In an interview with Smithsonian Magazine, Jane says the Bambino would be as big a personality as he was in his own time:
How would Ruth have fared in today’s world, both in and out of the ball park?
Off the field, he’d have protectors to shield him against his own worst instincts but he’d be subject to iPhone stalkers and the videos that have exposed present day athletes—see Michael Phelps et al. And he wouldn’t have a complicit press corps willing to draw and observe the line between public and private. He’d be as big a personality as he was then but he wouldn’t be the original he was when he decided to remake baseball in his own image. His peers would be as large physically as he was or bigger and, of course, he’d have to face the best of the very large pool of African-American talent that was barred from Major League competition.
Read more of the interview, as The Big Fella is being written at smithsonianmag.com.