News
Why on Earth Did Boston Sell Babe Ruth to the Yankees?
Read Jane's op-ed in the New York Times on the sale, at the end of 1919, that changed baseball — and New York City — forever: One hundred years ago on Christmas Day, typically the slowest news day of the year, George Herman Ruth Jr. knew there would be a news hole to...
Live with WYPR
Today, a conversation about one of the most fascinating figures, not only in baseball history, but in American history. George Herman "Babe" Ruth, Jr. was born and raised in Baltimore, graduated from the school of hard knocks, and evolved into...
“Big Fella” a Best Book of 2018
There are a number of people bound to inspire biographies as long as the trees hold out. Abe Lincoln and Muhammad Ali are among that number. Jane Leavy has demonstrated that Babe Ruth belongs on the list, too. Her take? That Ruth, who played during the first flowering...
Who Was Babe Ruth?
Jane joins Smerconish to talk about the legend. He hit more home runs than any player in his era - and was one of our first national celebrity brands. But what was Babe Ruth like behind the scenes? Source: CNN | Air date: December 15, 2018
The Big Fella Now in Paperback!
And will be featured in the October 6, 2019 paperback row highlights from The New York Times: This detail-packed biography of the baseball legend recounts his eventful life and tracks the machinations behind his rise to an unprecedented kind of celebrity in the United...
This Week’s Q+A
Q&A with Jane Leavy Author and journalist Jane Leavy discusses her book, The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created, about the life and times of the legendary baseball player. Air date: January 27, 2019
A Santa Story from the Babe
In 1902, 7-year-old George Herman Ruth was sent away to St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys. "The little boy his family called 'Little George,' they abandoned to a reform school on the far western edge of Baltimore City," writer Jane Leavy says. "And these boys...
Babe Ruth’s Tampa Home Run Analyzed
On the 100th anniversary of Babe Ruth's historic home run in Tampa, several scholars are asking if it ever went the 587 feet quoted on a billboard in the spot it supposedly landed, near the University of Tampa. If you were one of 4,300 at Plant Field on April 4, 1919,...
The Big Fella’s a Finalist!
PEN America announced its 2019 Literary Award finalists, and The Big Fella is one of five in the Literary Sports Writing category. The winners will be celebrated at the 2019 PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony on February 26 at the NYU Skirball Center in NYC. The...
Big Fella Reviews from NY to the Nation to Canada, Too
Catch up on these interviews and reviews from October, November, and December: Catching up with Dave Zirin, Sports editor of The Nation: Leavy's study of the man who hit 714 career home runs in Major League Baseball (including 60 in one year, the latter a record...