Babe Ruth Catholic Philanthropist & Baseball Legend

Babe Ruth Catholic Philanthropist

by Mike Church [originally published September 16th, 2019]

There is a side of Babe Ruth that the secular world doesn’t speak of because it isn’t convenient to the “fat drunk and stupid” narrative of a hedonist gone wild on baseball riches. The real Babe Ruth, while challenged by gluttony, was a very charitable man and would have made a great member of Crusader Knights of the Most Holy Rosary!

“So Ruth focused more on helping others. As World War II arrived, he teamed up with the Red Cross and made numerous trips to military hospitals. He also continued to visit countless sick children, long before it became in vogue for superstar athletes. Tellingly, sports journalist Bill Slocum said: “For every picture you see of the Babe in a hospital, he visits fifty without publicity.”

In 1946, Ruth was visiting hospitals for a different reason: an inoperable cancerous tumor in his neck. A regimen of experimental treatment resulted in a dramatic recovery, but it would prove temporary. The sports icon died on Aug. 16, 1948, at the age of 53, leaving behind much of his money to the Babe Ruth Foundation, which focused on helping indigent children. A funeral Mass was held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, N.Y., where about 75,000 gathered outside: a fittingly massive crowd for one who truly was — in his appetites, achievements and charity — a giant.”

Who knew!?