The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth [Hardcover]

 

 

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"The Big Bam" tells the fascinating story of the man behind the legend. Author Leigh Montville does an excellent job of intertwining the man into the baseball hero, without neglecting either.

Babe Ruth was a character "from the wrong side of the tracks" whose make-up was often "lost in the fog." Was he really part Negro? Who were the parents of his daughter? We may never know for sure.

Raised in St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys, he first learned to play ball from the Xavierian Brothers who ran the school. Growing up with nothing, he exercised no restraint when he had everything. The tales of his undisciplined drinking (including during prohibition) and philandering leave the reader aghast at the life style led by the Babe. The failure of his first marriage and strange relationship with his daughter baffle the mind. Yet, through it all, Ruth emerges as worthy of hero worship and, in the end, a sympathetic character, a big kid who never grew up.

The Sultan of Swat is never ignored in the book. For the baseball fan, this book highlights a legendary career and brings out some facts that may have gone unnoticed. For example, I have seen pictures of the window he broke across the street from Sportsman's Park, but I never knew that he was pitching for the Red Sox that day. I had not realized that he was the one who wanted to quit pitching in order to hit more. His sparing with the owners and his managers make for interesting reading. His performance is even more astonishing when compared to his contemporaries, such as the year that he hit more home runs than six teams in the American League. Ultimately, it was his undisciplined character which defeated his last dream, that of managing in the major leagues.

This is a good read for any fan of the Golden Age of Baseball. It makes you admire the athlete and understand the man. Play Ball!

Montville is no stranger to this genre, and for the voracious readers of Ruthian exploits, this is a nice addition. With each new biographical entry, we can always find more tidbits to satisfy a sports junkies thirst for mindless triva. Everyone has their favorite players as well as sports writers. I prefered the Creamer version, but am glad to own both. There is also a great photo essay book put out by I believe Ruth's daughter. For Ruth nuts, the internet has plenty of interviews from old timers that are fascinating. Ruth was an all-around player. Few discuss his fielding prowess. People who played with him would come into the game expecting to be amazed by his hitting, and leave telling tales of his defensive play. As an ex-Pitcher, his arm was a cannon with pinpoint accuracy. He often did a pre-game stunt to intimidate the opposing players, where they would lay a towel in front of home plate, and from the warning track he would hit it on the fly out seven out of ten times. Ruth had phenomenal range in the outfield, and if you tried to stretch a base on him, you paid the price. Many Hall of Famers list Ruth as top 3 or 4 best fielding outfielders ever. Definitely recommend Montville book, and make sure you get his one on Ted Williams.

For those of us who grew up listening to baseball games on the radio rather than seeing them on television, this abridged audio is a real treat. Leigh Montville's dramatic story of the Sultan of Swat, the Bambino, the Big Bam, comes to life as Adam Grupper recounts both observed (the "called" home run) and recreated moments in this fine recording. After all, would you rather read about someone hitting the longest home run in a given ball park . . . or listen to a virtually breathless account of the same? I know which I would choose . . . every time!

Leigh Montville is one of our most talented sportswriters. He could just as easily be covering a more important beat (such as the White House) or writing novels. He's that good. Why do I say that? He takes a single fact, Babe Ruth ended up in a reform school/orphanage for most of his young life, and creates a mental image of what might have happened on that morning when his father took him to St. Mary's. While relating that tale, Mr. Montville deftly points out how little we know about Babe Ruth the man (as opposed to Babe Ruth the baseball player) and why we probably won't every know very much. I especially enjoyed Mr. Montville's description of "the fog" . . . or the dense mystery about so much of Babe Ruth's life (Why did his parents abandon him? Why wouldn't he talk about his youth? Why did his wife die in another man's bed? Why did he gamble so recklessly?).

Naturally, the baseball player is more visible. Mr. Montville constructs a helpful picture of the endless baseball activities at St. Mary's, how Babe Ruth probably learned his upper cut swing that revolutionized baseball (in an era when everyone else hit down on the ball), how Babe Ruth was discovered, the transition from being a pitcher to being an everyday player and hitter, how Babe Ruth really ended up traded from the Red Sox to the Yankees, and why he was exiled from baseball after his playing days were over.

But the private person is also revealed in powerful vignettes such as the Babe's loyalty to St. Mary's and orphanages, the terrible racial taunting he received from those who believed him to be an African-American, his non-stop pace on limited sleep, and his making up with his father.

Naturally, as a long-time baseball fan, I felt I knew about Babe Ruth. But my picture was slightly out of focus. Experiencing the play-by-play of his life made the Babe come to life for me more than ever before.

Mr. Montville also does an excellent job of explaining why so much remains murky about the Babe's life -- both in terms of the Babe's reticence and the code of conduct that the press observed in those more restrained reporting days.

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