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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Review of Vitalism: The History of Herbalism, Homeopathy, and Flower Essences (Paperback)

I truly loved this book.It represents the history in a way that makes you want to make your own history in herbs.It inspires me.

Product Description
Now revised and expanded, this character-by-character study traces 400 years of folk medicine as it explores the lives and philosophies of the men behind the development of homeopathy, naturopathy and herbalism, and flower remedies.



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Review of Dark Remedy: The Impact of Thalidomide and Its Revival as a Vital Medicine (Paperback)

Dark Remedy by Brynner and Stephens is a rather scary tale of how one person,Dr. Frances Kelsey, may have just saved the people of the United States from a very trajic event in the 1960-61 era. Being a new FDA employee back then, she simply refused to permit its (ie, thalidomide)acceptance for the US (FDA approval) market,and by doing so,prevented one of the worst nightmares that could have occurred in American medical history. Many other countries had already approved the drugfor use,and by doing so,suffered consequences most of us are well aware of to this date. For that one fact alone, she certainly deserved the medal given by President Kennedy and many thanks from every American. The book also shows how bullish a pharmaceutical company can be. In 1958,it boldly went through the William Merrill company,so to set up the manufacturing process,as the drug called "Kevadon" back then. We are all very fortunate,that she (Kelsay)had the will and inner guidance not to cave in to all of the pressures of lobbyists of other countries and just say "no."Their approval (other countries,I mean)earlier of this so-called"super safe" sedative caused some of the most grotesque limb malformations imaginable to people-- that totally trusted the medical community at the time. The makers of this product clearly knew the dangers,but in the interest of greed and money,openly chose to ignore the findings. Essentially,doctors and pharmacists were lied to in accepting their literature presented to our FDA.The authors state that metabolism of this product by our bodies generate over 100 byproducts,each capable of doing this or that,and I am not quite sure this is true.However, there is the attempt now to bring the drug back to the FDA for approval for use in "certain" other types of trajic disease states,such as MS or HIV.I can assure you, I have spoken to both CDER and the FDA,and this will happen ONLY if this product verifies properly every sentence they write in the literature and-- proves out as such in every milligram of discovery is verified.Whether Dr. Kelsay was just stubborn, wise, or luckyis irrevalent now,as she IS the person who, ultimately gave the FDA the power that it has today.An event like this often, is the defining moment of such governmental entities. However, the FDA is not without comflicts of interest as you will find out. The voting methods used on products even today,sometimes seem to contradict rationale on both sides of some of the issues troubling approval of certain medicinal products and devices.Rock Brynner and Trent Stephens do an excellent job of keeping the book on task,and full of suspense, describing the tasks done by the pharmaceutical firm to cover all of the little nasty secretsthey had earlier hidden,including all of the free samples given to physicians and pharmaciststo be handed out like rock candy during Christmas.Some texts I have read try to make a point that only one stereochemical form of the drug is bad, this is not important. The body often will transform between isoforms (R and S),so this is moot to me.If you needed to pick a choice of this trajic story,and the heroic job done by one person to whom we as Americans should be indebted,it is this one.This book is a winner!



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