Famed baseball player Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox with wife Helen Ruth, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A., 1916

At Fenway Park, famed baseball player Babe Ruth is seen getting ready to bat for a war bond drive. He receives a kiss from his wife Helen Ruth, followed by the crowds cheering in the stands, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A., 1916. George Herman "Babe" Ruth was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", he began his MLB career as a star left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, but achieved his greatest fame as a slugging outfielder for the New York Yankees. Ruth is regarded as one of the greatest sports heroes in American culture and is considered by many to be the greatest baseball player of all time. In 1936, Ruth was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame as one of its "first five" inaugural members.Helen Woodford Ruth was the first wife of American baseball player Babe Ruth and the adoptive mother of his daughter Dorothy. Ruth died in a house fire in 1929, the circumstances of which sparked controversy at the time and, to an extent, remains so today.