Babe Ruth (February 6, 1895 - August 16, 1948), better known as Babe Ruth, also commonly known by the nicknames The Bambino and The Sultan of Swat, was an American baseball player and United States national icon. Consistently chosen as the greatest baseball player in history, his home run hitting exploits and titanic appetite for living have made him one of the representative figures of the Roaring Twenties. He was one of the first five players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and he was the first player to hit over 30, 40 and 50 home runs in one season. His record of 60 home runs in the 1927 season stood for 34 years until it was broken by Roger Maris with 61 home runs in 1961. He was a member of the original American League All-Star team in 1933. In 1969, Ruth was named baseball's Greatest Player Ever in a ballot commemorating the 100th anniversary of professional baseball. In 1998, The Sporting News named Ruth as Number One in its list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players." In 1999, Ruth was elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team in fan balloting.
As discussed in the book The Babe: A Life in Pictures, by Lawrence Ritter and Mark Rucker, it is more than mere statistical records that make Babe Ruth unequivocally the greatest baseball player of all time. In several ways, he changed the nature of the game itself. His exploitation of the "power game" compelled other teams to follow suit, breaking the monopoly of the "inside game" that had been the primary strategy for decades. Ruth was the focal point of the start of what has arguably become one of the greatest sports dynasties in history, the New York Yankees. His international fame helped to fuel the rising interest in sports in the 1920s and 30s. He significantly expanded the fan base of baseball and triggered the major expansion of nearly all of the ballparks in the major leagues, and Yankee Stadium is often called "The House That Ruth Built."
