The Babe Ruth Home Run Award was an annual award presented to the previous season's leading

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

hitter in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...

(MLB). The award was named after the legendary

Babe Ruth George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Su ...

, who led the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league b ...

in homers 12 times.At the following webpage, ''scroll down to'' "The Babe Ruth Homerun Award" (including photograph of the award trophy and list of recipients through the 2007 season). It was first awarded to

Mark McGwire Mark David McGwire (born October 1, 1963), nicknamed "Big Mac", is an American former professional baseball first baseman who played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1986 to 2001 for the Oakland Athletics and the St. Louis Card ...

after his record-setting 1998 season. The award was a , bronze statue of Ruth based on a 1920 photo of him following through on a tremendous swing. The Babe Ruth Home Run Award was developed by brothers Jim and Brian Sullivan. Jim was the sculptor, while Brian focused on the marketing of the award. The Sullivans originally wanted to create a life-size statue of Ruth as a tourist attraction similar to the

Michael Jordan statue The statue of Michael Jordan, also known as ''The Spirit'' (and sometimes referred to as ''Michael Jordan's Spirit''), is a bronze sculpture by Omri Amrany and Julie Rotblatt-Amrany that has been located inside the United Center in the Near W ...

. Unable to secure a sponsor, they created the award to honor Ruth. The trophy was estimated to cost around $4,000 as of 2006, and it was funded by the Sullivans and given on behalf of their company, Sullivan Artworks based in

Weymouth, Massachusetts ("To Work Is to Conquer") , image_map = Norfolk County Massachusetts incorporated and unincorporated areas Weymouth highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250px , map_caption = Location in Norfolk County in Massa ...

. MLB was not interested in sponsoring the award; the

already honored its home run champion with a nameless award, and the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

offered the Mel Ott Award. Both the awards received little publicity. The Babe Ruth Home Run Award was usually presented to the recipient by Ruth's daughter,

Julia Ruth Stevens George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Su ...

, or her son, Tom Stevens.

Key

List of winners

Notes

References

External links

Babe Ruth Home Run Award photos
at BabeRuthCentral.com {{Babe Ruth Babe Ruth Major League Baseball trophies and awards Awards established in 1998 1998 establishments in Massachusetts Awards disestablished in 2009

Key

List of winners

See also

Notes

References

External links