In March 1920, soon after being purchased by the Yankees, Babe Ruth sought a disability insurance policy from what was then called the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company.
On the one-page application, he most likely shaded the truth on a question that began, “Are your habits temperate?” His answer, improbably, was, “Yes.”
By then, he was familiar with multiple vices. “He was a wild man with the Red Sox,” said Leigh Montville, a biographer who wrote “The Big Bam.” He added: “Part of the reason, I think, that Harry Frazee got rid of him, in his public relations, was that he was an unmanageable guy.