Babe Ruth's First Professional Game; Plays Shortstop for the Orioles

Babe Ruth's First Professional Game; Plays Shortstop for the Orioles

"Ruth ... can play any position. He pitched the last inning of today’s contest, and while one run was scored during his stay on the mound, he had little difficulty in disposing of the batters. The youngster has plenty of speed and can bat from either side of the plate."

"Either side"?

To my knowledge, Ruth never batted right-handed in a critical situation in a pro game. There was a rumor that he did so, and at a very inopportune time, but that was thoroughly debunked.

According to observers, however, Ruth did switch to right-handed several times when he was being given an intentional walk. This was apparently some kind of "psych."

"Plenty of speed"?

Maybe. Ruth was not especially overweight when he was a rookie. Even in his later years, the legendary sportswriter Heywood Broun wrote that the Babe was "a good base runner for a fat man." (Ty Cobb supposedly said something very similar.)

"Any position"?

Babe was left-handed, so I don't think anybody was going to play him at catcher or second base at the major league level. According to Baseball Reference, he never played those positions, nor 3rd nor shortstop in a MLB game. We know from the article linked above that Ruth played shortstop in that spring game. We also know that Ruth played catcher at St. Mary's Industrial School - and did so with a mitt designed for a right hander! How did he do it? The Babe himself explained it as follows:

"You see, I thought of myself as a pretty good catcher. Brother Matthias and others at the school tried to explain to me that left-handed catchers just did not make sense. But it was the position I liked best and the only one I claimed I could play with any skill. We had no catcher's mitt built for left handers, of course. We were lucky to have any kind of mitt. I'd used the regular catcher's mitt on my left hand, received the throw from the pitcher, take off the glove and throw it back to him left handed. When I had to throw to a base, trying to catch a runner, I'd toss the glove away, grab the ball with my left hand and heave it with everything I had."