That's really cool. Thanks for sharing that insight.
As you imply, how Babe treated younger up and coming guys later in his career might not have been indicative of how he treated rivals and other who were in the spotlight at the same time. Don't mean to suggest he was a bad guy, as many reports were he was not at all and generally a good soul, but even good souls can be a real handful when they are boozing big time.
=BillyCox3;2146610]I was lucky to have known many players who played with and against Ruth. Not one of them mentioned him being difficult at all. In fact, they were all in admiration, if not full-on awe of him. Your theory has great validity and had to be true at times, but it was never confirmed by the first-hand sources I knew. He treated all of them with the storied kindness and generosity that you'd think was a bit exaggerated. I'll take them at their word. If any of them ever felt mistreated or slighted by Ruth, you'd think it would have come up in conversation. I'm sure that a lot of the difficulties you envision were reserved more for higher-ups than other players--especially younger, lesser players. As we know, Ruth had a soft spot for underdogs.
The vast majority of the players I knew were younger than Ruth and came along after the phenomenon and legend was already well established. Naturally, this type of player would be in awe of him. Simultaneously, if Ruth burst their bubble of what they thought he would be before meeting him, they'd have piped up. None ever did. Only good things. I even befriended a couple of guys who were more Ruth's age and didn't hold him in such an exalted light. They still spoke of the same qualities in Ruth, but with less reverence, as they hadn't grown up dreaming of being Babe Ruth![/QUOTE]
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