Cruelty of situation after baseball Babe had retired? (12)

'cruelty' is the definition.
(I know that cruelty can be written as ruthlessness)

'situation after baseball babe had retired?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'babe' could be 'ruth' (I've seen this before) and 'ruth' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

'of' is the link.