#babe ruth

Babe Ruth sitting in the stands, while serving a six-game suspension at the beginning of the 1922 season. He, Bob Meusel, and Bill Piercy were punished for going on a barnstorming tour following the 1921 World Series. Autocratic baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis (his real name) was enforcing a rule prohibiting World Series participants from barnstorming (playing in exhibition games, usually in small towns) during the off-season, so as to preserve the exclusivity of the World Series. The three players were not only suspended, they had to forfeit their World Series payments. When you consider how little players were paid in those days, that would have been a tremendous financial burden. The low pay during regular reason was one of the primary reasons players went on barnstorming tours in the first place.

Babe Ruth was not afraid to strike out. And it was this fearlessness that contributed to his remarkable career.