Babe Ruth 1948 Farewell Speech

[Snapolit1]

While Ruth's farewell photo by Fein is so well know, I can't say I've seen his comments that day reproduced very often. He was obviously a very very sick man at the time. Ruth is not usually portrayed as a deep thinker kind of guy, but his comments were not what I would have expected. Very low key and kind of quaint. Not exactly Gehrig's speech but seems heartfelt.


“Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen.You know how bad my voice sounds. Well, it feels just as bad."

“You know this baseball game of ours comes up from the youth. That means the boys. And after you’re a boy and grow up to know how to play ball, then you come to the boys you see representing themselves today in your national pastime, the only real game, I think, in the world, baseball. As a rule, some people think if you give them a football, or a baseball, or something like that — naturally they’re athletes right away. But you can’t do that in baseball.

“You’ve gotta start from way down [at] the bottom, when you’re six or seven years of age. You can’t wait until you’re fifteen or sixteen. You gotta let it grow up with you. And if you’re successful, and you try hard enough, you’re bound to come out on top — just like these boys have come to the top now. There’s been so many lovely things said about me, and I’m glad that I’ve had the opportunity to thank everybody. Thank you.”