On 2 June 1935, Babe Ruth brought his 22-season major-league career to a close, given his unconditional release by the Boston Braves and announcing his retirement. The following year, he became one of the first five players inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in its inaugural class — a recognition that codified his standing as the sport's defining figure.
Three swings, one roof
The final flourish had already arrived eight days earlier, on a chilly Saturday afternoon at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Ruth's bedraggled Braves sat in the National League cellar at 8-19, and the 40-year-old was batting a meagre .153 through the season's first weeks. Few of the recorded 10,000 in attendance could have expected what followed.
Ruth opened his account in the first inning, lifting career home run number 712 into the right-field stands off Pirates starter Red Lucas for a quick 2–0 lead. He struck again in the third, this time facing Guy Bush — the pitcher who had hit him with a ball during the 1932 World Series — and drove number 713 to right, scoring Billy Urbanski once more.
The defining blow came in the seventh, with one out and the bases empty, on a 3-1 count from Bush. Ruth's swing sent the ball over Forbes Field's right-field roof for the first time in the ballpark's 26-year history. It was home run 714, a career record that stood for nearly four decades. He rounded the bases, tipped his cap to the crowd, and excused himself from the game.
A record that outlasted an era
The trio of homers at Forbes Field proved to be his last hits; he would go hitless in five further appearances before the release in June. The 714 mark was the final entry in a ledger that included a single-season record of 60 home runs in 1927, three World Series championships as a pitcher with a 0.87 ERA across those postseasons, and the epochal 1919 sale from Boston to New York that reshaped the sport's competitive landscape.
Walking through the Pittsburgh dugout after his final blast, Ruth passed rookie pitcher Mace Brown and offered a quiet assessment. "Boy, that last one felt good," he said, the words recorded for an afternoon that baseball would not forget.
The 714 career home runs remained the standard until Hank Aaron passed them in 1974. A year after those final swings, Ruth entered the Hall as one of its first five immortals, a figure whose name had long since become synonymous with the game itself.
