The Big Fella

Starred review from July 30, 2018
Sportswriter Leavy (Sandy Koufax) energetically narrates Ruth’s larger-than-life story in an entertaining and colorful biography. Troubled by their son’s misbehavior, Ruth’s parents sent the seven-year-old Ruth to St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys, across town from their home in Baltimore. There, Ruth developed his baseball skills thanks to Brother Matthias, who showed Ruth how to hit. Ruth joined the Baltimore Orioles in 1914, was sold to the Boston Red Sox a few years later, and a year later was traded to the Yankees. In his career Ruth had 2,873 hits, 714 home runs, and a lifetime batting average of .342, and as Leavy points out, Ruth lived as hard as he played; he “imbibed whatever life had to offer.” Ruth’s accomplishments and his appetites for drink and women (he had several extramarital affairs) coincided with the rise of sports journalism and marketing, and his manager, Christy Walsh, was instrumental in creating his public image. In 1927, Ruth slammed his 60th home run of the season, led the Yankees to a four-game sweep of the Washington Senators in the World Series, and embarked on a publicized three-week barnstorming tour of the country with Lou Gehrig to celebrate. Leavy’s captivating biography reveals Ruth as a man who swung his bat with the same purposeful abandon that he lived his life.

August 15, 2018
Does the world need another biography of Babe Ruth (1895-1948)? If it's this one, then the answer is an emphatic yes.The ever excellent Leavy (The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood, 2010, etc.) brings her considerable depth of knowledge of sports history to her latest project. She also brings considerable empathy for a man who, though notably boorish, at least made an effort to be civilized. Ruth had reason not to be influenced by the world's niceties. After all, as Leavy writes, he was only 7 when his parents sent him to St. Mary's Industrial School for Orphans, Delinquent, Incorrigible, and Wayward Boys on the outskirts of Baltimore. As an adult, he was "six foot two and 215 pounds when he was in trim and made everyone else in uniform look like the boys who later played in youth leagues named for him." He was also decidedly unsubtle: He smashed and hurled and fielded balls with a giant's force, and he "taught America to think big--expect big." Much of the narrative is a fine you-are-there reconstruction of Ruth's big moments, including the 1927 race in which he smacked 60 home runs, led a Yankees four-game sweep of the World Series, and then went off barnstorming with friend and teammate Lou Gehrig. There's tragic inevitability aplenty in that friendship, but Ruth's end in particular, a terrible death to cancer, is particularly jarring. Fans of the latter-day Yankees should wince, too, at Ruth's excoriation of the designated hitter. After another World Series sweep in 1929, Ruth "was back to offering opinions on things he knew about, expressing his disdain for a proposal to add a tenth hitter to the batting order to hit for the pitcher. He said it would take all the strategy out of the game." A skilled strategist and nearly peerless player, Ruth proves himself worthy of, yes, yet another biography, this one warts-and-all but still admiring.Sparkling, exemplary sports biography, shedding new light on a storied figure in baseball history.

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 15, 2018

The New York Times best-selling biographer of Sandy Koufax and Mickey Mantle, former sportscaster Leavy takes on the biggest baseball legend of all, the man Roger Angell called "the model for modern celebrity." Not just the story of Babe Ruth but of how America came to create its heroes; with a 500,000-copy first printing

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 15, 2018

Babe Ruth, born George Herman Jr. (1895-1948), is one of the most famous names in baseball. Even more than a century after his major league debut, he remains one of the most celebrated baseball players of all time. Following his 60th home run and winning the World Series in September 1927, Babe Ruth decided to do a 21-day victory lap around the country along with fellow teammate Lou Gehrig. Leavy (Sandy Koufax) offers a more personal understanding of the baseball star through this lens, brilliantly describing his barnstorming tour and cross-country adventures. Readers experience the journey alongside the players, while also learning about the impact they left on the country, both positive and negative. VERDICT Well researched and well written, this book about one the most famous baseball seasons and players in history, is truly one of a kind. All baseball fans will enjoy. [See Prepub Alert, 4/23/18.]--Gus Palas, Ela Area P.L., Lake Zurich, IL

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 2018
Few sports analysts explain the sabermetrics certifying Babe Ruth's baseball achievement more lucidly than Leavy. But readers will thank her for focusing on the personality?colorful and complex?behind the gaudy statistics. The same insight and verve that attracted readers to Leavy's portraits of Mickey Mantle and Sandy Koufax manifest themselves here as she traces the improbable transformation of the insecure Little George?surrendered by his father to a Catholic school for incorrigibles?into the imposing Sultan of Swat, master of the diamond and unparalleled national celebrity. Readers see the culmination of this transformation in Leavy's richly detailed account of the sensational October of 1927, when?fresh off a phenomenal 60-home-run season and a World Series sweep?Ruth joins forces with teammate Lou Gehrig on a barnstorming exhibition tour electrifying crowds from Providence to Los Angeles. Leavy recognizes in this tour Ruth's transformative assault on normal limits in sports and in life. This assault opens opportunities for Ruth's agent, Christy Walsh, to amplify the Babe's lucrative stardom, but also compels him to defuse scandals, including those generated by the slugger's unruly romantic life. Leavy, however, skillfully illuminates how the bad-boy traits of the swearing, boozing, brawling, womanizing Ruth ultimately intertwine with his explosive strengths. An American icon brought to life.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)