Word: babe
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NOWHERE IS UNCRITICAL, hackneyed writing more abundant than in the baseball biography. From Lou Gehrig; Boy of the Sandlots to The Jackie Jensen Story, diamond writers have a heritage of grinding out instant cliches. But no athlete has ever been subjected to more off-base Boswells than Babe Ruth. Occasionally, out of all those works claiming both authenticity and style, one will emerge which actually resurrects the Babe, making him much more than a candy bar or an overweight William Bendix. And Robert W. Creamer's Babe, the Legend Comes to Life does just that...
...This Babe was one of a flurry of Ruth accounts spawned by Henry Aaron's home run chase. Baseball writers supplemented the wave of biographies with a deluge of column tonnage comparing the merits of the two sluggers. But when the season wound down, taking the coverage with it, Babe remained as one of the few pieces of baseball writing able to sustain the autumn sports onslaught...
CREAMER ALSO excels in capturing the lore of Ruth out-of-uniform. In "Kaleidoscope: Personality of the Babe," Creamer delves into a few feats which make the 714 and 60 homerun marks pall. He dredged up some of Babe's stunning epicurean exploits, including the mandatory "couple of hotdogs and a bicarb" immediately preceding every game. And several locker room observers, provide the definitive statement on Ruth's famed sexual prowess. Creamer dwells on the theme of Ruth's distorted sexuality throughout the book, in his usual lucid style...
With a man as unbridled as Ruth and a legacy as clouded as the sensationalistic scribes of the day could make it, documentation becomes as important as imaginative writing. Creamer has compiled every scrap of information available, from the early Baltimore days to the Babe Ruth Days held for him as his retirement, dispelling a slew of misconceptions as he goes along. He has gotten comment from many of Ruth's mates from the bush leagues up through the majors and there are times when you think he had the whole 1927 Yankee team wired for sound...
...across the centuries like a beacon. In a Bethlehem stable, a child was born, wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger. But the rude circumstances could not conceal an extraordinary birth. Angels filled the sky, praising God and proclaiming peace on earth. Amazed shepherds came to honor the babe. Wise men from the East, guided by a miraculous star, arrived to do homage with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh...