Review of "Babe Ruth: His Story in Baseball," by Lee Allen

Review of

Babe Ruth: His Story in Baseball, by Lee Allen

Three out of five stars

 This book conforms to the generally laudatory class of biographies of sports stars that were written before “tell-all” became a writing tactic rather than a marketing ploy. There is the occasional mention of Ruth eating a lot and staying out late, but almost no explanation of why. Ruth’s experiences with wine and women are simply not mentioned. There is also very little mentioned of his family life, although much is made about Ruth’s positive relations with the children around baseball.

 This is a book about a sports legend where the time of such literary tactics has passed. Ruth truly changed the game, it is hard to see where someone could ever again be so statistically dominant in a major sport. Even though I have followed baseball for decades, it is still astonishing to learn that there were seasons when Babe Ruth personally had more home runs than many entire teams, even when their statistics include inside-the-park homers. In this book, his flaws are generally ignored.