Customer Reviews

Babe: The Legend Comes to Life (Library Edition)

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Although I suspect that most people who will read this book already know how BIG Babe Ruth really was to Americans, I wish those who do NOT realize his profound inlfluence on modern culture would take the time to check this out.

Creamer has fashioned an extraordinarily readable, concise yet fully detailed biography of this great ball player. There is enough journalism here to satisfy those seeking accuracy, enough analysis for those interested in perspective, and enough elegant writing to please pretty much everybody else.

Beginning at the beginning, and ending, abruptly, at the end, Ruth's life is presented within a vivid portrayal of early 20th century America. His tenacity, exuberance, lust for life is all here, including many unflattering incidents. Warts and all.

If I had to single out the best things about this book, I'd have to start with how Creamer places Ruth's achievements into context. Staggering and astonishing are the two words I keep coming up with. Winning the Home Run Crown is one thing. Winning it over and over again for nearly two decades is another. Setting a home run record is one thing. Doubling the record is entirely another thing.

It took forty years for Maris to break Ruth's record by one. When Ruth broke the record the first time, in 1919, he broke the old record by three or four, hitting 29. The next year, 1920, he hit 54. He averaged 40 a year for SEVENTEEN years.

Before Babe, the all-time home run king hit 136 homers. Ruth passed that in his first few seasons as a full-time (non-pitching) player. Every homer he hit after that extended it...when he hit 700, only 2 other players were in the 300's.

And don't get me started on his pitching. Wait till you read about how good he was. I had always known he was a pretty good pitcher...I didn't know he was THIS good.

The name Babe Ruth is synonymous with "legend", and there are hundreds of legendary tales surrounding his exploits. Creamer sorts of fact from fiction, and most of time, the fact is the legend.

For example, the "called shot" may or may not have happened. The events that we are certain that occurred during that game are still amazing.

Plus, I prefer to believe that he hit a ball so hard that it went between a pitcher's legs AND over the center fielder's head. I just love that mental image.

There is a lot of sadness in Ruth's life, from his relative abandonment as a child, to his inability to become a big league manager, to his vitality-robbing cancer...his life had ups and downs like only true epic characters can have.

The book also gets Ruth's media domination right. At least it feels right. I wasn't there. Most of us weren't. But baseball was the only entertainment for the majority of the country, along with those relatively recent upstarts, radio and film...there is nothing today that really compares. There is really no one person whose personality captivated a country like his did.

And it sounds like he loved every second of it.

After reading this book, I would give anything to see Babe Ruth play just once...

An engrossing, informative biography of baseball's greatest player. Some biographers make the mistake of rattling off facts and statistics, as if to impress you with how much research they've done. Creamer wisely focuses on the story, including descriptions of important games that make you feel like you're on the field with the Babe. Comments by Ruth's contemporaries add to the realism. "Babe" gets off to a slow start--a chapter dealing with Creamer's feelings about writing the book, and more details about Ruth's childhood than you probably want to know. But once Ruth starts playing baseball, the book grabs you and won't let go. One caveat: the discussion of Ruth's womanizing, while necessary and not extensive, makes this book inappropriate for young readers. If you like baseball and want to learn more about Babe Ruth, this is the book to get.

Of the 200+ baseball books I've read, "Babe: The Legend Comes to Life" is my favorite. Creamer wrote the book while some of the old-timers were still alive, and this makes his story come to life. If you want to learn about Babe Ruth, this is the definitive book to read.

Originally published in 1974, Creamer's book was the first "serious" biography of Ruth and remains the standard work on the subject. The first few chapters are a bit slow as the author painstakingly chips away at decades of apocrypha and rumor to reconcile the many conflicting accounts of the Babe's youth. The pace picks up once Ruth reaches the big leagues and really takes off after he's sold to the Yankees. Creamer is frank about the Babe's ravenous appetites and the effect these had on those around him, notably his first wife. Ultimately, Ruth comes off as a jovial, well-meaning but rather selfish man who was fun to be around but not someone you'd want to depend on.

This Kindle edition has a hyperlinked table of contents and index but contains no photographs save the cover.

This a great book for baseball fans . sportslovers of all kinds and anyone interested in American history in the 20th century. Babe Ruth the icon is made human again for all of us who missed him when he played the game. The first sports celebrity in a nation that has gone on to become obsessed with celebrity and sports heroes. Babe paved the way in an era that saw tremendous change in American life. He is portrayed here " warts and all" and emerges as a warm hearted man with a huge appetite for living who was clearly in the right place at the right time.
This is one of the finest sports biographies I've read.

This superb biography by Robert Creamer describes the life of Babe Ruth (1895-1948) from early boyhood on through to his untimely death from cancer. As the author shows, George Herman Ruth was the rowdy son of a Baltimore saloon-keeper, a young man that spent years in reform school. Gifted with incredible baseball talent, the Babe joined the Red Sox in 1914 and was soon the top left-handed pitcher in the American League. As the author shows, Ruth's prodigious batting eventually led him from the mound to everyday status as an outfielder. After Boston's owner foolishly dealt him to the Yankees prior to the 1920 season, Ruth exploded onto the scene in the nation's largest city by hitting 54 homers - more than any other team in the league. Creamer shows us how media attention, radio, movies, and Ruth's love of the spotlight helped to make him into a national icon. The author also spares little in showing the Babe's flaws; his rowdy volatility and his self-indulgent night life and skirt chasing. But we also see how the Babe loved kids and could be very warm and engaging.

Readers might also enjoy Creamer's biography on Casey Stengel and his narrative of baseball in 1941 (BASEBALL AND OTHER MATTERS). This is an excellent biography by a talented writer.

the book starts out saying that some people may find some things in it boring , and that you could skip those parts , so i immediatly thought " this must be a bad book " . this book is written very good , and doesent miss anything , it includes every detail of his life , his feelings and his quotes . after you start reading this book , you wont want to put it down . all the information is well put and very informative about life back in the early 1920's and before . it goes from when he was in a boarding school to his life as a yankee. great book!

Legends transcend time. The Stories get better, the adjectives get bolder, until they become passé. Ruth was the only athlete who was already at legend at age 21. There was no reason to exaggerate, and no words to describe his ferocious dominance. And the timing of his nuclear assault on history couldn't have been better planned. Fresh from the Black Sox crisis of 1919, America's greatest sport teetered on extinction. To this day, this baby faced Neanderthal had more athletic dominance over his peers than anyone in history...and more charisma than ten W.C. Fields. He changed the sport. Some say he changed the world.

Home Runs were non-existent before him. Baseball runs were earned one base at a time; singles...sacrifice bunts...a sport of hard drinking pitchers, and gritty base stealers led by Cobb. After Ruth arrived, the physical dimensions had to be rearranged just to accommodate his abilities. Mammoth stadiums were built with double the capacity, replete with awe inspiring 450+ ft fences. All because of Ruth. But the parks were no match for him. He was the all-time home run champion at age 25, HR champ 13 times in 15 years, and in his 17 years as a hitter, he hit 235 home runs 450 ft. or further. By comparision, Bonds was HR champ just twice, and hit just 3, count em, 3 450ft HRs his first 15 seasons pre-roids.

I've just read the new Ruth book out called The Big Bam, but afficionado's like me still choose Beamer's documentary as the voice of record. Unlike the rest, he best captures Ruth's massive power and abilities, childhood innocence, great sense of humor and rebelliousness, and rock star image. Ruth was the real deal. He was a true legend in his own time, and wore the badge humbly on his sleeve. He lit up every room he entered, and lit up every pitcher he faced. This book is a classic, like the man himself.

This is a comprehensive book on our favorite early 20th century player from Baltimore. 50 years after his death he remains possibly the greatest, and no doubt the most famous, player to have ever entered the major leagues.

This book can best be described as warts and all. It starts with his rough childhood in an orphanage - which was basically a reform school - and how the Babe just excelled and became a natural player and hitter. It goes on and chronicles his rowdy life on and off the field, his indulgences and his mishaps until his premature death. He was not a man of moderation or a person that was able to pace his life. He was the opposite of say the current but now retired " Iron Man" Cal Ripken also from near Baltimore but a person famous for moderation. "The Babe"would often show up with a hangover and little sleep for a game. Then he would stuff himself with hotdogs during a game and still knock the ball out of the park.

He was a fascinating person, bigger than life, and every baseball fan must buy or borrow and read this book.

Author Robert Creamer has created one of the finest George Herman "Babe" Ruth biographies. This book incorporates a plurality of fascinatingly engrossing details about the baseball career and non-baseball activities of Babe Ruth.
This portrait describes Babe evolving from his tumultuous life in Baltimore as the delinquent son of a saloonkeeper into whom many people consider as the greatest baseball hitter and baseball player of all time.
Robert Creamer gives the reader an exceptionally in-depth description of Babe Ruth's life activities, attitudes and habits before the beginning of his major league baseball career. Creamer even mentions a few facts about Babe's minor league baseball playing roommate Rodger Pippen who roomed with Ruth during their 1914 International League season. Although not germane to the Babe's career I do wish that Creamer had given a very brief history about Rodger Pippen's history and his later-to-be significance to Baltimore. Pippen's International League statistics for that 1914 season were omitted. After Pippen's baseball career he later became a notable sports editor for the "Baltimore News-Post". Rodger Pippen was the primary individual who convinced Baltimore to create Memorial Stadium n the early 1950's. It is also believed that he may have been the first individual to create the phrase "Believe-It-Or-Not!". Rodger Pippen was a longtime friend of my great-grandfather Boston Fear's family. When Babe Ruth was dying from cancer he decided to make one last trip back to Baltimore to visit Rodger Pippen, other friends and family.
Robert Creamer presents many detailed facets about Babe Ruth's baseball career with the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees and the Boston Braves. It would have been a bit more of an improvement if Creamer had explored the Babe's epic making record breaking 1927 sixty home run season in more exquisitely minute detail. The biography could also have given the reader a more behind-the-scenes explanation of the silent and talking movies the Babe played in. Also, Babe Ruth's life after his major league baseball career ( the retirement years ) and his off-season exhibition baseball performances could have gone into more depth. Perhaps some day a Ruthian baseball scholar will write a book comprising these oft-overlooked topics.
Robert Creamer's book splendidly evokes an appreciation of how highly important Babe Ruth was to revolutionizing and popularizing baseball. This biography is most definitely one of the "must-read" books about Babe Ruth. Every baseball lover should possess a copy of this book on their home bookshelf.
Babe Ruth may very well be the most famous American athlete of all time. No less an authority as baseball hall-of-famer Ted Williams called Babe Ruth "the greatest baseball hitter and baseball player of all time" and that "Babe Ruth was Bunyanesque ( like the mythological folk tale Paul Bunyan ) bigger than life".
For a small state in geographical square mile area Maryland certainly has produced an unusual statistically high proportion of Baseball Hall of Fame players ( e.g. Babe Ruth, Jimmy Foxx, John Franklin "Home Run" Baker, Judy Johnson, Robert Moses "Lefty" Grove, Al Kaline ) or potential-to-be Baseball Hall of Fame inductees ( e.g. Cal Ripken, Jr., Harold Baines, Bill "Swish" Nicholson ). However our state is very proud to state that we produced "The Sultan of Swat" , "The Bambino", "The Maharajah of Maul", etc. who is otherwise known as George Herman "Babe" Ruth! Even some of Babe Ruth's descendants today live around the Baltimore, Hagerstown and Salisbury cities of Maryland.