In honor of Babe Ruth's birthday, read his first New York Times profile

Babe Ruth
(Image credit: General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)

Saturday would've marked Babe Ruth's 121st birthday. To honor The Great Bambino, relive the glory of his first-ever New York Times profile. It's from way back in 1915, and it has some real gems:

The paper of record described the soon-to-be-record-setting slugger as "peculiar" and "built like a bale of cotton."

"What the Yanks evidently need are some peculiar left-handed pitchers," the profile went on to say, to counter Ruth, who then pitched for the rival Boston Red Sox.

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Either that, or perhaps they just needed to make the trade of the century.

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Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.