Was Babe Ruth Black?
There’s a story told by the legendary sportswriter Fred Lieb about Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth from the 1920s. The stars were scheduled to share a cabin on a Georgia hunting trip. Cobb refused. When asked why he said, “I’ve never bedded down with a n — — — and I’m not going to start now.”
Ruth, the most renowned baseball player of the 20th century, the embodiment of a time when only white athletes played pro sports, may have been black. It wasn’t just his broad lips and wide nose hinting at mixed heritage. Or that he dated black women and spent evenings at the Cotton Club in Harlem. It was that many of his contemporaries believed he was black.
During the 1922 World Series at the Polo Grounds, a New York Giants player named Johnny Rawlings shouted racial slurs at Ruth. After the game, Ruth burst into the Giants locker room and challenged Rawlings to a fight. Only when Ruth noticed the baseball writers standing nearby did he calm himself. According to biographer Robert Creamer, Ruth begged the journalists not to write anything about the incident. He told Rawlings, “I don’t mind being called a prick and a cocksucker but none of that personal stuff.”
Ruth had an affinity for black ballplayers. After the Yankees won the 1927 World Series, Ruth joined a barnstorming tour against Negro League teams. He befriended Satchel Paige, sat in opposing dugouts and mingled in…
