{"id":98767,"date":"2025-08-26T17:14:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T17:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/98767\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T17:14:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T17:14:08","slug":"man-with-babe-ruths-name-allegedly-used-identities-of-dead-baseball-players-to-steal-class-action-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/98767\/","title":{"rendered":"Man with Babe Ruth’s name allegedly used identities of dead baseball players to steal class action money"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Tennessee man and namesake <\/a>of MLB icon Babe Ruth used the IDs of former and late baseball players to wrongly cash in on class action lawsuit settlements, federal prosecutors said recently.<\/p>\n

George Herman Ruth, a 69-year-old Morristown resident, was indicted on suspicion of mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, fraudulent use of Social Security numbers and money laundering among other charges in a 91-count indictment.<\/p>\n

The suspect shares a name with Babe Ruth, born George Herman Ruth on Feb. 6, 1895, who went on to revolutionize baseball<\/a> as the “Sultan of Swat,” <\/a>hitting home runs at a pace never before seen in America’s pastime.<\/p>\n

Starting in early 2023, the modern-day Ruth allegedly used the names of 25 retired or deceased baseball players to attach himself to class action lawsuit settlements. <\/p>\n

Ruth “would use the fraud proceeds he obtained to pay for personal expenses and trips, such as a trip to Las Vegas and to casinos in Virginia, North Carolina, and elsewhere,” according to the indictment.<\/p>\n

The indictment didn’t list the names of 25 retired or deceased players used in Ruth’s alleged plot. <\/p>\n

Federal prosecutors did, however, offer clues to each ID, essentially turning the indictment into “Immaculate Grid,”<\/a> a popular online game that challenges baseball fans to name a player based solely on the clue of three teams he once played for. <\/p>\n

For example, player No. 12 in the indictment is called a retired first basemen who suited up for the Toronto Blue Jays, Florida Marlins and New York Mets.<\/p>\n

Ruth allegedly used some deep cut references in this scam, such as with player No. 14, a late shortstop and third baseman for the Chicago Colts, Brooklyn Superbas, New York Giants and Boston Doves. <\/p>\n

The Colts were the late 19th century Chicago Cubs<\/a>, the Brooklyn-rooted Los Angeles Dodgers were known as the Superbas from 1899 through 1910<\/a>, the San Francisco Giants<\/a> were born in New York before moving west in the winter of 1957-58 and the nomadic Atlanta Braves were the Boston Doves<\/a> from 1907 through 1910.<\/p>\n

Ruth allegedly scored at least five payments of $756.84 from the settlement of a racial discrimination lawsuit against a staffing agency and beauty supply company in the Chicago area, which allegedly refused to hire African Americans.<\/p>\n

For these payments, Ruth allegedly used the names of a catcher from the Chicago White Sox, Washington Senators and Minnesota Twins; an infielder with Philadelphia Athletics and 19th century St. Louis Brown Stockings<\/a>; an outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals and Oakland A’s; an Oakland pitcher; and a pitcher with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Browns<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Ruth and his defense attorney did not immediately return emails and phone calls, seeking their comments on Tuesday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Tennessee man and namesake of MLB icon Babe Ruth used the IDs of former and late baseball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-98767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}