Maybe I just wasn't in the mood, but I couldn't work up enough interest to keep going beyond the first chapter.

I wish I could write like Jane Leavy. She has a great style and produced a fun read with many humorous passages. This is not a cradle to the grave biography, but Leavy uses the back drop of a barnstorming tour to cover Ruth's life. Great history, too, of the rise of celebrity in the 1920s. ( )

Somewhat disappointing regarding the amount of research that went into the writing of this looong book on Babe Ruth. The book uses a postseason, nationwide barnstorming tour following the Yankees spectacular 1927 campaign as the focal point of the story with plenty of jumping back and forth from Babe's early childhood to his post-Yankee years.
While there are a few unknown nuggets of information about the Babe, most of this is well-tread turf that's been covered by the 15 or so previous Ruth biographers.
It's just an average book that's as easy to put down as it is to read. ( )

Reviews led me to believe this book is not up to the standard set by Jane Leavy in her biographies of Sandy Koufax and Mickey Mantle. In fact, this is the best examination of the life and impact of Babe Ruth I have read. Leavy carefully researched this book, interviewing hundreds of people and tracking down stories from contemporary local newspapers about Ruth's barnstorming appearances. It is one of the most enjoyable books I have read this year! Of course, I am a baseball fan and read a lot of books about baseball, but The Big Fella is head and shoulders above most other baseball books not written in the first person. Read it and enjoy! ( )

Summary: A biography of Babe Ruth, with the narrative of his life connected with a day by day account of a barnstorming tour of the country after his home run record-breaking 1927 season.

He was big in so many ways. He could probably have been a Hall of Fame pitcher. He not only held one season and lifetime home run records for decades, but his day in, day out hitting and slugging percentages and many other statistics place him at the very top of all time hitters. He was physically big, in height and girth, in hands. He not only hit a lot of home runs, but hit with a much heavier bat than most players used, and with a swing studied for its efficiency. He had huge appetites, for food, for women, for clothes, for adulation. He not only negotiated record salaries (and Leavy suggests he could have received more) but earned record amounts on appearances and endorsements.

Leavy tells this whole story from the loveless marriage of his parents that ended in divorce, with George, Jr. at St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys, and later St. James home, where he met Brother Matthias, who was probably the closest thing he really had to a father, and who taught him baseball. It is even thought that Babe modeled his swing on Brother Matthias. Leavy traces his career from the minors, his time in Boston and transformation from a pitcher to a hitter who played every day, his trade to New York.

She shows us a Ruth who tried to have a different life in his first marriage to Helen, yet whose appetites led to carousing and many women, and an increasingly distant relationship with Helen, who spent more and more time hospitalized or as an invalid, while Babe developed an extra-marital relationship with Claire who he married after Helen's death.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the book was the role Christy Walsh played in making Ruth "big." Long before agents became commonplace, Walsh worked tirelessly with Ruth to get him to amend his ways enough to stay out of trouble, play the game, endorse products, and make a fortune on post-season appearances. Walsh was the one who understood, in a way Ruth never quite grasped, how much Ruth was worth to the Yankees, and the limited time he had to capitalize on it.

Ruth, having not found love in his family, seems to never have been content with a family. He tried to keep playing when his body no longer could sustain it. Traded by the Yankees back to Boston, he hoped to manage a team, but was never given a chance. He got involved in a movie project that produced an inferior "B" movie. Then the cancer came. Ruth's last years were hard and the "big fella" was reduced to 150 pounds by his tottering farewell appearance at an Old-Timers game at Yankee Stadium. A few months later, he was dead.

Leavy uses the device of a 21 day barnstorming tour across the country with Lou Gehrig following his 1927 season, the peak of his career. Each chapter covers one day of the tour and advances Leavy's narrative of his life. The tour captures in miniature the story of his life from the game to the crowds including the kids, the after hours, and the adulation.

This was the one aspect of the book about which I was ambivalent. It captured an aspect of Babe's life often overlooked in the accounts. But it also seemed distracting and one had to pay attention to when Leavy was writing about the tour, or moving forward the larger narrative of his life. It was an interesting device, but I'm not sure it worked for me.

However, Leavy gives us a portrait of both the power and pathos that were part of the Babe's story. She helped me realize how extensive his accomplishments were long before today's technology enhanced game, and how his presence changed the game. Christy Walsh anticipated the role agents would have in looking out for players' interests, changing a game where the owners held all the power. It also raises the fascinating question of whether any of this would happen without the mentoring of Brother Matthias. One thing was sure. Ruth never forgot. And perhaps neither should we. ( )