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Who really said it

What the hell has Hoover got to do with it? Anyway, I had a better year than he did

Not Ruth’s documented words — a 1947 retelling Babe Ruth 1895–1948 · New York Yankees outfielder
Ruth’s idea, but the wording is a sportswriter’s retelling first printed in 1947 — no 1930-era source carries it. In copyright

Ruth really did answer the Hoover-salary jab — but not in these words. The famous line has no known contemporary source: its earliest documented appearance is Tom Meany’s 1947 biography Babe Ruth: The Big Moments of the Big Fellow, page 139, where it reads “What the hell has Hoover got to do with this?” Wikiquote calls the version now circulated “likely apocryphal,” while Quote Investigator judges that Ruth probably said something of this type.

Last verified 22 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Disputed — copy with the correction

“What the hell has Hoover got to do with it? Anyway, I had a better year than he did” Attributed to Babe Ruth, but not in these words. Earliest documented appearance: Tom Meany, "Babe Ruth: The Big Moments of the Big Fellow" (A. S. Barnes, 1947), p. 139 — "What the hell has Hoover got to do with this? Anyway, I had a better year than he did." No 1930-era source carries the line; Wikiquote calls it likely apocryphal. Verified via Quotle.info, 22 Jul 2026.

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Babe Ruth. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Estate of Tom Meany / A. S. Barnes and Company (original publisher)). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the themes of success, work and character. Theme: "What the hell has Hoover got to do with it? Anyway, I had a better year than he did". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "What the hell has Hoover got to do with it? Anyway, I had a better year than he did". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The earliest documented text

Work
Babe Ruth: The Big Moments of the Big Fellow
Author & date
Tom Meany, 1947 (A. S. Barnes, New York) — chap. 10, p. 139
Contemporary record
No 1930–1932 source carrying this wording has been located
Status
Likely apocryphal wording of a real exchange

“What the hell has Hoover got to do with this?” demanded the Babe. “Anyway, I had a better year than he did.” 1947 · earliest known appearance

As transcribed by Quote Investigator from Meany’s 1947 biography, page 139. Note “this,” not the “it” of the modern standard version.

Quote Investigator: Anyway, I Had a Better Year Than He Did

Paper trail

  • 7 January 1930 — Ruth, asked what made him think he was worth more than the President, answers on the record about his home-run season and contract length; reported by Richards Vidmer in the New York Herald Tribune the next day, per Wikiquote ↗.
  • 1947 — the familiar wording appears in Tom Meany’s Babe Ruth: The Big Moments of the Big Fellow, p. 139 — the earliest appearance located by Quote Investigator ↗, which notes the episode itself probably occurred circa 1932.
  • 16 December 1947 — Arthur Daley retells the exchange in his New York Times column, dropping the profanity (“What has Hoover got to do with this?”), per Quote Investigator ↗.
  • 26 February 1948 — the Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch prints the line in Chauncey Durden’s “The Sportview” column, crediting Meany’s book; this is the earliest press citation logged by Barry Popik ↗.
  • Today — even the National Archives’ Hoover Library blog ↗, which calls these anecdotes a “mythic retelling,” prints the quip in yet another wording: “What the hell does Hoover have to do with it? Besides I had a better year than he did.”
In copyright

The earliest documented text of this line appears in Tom Meany’s biography, first published in 1947 — well after the 1931 US public-domain cutoff — so the passage as printed is treated as in copyright. Ruth’s own 1930 newspaper remarks are a separate matter, but the sentence people quote is Meany’s page, not a 1930 document.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

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Fact-check

How a paraphrase became a quotation

Nobody stole this line from another speaker — the drift is subtler. A real exchange was retold from memory years later, then re-polished by columnists until it acquired the crispness of a transcript it never had.

Tom Meany (1947) Earliest known source

Meany’s biography renders it “‘What the hell has Hoover got to do with this?’ demanded the Babe. ‘Anyway, I had a better year than he did.’” Today’s standard version swaps in “it.” Quote Investigator ↗ identifies this 1947 page as the earliest appearance it located.

Arthur Daley, New York Times Date drift

Daley retold it in 1947 without the profanity, then in an August 1948 column moved the episode to 1930 and rephrased it again — even though contemporary newspaper records point to a disagreement circa 1932, per Quote Investigator ↗.

Will Rogers (January 1930) Earlier gag, different punchline

Rogers was already joking in his syndicated column about Ruth being offered the same salary as Hoover — but his punchline was that Ruth “can’t appoint a commission to go up and knock the home runs,” as documented by Quote Investigator ↗.

Anonymous circulation Unsourced

“Hey, I had a better year than he did,” “Why not, I had a better year than he did” and “I know, but I had a better year than Hoover” all circulate without sources; Barry Popik ↗ logs them alongside the 26 February 1948 Richmond Times-Dispatch printing.

What Ruth is actually on record saying, when asked on 7 January 1930 why he was worth more than the President: that he’d have broken the home-run record if he hadn’t been sick, and that “the President gets a four-year contract. I’m only asking for three” — reported by Richards Vidmer in the New York Herald Tribune, 8 January 1930, as cited by Wikiquote ↗.

Context

Why the line refuses to die

The story only works because the underlying fact is true: in March 1930 newspapers reported Ruth settling for $80,000 a season on a two-year deal — the Dallas Morning News carried it on 9 March 1930, per Barry Popik’s citation file ↗ — more than the President of the United States earned while the country slid into the Depression. A ballplayer out-earning Herbert Hoover was a genuine national talking point, not a joke invented later.

So the retort had somewhere to land. Will Rogers was already working the same material in January 1930 — his syndicated column ran a Ruth-versus-Hoover salary gag with an entirely different punchline. The version everyone repeats today, with its perfect two-beat structure, first shows up in print in 1947, told by a sportswriter who had covered Ruth for years.

The fact is documented. The sentence is not.

What Ruth is actually on record saying

Asked on 7 January 1930 what made him think he was worth more than the President of the United States, Ruth’s reported answer was about his home-run season and his contract length, not a one-line put-down of Hoover’s job performance. Wikiquote cites the exchange to Richards Vidmer’s report in the New York Herald Tribune of 8 January 1930.

Quote Investigator adds a wrinkle the popular version smooths over: contemporary newspaper records suggest the salary disagreement being described probably occurred circa 1932, while columnist Arthur Daley moved it to 1930 in an August 1948 column. The anecdote’s date is as unstable as its wording.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Success Work Character

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Investigator: “Anyway, I Had a Better Year Than He Did”quoteinvestigator.com

The anchor investigation: Meany 1947 as earliest known source, the Will Rogers 1930 joke, Arthur Daley’s shifting versions, and QI’s hedged verdict.
Barry Popik: “I had a better year than he did”barrypopik.com

Citation file listing a 26 February 1948 Richmond Times-Dispatch printing and several unsourced variant wordings.
Babe Ruth — Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Labels this wording “likely apocryphal” and prints the contemporaneously reported 7 January 1930 answer instead.
Herbert Hoover and Babe Ruthhoover.blogs.archives.gov

National Archives / Hoover Library post on Ruth’s $80,000 salary against the President’s — and a further variant wording of the quip.
Open Library record: Babe Ruth, the Big Moments of the Big Fellowopenlibrary.org

Catalog record confirming Tom Meany’s biography was first published in 1947.
Babe Ruth — Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

Biography and life dates (born 6 February 1895, died 16 August 1948).

The author

About Babe Ruth

Babe Ruth

1895–1948 · American baseball player, New York Yankees

George Herman “Babe” Ruth was the defining slugger of baseball’s live-ball era and, by 1930, its highest-paid player. His salary negotiations were front-page news precisely because his pay outran the President’s during an economic collapse — which is why the Hoover comeback, in whatever form he actually delivered it, stuck. Ruth did field the “more than the President” question on the record in January 1930; the polished one-liner people quote today surfaced only after his playing days, in a 1947 biography.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Earliest documented source

Tom Meany, Babe Ruth: The Big Moments of the Big Fellow (New York: A. S. Barnes, 1947), chap. 10, “The First Cut,” 139 — the earliest appearance known to Quote Investigator. No contemporary (1930–1932) source carrying the line has been located.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘What the hell has Hoover got to do with it? Anyway, I had a better year than he did’?” Last verified 22 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/what-the-hell-has-hoover-got-to-do-with-it-anyway-i-had-a/

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