Why sorry remains the hardest word

IN THE depths of a mid- career slump, the great baseball player Babe Ruth was taken to task in public. Jimmy Walker, a New York politician, pointed some cutting remarks at Ruth when both attended a social function in Manhattan.

Addressing the large gathering after a meal, Walker said the baseball star had to pull up his socks: because of his behaviour, which included fighting at games and abusing spectators, Ruth was letting down the “little, dirty-faced kids” who worshipped him.

Ruth wept openly at the rebuke and promised to reform, and he did.