Well, before we get to Reggie Jackson and the Reggie Bar, we should probably try to get to the bottom of the Baby Ruth candy bar. There is actually a little bit more to the story than I knew before. I had always heard two things about the Baby Ruth bar.
The Curtiss Candy Company claimed — somewhat absurdly — that they named it after President Grover Cleveland’s daughter Ruth. The reason this seems somewhat absurd is that they renamed their Kandy Kake “Baby Ruth” in 1921. That’s quite interesting timing. It was 24 years after Cleveland had served his second (non-consecutive) term and 17 years after Ruth herself had died from diphtheria.
The company obviously named the bar after Babe Ruth, who in 1920 had basically reinvented baseball by hitting 54 home runs, more than every other team in the American League.* In 1921, he hit 59 home runs and was constantly in the news.
