Nobody knows for sure how many players in Cooperstown had vices, and what they were. Yet, it's probably safe to say a lot of them drank excessively, smoked, and enjoyed the ladies, amongst other things.
George Herman (Babe) Ruth not only fell into that category, he flaunted it. Many assume that athletes way back then had higher moral standards. Not necessarily true. The Babe was married twice and had 2 daughters, but even that wasn't all it seemed.
Historical accounts suggest the first daughter was born out of wedlock by an earlier girlfriend of Ruths. She "came with the package" when Babe married his first wife Helen, very early in his career. Then, as he started becoming the baseball icon we know him as today, with all the stardom that went along with it, it seemed other ladies were after his attention, and the Babe was giving it to them. His infidelity eventually caused that marriage to fail. A few years later he married his second wife Claire, who had a daughter from a previous marriage of her own. Babe adopted her. So while Ruth is generally credited with having 2 "daughters", neither of them were by a wife.
People didn't care. He was wildly popular, not only for hitting home runs, but for spending a lot of time with kids, and donating a lot of money to children's causes, sports and otherwise. Add all that up and you've got a great American hero on your hands, and his legend lives on to this day. In modern times, given the same set of circumstances, the media would likely tear him to shreds as an overweight, drunk, tobacco abusing, wife cheater.
All those monster home runs? He must be taking SOMETHING. It's just not natural. Many of our overweight, drunk, tobacco abusing, wife cheating congressmen would probably haul him to Washington DC for a special session to grill him and try to find him guilty of something -- anything -- because this just isn't supposed to be happening. The tabloids would go wild. In a rare display of outrage, baseball Commissioner Bud Selig would call an emergency meeting with all the MLB owners, unanimously pass a resolution to monitor the infidelities of all kids under 15 playing in Babe Ruth baseball leagues, and receive a contract extension as Commisioner until he was 125 years old, dead or alive. Sometimes those owners are a forward thinking bunch.
Even the Baby Ruth candy bar was shrouded in controversy. The Curtiss Candy Company in Chicago, who made it, insisted that the name was derived from former President Grover Cleveland's baby daughter Ruth. That Ruth died in 1904. However, the candy bar didn't make its debut until 16 years later, in 1920, when George Herman was becoming very famous. Kids sent their candy bar wrappers to Ruth hoping he would autograph them and send them back. In turn, the Babe claimed if he was going to endorse a product named after him, he should be entitled to some royalties. Curtiss Candy stuck to their story; sports marketing was in its infancy back then, player agents still many decades away from even being conceived, let alone prevalent, and Ruth eventually lost in a court of law over the entire matter. The candy company wouldn't acknowledge Ruth to avoid paying him a few bucks in royalties, and the kids didn't get their wrappers autographed. You decide who was right.
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