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Babe Ruth: His Life and Legend
Babe's rise from his rebellious, poverty-stricken youth in Baltimore to his total dominance of the baseball world is viewed together with his flamboyant lifestyle and often abrasive manner
274 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1974
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 2, 2024
You can also see this review, along with others I have written, at my blog, Mr. Book's Book Reviews.
Mr. Book just finished Babe Ruth: His Life & Legend, by Kal Wagenheim.
There were too many errors in this book, including three in a single chapter. The book described Ed Barrow as someone who “knew little more than the ordinary fan about baseball.” Who are we going to believe, the author or Branch Rickey, who said, “I say there has never been a smarter baseball man than Mr. Barrow. He knows what a club needs to achieve balance, what a club needs to become a pennant winner. I, perhaps, can judge the part; but Mr. Barrow can judge the whole.” Actually, we don’t have to just believe Rickey. We can instead Barrow’s brilliance with his record with the Yankees.
The next error was about Ruth’s 1918 season, in which he was credited with 11 home runs. The author says that Ruth would have hit 12–there was a walk-off home run with the game tied and a runner on first, Under the scoring rules of the day, since Ruth could only get a triple before the winning run scored, it was credited as a triple. But, then the author claimed that the rule was later changed, but not made retroactive. It was changed retroactively … but only for people whose names were not Babe Ruth. Just like Cobb’s hit total couldn’t be changed to reflect the 4,191 that he really had due to “tradition”, Ruth’s 714 total also couldn’t be changed. And, finally, the author said the players threatened to strike during the 1918 World Series because of a dispute involving too much of the World Series shares going to war charities. Instead, it was just a dispute over there being low gate receipts—not about charity.
The final straw for this one was when the told the story about Ruth being in a near-fatal accident, while driving from Washington to New York, on July 6, 1920 in which coach Charley O’Leary was nearly killed. According to the book, two days later, Ruth had a 22-game streak when he extended it with his 25th homer of the season, coming in the Polo Grounds. But, two days later, the Yankees were in Chicago. So, the author expects us to believe that they left New York on July 5, where the Yankees were playing the Athletics, travelled south to DC, in order to get to Chicago to play the White Sox a couple of days later. The details don’t make any sense.
And, to make things worse, there was only one time in Ruth’s career that he had more than 20-game hitting streak and that came the next year, It was a 26-game hitting streak in which the game that he extended the hit streak to 23 was a 3-hit game, all of them being singles, in St. Louis, not the Polo Grounds. And instead of having 24 homers entering game 23 of the hitting streak, Ruth had 46.
In the very next paragraph, the author claimed that Ruth broke his single season record of 29 HR on July 15, with a walk-off home run and then proceeds, in the paragraph after that one to say that the record was broken in the doubleheader the next day with a fourth-inning homer. The facts were he tied the record of 29 with a walk-off homer on July 15 and then broke it with that fourth-inning homer on July 19–not the next day. The author also claimed that, when he set the record on July 15, he still had 61 games left to play. But, anyone who passed elementary school math could calculate that 154 minus 83 means there were 71 games left.
With so many errors in such a short period of time, I pulled the plug on this one. I was only in Ruth’s first year with the Yankees. I’ll never get to find out how many more mistakes the author crammed into the rest of the book.
I give this book an F. Goodreads requires grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an F equates to 1 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).
This review has been posted at my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews, and Goodreads.
We don’t know when Mr. Book originally read this. My records show “January 1, 1901”, which is my code for read the book at a time prior to me starting to keep records. Mr. Book reread this on October 2, 2024.
Mr. Book just finished Babe Ruth: His Life & Legend, by Kal Wagenheim.
There were too many errors in this book, including three in a single chapter. The book described Ed Barrow as someone who “knew little more than the ordinary fan about baseball.” Who are we going to believe, the author or Branch Rickey, who said, “I say there has never been a smarter baseball man than Mr. Barrow. He knows what a club needs to achieve balance, what a club needs to become a pennant winner. I, perhaps, can judge the part; but Mr. Barrow can judge the whole.” Actually, we don’t have to just believe Rickey. We can instead Barrow’s brilliance with his record with the Yankees.
The next error was about Ruth’s 1918 season, in which he was credited with 11 home runs. The author says that Ruth would have hit 12–there was a walk-off home run with the game tied and a runner on first, Under the scoring rules of the day, since Ruth could only get a triple before the winning run scored, it was credited as a triple. But, then the author claimed that the rule was later changed, but not made retroactive. It was changed retroactively … but only for people whose names were not Babe Ruth. Just like Cobb’s hit total couldn’t be changed to reflect the 4,191 that he really had due to “tradition”, Ruth’s 714 total also couldn’t be changed. And, finally, the author said the players threatened to strike during the 1918 World Series because of a dispute involving too much of the World Series shares going to war charities. Instead, it was just a dispute over there being low gate receipts—not about charity.
The final straw for this one was when the told the story about Ruth being in a near-fatal accident, while driving from Washington to New York, on July 6, 1920 in which coach Charley O’Leary was nearly killed. According to the book, two days later, Ruth had a 22-game streak when he extended it with his 25th homer of the season, coming in the Polo Grounds. But, two days later, the Yankees were in Chicago. So, the author expects us to believe that they left New York on July 5, where the Yankees were playing the Athletics, travelled south to DC, in order to get to Chicago to play the White Sox a couple of days later. The details don’t make any sense.
And, to make things worse, there was only one time in Ruth’s career that he had more than 20-game hitting streak and that came the next year, It was a 26-game hitting streak in which the game that he extended the hit streak to 23 was a 3-hit game, all of them being singles, in St. Louis, not the Polo Grounds. And instead of having 24 homers entering game 23 of the hitting streak, Ruth had 46.
In the very next paragraph, the author claimed that Ruth broke his single season record of 29 HR on July 15, with a walk-off home run and then proceeds, in the paragraph after that one to say that the record was broken in the doubleheader the next day with a fourth-inning homer. The facts were he tied the record of 29 with a walk-off homer on July 15 and then broke it with that fourth-inning homer on July 19–not the next day. The author also claimed that, when he set the record on July 15, he still had 61 games left to play. But, anyone who passed elementary school math could calculate that 154 minus 83 means there were 71 games left.
With so many errors in such a short period of time, I pulled the plug on this one. I was only in Ruth’s first year with the Yankees. I’ll never get to find out how many more mistakes the author crammed into the rest of the book.
I give this book an F. Goodreads requires grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an F equates to 1 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).
This review has been posted at my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews, and Goodreads.
We don’t know when Mr. Book originally read this. My records show “January 1, 1901”, which is my code for read the book at a time prior to me starting to keep records. Mr. Book reread this on October 2, 2024.
August 18, 2023
Kal Wagenheim portrays Babe Ruth as somewhat of a bumbling goofball. He is sure to let the reader know that Ruth mixes up words, loses paychecks, pulls practical pranks that go too far, pouts when things don't go his way and acts generally like a child.
But then he also shows how Ruth became one of the first really huge product endorsers, raking in thousands of 1920s money for appearances and uses of certain products.
This reads like a biography should. Ruth was born in Baltimore and went to the orphanage -- we all know that story. He then goes to Boston and is eventually sold to the New York Yankees. I was glad to see that Frasee, the Boston Red Sox owner did not sell Ruth to pay for one of his stage plays. That's an old rumor that at least Wagenheim tries to dispel.
He does a fine job of writing of Ruth's stellar seasons from 1927-1932. He doesn't really mention the flare up between Ruth and Durocher over a watch, nor does he explain how the hard feelings between Ruth and Lou Gehrig developed.
The ending is somewhat sad in that it shows the true heart of baseball. Ruth brought people to the game; he changed the game, hitting more home runs than most teams each season. He was the ultimate showman and he saved baseball after the Chicago Black Sox scandal of 1919 much like Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa "saved" baseball after the 1994 season-ending strike (Funny how that scandal was diverted by two players who later were involved in the steriod scandal). But when he left the Yankees, NY never really cared, it seemed. He went to the Boston Braves for a pitiful season, a sad ending to his glorious career.
This is not ground-breaking stuff; however, it was written in 1974, presumably a quick book to capitalize on Henry Aaron's charge and surpassing of Ruth's career home run record. The fact that is is nearly 50 years may be why it's not ground-breaking. Perhaps it was when it first came out. Hindsight is 20/20, you know.
But then he also shows how Ruth became one of the first really huge product endorsers, raking in thousands of 1920s money for appearances and uses of certain products.
This reads like a biography should. Ruth was born in Baltimore and went to the orphanage -- we all know that story. He then goes to Boston and is eventually sold to the New York Yankees. I was glad to see that Frasee, the Boston Red Sox owner did not sell Ruth to pay for one of his stage plays. That's an old rumor that at least Wagenheim tries to dispel.
He does a fine job of writing of Ruth's stellar seasons from 1927-1932. He doesn't really mention the flare up between Ruth and Durocher over a watch, nor does he explain how the hard feelings between Ruth and Lou Gehrig developed.
The ending is somewhat sad in that it shows the true heart of baseball. Ruth brought people to the game; he changed the game, hitting more home runs than most teams each season. He was the ultimate showman and he saved baseball after the Chicago Black Sox scandal of 1919 much like Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa "saved" baseball after the 1994 season-ending strike (Funny how that scandal was diverted by two players who later were involved in the steriod scandal). But when he left the Yankees, NY never really cared, it seemed. He went to the Boston Braves for a pitiful season, a sad ending to his glorious career.
This is not ground-breaking stuff; however, it was written in 1974, presumably a quick book to capitalize on Henry Aaron's charge and surpassing of Ruth's career home run record. The fact that is is nearly 50 years may be why it's not ground-breaking. Perhaps it was when it first came out. Hindsight is 20/20, you know.
January 27, 2023
3.5 Stars. This Babe book is a little different from the earlier biographies. There's a lot that's repetitive but the author tends to focus more on Babe's personality and makes Babe out to be dumb, uneducated, and a moron. Most of the other Babe books steer clear of this to a great extent. We've got all the history, stats, etc., that you would expect. We go year to year, salary deal to salary deal, quotes from some of Babe's buddies, and of course journalists who covered this time period. Not much about Dorothy. No mention of her mother Juanita but that might not have been known while the author was writing this book. There are no end sources and no credit is given to prior books that are extremely well regarded.
Babe was a wild human, a great ballplayer, but he had his weaknesses. It's much easier to highlight the records and amazing stats than it is to talk trash about Babe's personal life, his habits, his drinking, smoking, womanizing, gambling, car accidents, and poor English skills. Oh, but he knew how to make sauce! So, there!
Babe was a wild human, a great ballplayer, but he had his weaknesses. It's much easier to highlight the records and amazing stats than it is to talk trash about Babe's personal life, his habits, his drinking, smoking, womanizing, gambling, car accidents, and poor English skills. Oh, but he knew how to make sauce! So, there!
April 6, 2021
Kal Waggenheim's "Babe Ruth; His Life and Legend" was one of three major biographies of the Sultan of Swat written in the 1970's. This was a thouroughly engaging and concise read, expertly conjuring the drama of Ruth's life and times. I found this a very satisfying picture of an elusive life, and am tempted to say that it was even better than Creamer's Babe book, but I read that one years ago, so I can't be sure. Waggenheim does a great job evoking the Jazz Age that was Ruth's heyday, and an even better job, I think, of describing his sad, final years when the Baseball Establishment (including and especially the Yankees), wouldn't give him the time of day. It's no wonder that his daughter, Julia Ruth Stevens, who died in 2019 at 102, said she was a Red Sox fan.
August 28, 2009
Loved this book. Many personal stories about the Babe - from the early days to the very end. Funny and at times very poignant. I still think he is the best pure home run hitter of all time. He used chemcicals like today. The difference was his was drinking - which probably diminished his abilities at times and likely cut the records he set. One has to wonder how many home runs he would have hit - without steroids - had he not been a pitcher in the early years of his career.
May 9, 2011
The man transcended baseball. He was that good. Babe was a perfect name for him because that's what he was. He never did grow up as far as I can tell. There was an innocence about this bad boy. You just couldn't hate him.
June 23, 2010
Babe Ruth,biography
February 25, 2016
Excellent book
Very interesting stories fun facts and sad ending.
Overall I recommend it to any baseball can. He was one great American.
Very interesting stories fun facts and sad ending.
Overall I recommend it to any baseball can. He was one great American.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews