Review of The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs: Recrowning Baseball's Greatest Slugger (Paperback)

This book is unlike any other on Babe Ruth, and I have read quite a few most recently Montville's "Big Bam" and Reisler's treatise on the 1920 season.Jenkinson has spent nearly 30 years recreating all of Ruth's long drives, those counted as homers and those that may have just been flyouts.I had no idea that records this detailed could be obtained from Ruth's era, but Jenkinson has read every sportswriting account imaginable for each official game and for hundreds of exhibition (preseason, during season, and postseason) games that Ruth participated in.
I had always labored under the assumption, even after reading all the bios, that many of Ruth's homeruns were simply the product of the short right field at Yankee Stadium.In fact, the Babe hit very few down the right field line; most of his drives were between right-center and left-center field.Right-center was quite a shot in Ruth's day since the fence angled out sharply.The Babe also had tremendous power to the opposite field.
Jenkinson's "spray" diagrams show all the homeruns hit by Ruth and their approximate distances.Aerial photos of the stadiums around Ruth's time are also shown and arrows shown where Babe's longest drives landed.
A second assumption of mine is that Babe did not take care of himself over the years.In fact, the man wanted to exercise more but the Yankee ball club would not let him in order "to save his legs" for the long season.Ruth had taken it upon himself before spring training started, for several seasons, to hire one of the best exercise gurus in New York.The fact that Ruth could keep coming back strong after all his early season illnesses and nagging injuries shows the fortitude of the man.Baseball was his life and he never wanted to let any one down that had come to see him play.He had a remarkable compassion for people that is shown in several places.
The third assumption was that Babe was probably just an average fielder.I had always wondered about what type of fielder he was, and was always surprised that no biography that I read ever mentioned this.In fact he was an elite fielder, one of the best in the game according to Tris Speaker, the premier outfielder of the day.He was also a terrific baserunner until his last five years.
Babe Ruth was one of a kind and he would be a superstar in any era, whether as the great pitcher he was or as an everyday player.Jenkinson does an interesting analysis of how difficult it was for Ruth as opposed to the difficulties faced by today's players.He also has analyzed conservatively how many homeruns the Babe would hit based on today's shrunken stadiums.It will show the sluggers of the past 30 years in a new light.I hope to meet the author someday at the Babe Ruth museum.No one compares to the Bambino.



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