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Babe: The Legend Comes to Life (1974)

de Robert Creamer

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He was the biggest man baseball has ever produced. Babe Ruth transcended the sport that brought him fame, money, and adulation, moving beyond the limits of baselines and outfield fences into the mainstream of American life. In this extraordinary biography, Creamer uncovers the complex and captivating man behind the legend. He presents the truth behind famous Ruth stories such as the "called shot" homers and the home run for a dying child, analyzes the astounding statistics with detailed information on specific games, and describes Ruth's varied, often volatile, relations with those around him, from fellow players to fans, friends, and reporters. From Babe Ruth's early days in a Baltimore orphanage, to the glory days with the Yankees, to his final years, Creamer has drawn an indelible portrait of a true folk hero.… (més)
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Long before Barry Bonds was the home run king, there was the Babe. Arguably no other figure in American sports history is wrapped in more mystery and reverence as George Herman “Babe” Ruth. Robert Creamer is well aware of this and in his masterful biography BABE: THE LEGEND COMES TO LIFE, he strips away the legends and reveals the man.

This wonderfully rich and detailed book was first published in 1974 and routinely makes the “best of” lists whenever sports books are mentioned. But it wasn’t until recently that I read Creamer’s work. Sure I had heard of him. Creamer is a well known sportswriter having been with Sports Illustrated since it’s inception in 1954 and the author of three baseball histories.

I approached this book with guarded interest. Babe Ruth’s life and legends are some of the most recorded and cherished of any 20th century figure. And having been a Yankee fan in my youth, I had already read quite a bit about the Bambino. As you can clearly see, I was sucked in and quite taken with this book.

Creamer uses previous biographies and newspaper accounts interspersed with reminiscences by those who played, befriended, and wrote about Ruth. BABE strips the man bare and removes most of the sentimentality to reveal a powerful but often tragic sports figure. Most of the Ruthian legends are explored here. From his days in the Catholic reformatory to pitching with the Red Sox and most notably his time with the New York Yankees. But more than discussing the famed exploits of this often larger than life personage, Creamer uses anecdotes to explore other aspects of his life.

*************************
[Ruth is talking to a reporter during batting practice before a Yankees-Browns game in
1930. Yankee shortstop Tony Lazzeri is nearby. The reporter is asking Ruth a question.]
“What is the psychology of home runs?”

“Say, are you kidding me?”

“No, of course not. I just want an explanation of why you get so many home runs.”

Ruth spat again. “Just swinging,” he said.

“Have you ever had an idol, someone you thought more of than anyone else?”

“Sure he has,” Lazzeri said. “Babe Ruth.”

“Go to hell,” Ruth said, and to the reporter, “Excuse me, it’s my turn to hit.”
*************************

BABE is full of similar scenes. There were exploits and stories that made me chuckle making this sports god very real. Creamer really shines when he is exploring some legendary Ruthian exploit and none more so than the “called shot home run”.

In the fifth inning of the third game of 1932 World Series with the Chicago Cubs, Babe Ruth hit a monstrous home run into the center field bleachers of Wrigley Field. This is a fact but legend bleeds all around it. With the count two balls and two strikes, Ruth, who had been taunted unmercifully by both the Cubs fans and players, pointed two fingers toward the center field bleachers. Babe deposited the very next pitch into the bleachers and another story was added to the Ruthian mythos. Or so the legend goes. Creamer spends an entire chapter exploring one of the cornerstones of the Ruth legend. And it is fascinating.

*************************
Here are what some witnesses said about it.

Charlie Root [Cubs pitcher who threw the fateful pitch]: “Ruth did not point at the fence before he swung. If he had made a gesture like that, well, anybody who knows me knows that Ruth would have ended up on his ass. The legend didn’t get started until later. I fed him a changeup curve. It wasn’t a foot off the ground and it was three or four inches outside, certainly not a good pitch to hit. But that was the one he smacked. He told me the next day that if I’d thrown him a fastball he would have struck out. ‘I was guessing with you,’ he said”

Gabby Hartett, the Chicago catcher: “Babe came up in the fifth and took two called strikes. After each one the Cub bench gave him the business, stuff like he was choking and he was washed up. Babe waved his hand across the plate toward our bench on the third base side. One finger was up. At the same time he said softly, and I think only the umpire and I heard him, ‘It only takes one to hit it.’ Root came in with a fast one and it went into the center field seats . Babe didn’t say a word when he passed me after the home run. If he had pointed out at the bleachers, I’d be the first to say so.”

Doc Painter, the Yankee trainer: “Before taking his stance he swept his left arm full length and pointed to the center field fence. When he got back to the bench, Herb Pennock said, ‘Suppose you missed? You would have looked like an awful bum.’ Ruth was taking a drink from the water cooler, and he lifted his head and laughed. ‘I never thought of that,’ he said.”

THE SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER, October 2, 1932: “He called his shot theatrically, with derisive gestures towards the Cubs’ dugouts.”
*************************

Creamer explores all aspects of the events and other fascinating bits of this baseball legend’s life. My only complaints with this wonderfully written biography is the briefness in which the author explores the Ruth-Gehrig relationship and the seemingly disinterested, rushed manner he dealt with Ruth’s life post-baseball. Course his life may have not been that interesting once his career end but I doubt it. From the brief glimpses Creamer affords us there seems to be plenty of story to tell. This is a small problem and does not detract too much from this book, which may very well be the greatest baseball book ever written. Give it a try. And did Ruth actually call his shot back in ‘32? I’ll leave you with the way Creamer ends his marvelous chapter about that extraordinary happening.

*************************
Ford Frick, who was not at the game, tried to pin Ruth down on the subject when the two were talking about the Series some time later.

“Did you really point to the bleachers?” Frick asked.

Ruth, always honest, shrugged. “It’s in the papers, isn’t it?” he said.

“Yeah,” Frick said. “It’s in the papers. But did you really point to the stands?”

“Why don’t you read the papers? It’s all right there in the papers.”

Which, Frick said, means he never said he did and he never said he didn’t.
*************************
( )
  rickklaw | Oct 13, 2017 |
Highly recommended bio of Ruth. A flawed hero/genuis. ( )
  burningdervish | Nov 29, 2016 |
Terrific biography of the incomparable Babe Ruth, but also a wonderful glimpse at the game of baseball as it was in the 1910's, 20's, and 30's. Received this book from my father-in-law over twenty-five years ago, why it took so long for me to read it I have no idea. ( )
  5hrdrive | Jun 11, 2011 |
Wonderful, compassionate biography of a larger than life character who was a real man. ( )
  dbeveridge | Jun 9, 2010 |
I have been looking forward to reading this book for a while, ever since I read Baseball in '41 some time ago. Also, I wanted to know more about this mythical figure that looms over baseball in so many ways. But until I started to follow baseball a few years ago, I had literally no idea who Babe Ruth was. I think I may have heard his name, but with no context.

So, is this book a good introduction to this legendary sportsman? I would say yes. Robert Creamer has a very easygoing style. It is as if he were sitting next to you in a pub, telling a story over a pint of beer. The book seems to assume that the reader may know very little about Babe Ruth himself, though it does presume some basic knowledge of baseball (which is fine, after all who but someone with some interest in baseball would be reading a book on Babe Ruth?). It starts with a chapter on his legend, to place his life in the context of what follows and continues to this day. The next chapter starts with his birth, and sets the scene.

This first portion of the book - which goes from his birth to his trade to the Yankees, including him becoming a professional baseball pitcher and then the switch to a fulltime hitter - was for me the most interesting. This is in part because his exploits as a hitter - the home runs in all their majestic glory - I already know a little about. But his origins and his pitching were virtually unknown to me, so it was just damned interesting to find out more.

The second portion of the book is the main bulk, and is his time at the Yankees, including the separation from his first wife, his relations with the women who would become his second wife after his first wife's death, and also the stormy relationship with his managers, and the showdown he had with Landis - and, of course, all those home runs. What interested me most in this section was not so much Ruth himself, but the other characters that played a part in his story, particularly Gehrig, Huggins, Barrow, and a few others.

The final portion goes from when he left the Yankees to his death, and I found this a little disappointing. Perhaps this is because, in many respects, after Babe left baseball the rest of his life was disappointing. While he played he was a legend, and did great things. After he retired, nothing he did amounted to very much (in this he reminds me, strangely, of Oskar Schindler, who after the war ended also did very little of note). I think part of the problem is that Creamer choose to put the chapter on his legend at the start of his book, and I think I would have preferred it at the end.

This is something of a quibble however. Creamer does an excellent job of painting the pictures of the past on the canvass of the printed page. His does a marvellous job at imaging the characters of his story - of Ruth himself obviously, but also all the others who made up world, with the curious exception of Ruth's first wife Helen. He tells plenty of anecdotes, but is also careful to distinguish from what is probably true, and what is probably exaggerated. On a couple of the most famous episodes - for example the called home run shot - he goes into quite some detail, which in its way is interesting of an example of how a legend can grow.

Ultimately I read through this book swiftly and with great enjoyment. I would recommend it to anyone just starting to explore baseball's past. More seasoned baseball fans may find less in this book as they may already know more things, but I would still recommend it.

Verdit: A- ( )
  stnylan | May 18, 2008 |
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Wikipedia en anglès (5)

He was the biggest man baseball has ever produced. Babe Ruth transcended the sport that brought him fame, money, and adulation, moving beyond the limits of baselines and outfield fences into the mainstream of American life. In this extraordinary biography, Creamer uncovers the complex and captivating man behind the legend. He presents the truth behind famous Ruth stories such as the "called shot" homers and the home run for a dying child, analyzes the astounding statistics with detailed information on specific games, and describes Ruth's varied, often volatile, relations with those around him, from fellow players to fans, friends, and reporters. From Babe Ruth's early days in a Baltimore orphanage, to the glory days with the Yankees, to his final years, Creamer has drawn an indelible portrait of a true folk hero.

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