==Catholic Legacy of the Home Run==



Babe Ruth was raised as a member of the Catholic Church, which professes that it's members are all spiritually connected as part of the mystical body of Christ. In 1904, Ruth's mother already passed away, his father placed him in St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys for his "incorrigible" behavior. Spending almost his entire youth there, he developed into a marvelous baseball player with the encouragement of Brother Matthias. If it can be said that Ruth would eventually save baseball, the opposite might be equally true -- the church and baseball saved Ruth from potential tragedy. Brother Matthias, a strict Catholic priest at Saint Mary’s, taught him to play baseball.
In 1914, shortly after his 19th birthday, Ruth signed a contract with the Baltimore Orioles of the International League. Because Ruth was not yet a legal adult, Orioles owner and Irish-Catholic Jack Dunn became his guardian.

The 6-foot-2, 215-pound Ruth revolutionized the game, changing it from a pitcher-dominated, scratch-out-a-run contest to a homer-hitting, dialing-long-distance event.

Ruth’s extraordinary home run slugging touched off a nationwide resurgence of fan support for baseball, which had suffered in the aftermath of the 1919 World Series scandal, in which several Chicago White Sox players had intentionally played badly in exchange for payments from gamblers.

As a Yankee Ruth won ten home run crowns and played in seven World Series, with the Yankees winning four of them. His home run production was unprecedented. He hit 41 in 1923, 46 in 1924, and 47 in 1926. In 1927 his 60 home runs in 154 games established a record that stood until 1961, when Roger Maris hit 61 in 162 games. Later, Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds would pass Ruth's single season record. His all time career record 714 home runs was passed by Henry Aaron and Barry Bonds.
Every baseball player listed above that would pass Ruth's cherised records were all members of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church had raised and developed Babe Ruth as a baseball player. Major league baseball adopted him, and to this day only other members of the Catholic Church have been able to share the glory of passing his home run records.

In a strange parallel, J.R.R. Tolkien's mother died in 1904, and he was raised by Father Francis Xavier Morgan a Catholic priest of the Congregation of the Oratory.