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The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs: Recrowning Baseball's Greatest Slugger
In an unprecedented look at Babe Ruth's amazing batting power, sure to inspire debate among baseball fans of every stripe, one of the country's most respected and trusted baseball historians reveals the amazing conclusions of more than twenty years of research. Jenkinson takes readers through Ruth's 1921 season, in which his pattern of battled balls would have accounted for more than 100 home runs in today's ballparks and under today's rules. Yet, 1921 is just tip of the iceberg, for Jenkinson's research reveals that during an era of mammoth field dimensions Ruth hit more 450-plus-feet shots than anybody in history, and the conclusions one can draw are mind boggling.
432 pages, Paperback
First published February 8, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 2, 2008
Who's the greatest baseball player of all time? I used to think it was Babe Ruth. Then I read this entertaining, expertly researched and reasoned book. Now I KNOW that it was Babe Ruth.
March 6, 2013
Good read, goes into pretty decent detail about how tough it was to be a ballplayer back in those days, especially with the distance of the ballparks they played in. Not to mention how many games they played and endured especially with injuries. They didn't miss many games the way they do now.
April 7, 2013
I've read many book on the era and Ruth. Jenkinson does a very good job at taking the singular act of hitting a home run and painting a fascinating look at the man behind the myth. The legend endures, it is deserved.
November 19, 2015
What research! Read three times. I'll never pass by the ballpark in Dunsmuir, on I-5, without thinking of the Babe.
January 16, 2023
What a fantastic and well researched book about The Babe. I've read quite a few books about Babe and this one is awesome. It starts off a little slow but picks up and really moves. It's fascinating and the author did a ton of research to come up with his conclusions. Tons of stats. You'll see how the game has changed since the 1920s (and before) and how home runs were measured. Stadiums are different. Balls are different. The foul ball/home run rule is different. There's just so much to take in. If Babe was playing today, he'd be a huge superstar and be the top slugger. I agree that Babe is the best player ever! 1921 it is!
March 30, 2020
Author did a lot of research and analysis. Babe Ruth was actually better than we thought! Lots of details on his mammoth homers.
February 11, 2009
A good book that does well integrating its dual aims of communicating the essence of Ruth as a player and celebrity and arguing for the reinsertion of Ruth at the top of the baseball heap. The writing is pedestrian through the first few chapters, which are just a summary of Ruth's career, but the book and the writing get much better when the book shifts to the arguments for Babe's superiority. The analysis is sound and the conclusions well supported.
While reading this book more evidence of Bonds's steroid use and A-Rod's '01-'03 use both broke in the news. The funny thing is that this book only touches on PEDs. So here we have a through explanation of the relative ease of slugging in today's baseball, and these pretenders to the throne are still cheating. I'd get mad about it, but this book offers such compelling evidence in favor of Ruth that any bickering over today's game is moot. The sad truth is that baseball lost its statistical credibility long ago. With all due respect to Hank Aaron and Roger Maris, Babe Ruth is the best slugger the game has ever known, and by a wide margin.
While reading this book more evidence of Bonds's steroid use and A-Rod's '01-'03 use both broke in the news. The funny thing is that this book only touches on PEDs. So here we have a through explanation of the relative ease of slugging in today's baseball, and these pretenders to the throne are still cheating. I'd get mad about it, but this book offers such compelling evidence in favor of Ruth that any bickering over today's game is moot. The sad truth is that baseball lost its statistical credibility long ago. With all due respect to Hank Aaron and Roger Maris, Babe Ruth is the best slugger the game has ever known, and by a wide margin.
August 16, 2021
Followed up Glenn Stout's "Selling of the Babe' with Bill Jenkinson's "The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs". Jenkinson is the world's premier Ruth scholar and expert and this is the summation of his life's work. In short, Jenkinson demonstrates why Ruth was not only the game's greatest slugger, but so far outperforms everyone else in his own and every other era that he is in a class by himself -beyond the usual spectrum of relative performance. Jenkinson looks at a whole host of factors that clearly shows that if Ruth was at a disadvantage beacuse of the vast dimensions of Major League ballparks at the time, the rules of the game (i.e., using a warped, often doctored ball, fair/foul home runs, and length of the season), comparatively primitive medical and training practices, and the insane schedules of in-season exhibition games and post-season barnstorming. If Ruth palyed under today's conditions and rules, Jenkinson argues, he would have hit an additional 300 career home runs, including an eye-popping 104 in 1921, his peak year. Incredibly researched and well written. Case closed.
April 22, 2011
The title for this book for very accrurate as to the content.
The book talks about Ruth's greatness but then makes the case that he could hit 104 homers. This also came out during the tale end of the steriod era which add to the author's point. Jenkinson uses the arguement of diluting pitching, smaller ballparks, better travel conditions, and of course access to modern medicine (aka, roids) to make his case that Ruth would hit over 100 with ease. He also adds ball park diagrams of were Ruth's homers landed when he played to show were they compare with current ballpark. The 104 figure does sound believable after reading.
The book talks about Ruth's greatness but then makes the case that he could hit 104 homers. This also came out during the tale end of the steriod era which add to the author's point. Jenkinson uses the arguement of diluting pitching, smaller ballparks, better travel conditions, and of course access to modern medicine (aka, roids) to make his case that Ruth would hit over 100 with ease. He also adds ball park diagrams of were Ruth's homers landed when he played to show were they compare with current ballpark. The 104 figure does sound believable after reading.
Read
August 2, 2011A really good informative book on the life and achievement's of George Herman Ruth. The book gives you a year by year account of his career with special focus on 1924 when Babe was at his peak. It charts his unofficial games in the off season, where he would play against all comers. Including the leading black players of the day who were barred from the Major League. Jenkinson compares the game when Ruth was playing with today, giving a comparison between Ruth and some of the current big hitters. All in all a great read, even someone with little knowledge of baseball could enjoy this book.
May 11, 2012
Interesting, but not great.
Want to read
August 25, 2015Recommended to me by my eleven-year-old son.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews