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‘Daddy’ Ruth was Sultan of Sweetness

Julia Ruth Stevens, Babe Ruth’s last surviving child, passed away last Saturday at age 102. A decade past, I interviewed Stevens – more accurately, had the great joy of listening to her tell wonderful stories about her father. With Major League Baseball’s Opening Day coming this Wednesday, it seems the perfect time to share some of her tales in this space the next few weeks.

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To baseball fans the world round, George Herman “Babe” Ruth was known by a variety of nicknames, from “The Bambino” and “The Sultan of Swat” to “The Colossus of Clout” and “The Wali of Wallop” to “The Maharajah of Mash” and “The Rajah of Rap.”

To a young girl named Julia, however, The Home Run King was known simply as “Daddy.”

“Everywhere we went people worshiped him because he was the famous Babe Ruth,” Julia Ruth Stevens, then 91, told me. “I worshiped him because he was my daddy.”

To the day she died, nine decades after Babe Ruth married Claire Hodgson and adopted her 12-year-old daughter, Julia still affectionately referred to her famous father as “Daddy.”

“We had so much fun together. Daddy couldn’t have been a better father,” Julia said. “Being his daughter, I was the happiest girl in the world!”

A trip around the world as her high school graduation present in 1934 was one of Julia’s grandest memories of growing up as Babe Ruth’s daughter. “We went to Japan, India, England, France – I wouldn’t have traded that for anything,” she said.

Her graduation day also provided a memory with a no-trade clause.

“Education was something Daddy really stressed to me. He always regretted the fact that he hadn’t had a real education,” Julia said, explaining that at the Saint Mary’s Industrial Reform School For Boys where Ruth stayed at from age 7 to 19, he had been put to work in a shirt factory at age 12 – ironically the same age Julia was when Ruth adopted her. “So he always promised me he’d be there on my graduation day.”

This was easier said than done because when the big day arrived the New York Yankees were on a road trip in St. Louis.

“Ballplayers weren’t supposed to fly back then because it was thought to be too dangerous.” Julia recounted. “But that was the only way he could get to New York in time, so Daddy flew back anyway. When we got to the airport to pick him up we were told his flight was running two hours late. Graduation was at 1 o’clock and I had to go home and get dressed. The ceremony started without him and Mother arriving.”

Julia paused, warmed by the recollection, and added: “I never doubted he’d make it because Daddy always kept his promises to me.”

Sure enough, before the name “Julia Ruth” was called to receive her diploma a soft buzz began to fill the auditorium.

“I was sitting in the front row and without turning around I knew Daddy was here,” Julia recalled, a lilt in her voice. “When I turned and looked, there he was walking into the back of the room with a beautiful bouquet of flowers for me. I was so happy to see him. He had kept his promise, just as I knew he would. It was absolutely wonderful.”

A similar “absolutely wonderful” occasion was her wedding day when, honoring the bride’s request, Babe Ruth came dressed to the nines in a formal morning suit.

“Daddy walking me down the aisle was one of my proudest moments I’ve ever had,” said Julia, who was then 23.

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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

Check out my memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece” and my essay collection “Strawberries in Wintertime: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter” …

• Personalized signed copies are available at WoodyWoodburn.com