salary and an additional $500 for each home run that he hits. |
| May 25, 1922 | Ruth climbs into the stands during a game, trying to fight a heckler. |
