Babe Ruth : Launching the Legend [Hardcover]

Jim Reisler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 27, 2004

The fascinating, nearforgotten tale of how Babe Ruth revolutionized baseball and became America's biggest hero, all in a single season

With World War I, the "Black Sox" scandal, and a dearth of home runs, 1920 looked like the end of baseball. Then, in a move forever known in Boston as the "Curse of the Bambino," Babe Ruth joined the Yankees. His timing was impeccable, and his season of seasons--with a record-breaking 54 home runs--was just the tonic America needed.

In Babe Ruth: Launching the Legend, baseball historian and critically acclaimed author Jim Reisler describes the remarkable impact Babe Ruth and the 1920 Yankees had on the game. Their brand of baseball was something never seen before, creating a level of excitement that rescued the game at its darkest hour. This is the story about that pivotal moment in baseball history, an era frozen in time, with Ruth on the verge of becoming a legend --and giving rise to the Yankees dynasty that endures to this day.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Reisler... finds new gold in an oft-mined subject" -- The New York Times -- The New York Times

"Reisler’s work makes for quite an enjoyable ride." -- Steve Goode, Hartford Courant

From the Back Cover

How the Babe shook America from its doldrums with the crack of his bat

For a country exhausted by the tragedies of war and depleted by a raging flu epidemic, the timing of George Herman Ruth's arrival in New York in 1920 was perfect. Baseball had never seen anything like him on or off the field. His confident swagger, seductive charisma, and powerhouse swing at the plate was just what the country needed to forget its sorrows and kick off the jubilation of the Jazz Age.

Babe Ruth: Launching the Legend is the story of that incredible year and the transforming power of Babe Ruth and the Yankees of 1920.

When Americans wanted desperately to move on, drink gin, dance the Charleston, and enjoy a good game of baseball, the Babe gave it to them. Big time. Not only did he hit a record-breaking fifty-four home runs that season, he unleashed a new way to play the game, helped launch the Yankees dynasty, and saved baseball in the midst of the devastating "Black Sox" scandal. History was in the making.

Told in luminous prose by acclaimed baseball writer Jim Reisler, Babe Ruth: Launching the Legend is a rare glimpse into the story that started it all, a year when Ruth was simply a ballplayer, an emerging star on the very verge of becoming a mythic hero.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (February 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071432442
• ISBN-13: 978-0071432443
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,855,911 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #72 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( R ) > Ruth, Babe

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Customer Reviews

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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 1920--A Pivotal Year in Baseball, April 21, 2004

By 

C. W. Emblom "Bill Emblom" (Ishpeming, Michigan USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Babe Ruth : Launching the Legend (Hardcover)

While it is true 1920 is the year Babe Ruth began his assault on American League pitchers with his batting prowess as a member of the New York Yankees, the year also was known for the unraveling of the fixed 1919 World Series, the hiring of baseball's first commissioner, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, and the death of Cleveland Indians' shortstop Ray Chapman by one of Yankees' pitcher Carl Mays's submarine deliveries. It is often said the Babe's home run bat saved the game of baseball from the Black Sox Scandal, but people flocked to the park to see Ruth as a member of the Yankees in 1920 before the scandal broke in September of that year. The unfortunate death of Chapman is also dealt with in some detail. Carl Mays was a very unpopular player not only among rival players, but his own teammates as well. He was, however, absolved of any blame for intentionally hitting Chapman with the pitch. Mays won 26 games for the 1920 Yankees and compiled a better won lost record (209-126) than several Hall of Famers, but has been denied a place in baseball's hallowed halls. We are also provided with character profiles of Yankees' owners Colonel Jacob Rupert and Tillinghast "Cap" Huston, manager Miller Huggins, Judge Landis, White Sox owner Charles Comiskey, and American League President Ban Johnson. The hiring of Landis put an end to any power that Johnson wielded in the American League. Even though it didn't happen until 1925 the author also mentions the matter of Wally Pipp's famous "headache" which caused him to sit out a game and was replaced by Lou Gehrig in the lineup who remained there for the next 14 years. In reality, Pipp's "headache" was a fractured skull due to being hit with a pitched ball in a previous game. Ruth remains the main focus in the book with his introduction of a new type of baseball that made Giants' manager John McGraw and Ty Cobb scorn the new type of baseball the Babe was now introducing. Both McGraw and Cobb appeared to be jealous of the attention Ruth was commanding in the newspapers. This book tells you more about what some of baseball's principal characters were like during this time period. The author concludes the book with a "what became of" several of the principal characters. My only complaint about the book is that at times the book got into too much of a play-by-play on some of the games the author covered. I've read much of what is in this book in other volumes, but I still found it to be interesting reading.