The Babe Ruth effect

Introduction

In many foreign countries, at some point in time, many American products became synonymous with the United States of America, to name a few, RCA radios and victrolas, the Model “T” Ford, Packard, Cadillac, and Parker pens. Babe Ruth and Baseball can be added to this list, especially for those Latin American countries in which the game of “Beisbol” is played. In fact, for legions of Latin American fans and Latin American players, Babe Ruth was the United States and the United States, Babe Ruth.

Discussion

Such extraordinary identification would presuppose an easy task when trying to determine the Babe's influence on Latin American Baseball. However, if a brief and casual perusal of foreign magazines and newspapers can make easily evident the impact that the introduction of the Model T Ford had on the transportation modes of a foreign country, the case of Ruth's influence on Latin American baseball is not the same. His impact however great and pervasive as it was, is not easy to determine (Torres 90-109).

There is no question that for Latin Americans the figure of Babe Ruth was immensely popular. His presence was powerful and, like the image of the Holy Spirit, it was ever present, that is, completely immanent. But when you want to make it concrete to determine the certain effects he had in the development and progress of “Béisbol” and players “South of the Border,” you soon discover that you have to deal with a series of complex and entirely local, or native conditions. This is especially true in the case of Cuba. In Cuban baseball Babe Ruth's influence went through two stages (Oleksak34-49). At the beginning it was somehow, and surprisingly enough, resisted. Then, after the Babe had disappeared from the actual playing of the game, in the 40's and 50', he was finally accepted, but accepted owing to incidents and certain existing native conditions.

In spite of Babe Ruth's great achievements during the 20's, Cobb's influence on the style of Cuban baseball continued well into the late 30's or even the early 40's. A study of Cuban baseball parks, such as “Almendares” Park, and “La Tropical” Stadium, shows that until 1946 the fences were kept at Herculean distances. No limiting fences, or fences at 375 feet down the foul lines were the rule for many of the parks. In fact, Cubans looked at the short distances of American stadiums with a sense of scorn. For a Cuban, a homerun had to be earned. That is, it could not be cheap, or to the combination of small playing fields and capricious atmospheric conditions. From my research, and from my memories, I remember that Cuban fans were quick to remind anyone that Ruth's feat of 54 homeruns in 1920, and 59 in 1921, was accomplished in the comfortable confines of the Polo Grounds, where the right field fence was just 257 feet away (Delgado 67-69). It was for these reasons that Babe Ruth's barnstorming trip to Cuba in 1920, with the New York ...