Book : Babe The Legend Comes To Life - Creamer, Robert

-Titulo Original : Babe The Legend Comes To Life

-Fabricante :

Simon & Schuster

-Descripcion Original:

I swing big, with everything Ive got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can. -- Babe Ruth Babe Ruth is without a doubt the most famous character ever produced by the sport of baseball. A legendary player, world-famous for his hitting prowess, he transcended the sport to enter the mainstream of American life as an authentic folk hero. In this extraordinary biography, noted sportswriter Robert W. Creamer reveals the complex man behind the sports legend. From Ruths early days in a Baltimore orphanage, to the glory days with the Yankees, to his later years, Creamer has drawn a classic portrait of an American original. Review Sports Illustrated The best biography ever written about an American sports figure. About the Author Robert W. Creamer is a senior writer for Sports Illustrated and has been a member of that magazines staff since its inception in 1954. He is also the author of Stengel and Baseball in 41. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Chapter One: Legend and Truth: Babe Ruth LivesI apologize for not having talked to everybody. There were so many. Each week I would think, There, now Ive finished with that section. Now I know all there is to know about that. And a few days later I would learn of someone new or someone I had not thought of or someone I never would have thought of, and he would have one more window on the past for me to raise. A quick insight, an illuminating moment. Pete Appleton, for instance. The only thing I remembered about Pete Appleton was that his real name was Pete Jablonski, and I was wrong about that; it turned out to be Jablonowski. I had to look up his record to learn that he had pitched in the major leagues off and on for fourteen seasons. The clipping that came to my desk had Pete Appleton telling of Ruth phoning down to a hotel lobby from his room, asking the switchboard to page any Yankee player thats around down there. Appleton, who was new to the ball club, took the call, and Ruth said, Hey, keed, how about coming up and playing some cards with me? He was lonesome, Appleton explained. He could not come downstairs to the lobby because hed be mobbed by people, especially women. This was 1933. (Where was Claire?) There was nothing in Appletons little story about booze and broads and gluttony and raising hell. just an edgy, lonesome man in a hotel room.And, said Appleton, He had the prettiest swing of all. The prettiest. An odd but strikingly accurate word to describe what Ruth did so much better than anyone else. Have you ever seen that old film clip of Ruth taking batting practice? If you like baseball you remember the pretty things about the game -- the individual moments of craftsmanship and, sometimes, artistry within the mathematical precision of three strikes, three outs, four balls, four bases, nine innings, nine men. Ruth, easing along at three-quarter speed in batting practice, stepping into the pitch, flicking the bat around, meeting the ball cleanly, cocking the bat back for the next pitch, is for me -- and maybe Pete Appleton -- the epitome of baseball, its ideal expression.This book had its genesis, I suppose, in my memory, because I saw Ruth when I was a boy. I saw him hit home runs in Yankee Stadium, and I remember that they all seemed to be a hundred feet high in the air as they passed first base. I remember watching him swing and miss, his huge torso twisting violently so that he ended up with his face more than 180 degrees around from the plate, staring intently up into the stands, right at me. God, how I remember that feeling: Babe Ruth is looking right at me. I remember him in right field one day when a little dying-quail hit began to fall into no mans land, that point of inaccessibility at the extreme range of center fielder, right fielder and second baseman, and I can still see Ruth waddling in from right field and in and in as he tried to get to the ball. (I