Babe Ruth's Incredible Records and the 44 Players Who Broke Them


Book Description

No one changed baseball's record book like Babe Ruth. Some of the Babe's incredible career records may stand forever, though many of his single-season records were finally topped by modern era giants. Find out if anyone's knocked in more RBIs than Ruth in a season and more in this book of stats, photos, and lore.




Babe Ruth and the Creation of the Celebrity Athlete


Book Description

From his first year in the majors, George Herman "Babe" Ruth knew he could profit from celebrity. Babe Ruth Cigars in 1915 marked his first attempt to cash in. Traded to the Yankees in 1920, he soon signed with Christy Walsh, baseball's first publicity agent. Walsh realized that stories of great deeds in sports were a commodity, and in 1921 sold Ruth's ghostwritten byline to a newspaper syndicate for $15,000 ($187,000 today). Ruth hit home runs while Walsh's writers made him a hero, crafting his public image as a lovable scalawag. Were the stories true? It didn't matter--they sold. Many survive but have never been scrutinized until now. Drawing on primary sources, this book examines the stories, separating exaggerated facts from clear falsehoods. This book traces Ruth's ascendance as the first great media-created superstar and celebrity product endorser.




Unbreakable


Book Description

Unbreakable gives fans the fascinating stories behind incredible records and the players who made them and provides a basis for comparing players of the Deadball era with those of today. Most importantly, it gives the true baseball fan quantitative objective data to bring to arguments about players and their records. It is almost impossible to fathom how Jack Chesbro could have won 41 games in 1904 when pitchers today don’t even make that many starts in a season. Ed Walsh pitched 464 innings in one season and many times pitched more than 400 innings during his 14-season career, while pitchers today seldom throw more than 100 pitches a game. And yet, we must wonder why pitchers today seem to have more arm troubles than workhorses like Ed Walsh. This and other questions are explored in a book that is so much more than a simple listing of unusual records—it is a re-creation of a time when the game was different and when it was played differently. The book provides a baseball fan with a different perspective from which to watch today’s players and to have a reasonable basis to compare them with players of yesteryear. Covering players such as Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, Rogers Hornsby, Ty Cobb, and Babe Ruth, and also including an extended analysis of pre-1900 baseball, Unbreakable is perfect for any fan of our national pastime. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports—books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team. Whether you are a New York Yankees fan or hail from Red Sox nation; whether you are a die-hard Green Bay Packers or Dallas Cowboys fan; whether you root for the Kentucky Wildcats, Louisville Cardinals, UCLA Bruins, or Kansas Jayhawks; whether you route for the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, or Los Angeles Kings; we have a book for you. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.




Black Stats Matter


Book Description

For more than half a century, Black baseball players, barred from the Major Leagues by systemic racism, competed in leagues of their own. This book re-interprets the history of race in baseball from the ground up. It tells the story of how the Major Leagues became the "Caucasian Leagues," and names the person most responsible for their segregation; showing how Major League owners and executives tried to delay and even prevent integration; and proving, using a broad range of methods, that Negro League players were every inch the equals of their Major League counterparts. Cherished records held by white players since the days of segregation are shown to belong rightfully to Negro League superstars. This book takes a fresh look at a subject that's both straight from today's headlines and as old as baseball itself.




Babe Ruth


Book Description

As America's pasttime was still reeling from the Black Sox scandal of 1919, Red Sox player Babe Ruth was traded to the New York Yankees for $125,000. Who could have known that this business transaction would turn the 1920 season into a magical one and send Ruth's celebrity into the stratosphere? Babe Ruth captures that era, before Ruth joined the pantheon of sports gods.




Babe Book


Book Description

He played the game more than 65 years ago, yet Babe Ruth remains an American icon -- the first superstar of sports. Named the Greatest Baseball Player of the 20th Century by the sports media, George Herman Ruth epitomizes the best of baseball history & is still one of the most beloved sports heroes of all time. This book gives Babe¿s life & career a fresh look, telling his story through a collection of engaging anecdotes from ball players, teammates, managers, sportswriters, radio announcers, historians, family, & friends. Accompanying these memories & amazing statistics is a selection of over 85 color & b&w photos of memorabilia from the archives of The Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum in Baltimore, MD. Many have never been seen before.







The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs


Book Description

In an unprecedented look at Babe Ruth's amazing batting power, sure to inspire debate among baseball fans of every stripe, one of the country's most respected and trusted baseball historians reveals the amazing conclusions of more than twenty years of research. Jenkinson takes readers through Ruth's 1921 season, in which his pattern of battled balls would have accounted for more than 100 home runs in today's ballparks and under today's rules. Yet, 1921 is just tip of the iceberg, for Jenkinson's research reveals that during an era of mammoth field dimensions Ruth hit more 450-plus-feet shots than anybody in history, and the conclusions one can draw are mind boggling.




The Selling of the Babe


Book Description

WINNER of the Society for American Baseball Research's (SABR) 2017 Larry Ritter Awardfor best baseball book of the Deadball Era The complete story surrounding the most famous and significant player transaction in professional sports The sale of Babe Ruth by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees in 1919 is one of the pivotal moments in baseball history, changing the fortunes of two of baseball's most storied franchises, and helping to create the legend of the greatest player the game has ever known. More than a simple transaction, the sale resulted in a deal that created the Yankee dynasty, turned Boston into an also-ran, helped save baseball after the Black Sox scandal and led the public to fall in love with Ruth. Award-winning baseball historian Glenn Stout reveals brand-new information about Babe and the unique political situation surrounding his sale, including: -Prohibition and the lifting of Blue Laws in New York affected Yankees owner and beer baron Jacob Ruppert -Previously unexplored documents reveal that the mortgage of Fenway Park did not factor into the Ruth sale - Ruth's disruptive influence on the Red Sox in 1918 and 1919, including sabermetrics showing his negative impact on the team as he went from pitcher to outfielder The Selling of the Babe is the first book to focus on the ramifications of the sale and captures the central moment of Ruth's evolution from player to icon, and will appeal to fans of The Kid and Pinstripe Empire. Babe's sale to New York and the subsequent selling of Ruth to America led baseball from the Deadball Era and sparked a new era in the game, one revolved around the long ball and one man, The Babe.




I Had a Hammer


Book Description

The Classic New York Times Bestseller The man who shattered Babe Ruth's lifetime home run record, Henry "Hammering Hank" Aaron left his indelible mark on professional baseball and the world. But the world also left its mark on him. I Had a Hammer is much more than the intimate autobiography of one of the greatest names in pro sports—it is a fascinating social history of twentieth-century America. With courage and candor, Aaron recalls his struggles and triumphs in an atmosphere of virulent racism. He relives the breathtaking moment when, in the heat of hatred and controversy, he hit his 715th home run to break Ruth's cherished record—an accomplishment for which Aaron received more than 900,000 letters, many of them vicious and racially charged. And his story continues through the remainder of his milestone-setting, barrier-smashing career as a player and, later, Atlanta Braves executive—offering an eye-opening and unforgettable portrait of an incomparable athlete, his sport, his epoch, and his world.