George Herman "Babe" Ruth (1895–1948) was a legendary American baseball player who dominated Major League Baseball for 22 seasons (1914–1935), beginning as a star left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox before achieving his greatest fame as a slugging outfielder for the New York Yankees. After a troubled childhood that saw him sent to St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys at age seven, Ruth broke the single-season home run record in 1919 with 29 homers, prompting Red Sox owner Harry Frazee to sell him to the Yankees—a controversial deal that fueled the "Curse of the Bambino" superstition behind Boston's 86-year championship drought. With the Yankees, Ruth's powerful swing transformed baseball from a low-scoring, strategic game into the live-ball era, and in 1927 as part of the famed "Murderers' Row" lineup, he smashed 60 home runs, extending his own record. Over his career, he led the American League in home runs 12 times and helped the Yankees win four World Series championships, earning him election to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936 as one of its "first five" members. Despite his on-field brilliance, Ruth's off-field drinking and womanizing prevented him from ever managing a major league team, and he died of nasopharyngeal cancer in 1948, leaving behind a legacy as perhaps the greatest baseball player and one of the most enduring sports heroes in American culture.