No Surpassing Ruth As Baseball Icon

Babe Ruth, whose 714 career home runs were the record until Hank Aaron surpassed him in 1974, is about to drop to third on the all-time list, with San Francisco Giants left fielder Barry Bonds standing at 713. Ruth's single-season record of 60 was surpassed by Roger Maris in 1961 and has been outdone six times since 1998, including the record 73 by Bonds in 2001. But no matter what the record books say, the Babe remains the round, inimitable face of his sport, his place in history never to be trumped.

Seven decades after his last game, Ruth remains an iconic figure in American history, an enduring source of fascination and perhaps the biggest personality in the history of athletics. Numbers, whether his home run total or his waist size, don't begin to tell the story of George Herman Ruth. "Bonds and anybody else can hit 1,000 home runs, but Babe Ruth is still the symbol of the home run and of baseball," author and baseball historian Donald Honig of Cromwell said. "His statistics were irrelevant. He's part of American folklore. This guy is permanently secured in his niche. Bonds can have the record, but that doesn't mean anything. "

May 14, 2006
Posted By Michelle Johnson
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