A few weeks ago, my brother and I visited the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum. Growing up loving baseball as much as we did, we knew this was something we should check out. While we are from Philly and we are Phillies fans, growing up the Yankees were always “the other team.” We had Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, and many more Yankee greats’ collectibles such as portraits, bobbleheads, McFarlanes, cards, you name it. My family and I would even travel to New York as a kid to see them play in their own stadium, so this brought back a lot of great memories for me as well.
It is located on 216 Emory Street, not far from Camden Yards. Aside from the Babe Ruth flag hanging on the side of it, you would never know it exists. It’s not a mansion or anything like that, rather just another town home that you could walk right past if you weren’t looking for it. This part resonated with me because it ties back to Baltimore’s roots as the working class. Ruth embodies that spirit because he was just a troubled kid from an ordinary street and working-class family in Baltimore, who prospered into one of the most famous names in America and became one of baseball’s greatest players if not the greatest. Moreover, he was able to start his professional career with the city he grew up in, the Orioles minor league team.
When my brother and I got inside, we were placed at their small giftshop, considering it is right at the entrance where you would purchase your ticket. There, they have an awesome miniature replica of the Babe Ruth statue that sits outside Camden Yards, which I thought was really cool. Walking into an old house like this, you would expect to walk in and smell something like your grandmother’s scent, old wood, and creaky floors. At least that’s what we expected. However, while the place is old and contains old furniture, they manage the place well and it is extremely clean. We came to find out that they refurbished the place in 2015.
After passing the gift shop, you make a right turn and you have entered the home of Babe Ruth. Luckily, there was a staff member giving us fun facts about their family and helped us to understand what their living spaces were like. From what he explained, the front room was a little parlor, the middle being the main room, and the back room. The parlor was wrapped in an old fashioned wallpaper, with wooden furniture and a fireplace. There was also a fireplace in the main living space, but the cool part about that was a countertop displaying what must have been their own teapot, cake pan, rolling pin, and other kitchen appliances. At that moment, it finally hit me – I was standing where a baseball legend grew up. The upstairs portion was closed off but you could tell it was a narrow, circular staircase. When you walk into the back, that is where his actual house ends because it is all memorabilia, such as, game-worn pants, glove, hat, game-used bat, and a home-run ball. There were also a lot of photos of him playing baseball or with family members. The coolest part for me was seeing Babe Ruth’s rosary. One room contained all of the pennants he won, with a jersey of his from each team he played for. Underneath, was photos and writing about him, but our tour guide helped us learn a lot about the Babe. One being that he was someone who was making money during the Great Depression, so he would buy items to give back to orphanages. It’s always nice to hear that the greats have a sense of humility. Another cool display they had was a wall of small plaques, each representing every one of his 714 home runs.
Even though when people hear Babe Ruth, they think of the Yankees, this museum did a great job of dedicating it to Baltimore. It’s not like your average large museum, instead it is small, which is nice because it makes it have a deeper meaning and allows more of a connection to the city. I would recommend visiting this spot if you are a fan of baseball. I will admit though, if you are not, this will feel like any other museum. The only part that I wasn’t a fan of was not being able to go upstairs, because we only were able to see two rooms of the actual house. Besides that, it was a pretty cool experience and will not take up too much of your day!
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