Much of Babe Ruth's childhood was spent in a rough-and-tumble part of Baltimore, according to Biography, and by the age of seven he was drinking, chewing tobacco, taunting the police, and generally raising hell. His exasperated parents put him into a reformatory and orphanage, where he would spend the next 12 years.
According to Babe Ruth Central, George Herman and the other boys at Saint Mary's Industrial School for Boys were under tight control by the monks who ran the place, and basically needed permission to do anything and everything. Further still, the lads rarely, if ever, left the school grounds, to say nothing of ever leaving Baltimore.
When he was 19, Baltimore Orioles (at the time a minor-league team) owner Jack Dunn signed Ruth to a minor league contract, but due to the laws of the time, Dunn had to legally adopt Ruth in order to take him away from the grounds. Ruth, having gotten used to being told what to do and when to do it, was initially ill-equipped for life outside of school grounds, effectively following Dunn around, waiting for instructions. This got him the nickname "Babe," according to the website.
The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources gives a similar but different account, claiming that when Dunn and Ruth stopped by Fayetteville, Ruth's teammates found out that Dunn had adopted Ruth, and gave him the nickname "Dunn's Babe," which later became just "Babe."
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