Saint Mary's Industrial School for Boys

Saint Mary's Industrial School for Boys
06/13/1902 AD enrolled

Babe Ruth was enrolled at St. Mary's by his parents. He learnt the game of baseball at St. Mary's under the tutelage of Brother Matthias and became one of St. Mary's most notable alumni.

Aaccording to Julia Ruth Stevens' recount in 1999, because George Sr. was a saloon owner in Baltimore and had given Ruth little supervision growing up, he became a delinquent. Ruth was sent to St. Mary's because George Sr. ran out of ideas to discipline and mentor his son.

As an adult, Ruth admitted that as a youth he ran the streets, rarely attended school, and drank beer when his father was not looking. Some accounts say that following a violent incident at his father's saloon, the city authorities decided that this environment was unsuitable for a small child.

A large man, Brother Matthias was greatly respected by the boys both for his strength and for his fairness. For the rest of his life, Ruth would praise Brother Matthias, and his running and hitting styles closely resembled his teacher's. Ruth stated, "I think I was born as a hitter the first day I ever saw him hit a baseball."[16] The older man became a mentor and role model to Ruth; biographer Robert W. Creamer commented on the closeness between the two:

Ruth revered Brother Matthias ... which is remarkable, considering that Matthias was in charge of making boys behave and that Ruth was one of the great natural misbehavers of all time. ... George Ruth caught Brother Matthias' attention early, and the calm, considerable attention the big man gave the young hellraiser from the waterfront struck a spark of response in the boy's soul ... [that may have] blunted a few of the more savage teeth in the gross man whom I have heard at least a half-dozen of his baseball contemporaries describe with admiring awe and wonder as "an animal." In 1919, a fire destroyed much of the old Victorian-styled campus. Alumnus Babe Ruth, who at the time was playing for the New York Yankees, asked to take the St. Mary's School band along on "road trips" to several major league ballparks around the Northeast, in an attempt to raise money to replace the main school building.

Baltimore, MD

Lattitude: 39.2833° N
Longitude: 76.6166° W
Region: North America

Modern Day United States

Events in 1902 MORE