The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth
Posted by Rhubarb_Runner on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 5:00 am
[contributed by: E-6]
The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth
by Leigh Montville
Copyright © 2006 by Broadway Books
paperback, 390 pages
About the Author: Leigh Montville, a former columnist at the Boston Globe and former senior writer at Sports Illustrated, is the author of the bestselling Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero, At the Altar of Speed: The Fast Life and Tragic Death of Dale Earnhardt, Manute: The Center of Two Worlds, and Why Not Us?: The 86-year Journey of the Boston Red Sox Fans From Unparalleled Suffering To The Promised Land Of the 2004 World Series. He lives in Boston.
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From the Publisher: Babe Ruth was more than baseball’s original superstar. For eighty-five years, he has remained the sport’s reigning titan. He has been named Athlete of the Century . . . more than once. But who was this large, loud, enigmatic man? Why is so little known about his childhood, his private life, and his inner thoughts?
Based on newly discovered documents and interviews — including pages from Ruth’s personal scrapbooks — The Big Bam traces Ruth’s life from his bleak childhood in Baltimore to his brash entrance into professional baseball, from Boston to New York and into the record books as the world’s most explosive slugger and cultural luminary.
At a time when modern baseball is grappling with hyper-inflated salaries, free agency, and assorted controversies, The Big Bam brings back the pure glory days of the game. Leigh Montville operates at the peak of his abilities, exploring Babe Ruth in a way that intimately, and poignantly, illuminates a most remarkable figure.
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About the Book: What can you say? It's Babe freakin' Ruth. The nation's most famous athlete. Ever. Everything about the guy was bigger than life: from his appetites (both gastric and carnal) to his on-field exploits. The book covers his humble beginnings in a Baltimore orphanage, to center stage in Yankee Stadium, to his sad final years as he tried and failed to find work in the game that he made global. For such a famous modern historical figure, it's amazing how much is unknown about the man. Montville deals with a lot of the nebulous areas of his life -- where legend and a lack of facts have been foisted upon us -- by remarking that "a fog descends." That said, there are many wonderful recollections. One of many that stands out: while driving through the country in the South, Babe always kept an eye out for hand-written signs that read "Homemade Chicken Dinners." Babe would pull up to the farmhouse, introduce himself to the star-struck hosts, and tuck into a feast of fried chicken. I'll let you guess what he often had for dessert...
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Personal notes:
- A fascinating read, to say the least. For fans of baseball, and anyone interested in American history in the early 20th century. I plowed through this book in short order, both charmed and repulsed by the exploits of Ruth. Every heroic on-field action or gracious act off the field was met with some boorish incident elsewhere. From the New York Times review:
His talent, coupled with a blustery persona and Bunyanesque physique, was the spark that lighted baseball's populist fuse and set it off into prime-time glory. Before Ruth's debut with the Red Sox in 1914, the sport was dominated by a collection of gnarly, tobacco-spittin' cusses who were moved around on the diamond like chess pieces, and had about as much charisma. Babe Ruth was the game's first outsize personality, its first superstar; he courted the fans and press with his on- and off-the-field antics that rivaled those of any celebrity. There were serial car crashes, assorted lovers and paternities, spectacular fights, to say nothing of a vaudeville act in the off-season worthy of Pia Zadora.(Pia Zadora? What, did Top Jimmy write that?)
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...to say nothing of a vaudeville act in the off-season worthy of Pia Zadora.
Despite the obscure 1970's popular culture reference, it sounds like a great read. Ruth was always bigger than life, and the paradoxes in his behavior are a fascinating glimpse into the complexity of his personality. Nice review, Rhu_Rhu.
No, nice review, E-6. But, if you want to praise my cut-and-paste, feel free.
Right, nice review E-6. And nice cut-and-paste, Rhu_Rhu. Do you use the mouse for that, or ctrl+c/ctrl+v? I'm a keyboard shortcut man myself.
Keyboard shortcuts are vastly underrated.
I'm definitely a keyboard man myself. Two of my favorites are Ctrl+home to go to your home and Ctrl+Enter to add the "http://www." and ".com" to any word you type in to the address bar, i.e. espn and Ctrl+enter = http://www.espn.com.
And not exactly a keyboard shortcut, but a mouse one - if you have a scroll wheel that you can click as a 3rd button, clicking on a link in Firefox will open it automatically in a new tab.
I will use whichever method is appropriate at the time, but ctrl-keys are the preferred method. Gotta watch that I keep my vi codes at bay, though.
vi is the devil's editor.
So you disagree with SBG's position that keyboard shortcuts are vastly underrated?
ctrl-d this thread!
Then emacs is... angelic??
damned straight, NBB!
I'm old school.
This sounds like a good read. I usually like hearing about the behind-the-scenes stuff, like the wild parties, mostly because I'm never going to cool enough to attend one. Crap like TMZ where they show Brad Pitt leaving the supermarket = who cares. The Babe eating and screwing his way across the South = interesting.
The guy put up amazing numbers on and off the field. He had two 20-win seasons as a pitcher, 94-46, 2.26 ERA for his career. The single season home run record before Ruth was moved from the mound, was 12 - by "Home Run" Baker. Babe hit 29 the first year the Sox let him play in the field on days he wasn't pitching. His first year as a fulltime position player, he socked 54. He battled openly with his managers and teammates. He also punched an umpire during a game (I can't recall, but I think the suspension was only a week). In another instance, he went into the crowd after a heckler (who ran away like a little girl.) Babe then climbed atop the dugout and challenged any and all comers. Not surprisingly, there were no takers. On and on it goes.
It's well worth reading.
He also punched an umpire during a game (I can't recall, but I think the suspension was only a week).
This is a sure sign that Delmon will turn out to be just like the Babe. Right? Right??
Babe punched an umpire. The fact that Delmon tossed his bat at one just tells us he's lazy.
Maybe it just means he's willing to use technology to his advantage.
LOL. Attack of the Luddites!
Okay, I'm pretty sure that's the first time I've heard of a bat referred to as "technology."
The game kind of sucked before bats were invented.
Okay, I'm pretty sure that's the first time I've heard of a bat referred to as "technology."
Haven't you ever seen the opening scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey? Definitely technology.
And definitely not a bat. But it's a tool of the trade, nonetheless, I guess.
Babe Ruth was the game's first outsize personality, its first superstar;
not Ty Cobb on the former and Honus Wagner on the latter?
Cap Anson maybe was the first superstar, if there was such a thing back then. Cy Young, Walter Johnson both before Ruth, too.
I think what they're implying by "superstar" was that he brought the game to unprecedented popularity. The amount of publicity the guy got would make Cap'n Dreamboat blush. People who had no interest in baseball, were interested in Babe Ruth. He drew enormous crowds wherever he played, as a Yankee or barnstorming in the off-season. His visits to Japan were what spurred that country's love affair with the game. All those guys you mentioned were great ballplayers, but I bet the general public couldn't have picked them out of a line-up. Nearly everyone could pick out the Babe.
Ty Cobb was baseball's first Asshole. Well, maybe not the first, but one of it's biggest.
He and the Babe hated each other. Then again, nearly everyone hated Cobb.
"Ty Cobb wanted to come and play too, but we told him to stick it!"
IIRC, John McGraw stepped on a few toes in his day.
Well, E-6, I've found with my own reviews that no matter how enlightening the tome, 75% of the comments (if you get comments at all) will be about something as trivial and unrelated as editting preferences, Great Taste / Less Filling, or how a ram's bladder may be employed to prevent earthquakes. Hopefully this doesn't stop you from submitting more reviews in the future!
Meanwhile, Citizens, I've queued up some children's literature for the next couple weeks that more befits The Nation's apparent attention span.
That is a solid Monty Python reference, Rhu_Ru.
It pleases me to no end to know that those are not wasted. Thanks.
It's one of my silent joys when I can break into a quiet place in a work meeting of my peers and throw in Arthur's quote, "This new learning is amazing! Explain to me again..."
I'd expect nothing less from you twits.
