Babe Ruth And Lou Gehrig Sign Baseball, St. Petersburg, Florida, 1934
Babe Ruth was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. He began his MLB career as a stellar left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, but achieved his greatest fame as a slugging outfielder for the New York Yankees. Ruth established many MLB batting (and some pitching) records, including career home runs (714), runs batted in (RBIs) (2,213), bases on balls (2,062), slugging percentage (.690), and on-base plus slugging (OPS) (1.164); the latter two still stand today. 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. Lou Gherig was a first baseman who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, from 1923 through 1939. Gehrig was renowned for his prowess as a hitter and for his durability, a trait which earned him his nickname "The Iron Horse". He was an All-Starseven consecutive times, a Triple Crown winner once, an American League (AL) Most Valuable Player twice, and a member of sixWorld Series champion teams. He had a career .340 batting average, .632 slugging average, and a .447 on base average. He hit 493home runs and had 1,995 runs batted in (RBI). In 1939, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame and was the first MLB player to have his uniform number retired. In 1934 Ruth, then with the Boston Red Sox, and Gherig, with the New York Yankees, participated in Spring Training at St. Petersburg, Florida together with a number of other famous baseball players. A young man collected a number of signatures on this ball including Ruth, Gehrig, Jimmy Fox, Tommy Thompson, Leo Durocher, Wally Berger, Dizzy Dean, Bob Smith, Bing Miller, Pepper Martin, Frank Frisch, Pete Crawford, and several other sports legends.
