5. George Herman Ruth and the Spanish Flu
During the late summer of 1918 major league baseball curtailed its season, which ended a month early during the mobilization for World War I. The season ended on September 2nd, with the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs scheduled to meet in the only World Series in history played entirely during the month of September. Spanish flu had already established a grip on the city of Boston, and several doctors warned against drawing large crowds to Fenway Park, concerned over the spread of the abnormally lethal flu. Baseball decided to go ahead with the series, during which the Red Sox young pitcher, George Herman Ruth, known to his fans as Babe, started two games. He won both.
Babe Ruth suffered through the Spanish flu before and during the World Series. He lost the advantage of using the spitball, a popular pitch of the era, because baseball temporarily banned it as a health measure to fight outbreaks. Many reports claimed that Babe contracted the flu, recovered, and then contracted it again, a claim which belied the immunity left to those who recovered. Ruth started games one and four, pitched a shutout in the first game and seven consecutive scoreless innings in the second before giving up a run. In between innings, he would often lie down, as the aches and fever of the flu tormented him. He played in other games in the outfield. Following the World Series, the Babe accepted a job in a vital war industry, earning an exemption from military services.