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It wouldn’t be summer without baseball, but if you haven’t been able to get out to the ballpark, you can take a few minutes to brush up on one of the sport’s best-loved players, Babe Ruth.

Here’s a list of ninety-nine pieces of trivia from Sports Illustrated to help you impress the old-timers.

1. His real name was George Herman Ruth, as was his father’s. He is the only player with that last name in major league history.

2. His birth date is now widely accepted as Feb. 6, 1895, but Ruth lived his entire life convinced that he was born on Feb. 7, 1894. The birth certificate with that date was for an unnamed male child in the Ruth family. Ruth’s parents lost six children in infancy, including two pairs of twins, with only George and his sister Mary Margaret, known as Mamie, surviving.

3. Ruth lived for a time on the site of what is now Oriole Park at Camden Yards, above one of his father’s string of saloons.

4. Before he turned eight, Ruth had already chewed tobacco and drank whiskey for the first time. He was sent to live at St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys, a Catholic reform school, and listed as incorrigible.

5. Each boy was supposed to learn a trade for a possible career. Ruth’s was to be a shirt maker.

Full story at Sports Illustrated.

Play ball!

Photo credit: Library of Congress