The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created

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A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR:

The Boston Globe | Publishers Weekly | Kirkus | Newsweek | The Philadelphia Inquirer | The Progressive

Winner of the 2019 SABR Seymour Medal | Finalist for the PEN/ESPN Literary Sports Writing Award | Longlisted for Spitball Magazine’s Casey Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year | Finalist for the NBCC Award for Biography

“Leavy’s newest masterpiece…. A major work of American history by an author with a flair for mesmerizing story-telling.” —Forbes

He lived in the present tense—in the camera’s lens. There was no frame he couldn’t or wouldn’t fill. He swung the heaviest bat, earned the most money, and incurred the biggest fines. Like all the new-fangled gadgets then flooding the marketplace—radios, automatic clothes washers, Brownie cameras, microphones and loudspeakers—Babe Ruth "made impossible events happen." Aided by his crucial partnership with Christy Walsh—business manager, spin doctor, damage control wizard, and surrogate father, all stuffed into one tightly buttoned double-breasted suit—Ruth drafted the blueprint for modern athletic stardom.

His was a life of journeys and itineraries—from uncouth to couth, spartan to spendthrift, abandoned to abandon; from Baltimore to Boston to New York, and back to Boston at the end of his career for a finale with the only team that would have him. There were road trips and hunting trips; grand tours of foreign capitals and post-season promotional tours, not to mention those 714 trips around the bases.

After hitting his 60th home run in September 1927—a total that would not be exceeded until 1961, when Roger Maris did it with the aid of the extended modern season—he embarked on the mother of all barnstorming tours, a three-week victory lap across America, accompanied by Yankee teammate Lou Gehrig. Walsh called the tour a "Symphony of Swat." The Omaha World Herald called it "the biggest show since Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey, and seven other associated circuses offered their entire performance under one tent." In The Big Fella, acclaimed biographer Jane Leavy recreates that 21-day circus and in so doing captures the romp and the pathos that defined Ruth’s life and times.

Drawing from more than 250 interviews, a trove of previously untapped documents, and Ruth family records, Leavy breaks through the mythology that has obscured the legend and delivers the man.

  • Author: Jane Leavy
  • Paperback: 208 pages
  • Published: September, 2019
  • Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 1 x 8 inches
Player Biography
Still an American icon decades after his death, George Herman “Babe” Ruth emerged from humble beginnings to become the game’s greatest slugger and gate attraction. Ruth hit home runs at a prodigious rate – his single-season output often exceeded those of entire major league teams. He retired with 714 home runs, at a time when only two other players had reached 300. Reggie Jackson once deflected a comparison to “The Sultan of Swat,” saying, “There will never be another Babe Ruth. He was the greatest home run hitter who ever lived.”

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A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR:

The Boston Globe | Publishers Weekly | Kirkus | Newsweek | The Philadelphia Inquirer | The Progressive

Winner of the 2019 SABR Seymour Medal | Finalist for the PEN/ESPN Literary Sports Writing Award | Longlisted for Spitball Magazine’s Casey Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year | Finalist for the NBCC Award for Biography

“Leavy’s newest masterpiece…. A major work of American history by an author with a flair for mesmerizing story-telling.” —Forbes

He lived in the present tense—in the camera’s lens. There was no frame he couldn’t or wouldn’t fill. He swung the heaviest bat, earned the most money, and incurred the biggest fines. Like all the new-fangled gadgets then flooding the marketplace—radios, automatic clothes washers, Brownie cameras, microphones and loudspeakers—Babe Ruth "made impossible events happen." Aided by his crucial partnership with Christy Walsh—business manager, spin doctor, damage control wizard, and surrogate father, all stuffed into one tightly buttoned double-breasted suit—Ruth drafted the blueprint for modern athletic stardom.

His was a life of journeys and itineraries—from uncouth to couth, spartan to spendthrift, abandoned to abandon; from Baltimore to Boston to New York, and back to Boston at the end of his career for a finale with the only team that would have him. There were road trips and hunting trips; grand tours of foreign capitals and post-season promotional tours, not to mention those 714 trips around the bases.

After hitting his 60th home run in September 1927—a total that would not be exceeded until 1961, when Roger Maris did it with the aid of the extended modern season—he embarked on the mother of all barnstorming tours, a three-week victory lap across America, accompanied by Yankee teammate Lou Gehrig. Walsh called the tour a "Symphony of Swat." The Omaha World Herald called it "the biggest show since Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey, and seven other associated circuses offered their entire performance under one tent." In The Big Fella, acclaimed biographer Jane Leavy recreates that 21-day circus and in so doing captures the romp and the pathos that defined Ruth’s life and times.

Drawing from more than 250 interviews, a trove of previously untapped documents, and Ruth family records, Leavy breaks through the mythology that has obscured the legend and delivers the man.

  • Author: Jane Leavy
  • Paperback: 208 pages
  • Published: September, 2019
  • Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 1 x 8 inches
Player Biography
Still an American icon decades after his death, George Herman “Babe” Ruth emerged from humble beginnings to become the game’s greatest slugger and gate attraction. Ruth hit home runs at a prodigious rate – his single-season output often exceeded those of entire major league teams. He retired with 714 home runs, at a time when only two other players had reached 300. Reggie Jackson once deflected a comparison to “The Sultan of Swat,” saying, “There will never be another Babe Ruth. He was the greatest home run hitter who ever lived.”

Men's Jerseys

JERSEY SIZE 40 44 48 52 56 60
Size Equivalent S M L XL 2XL 3XL 4XL
Chest 34 - 36" 38 - 40" 42 - 44" 46 - 48" 50 - 52" 54 - 56" 58 - 60"
Waist 28 - 30" 32 - 34" 36 - 38" 40 - 42" 44 - 46" 48 - 50" 52 - 54"
Hip 34 - 36" 38 - 40" 42 - 44" 46 - 48" 50 - 52" 54 - 56" 58 - 60"