The result is the most complete account yet of Ruth’s complicated, tragic family life, including siblings who died young, parents who separated and, most famously, being shipped off to St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys in Baltimore ... The book seeks to break new ground beyond Ruth’s childhood, notably how his visionary agent / public relations man / financial advisor Christy Walsh helped him navigate his celebrity in an era in which mass communication was reinventing what it meant to be a star ... The book largely avoids overdone material about big games and plays and focuses on his experiences, and the experiences of those around him.
Leavy documents a personal life marked by tragedy ... But Leavy doesn't write about how these terrible moments shaped Ruth's personality and life, because it's simply unknown. Ruth never really told anyone, and the hagiographic sports reporting of his era never delved into it. That makes it hard to write a thorough biography ... Leavy responds by doing the next-best thing: painstakingly recreating the mythical, larger-than-life role Ruth played in American culture at the height of his fame ... The structure takes some getting used to, but it perfectly captures the swirl of attention that followed Ruth everywhere he went.
Leavy’s conceit allows her to stake out some untrod turf. But she also makes a compelling case that to appreciate the adulation Ruth soaked up in October 1927 is to understand his contribution to American life in full. He was not merely a hitter of towering home runs, but the progenitor of our contemporary conception of what it means to be a celebrity ... however, Leavy can strain to find meaning in the marketing materials. It’s true, and worthy of note, that Ruth’s celebrity was so novel that it outstripped the capacity of American law to protect it ... But Leavy’s long detour into jurisprudential debates over publicity rights, and Ruth’s failed effort to popularize his own Home Run bar, will try the patience of readers who lack a strong taste for legal or confectionary history. For a manifestly assiduous reporter and researcher, Leavy can also be careless with the facts ... The book captures Ruth’s outsize influence on American sport and culture, and for that alone it will make a welcome companion during the long, baseball-less months to come. But the man of many poses never fully comes into focus.
...magnificent ... Ms. Leavy is generous with examples of entertainingly mawkish media coverage of Ruth ... Ms. Leavy provides a detailed look at Ruth’s earnings over his career ... [a] wealth of research, detail and astuteness of observation.
Another winner ... The author covers all aspects of Ruth’s massive life, bringing true empathy and impressive depth of knowledge to her complex subject.
Jane Leavy, though, manages to mine new material in her wonderful book on the baseball legend ... Leavy writes extensively ... Ultimately, Leavy provides a different perspective of a man who consistently broke the mold in sports and society.
All of these aspects of Ruth’s life, and many more, come into focus in The Big Fella ... [Leavy] spent eight years researching and writing her Ruth biography, and her care and diligence surface on every page ... Using the language and standards of baseball then and now, including the contemporary analytical measures known as sabermetrics, Leavy makes a persuasive case that Ruth remains one of the greatest players baseball has ever seen ... Throughout the book, Leavy, through dogged reporting and astute analysis, strips away many of the myths and misconceptions surrounding Ruth’s life.
The Big Fella omits many of Ruth’s feats as a ballplayer, but previous biographies have trod all over that ground. Instead, Leavy shines light on Ruth’s place in American cultural history. She paints a sensitive and humorous portrait ... As she did with Koufax and Mantle, Leavy muses upon our tangled relationships with baseball heroes.
Jane Leavy brings an extensive knowledge of sports history to her latest biography ... This colorful biography captures Ruth as a hitter who swung his bat with the same lack of restraint that he lived his life and recreates the sadness and the capricious nature of his short life ... This poignant life story reveals Babe Ruth warts and all.
I am happy to report that The Big Fella may be [Leavy's] best work yet ... Another key note to giving The Big Fella a different perspective is the availability of and access to research materials that have improved tremendously since Creamer’s [seminal Ruth biography] was published in 1974. Leavy deserves all possible credit not just in uncovering these gems, but also in presenting them in a lively and entertaining manner.
The Big Fella omits many of Ruth’s feats as a ballplayer, but previous biographies have trod all over that ground. Instead, Leavy shines light on Ruth’s place in American cultural history. She paints a sensitive and humorous portrait of a flamboyant figure who exploited public appetites and his athletic prowess to forge a new sporting celebrity ... Leavy sifts through the myths of the young Babe, painting a colorfully seedy picture of turn-of-the-century Baltimore.
In The Big Fella, Jane Leavy... goes a long way toward filling in many of the blanks in the story of George Herman 'Babe' Ruth, and in the myths surrounding his exceptional talent ... She also manages to write one of the best documentaries of America’s first decades of world domination. At well over 600 pages, The Big Fella, beyond being the premiere biography about the King of Crash, is a book for all history buffs, not just fans of the New York Yankees, baseball, or sports in general ... This vivid early-century Americana, enfolding her argument about Ruth and celebrity, is an inside-the-park home run. It’s also a fun read for the lost souls who don’t know or care to know about baseball.
The Big Fella is not only about baseball, but a richly detailed social history of America in the Roaring Twenties ... when Leavy examines Ruth’s sad life before baseball, she makes a convincing case that he was permanently scarred by his parents’ abandonment at the age of 7.
Wisely, this is not a recitation of the great slugger’s career season by season. The book instead utilizes nonlinear approach...Those unfamiliar with Ruth may find this unsettling, but those knowledgeable about baseball and Ruth in particular will understand. Leavy takes advantage of the book’s nonlinear structure to take the reader down interesting side roads that branch off Ruth’s story before meandering back. As a result, the book employs some necessary repetition to provide context ... The Big Fella is an essential addition to the Babe Ruth canon. For Jane Leavy, one of the top tier among baseball authors, it is a welcome addition to her canon as well.
While The Big Fella is a lush and engaging biography of one of the most enigmatic and iconic characters of the 20th century, author Jane Leavy knocks this one out of the park by also giving readers an aperture into a transformative time in American history ... Leavy proves to be a dogged researcher and mines previously untapped sources ... Leavy proves Ruth was an enigma to himself, too, and it’s her sharp prose that really propels this biography...
Few sports analysts explain the sabermetrics certifying Babe Ruth’s baseball achievement more lucidly than Leavy ... 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 into the imposing Sultan of Swat, master of the diamond and unparalleled national celebrity ... an American icon brought to life.
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 brings her considerable depth of knowledge of sports history ... Sparkling, exemplary sports biography, shedding new light on a storied figure in baseball history.
