The Six Sentence Story: Babe Ruth Day is a Real Treat!

By Aaron Putze

Babe Ruth Day (April 27) seems especially poignant this year with the absence of baseball due to ongoing concerns about Covid-19 (despite the fact that spring is here, the grass is greening and the days are growing warmer and longer!).

Of course, the player who slugged 714 home runs also reminds me of the candy bar “Baby Ruth,” one of my all-time favorites – a combination of milk chocolate, peanuts, marshmallow and nougat – and a treat that I often confiscate from my children’s Halloween hauls.

Turns out that the candy bar’s creator – Otto Schnering of Chicago – was having a difficult time making a go of things as the owner of a struggling candy company in the 1920s until the marketing genius came upon an idea that would forever change history.

Per research done by Christopher Klein of History.com, Schnering knew a home run when he saw it and, in light of the Babe’s ascending popularity, renamed his culinary “Kandy Kake” masterpiece “Baby Ruth” and quickly capitalized on the name association to rake in sales of more than $1 million monthly.

Not surprisingly, Schnering soon fended off the “The Sultan of Swat” in a legal case, arguing the candy bar was actually named after Ruth Cleveland, the eldest daughter of Stephen Grover Cleveland who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States (the only president in American History to serve two non-consecutive terms).

Despite The Bambino’s best attempt to share in the spoils by launching his own candy company in 1926 (George H. Ruth Candy Company), Schnering’s “Baby Ruth” went on to enjoy timeless success by forever associating itself with America’s past time and one of the greatest sluggers in the history of baseball – a baseball player who we salute on Babe Ruth Day April 27.

(The Six Sentence Story is a literary style providing readers fun and inspirational information succinctly. For a compilation of stories that entertain and inspire audiences of all ages, contact Aaron at putzeink@gmail.com or call 515-975-4168).