Words and Illustration by B.E. Sabin | August 30, 2024
As of 2006, the official candy bar of Major League Baseball is Baby Ruth.
Baby Ruth was first available on the market in 1921. The Curtiss Candy Company produced it. The Curtiss Candy Company claimed that Baby Ruth did not get its name from Babe Ruth, who at the time was not only the biggest baseball player on the planet, but also one of the biggest stars. They claimed that the name was taken from “Baby” Ruth Cleveland, the daughter of former President Grover Cleveland.
B Is for Baby Ruth
Baby Ruth Cleveland died in 1904 at the age of twelve and Grover Cleveland left office in 1897, so it’s safe to say that neither father nor daughter were at the top of people’s minds in 1921. That being said, to name a product that you hope will be popular after people who haven’t been in the popular consciousness for over twenty years seems strange. What doesn’t seem strange is that the Curtiss Candy Company might have been trying to avoid paying royalties to said most popular baseball player in the world.
Fast forward five years to 1926. A candy company named the George H. Ruth Candy Company decided to put out Babe Ruth’s Home Run Candy and naturally, they asked the namesake to endorse it. The Curtiss Candy Company, the makers of Baby Ruth, which was not named after Babe Ruth, reached out to the Patent Office and said something along the lines of, “Hey, wait a sec, we don’t like them using “Babe Ruth” as part of the name of their candy. It sure sounds a lot like Baby Ruth.” And the Patent Office said, “You’re darn tootin’.” This spelled curtains for Babe Ruth’s Home Run Candy, even though, Babe Ruth had nothing to do with the name Baby Ruth.
Then eighty years later, after ownership of Baby Ruth had changed hands numerous times, Nestle, the new owners of the delicious candy bar thought something like this, “Hey, why not partner up with Major League Baseball? One of their biggest, if not the biggest, stars was Babe Ruth and our candy bar, Baby Ruth sounds a lot like Babe Ruth, although it was definitely not named after him in any way whatsoever, believe us,” which was then followed by lots of uncomfortable laughing from the executives at Nestle. Then Major League Baseball said, “That sounds great.” And then they all shook hands.
And that is why B is for Baby Ruth. Or maybe B should be for Babe Ruth? Or wait, are they the same thing?
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