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Although Barrow predicted that Ruth would beg to return to pitching the first time he experienced a batting slump, that did not occur. Barrow used Ruth primarily as an outfielder in the war-shortened 1918 season. Ruth hit .300, with 11 home runs, enough to secure him a share of the [[List of Major League Baseball annual home run leaders|major league home run title]] with [[Tilly Walker]] of the Philadelphia Athletics. He was still occasionally used as a pitcher, and had a 13–7 record with a 2.22 ERA.<ref name="stats" /><ref>{{harvp|Wagenheim|1974|p=42}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Creamer|1992|pp=153–170}}</ref>
In 1918, the Red Sox won their third pennant in four years and faced the [[Chicago Cubs]] in the [[1918 World Series|World Series]], which began on September 5, the earliest date in history. The season had been shortened because the government had ruled that baseball players who were eligible for the military would have to be inducted or work in critical war industries, such as armaments plants. Ruth pitched and won Game One for the Red Sox, a 1–0 shutout. Before Game Four, Ruth injured his left hand in a fight but pitched anyway. He gave up seven hits and six walks, but was helped by outstanding fielding behind him and by his own batting efforts, as a fourth-inning [[Triple (baseball)|triple]] by Ruth gave his team a 2–0 lead. The Cubs tied the game in the eighth inning, but the Red Sox scored to take a 3–2 lead again in the bottom of that inning. After Ruth gave up a hit and a walk to start the ninth inning, he was relieved on the mound by [[Bullet Joe Bush|Joe Bush]]. To keep Ruth and his bat in the game, he was sent to play [[left fielder|left field]]. Bush retired the side to give Ruth his second win of the Series, and the third and last World Series pitching victory of his career, against no defeats, in three pitching appearances. Ruth's effort gave his team a three-games-to-one lead, and two days later the Red Sox won their third Series in four years, four-games-to-two. Before allowing the Cubs to score in Game Four, Ruth pitched {{frac|29|2|3}} [[Scoreless innings streak#Postseason|consecutive scoreless innings]], a record for the World Series that stood for more than 40 years until 1961, broken by [[Whitey Ford]]
[[File:Babe Ruth by Bain, 1919.jpg|thumb|left|Ruth in 1919]]
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[[File:Babe Ruth by Paul Thompson, 1920.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.75|Ruth in his first year with the [[New York Yankees]], 1920]]
Not all the circumstances concerning the sale are known, but brewer and former congressman [[Jacob Ruppert]], the New York team's principal owner, reportedly asked Yankee manager [[Miller Huggins]] what the team needed to be successful. "Get Ruth from Boston", Huggins supposedly replied, noting that Frazee was perennially in need of money to finance his theatrical productions.<ref>{{harvp|Reisler|2004|pp=2–3}}</ref>
Although Ruppert and his co-owner, Colonel [[Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston|Tillinghast Huston]], were both wealthy, and had aggressively purchased and traded for players in 1918 and 1919 to build a winning team, Ruppert faced losses in his brewing interests as [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]] was implemented, and if their team left the Polo Grounds, where the Yankees were the tenants of the New York Giants, building a stadium in New York would be expensive. Nevertheless, when Frazee, who moved in the same social circles as Huston, hinted to the colonel that Ruth was available for the right price, the Yankees owners quickly pursued the purchase.<ref>{{harvp|Creamer|1992|pp=205–207}}</ref>
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In the offseason, Ruth spent some time in [[Havana]], Cuba, where he was said to have lost $35,000 ({{Inflation|US|35000|1921|fmt=eq|r=-4}}) betting on horse races.<ref>{{cite news |author1=Special to the New York Times |title=Says Ruth Lost $35,000 |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1921/01/01/103526324.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221031164944/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1921/01/01/103526324.pdf |archive-date=October 31, 2022 |url-status=live |access-date=December 1, 2022 |work=The New York Times |volume=LXX|issue=22,988 |date=January 1, 1921 |page=20}}</ref>
Ruth hit home runs early and often in the 1921 season, during which he broke [[Roger Connor]]'s mark for home runs in a career, 138. Each of the almost 600 home runs Ruth hit in his career after that extended his own record. After a slow start, the Yankees were soon locked in a tight pennant race with Cleveland, winners of the [[1920 World Series]]. On September 15, Ruth hit his 55th home run, breaking his year-old single-season record. In late September, the Yankees visited Cleveland and won three out of four games, giving them the upper hand in the race, and clinched their first pennant a few days later. Ruth finished the regular season with 59 home runs, batting .378 and with a [[slugging percentage]] of .846.<ref>{{harvp|Creamer|1992|pp=204, 238–240}}</ref> Ruth's 177 runs scored, 119 extra-base hits, and 457 total bases set modern-era records that still stand {{as of
The Yankees had high expectations when they met the [[New York Giants (NL)|New York Giants]] in the [[1921 World Series]], every game of which was played in the Polo Grounds. The Yankees won the first two games with Ruth in the lineup. However, Ruth badly scraped his elbow during Game 2 when he slid into third base (he had walked and [[stolen base|stolen]] both second and third bases). After the game, he was told by the team physician not to play the rest of the series.<ref>{{harvp|Spatz|Steinberg|2010|p=355}}</ref> Despite this advice, he did play in the next three games, and pinch-hit in Game Eight of the best-of-nine series, but the Yankees lost, five games to three. Ruth hit .316, drove in five runs and hit his first World Series home run.<ref name="stats" /><ref>{{harvp|Wagenheim|1974|pp=95–96}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Creamer|1992|pp=241–243}}</ref>
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Although Ruth was married throughout most of his baseball career, when team co-owner [[Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston|Tillinghast 'Cap' Huston]] asked him to tone down his lifestyle, Ruth replied, "I'll promise to go easier on drinking and to get to bed earlier, but not for you, fifty thousand dollars, or two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars will I give up women. They're too much fun."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iYY6LBA_DUwC|page=158|title=Baseball As I Have Known It|first=Fred|last=Lieb|publisher=Cowar, McCann and Geoghagen|location=New York|year=1977|isbn=978-0-8032-7962-9|access-date=November 26, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160510232217/https://books.google.com/books?id=iYY6LBA_DUwC|archive-date=May 10, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> A detective that the Yankees hired to follow him one night in Chicago reported that Ruth had been with six women. [[Ping Bodie]] said that he was not Ruth's roommate while traveling; "I room with his suitcase".<ref name="menand20200525">{{Cite magazine |last=Menand |first=Louis |date=May 25, 2020 |title=How Baseball Players Became Celebrities |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/06/01/how-baseball-players-became-celebrities |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en |access-date=May 26, 2020 |archive-date=January 10, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220110022815/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/06/01/how-baseball-players-became-celebrities |url-status=live}}</ref> Before the start of the 1922 season, Ruth had signed a three-year contract at $52,000 per year with an option to renew for two additional years. His performance during the 1922 season had been disappointing, attributed in part to his drinking and late-night hours. After the end of the 1922 season, he was asked to sign a contract addendum with a [[morals clause]]. Ruth and Ruppert signed it on November 11, 1922. It called for Ruth to abstain entirely from the use of intoxicating liquors, and to not stay up later than 1:00 a.m. during the training and playing season without permission of the manager. Ruth was also enjoined from any action or misbehavior that would compromise his ability to play baseball.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://sports.ha.com/itm/baseball/1922-babe-ruth-signed-contract-addendum-limiting-his-drinking-late-nights-i-ll-promise-to-go-easier-on-drinking-an/a/707-19090.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515 |title=1922 Babe Ruth Signed Contract Addendum Limiting His Drinking, Late Nights |page=5 |website=Heritage Auctions logo The World's Largest Collectibles Auctioneer |access-date=August 31, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150919233936/http://sports.ha.com/itm/baseball/1922-babe-ruth-signed-contract-addendum-limiting-his-drinking-late-nights-i-ll-promise-to-go-easier-on-drinking-an/a/707-19090.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515 |archive-date=September 19, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>
Ruth was a self described [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/11/upshot/presidents-who-knew-the-babe.html|title=Presidents Who Knew the Babe|first=Michael|last=Beschloss|publisher=New York Times|date=April 11, 2015|accessdate=October 27, 2024}}</ref> In 1928, Ruth campaigned for Democratic U.S. Presidential nominee [[Al Smith]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nysm.nysed.gov/programs/sports-and-identity-politics|title=Babe Ruth Gets Political: Sports and Identity Politics in the Roaring Twenties|publisher=New York State Museum}}</ref>
==Cancer and death (1946–1948)==
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