Breaking Babe Ruth

Rather than as a Falstaffian figure of limited intellect, Edmund Wehrle reveals Babe Ruth as an ambitious, independent operator, one not afraid to challenge baseball’s draconian labor system. To the baseball establishment, Ruth’s immense popularity represented opportunity, but his rebelliousness and potential to overturn the status quo presented a threat. After a decades-long campaign waged by baseball to contain and discredit him, the Babe, frustrated and struggling with injuries and illness, grew more acquiescent, but the image of Ruth that baseball perpetuated still informs how many people remember Babe Ruth to this day. This new perspective, approaching Ruth more seriously and placing his life in fuller context, is long overdue.

Before 1918, the Boston Red Sox were unstoppable. They won World Series after World Series, thanks in part to their charismatic pitcher-slugger Babe Ruth. But some people on the Red Sox felt the Babe was more trouble than he was worth, and he was traded away to one of the worst teams in baseball, the New York Yankees. From then on, the Yankees became a golden team. And the Red Sox? For over 80 years, they just couldn’t win another World Series. Then, in 2004, along came a scruffy, scrappy Red Sox team. Could they break Babe Ruth’s curse and win it all?

No one changed baseball's record book like Babe Ruth. Some of the Babe's incredible career records may stand forever, though many of his single-season records were finally topped by modern era giants. Find out if anyone's knocked in more RBIs than Ruth in a season and more in this book of stats, photos, and lore.

Discover the life of Babe Ruth—a story about making it to the top for kids ages 6 to 9 George Herman Ruth Jr., more commonly known as Babe Ruth, was one of the greatest American baseball players of all time. Before he was a sports hero, Babe was a poor kid who loved playing baseball but often got into trouble. His life changed when he went away to boarding school and he was discovered by the minor leagues. The rest is history! Help kids explore how Babe went from being a young boy growing up in Baltimore to a record-breaking baseball player and sports hero. This Babe Ruth book includes: Core curriculum—Kids will learn the Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How of Babe's life, and take a quick quiz to test their knowledge. His lasting impact—Young readers will find out how Babe Ruth changed the game of baseball for future generations—and became more than just a great baseball player. Helpful definitions—An easy-to-read glossary provides definitions for some of the more advanced words and ideas in the book, so kids can add to their vocabulary and follow along. How will Babe's determination inspire the child in your life?

Babe Ruth remains the most popular player in the history of baseball. The slugger for the New York Yankees established a home run record in the 1927 season, just a year before joining the league of authors. Babe Ruth's Own Book is a who's who of old-time greats—Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, and many others. It describes the Babe's rise from poverty to stardom, catching his image and voice as freshly and permanently as pen and ink can. In a no-nonsense style, the Babe describes the ins and outs of the game, touching all bases and loading up the reader with priceless information and advice. The surprise is that so little about the sport has changed except the size of the players' salaries.

In a career that spanned over thirty years, George Herman "Babe" Ruth changed the way the sport of baseball was played. He was the first true power hitter, a strong pitcher, and in the outfield made some amazing game-saving catches. His love of the sport shined through in the way he laughed while jogging around the bases, in how he kidded and horsed around with teammates, and in his overall determination to win. But there was a darker side to Babe, one that nearly ruined his career - and his life. In the end, however, Ruth managed to overcome his personal demons, recapture his health, and go on to lead his beloved Yankees to championship status. Simply put, there has never been another player like the Babe. This comprehensive biography of one of baseball's most memorable legends also comes with photos.

Seven-year-old George "Babe" Ruth (who would grow up to become a baseball legend) steals a dollar from his father's saloon to treat his friends to ice cream. Includes timeline.

A Country Doctor and Ex-Ballplayer Save "The Bambino" from Thugs, the Baseball Commissioner, and Himself in the Historical Fiction Novel, The Babe Ruth Conspiracy, from Author David O. Stewart --New York City, 1920-21-- In 1920, Babe Ruth--larger than life on the ball field and off--is enjoying a record-breaking season in his first year as a New York Yankee when his 1918 World Series win falls under suspicion of being "fixed." Then rumors start that his silent movie, Headin' Home, was bankrolled by the top aide to gambling kingpin, Arnold Rothstein. Ruth turns to Speed Cook--a professional ballplayer before the game was segregated and who now promotes Negro baseball--for help. If anyone knows the dirty underbelly of America's favorite pastime, it's Cook. Cook enlists the help of a long-time friend, Dr. Jamie Fraser, whose new wife, Eliza, coproduced the Babe's silent film. While Cook, Fraser, and Eliza dig for the truth, protecting the oftentimes-reckless Ruth from thugs and the new baseball commissioner proves even more dangerous when they come face-to-face with hidden power-hitters who are playing for keeps. Publisher's Note: The Fraser and Cook Historical Mystery Series will be enjoyed by fans of American history and period mystery novels. Free of graphic sex and with some mild profanity, this series can be enjoyed by readers of all ages. "Within these pages, he ushers us into the randy, gritty, wanton world of Babe Ruth, just arrived in New York from Boston, where he would power the Yankees—hell, the whole damn city—for the next decade. It is a world filled with molls and toughs, crooked pols and bootleggers, gamblers and righteous cops, not to mention Stewart’s beloved characters, Speed Cook, the wise head and former Negro Leaguer, and Dr. Jamie Fraser, who have teamed up before in previous fictions. The texture of the city is rendered with precision and believability. When Stewart describes the new impediment at the corner of 42nd and Fifth Avenue, the city’s first traffic tower, a reader can see the snarl of horse-drawn wagons, bicycles, pedestrians and oh so many automobiles—“machines” in the argot of the Twenties--clogging the street. Even the Babe had to stop for that. The book is full of such knowing details like the Thomas splint, an invention of World War I medicine, that saves Jamie Fraser’s daughter from losing her leg. Larger-than-life Ruth is made palpable through a mosaic of small but unassailable images. Ruth, resplendent in a red satin dressing gown worn over a pair of green and white diamond pajamas, earns “a low whistle” from Cook when he is admitted to the Babe’s sumptuous apartment in the Ansonia Hotel. It earns something more important from the reader: a belief in narrative plausibility and in the characters that inhabit it. So, when Stewart writes of the Babe that getting angry at him was a waste of time, “like losing your temper at a thunderstorm,” you know he knows what he’s talking about. The book is grand. Just like the Babe." ~Jane Leavy, Author of The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created The Fraser and Cook Historical Mystery Series The Lincoln Deception The Paris Deception The Babe Ruth Deception