95% sureThese words were traced back to where they first appeared. That source is listed below.
What turned up
"Bat It Out!" by George Herman ('Babe') Ruth, The Rotarian, July 1940, pp. 12-14 — his own byline article of advice to young players.
Work
Bat It Out! (The Rotarian magazine, July 1940)
Occasion
1940 · advice article for young players: run hard on every play, keep plugging the way Henry Ford did
Sources checked
archive.orgChecked using claude-fable-5, 22 August 2026Full OCR text of the July 1940 issue fetched and grepped this pass; wording verbatim, paragraph-final (run out every play, Henry Ford kept plugging). The popular variant 'It's hard to beat a person who never gives up' is a later paraphrase — enter the primary's words.