Bear

A massive, powerful force of nature who lived large

A man who once ate a dozen hot dogs between games of a doubleheader and then homered twice in the afternoon — because of course he did — George Herman Ruth embodied the bear's defining essence: an overwhelming, unself-conscious appetite for everything life offers. Like the bear, Babe Ruth operated on a scale simply larger than those around him, whether launching 714 career home runs with a swing that seemed to bend the laws of physics, or carousing through Prohibition-era New York with the same legendary excess he brought to the plate. His famous promise to a dying child, the "called shot" in the 1932 World Series, and his thunderous laugh that reportedly shook clubhouses all reflect the bear's rare combination of raw power and surprising tenderness. Ruth didn't navigate the world — he lumbered magnificently through it, leaving every room permanently altered.