In the News & Observer

Is there anything new to learn about Babe Ruth? Countless books have been written about him, probably more than the number of home runs he sent soaring above American League fences.

For almost a century, Ruth has been the subject of endless fascination, as well as intense speculation (what if the Red Sox hadn’t sold him to the Yankees? What if he’d remained a pitcher instead of a slugger? What if he’d ingested less beer and fewer hot dogs before each game?)

He was, quite simply, a colossus — not only of baseball, but of America between the World Wars. A reporter covering Ruth for The New York Times wrote: “The Babe does not have to step out of character to be what he is: an appealing, swashbuckling, roistering, boisterous figure who is as natural a showman as P. T. Barnum.”

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