Ruth began his professional baseball career as a pitcher. He was discovered by Jack Dunn, owner and manager of the minor-league Baltimore Orioles, who sold his contract to the Boston Red Sox in 1914. Ruth, a left-handed pitcher known as "Dunn's Babe" with Baltimore, became one of the premier pitchers in the American League in short order.
However, it soon became apparent that Ruth was more valuable in the lineup as an everyday player. In 1918, Ruth began playing in the outfield more and pitching less. His contemporaries thought this was ridiculous: former teammate [Tris Speaker]? thought the move would shorten Ruth's career. By 1919, Ruth was basically a fulltime outfielder. He set his first single-season home run record that year, smacking 29 with the Red Sox, breaking the previous record.
In the 1932 World Series, with Ruth's Yankees playing the Chicago Cubs, Ruth hit one of the most famous home runs in baseball history, a ball which he appeared to "call" ahead of time. Charlie Root, the Cubs pitcher, angrily denied that Ruth had "called his shot" and pointed out that he would have brushed Ruth back from the plate had Ruth done anything of the kind.
But Root had an odd habit of turning slightly around between pitches and others at the game said that Root had simply missed the Babe's gesture.
| G | AB | H | 2b | 3b | HR | R | RBI | BB | SO |
| 2,503 | 8,399 | 2,873 | 506 | 136 | 714 | 2,174 | 2,213 | 2,062 | 1,330 |
Pitching
| W | L | GP | GS | CG | Sh | SV | IP | BB | SO |
| 94 | 46 | 163 | 148 | 107 | 17 | 4 | 1,221.1 | 441 | 488 |
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