Happy 116th birthday to George Herman "Babe" Ruth! I bet you didn't know that I had a card of Babe Ruth with the Orioles. This is a reproduction of a card made in 1914 during that brief window of time in which the future home run king played for Jack Dunn's Baltimore club in the International League. The Red Sox acquired him in midseason. These replicas were handed out last August at the National Sports Collector's Convention to promote the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum and the Sports Legends Museum, both of which are within walking distance of Oriole Park at Camden Yards. It's a great glimpse at a 19-year-old pitcher who would become the biggest star the sport ever saw by the end of the decade.
Are you curious about the Babe's performance as an Oriole? Unfortunately, he joined another International League team - the Providence Grays - after the Red Sox signed him, and his I.L. stats are presented on Baseball Reference as cumulative totals. He wasn't quite the otherworldly hitter he would come to be, as he batted .231 with 2 doubles, 8 triples, and 1 home run in 121 at-bats. But he was excellent on the mound, going 22-9 with a 2.39 ERA. You can certainly see why Boston brought him up to the major leagues in July.
