Babe Ruth's 120th Birthday Celebration In Baltimore

BALTIMORE, Md. (WJZ)--120 years ago on Friday, the world's greatest baseball player was born in Baltimore.

As Mike Schuh reports, the moment will be celebrated downtown.

By some measure this man, the bambino, the sultan of swat, the babe could be Baltimore's most famous citizen ever, but have the years dimmed the glory of his deeds?

"Our job is to preserve his legacy make it not get like this ball, which is fading the autograph is fading away," said Mike Gibbons.

Gibbons: "Well we are celebrating Babe Ruth's 120'th birthday."

Schuh: "120?"

Mike Gibbons:  "Yeah he's getting there."

Mike Gibbons runs the sports legends museum, this wing is all babe...all the time.

Schuh: "Why has Babe Ruth stayed relevant?"

Gibbons: " I think because he's the greatest baseball player of all time, you have to start with that. The guy could pitch at an all star caliber, and he was the greatest slugger of all time. But then I think it's that he hit New York in 1927 just as New York was becoming New York."

His talent transcends time.

Schuh: "He does not look like a modern day athlete, could the babe play today."

Gibbons: "Oh yeah, sure, youhave to start with the fact that he had , by popular science, which had measured him, the best eye hand coordination that anyone had ever seen to that time."

So, on his birthday, on Friday, hundreds will gather to celebrate, and help fund the place where his story and the stories of all of Baltimore's  greatest sports stars are is told.

"This is kinda a fundraiser for us as well which in the wintertime when you don't have a lot of people coming by to sports museums it really helps us a lot," said Gibbons.

The party is Friday night at the Sports Legends Museum next to Camden Yards. It starts at 5:30 p.m., the walk up price is $60.00.