THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 17, 1996 TAG: 9608170236
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MANTEO LENGTH: 118 lines
For generations, baseball fans have known George Herman Ruth as ``The Sultan of Swat,'' ``The Bambino,'' ``The Babe.''
Julia Ruth Stevens simply called him ``Daddy.''
The 79-year-old daughter of the Yankee legend is among those being honored on the Outer Banks this week at the 1996 World Series of the league that bears her father's name.
Growing up the daughter of an American sports icon was not what people might think, she said Friday at the Ramada Inn in nearby Kill Devil Hills.
``Actually, except when we went out, he was like any other father,'' Stevens said. ``We did a lot of the same things normal families did. In those days we listened to the radio, played cards or checkers. Whatever Daddy did, he played to win. He didn't let you win.''
Ruth was as competitive against card players as he was against curve balls, his daughter said.
``Daddy didn't know the first thing about the rules of contract bridge. But he was a great bridge player,'' she said.
``I'd say, `Daddy, you can't bid that.'
``And he'd say, `Yes I can.' . . . And he would.''
Stevens fondly recalled a number of outings with her father.
``He taught me how to bowl, and how to dance,'' Stevens said. ``Whatever Daddy did, he was good.''
Which dance was the Babe's best when he chose to trip the light fantastic?
``All of 'em,'' his daughter said with a smile.
Stevens attended all-girl, private schools in the New York area. She said that initially young visitors to the Ruth household were starstruck in the presence of the great batsman. But after a while, that soon passed.
``The girls would come home to visit or spend the night, and right away they'd like him,'' she said. ``Some of the younger kids were awestruck. But Daddy was a lot of fun.''
Unlike many of today's present and former ball players, Ruth never charged a fee for an autograph. More than 40 years after his death, Ruth's signature still fetches between $700 for an autograph, to $4,500 for a signed baseball.
``Of course I suppose it's different today,'' Stevens said. ``Fans are different. They're so aggressive. I don't think Daddy even imagined charging for an autograph. During the Depression, kids were so poor they didn't have a quarter. He signed so many scraps of paper.
``It's amazing to me that his signature is so valuable, because there's so many of them out there,'' Stevens said.
Asked her favorite off-the-field moment involving her father, the answer came quickly.
``I was so proud when he made it home in time to see my high school graduation,'' she said. ``He had just finished playing in St. Louis. They didn't like for players to fly. But if Daddy had taken the train back with the team, he wouldn't have made it back in time. So he flew in. I remember so well listening to the speeches, and there were Daddy and Mom coming there.''
As for her favorite on-the-field memory:
``Every time he hit a home run,'' she said. ``But he didn't always hit a home run. He struck out a lot, too.''
With his status as baseball's home-run king came Tinseltown's attempts to recount the Babe Ruth legend. Stevens grimaces when those films - some of them not altogether flattering - are mentioned. Hollywood struck out when it came to the Babe, she said.
``They were all terrible . . . all terrible. There was a film done for Warner Brothers, and they really tried to do a good job,'' she said. ``William Bendix was a wonderful actor. But he was no Babe Ruth. And John Goodman certainly wasn't.''
Former New York Yankee great Bobby Brown was in Yankee Stadium during the filming of ``The Babe Ruth Story,'' which starred Bendix. Brown also is on the Outer Banks this weekend for the Babe Ruth Baseball series.
``They were filming before a doubleheader with Philadelphia,'' Brown recalled Friday. ``Poor William Bendix . . . They tried to make him bat left-handed, and he couldn't hit the ball. But when the cameras started rolling, he hit a pop fly about 130 feet. He was so stunned, he forgot to run. We had to tell him to run. And as he went around the bases, we cheered him on.''
Movies aside, the Ruths were a normal family, Stevens said. After graduating from high school, she traveled around the world with her parents.
``I had a choice,'' she said. ``I could either go to college or go around the world. I wouldn't trade that for anything.''
Like most teen-agers, Stevens said she had to follow strict rules in the Ruth household.
``Daddy was strict,'' she recalled. ``Up until I was married, I had to be home by midnight. He never wanted me to go out with a baseball player.''
Stevens' first husband died after the couple was married for eight years. Her second, Brent Stevens, is a former baseball coach at the University of New Hampshire. The couple recently celebrated their 40th anniversary.
Since her mother's death in 1976, Stevens has traveled extensively on behalf of Babe Ruth Baseball, filling her mother's role as ambassador for the youth sports league.
``My mother was a great baseball fan,'' Stevens recalled. ``She knew all the players, and the starting line-ups. She managed from the stands.''
Stevens is a fan in her own right. She follows the Yankees, as well as her father's first team, the Boston Red Sox.
``They played so well last year,'' she said of the Bosox. ``I was really hoping they could win the World Series last year, since it was the 100th anniversary of Daddy's birth. They haven't won the series since they sold him.''
Stevens has a special place in her heart for youth sports. Her advice to young people is simple:
``Don't sell education short,'' she said. ``Play baseball. But get your education. That's the only thing that Daddy regretted, that he didn't have more formal education.''
Stevens, whose adopted sister died several years ago, also has advice for parents:
``Daddy was a great family man,'' Stevens said. ``It was well-known that he loved kids. Maybe it was because he grew up at St. Mary's (a Baltimore orphanage located where Oriole Park at Camden Yards now stands) that he cared so much about them. There are so many kids today who have a single parent at home. I think sometimes that parents don't have much rapport with their kids, or even know what they're doing. I think every parent should spend at least 15 minutes every day with their kids, just talking.''
Stevens glowed as she talked about the man the world knew as a diamond slugger. Her smile lit up when asked if her father had a pet name for her.
``He called me Butch,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by DREW C. WILSON\The Virginian-Pilot
Julia Ruth Stevens, 79, daughter of baseball great Babe Ruth, is at
the Outer Banks for the 1996 Babe Ruth World Series.
KEYWORDS: BABE RUTH by CNB