The Babe at 500

Babe Ruth – you may have heard of him – hits his 500th career home run 95 years ago today at Cleveland’s League Park.

Ruth’s milestone homer against Willis Hudlin leads off the top of the second inning, giving the New York Yankees an early 1-0 lead in what eventually becomes a 6-5 loss to Cleveland before a Sunday afternoon crowd of 25,000.

Willis Hudlin

The homer is one of five Ruth hits off the right-handed Hudlin in his career.

Now, of course, Ruth hits a lot of home runs off a lot of different pitchers – 216 pitchers in all, to be exact, during a 22-year Hall of Fame career in which he totals 714 homers.

What also is noteworthy 95 years ago today is that when Ruth hits his 500th career homer the next player on the all-time list is Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Cy Williams.

At the time, Williams has 249 homers, leaving him – hmm, let’s see here – a stunning 251 homers behind Ruth’s on-going total.

Williams, whose first career homer comes in 1913 and who has 34 career homers before Ruth hits his 10th in the majors, finishes his career in 1930 with a total of 251 homers.