专八人文知识需知的美国名人--“贝比”鲁斯

专八人文知识需知的美国名人--“贝比”鲁斯

　　英语专八人文知识涵盖的知识面较广，考生们需要平时多积累小常识，这样在专八考试中才能游刃有余，新东方在线整理了专八人文知识需知的美国名人系列知识点供考生们参考。

　　贝比·鲁斯，美国职业棒球运动员。原来效力于红袜队，1918年被卖到扬基队，发下“圣婴诅咒”。他带领扬基取得多次世界大赛冠军，1935年退休。是美国职棒史上1920、30年代的扬基强打者，曾经连续三次打破大联盟全垒打纪录。1936年入选棒球名人堂，1998年运动新闻将他排百大棒球员的首位。他是同拳王阿里、球王贝利、飞人乔丹相比肩的传奇人物，有“棒球之神”之称。在美国在线于2005年举办的票选活动《最伟大的美国人》中，贝比·鲁斯被选为美国最伟大的人物第14位。

　　America's Greatest Baseball Player

　　George Herman Ruth, Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948), best known as "Babe" Ruth andnicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", was an American Major League baseball playerfrom 1914–1935. Ruth originally broke into the major leagues with the Boston Red Sox as astarting pitcher, but after he was sold to the New York Yankees in 1919, he converted to a full-timeright fielder and subsequently became one of the league's most prolific hitters. Ruth was amainstay in the Yankees' lineup that won seven pennants and four World Series titles during histenure with the team. After a short stint with the Boston Braves in 1935, Ruth retired. In 1936,Ruth became one of the first five players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

　　Ruth has since become regarded as one of the greatest sports heroes in American culture. He hasbeen named the greatest baseball player in history in various surveys and rankings,[citationneeded] and his home run hitting prowess and charismatic personality made him a larger than lifefigure in the "Roaring Twenties". Off the field he was famous for his charity, but also was noted forhis often reckless lifestyle. Ruth is credited with changing baseball itself. The popularity of the gameexploded in the 1920s, largely due to his influence. Ruth ushered in the "live-ball era", as his bigswing led to escalating home run totals that not only excited fans, but helped baseball evolve froma low-scoring, speed-dominated game to a high-scoring power game.

　　In 1998, The Sporting News ranked Ruth number one on the list of "Baseball's 100 GreatestPlayers". In 1999, baseball fans named Ruth to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.In1969, he was named baseball's Greatest Player Ever in a ballot commemorating the 100thanniversary of professional baseball. In 1993, the Associated Press reported that Muhammad Aliwas tied with Babe Ruth as the most recognized athletes, out of over 800 dead or alive athletes, inAmerica. The study, conducted by Nye Lavalle's Sports Marketing Group, found that over 97% ofAmericans, over 12 years of age, identified both Ali and Ruth.According to ESPN, he was the firsttrue American sports celebrity superstar whose fame transcended baseball. In a 1999 ESPN poll, hewas ranked as the third-greatest US athlete of the century, behind Michael Jordan and MuhammadAli.

　　Ruth was the first player to hit 60 home runs in one season (1927), setting the season recordwhich stood until broken by Roger Maris in 1961. Ruth's lifetime total of 714 home runs at hisretirement in 1935 was a record, until first surpassed by Hank Aaron in 1974. Unlike many powerhitters, Ruth also hit for average: his .342 lifetime batting is tenth highest in baseball history, and inone season (1923) he hit .393, a Yankee record. His .690 career slugging percentage and 1.164career on-base plus slugging (OPS) remain the Major League records. Ruth dominated in the era inwhich he played. He led the league in home runs during a season twelve times, sluggingpercentage and OPS thirteen times each, runs scored eight times, and runs batted in (RBIs) sixtimes. Each of those totals represents a modern record (as well as the all-time record, except forRBIs).

　　Personal life

　　Ruth married Helen Woodford in 1914. Owing to his infidelities, they were reportedly separatedaround 1926.Helen died in a fire in Watertown, Massachusetts on January 11, 1929 in a houseowned by Edward Kinder, a dentist whom she had been living with as "Mrs. Kinder". Kinderidentified her body as being that of his wife, then went into hiding after Helen's true identity wasrevealed; Ruth himself had to get authorities to issue a new death certificate in her legal name,Margaret Helen Woodford Ruth.

　　Ruth had two daughters. Dorothy Ruth was adopted by Babe and Helen. Decades later, she wrotea book, My Dad, the Babe,claiming that she was Ruth's biological child by a girlfriend named JuanitaJennings.

　　Ruth adopted Julia Hodgson when he married her mother, actress and model Claire MerrittHodgson. Julia currently resides in Arizona, and threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the finalgame in the original Yankee Stadium on September 21, 2008.

　　Ruth and Claire regularly wintered in Florida, frequently playing golf during the off-season and whilethe Yankees were spring training in Tampa, Florida. After retirement, he had a winter beachfronthome in Treasure Island, Florida, near St. Petersburg.

　　Radio and films

　　Screenshot from Headin' HomeRuth made many forays into various popular media. He was heardoften on radio in the 1930s and 1940s, both as a guest and on his own programs with varioustitles: The Adventures of Babe Ruth was a 15-minute Blue Network show heard three times a weekfrom April 16 to July 13, 1934. Three years later, he was on CBS twice a week in Here's Babe Ruthwhich was broadcast from April 14 to July 9, 1937. That same year he portrayed himself in "AlibiIke" on Lux Radio Theater. His Baseball Quiz was first heard Saturdays on NBC June 5 to July 10, 1943 and then later that year from August 28 to November 20 on NBC, followed by another NBCrun from July 8 to October 21, 1944.

　　His film roles included a cameo appearance as himself in the Harold Lloyd film Speedy (1928). Hisfirst film appearance occurred in 1920, in the silent movie Headin' Home. He made numerous otherfilm appearances in the silent era, usually either playing himself or playing a ballplayer similar tohimself.

　　Ruth's voice was said by some biographers to be similar to that of film star Clark Gable, althoughthat was obviously not evident in the silent film era. He had an appropriate role as himself in Pride ofthe Yankees (1942), the story of his ill-fated teammate Lou Gehrig. Ruth had three scenes in thefilm, including one in which he appeared with a straw hat. He said, "If I see anyone touch it, I'llknock his teeth in!" The teammates convinced young Gehrig (Gary Cooper) to chew up the hat;he got away with it. In the second scene, the players go to a restaurant, where Babe sees a side ofbeef cooking and jokes, "Well, I'll have one of those..." and, the dramatic scene near the end,where Gehrig makes his speech at Yankee Stadium ending with "I consider myself the luckiestman..."

　　Retirement and post-playing days

　　Nat Fein's Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of Ruth at Yankee Stadium, June 13, 1948. This washis last public appearance before his death two months later.In 1936, Ruth was one of the first fiveplayers elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Two years later, Larry MacPhail, the BrooklynDodgers general manager, offered him a first base coaching job in June. Ruth took the job butquit at the end of the season. The coaching position was his last job in Major League Baseball. Hisbaseball career finally came to an end in 1943. In a charity game at Yankee Stadium, he pinch hitand drew a walk. In 1947, he became director of the American Legion's youth baseball program.

　　Baby Ruth candy bar controversy

　　For decades, the Baby Ruth candy bar was believed to be named after Babe Ruth and somesports marketing practitioners used this example of one of the first forms of sports marketing.However, while the name of the candy bar sounds nearly identical to the Babe's name, the CurtissCandy Company has steadfastly claimed that Baby Ruth was named after President GroverCleveland's daughter, Ruth Cleveland. Nonetheless, the bar first appeared in 1921, as Babe Ruth'sfame was on the rise and long after Cleveland had left the White House and 15 years after hisdaughter had died. The company failed to negotiate an endorsement deal with Ruth, and manysaw the company's story about the origin of the name of the bar as merely a ploy to avoid havingto pay the baseball player any royalties. Ironically, Curtiss successfully shut down a rival bar thatwas approved by, and named for, Ruth, on the grounds that the names were too similar in thecase of George H. Ruth Candy Co. v. Curtiss Candy Co, 49 F.2d 1033 (1931). Sports marketingexperts now believe that the Curtiss Candy Company employed the first successful use of anambush sports marketing campaign, capitalizing on the Babe's name, fame, and popularity.

　　The New York Times supports the evidence of the ambush marketing campaign when it wrote "For85 years, Babe Ruth, the slugger, and Baby Ruth, the candy bar, have lived parallel lives in which ithas been widely assumed that the latter was named for the former. The confection's creator, theCurtiss Candy Company, never admitted to what looks like an obvious connection – especiallysince Ruth hit 54 home runs the year before the first Baby Ruth was devoured. Had it done so,Curtiss would have had to compensate Ruth. Instead, it eventually insisted the inspiration was"Baby Ruth" Cleveland, the daughter of President Grover Cleveland. But it is an odd connectionthat makes one wonder at the marketing savvy of Otto Schnering, the company's founder."

　　Thus, in 1995, a company representing the Ruth estate brought the Baby Ruth candy bar intosponsorship officialdom when it licensed the Babe's name and likeness for use in a Baby Ruthmarketing campaign. On page 34 of the spring, 2007, edition of the Chicago Cubs game program,there is a full-page ad showing a partially-unwrapped Baby Ruth in front of the Wrigley ivy, withthe caption, "The official candy bar of Major League Baseball, and proud sponsor of the ChicagoCubs." Continuing the baseball-oriented theme, during the summer and post-season of the 2007season, a TV ad for the candy bar showed an entire stadium (played by Dodger Stadium) filled withpeople munching Baby Ruths, and thus having to hum rather than singing along with "Take MeOut to the Ball Game" during the seventh-inning stretch.

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