Babe Ruth Hits His First Career Home Run

On May 6, 1915, Babe Ruth hit his first major league home run. Pitching for the Boston Red Sox against the New York Yankees at the Polo Grounds, the 20-year-old Ruth drove a pitch from Jack Warhop into the second tier of the right-field grandstand in the third inning. The ball landed in Seat 26 of Section 3. It was the first of 714.

Ruth had entered the game as a pitcher, not a designated slugger. He was in his first full season with Boston after a brief late-season cameo in 1914. On this day he went 3-for-5 at the plate and pitched 12 and one-third innings, though he ended up losing the game when the Yankees scored in the bottom of the thirteenth.

The home run itself drew only modest attention. Ruth was primarily a pitcher in 1915, and a good one. He went 18-8 with a 2.44 ERA that season. The Red Sox won the World Series in 1915 and again in 1916 and 1918, with Ruth as a dominant left-hander on the mound. His hitting was a curiosity, not yet the center of his identity.

Among the roughly 8,000 fans at the Polo Grounds that afternoon were American League president Ban Johnson, Red Sox owner Joseph Lannin, and sportswriters Damon Runyon and Heywood Broun, both of whom would become literary figures. None of them could have predicted that the young pitcher's swing would reshape the sport within five years.

By 1919, Ruth was hitting home runs at a rate that made his pitching talent almost irrelevant. The Red Sox sold him to the Yankees before the 1920 season, and he hit 54 home runs in his first year in New York, more than any entire team had ever hit. The game built around pitching and small ball died the moment Ruth showed what power could do. It all started with one swing off Jack Warhop.