Was Ruth Black?

A black man once asked me if George Herman "Babe" Ruth was a black man. Blacks, just like Texans--or gays for that matter--always seem to be claiming everything to their own.

Beethoven, for example. Another black man told me he heard the great German composer was black, too. Must be all that musical genius. One just assumes . .

Just as one might assume with such a towering athletic talent. It's a hard thought to shake, once it has landed.

• Consider that all the other top home run hitters are black. One solitary white man.
• Consider his facial features--especially the broad nose--and his physical characteristics.
• Consider we don't know who his parents were.
• Consider that if you were a mulatto in those days you might indeed be put up for adoption.
• Consider that he was raised in a reform school.

Just one glaring weakness to this theory, as a black guy pointed out to me. Would a black man run like that? Ruth had a mincing way about the base paths. He must have been a bit more athletic-looking in the field, one imagines. Or perhaps when he was younger. The pot belly, and a general physical dissolution, might have influenced his gait later in life.