The Big Fella: Babe Ruth And The World He Created, Leavey - B+

         "By any standard or metric, ancient or modern, Ruth remains the best, most remarkable player in baseball history. He is still ranked first in slugging percentage (.690), and is also first in the newer, chic modern metrics of on-base + slugging (OPS.1.164) and wins above replacement (WAR 182.5)."

          In June, 1902, seven year old George Herman Ruth, Jr. was sent by his parents to St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys, a place where incorrigible and unruly white boys of Baltimore were placed when their parents felt that they had lost control.

          His story is told through the prism of a barnstorming tour featuring the Larrupin Lou's and the Bustin Babe's, conducted after the conclusion of the Yankees most famous season - 1927. The tour begins in Providence, RI on Oct. 10th. Before the '27 season, Ruth had promised Jake Rupert, Yankees owner, that he would hit 60 homers. He and Gehrig were tied at 44 apiece as late as Sept. 5th. The Babe had almost singlehandedly knocked the Pirates off in the World Series in four games, causing the owners to refund the gate for games 5 and 6. On the tour, the two superstars conducted home run contests before the game and then played on local teams. Ruth played for the Universal Winding Company and Gehrig for the Immaculate Conception Institute in Providence.

        Babe's childhood had been tumultuous. His family's finances were precarious, and most importantly, his mother kept burying newborns and infants. His parents divorced in 1906. He occasionally came home, but was at St. Mary's for a dozen years, until he was 19. The consensus is, and the Babe certainly felt, that he had been abandoned by his parents.

       The  day after Providence they were in Trenton, NJ. The tour was arranged by Ruth's agent, Christy Walsh, whose primary job was keeping the Babe's drinking and womanizing out of the papers. Walsh was the first sports agent. He had a flair for publicity that coincided with the explosion of interest in sports in the newspapers of America in the 1920's. He syndicated ghostwritten stories by Babe and others.  Walsh was so good that the Babe was being paid as much for his off field promotions as he was for his play for the Yankees. He was the number one story in a city that sold 3.5 million newspapers per day. He was on the cover of Time, Vanity Fair, Liberty, Popular Science, American Boy and Hardware Age. On that day in Trenton, they played against a Negro League team. The Babe regularly played against men of color, to the eternal consternation of Commissioner Landis.  On the 12th, they played at Dexter Park on the Brooklyn-Queens boundary line. Babe was the draw, the one the people wanted to see and touch. And he loved it, knew how to make sure everyone loved him, and always wanted to be around as many people as possible. At the end of the game, thousands stormed the field and it took a phalanx of policemen to extract Ruth from the crowd. 

      Next up was Asbury Park, where they had an uneventful day. On the 13th and 14th, they were on a train to Lima, OH. As they did in every town they went to, Ruth and Gehrig visited institutions that cared for kids. In Lima, it was a children's home, a hospital and an elementary school.  They played a nine inning game and were on to Kansas City. There, the itinerary included three orphanages, two newspapers, a hospital, and a parade before a 2:30 game. He pocketed $3,000 for a photo shoot and headed for Des Moines. He had become America's first and most famous pitchman. He would sell anything for a price. On one day alone, while still in Boston, he did ads for Dr. Reeds Cushion Shoes, the Talbot Co., Wolf's clothier,  Beckwith Hardware, Partridge Co. sporting goods, the Donovan Car company, a phonograph manufacturer and a cigar company. He made movies. He partnered with Louisville Slugger and A.G. Spaulding on lines of products. The one product he never received a penny for was the Baby Ruth candy bar, whose owners insisted it was named after the late Ruth Cleveland, the former president's daughter.

    Ruth had married the fall he left St. Mary's and became a baseball player.  Helen Woodford was a tragic figure who married and died young. Mystery surrounds their marriage and the birth of their daughter, Dorothy, who was adopted, but they claimed to be theirs. There are suspicions that he may have been sterile, as he slept with any and all women he could and was sued for paternity only once. In the early 20's, he met a Georgia model, Claire Hodgson, whom he would eventually marry.

   On the 19th, they arrived at Union Station in Denver and were met by 3,000 fans. By 1927, the fact that Ruth was a womanizing heavy drinker had become a commonly known fact. Two years previously, he had missed much of the early season with the "bellyache heard round the world." There was an extraordinary focus on his well being. Over the summer, it was apparent to all that Ruth was spending a great deal of time with Claire Hodgson, and the New York Daily news broke the story at a time when no one ever reported on the private life of celebrities. He showed up at the Stadium after being out all night and was suspended by the Yankees. The Babe's failings were now national news.  

    Babe and Helen had been secretly separated when she died in a house fire in early 1929. He married Claire in April. They held a reception at their 14 room W. 88th Street apartment, where, per Red Smith "the 18th Amendment didn't apply." Claire was sophisticated, assertive and hoped to reform the Babe.  

   The final two stops were Fresno and L.A. on the 29th and 30th. By the time they left for NY, they had traveled 8,000 miles, played before 225,000 fans, autographed 5,000 baseballs, visited dozens of charitable institutions and made money for the charities and themselves.

   The retirement that came in 1935 was a lonely one and loneliness was something he could not countenance. He had no financial concerns because of all the money he made, the extras that Walsh made and the fact that Walsh had insisted in the funding of an irrevocable trust with $200,000 of contributions he extracted from the Babe. He acted in 'Pride of the Yankees' and before his death was an advisor on the 'Babe Ruth Story'.  In 1946, he began to have headaches and an x-ray showed a mass at the base of his skull. Endless hospitalizations, chemo and radiation led to a weight loss of 125 lbs. MLB organized opening day of the 1947 season as Babe Ruth Day in all of its parks and the Babe spoke at the Stadium.  Experimental chemotherapy restored him that summer and gave him another year of life. In May, 1948, it was announced "that the Yankees intended to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Stadium on June 13 and retire number 3." He needed help to walk from the dugout to home plate to the cheers of 50,000 as Mel Allen boomed out "Ladies and Gentlemen, George Herman Ruth." He spoke to the crowd and left the Stadium for the last time. He died on August 16th. There was an around the clock viewing at the Stadium and a funeral mass, conducted by Cardinal Spellman, at St. Patrick's.

   The telling of this story in the format chosen has been difficult for me, as I prefer linear narratives. Like most Americans of my generation, I was raised on baseball lore and know much of the story. I feel I would have enjoyed a more in depth exploration of just about every topic touched here. He clearly was one of the century's iconic Americans, and meant so much to his times, and in particular, to his 'boys'. Thanks again to my brother.