Document 1 of 1 The Legend Yankee slugger remains larger than life nearly 44 years after death. SEE SIDEBAR: THE MOVIE A REVIEW-(see end of text) By Pat Calabria. STAFF WRITER.. Newsday [Long Island, N.Y] 17 Apr 1992: 146.

Abstract Naturally, much of Ruth's mystique is built on his gigantic appetites - for food, liquor and women. Former teammate Charlie Devens, 82, remembers that Ruth "once drank a quart of whiskey on the train between Boston and New York, and he got off at 125th Street with a smile on his face." Jimmy Reese, 90, roomed with Ruth, and recalls: "He was his own worst enemy - at the ballpark all day and at 'em all night. He was unlike anybody I ever met." When was in the process of eclipsing Ruth's fabled home record, with 61 in 1961, Ruth contemporary said, "Roger Maris is a fine ballplayer, but I can't imagine him driving down Broadway in a low-slung convertible, wearing a coonskin coat." To Stephen Lang, who researched and played the role of Ruth in the TV movie, "Ruth personified an entire period, the Roaring '20s, which personified America. Nobody roared louder than Ruth." agent Ron Shapiro said that in today's marketplace, Ruth could command a $10 million annual contract, "without even blinking an eye." In the memorabilia industry, Ruth "is still the Bambino" said Josh Evans, owner of Leland's auction house in Manhattan, who said an unrestored Ruth jersey fetches $150,000-$200,000.

Full Text LIKE THE AIR, Babe Ruth is all around us. Like a book or a snapshot, he endures. Nearly 44 years after his death, still breathes in movies and music and literature, as if he retired his pinstripes only yesterday, not 1935. As if he was less a ballplayer than a historical figure or an idol of pop culture - slugger, hero, myth. Surely, more than any athlete of his time (maybe more than any athlete, ever), Ruth's impact spread wildly, so that he has become an everyday part of the American vocabulary. The autographed baseball is now as common as aspirin, but it was Ruth who popularized the practice in the '20s, joking that balls that didn't contain his signature were rare. Even today, a feat of colossal proportions is called "Ruthian." Luciano Pavarotti is known as "the Babe Ruth of opera." Pele was "the Babe Ruth of soccer," Willie Sutton, "the Babe Ruth of bank robbers," Francisco Churruca "the Babe Ruth of jai alai." When an obscure hitter from the '30s named Hal Lee died in 1989, the only reason the news even made the papers was summed up in the final sentence of a brief obituary: "He played with Babe Ruth in the Boston ." Plus, the fascination with Ruth appears to be growing, if that's possible, with last year's made-for-TV movie "Babe Ruth" followed by the opening today of the feature film "The Babe" starring John Goodman. Two years ago, Life magazine named Ruth to its list of the 100 most important Americans of the 20th century, alongside Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Charles Lindbergh and Jonas Salk. "It's remarkable," said Robert Creamer, whose definitive biography "Babe Ruth: The Legend Comes To Life" was published in 1974. "When I wrote the book, Ruth had been dead 25 years. He had not played ball in almost 40. And yet every day I would see his name in the newspaper or in various references, somewhere. Now it's 18 years later, and the same thing is still going on." Naturally, much of Ruth's mystique is built on his gigantic appetites - for food, liquor and women. Former teammate Charlie Devens, 82, remembers that Ruth "once drank a quart of whiskey on the train between Boston and New York, and he got off at 125th Street with a smile on his face." Jimmy Reese, 90, roomed with Ruth, and recalls: "He was his own worst enemy - at the ballpark all day and at 'em all night. He was unlike anybody I ever met." But George Herman Ruth was more than just a pot-bellied, cigar-chomping creature of the tabloids, given the lasting impression he has made. Annual attendance at the Babe Ruth Museum in Baltimore has steadily climbed to over 40,000 since it opened in 1983. Ruth generated the most references by far - 67 - in Paul Dickson's recent collection of "Baseball's Greatest Quotations." In the past few years, his likeness has been marketed to sell automobiles, soda pop, cutlery, cereal, sporstwear, china, TVs, pizza and greeting cards. When evangelist Billy Graham - friend of presidents, kings and popes - thought back to an introduction to Ruth, he described it as "my greatest thrill since I was converted to Christ." It's even harder to comprehend Ruth's ability as a ballplayer, since he was probably the best lefthanded of his generation and a great hitter, virtually at the same time. ("Imagine becoming Cecil Fielder," Creamer said.) He compiled a lifetime record of 94-46 and 29 2/3 consecutive scoreless in the World , a mark that lasted 44 years. He also was a gifted outfielder and baserunner, even after his weight ballooned to 250. But more than just setting records, Ruth revolutionized - and rescued - the sport. When he joined the Yankees, baseball's hold on the public had been loosened by the Black Sox betting scandal, nervous owners were seeking a box-office attraction and the was still an unheralded offensive tool. The year before, Ruth had set the -season home run record with 29; leader just 12. "Babe saved the game of baseball," Reese said. "After the scandal, people gave up on the game. They were disgruntled. But then the Babe came along and people said, `I've got to go to the ballpark and see that big lug.' " When Ruth, alone, clubbed an astounding 54 home runs his first year in New York, no other team totaled more than 46. With fans flocking to see his wide, looping swing and the Yankees doubling their attendance to 1.3 million, the flabbergasted owners quickly changed the rules, signaling the end of the era. The ball was made more lively, the spitball and other trick pitches were outlawed and more top-heavy bats with thin handles, like Ruth's, were manufactured. Of course, Ruth went on to hit the magic number of 60 home runs in 1927, but his sheer power and flair for the dramatic was equally spellbinding. In , he clouted a ball an estimated 579 feet. Fifteen years later, the final home run of his career for the Boston Braves cleared the roof of Forbes Field. "None of these kids today can hit like he could," said , 83, who played with Ruth for five seasons. "He could really hit a ball a long way. I remember I was in St. Pete in 1928 playing second base, or trying to, and he hit a fly ball that must have been nine miles high. I missed it by 25 feet." Seventy-two of Ruth's records still survive, including his ratio of one home run every 11.8 at-bats. His 714 career home runs are second only to 's 755, and pro-rated on Aaron's nearly 4,000 more at-bats, Ruth would have hit 1,051. His success was every bit as huge off the field. Ruth had a cameo role in a Harold Lloyd movie, starred in a silent film titled "Headin' Home" and landed a small part playing himself in "Pride of the Yankees." The Babe also owned a piece of a cigar factory, and endorsed underwear, candy, sporting goods, Wheaties, shaving cream, razor blades, overalls and chewing tobacco. He toured in a vaudeville act. He was a fierce negotiator, had an agent when that was unheard of and never hesitated to point out his value to Yankee owner Colonel . "A man ought to get all he can earn . . . " Ruth was quoted by Creamer. "It's a business, I tell you. There ain't no sentiment to it." He made $70,000 in 1928, when a pair of men's leather shoes at Macy's cost $6.94, a tweed knit dress at Wanamaker's was $16.50 and a seven-room duplex on East 69th Street sold for $3,800. In 1930, when Ruth signed for the enormous figure of $80,000, pitcher Herb Pennock - a star in his own right - was the next highest-paid Yankee at only $17,500. After the Babe retired, Gehrig had the top salary in baseball at $30,000. Ruth's staggering earnings were matched only by his flamboyant personality. He drove a Packard with his given initials "G.H.R" monogrammed on the driver's door. He wore a camel's hair cap, tilted rakishly to one side, to the dismay of his genteel second wife, Claire. He often devoured three hot dogs during practice and washed them down with a bicarbonate of soda. An intestinal disorder that sidelined Ruth seven weeks in 1925 was privately believed to be a case of syphillis. In her book, "My Dad, the Babe," the late Pirone wrote that Ruth "would drink a highball, smoke a cigar and chew tobacco - all at the same time." When Roger Maris was in the process of eclipsing Ruth's fabled home run record, with 61 in 1961, Ruth contemporary Jimmy Dykes said, "Roger Maris is a fine ballplayer, but I can't imagine him driving down Broadway in a low-slung convertible, wearing a coonskin coat." To Stephen Lang, who researched and played the role of Ruth in the TV movie, "Ruth personified an entire period, the Roaring '20s, which personified America. Nobody roared louder than Ruth." ALTHOUGH notoriously foul-mouthed and beefy (the Yankees narrowed the famed pinstripes on their uniforms in 1929 to help streamline Ruth's appearance), the Babe was nevertheless endearing to children and adults alike. He forgot teammates' names, calling them "Horse Nose" or "Rubber Belly" or, most commonly, "Kid." Attempting to quote the Duke of Wellington, he called him, "Duke Ellington." Introduced to Calvin Coolidge on a sweltering day at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C., Ruth said: "Hot as hell, ain't it, Prez?" Pirone remembered that when Ruth met Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, he tapped her on the shoulder and said, "Hiya, Queenie." His size and reputation gave him a Bunyonesque appeal few celebrities have ever achieved. Ruth, in fact, used a 52-ounce bat early in his career, later scaling down to a 44-ounce model; by comparison, Aaron used a 34. He was genuinely fond of children - and sometimes genuinely irritated by them - his kindness probably resulting from his parents' fateful decision to ship him off to St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys at eight. "Daddy loved kids,," said Julia Ruth Stevens, 74, who was Ruth's stepdaughter and eventually was adopted by the Babe. "He wanted every kid to try to play baseball. He thought it was just the greatest game ever invented. He'd sit down and talk to a kid and say, `Even if you miss, you've got to try, and try hard, because this is the way life is.' " "He knew kids didn't want anything from him, other than an autograph," said Frank Slocum, whose father, Bill, covered Ruth for the Hearst papers and was a ghostwriter for the Babe. "He understood it as a sign of affection . . . it was fun for him." THROUGHOUT his life, Ruth was happily photographed in a variety of ridiculous poses - wearing a 10-gallon hat, dressed in a skirt, playing the saxophone - and he possessed a natural charm and ease that made him a playmate as much as a star. " "Like Peter Pan," Creamer said, "he never grew up." That's one reason Ruth's image has remained alive all this time, along with his thirst for theatrics. He promised a dying boy named he would hit a home run for him, and did - to worldwide acclaim. He hit the first home run in , another on the day after he was married to Claire (blowing her a kiss as he crossed home plate) and, legend has it, predicted his famous "Called Shot" in the '32 . Ruth continued to weave his legend into the fabric of society long after he left baseball. During World War II, attacking Japanese troops in the Pacific shouted at American soldiers, "To hell with Babe Ruth!" Almost 60 years after his last at-bat, the Curtis Management Group has licensed the Babe's image to nearly 250 companies, such as IBM, Sears and Coca-Cola, generating about $1 million a year in royalties for the Ruth estate. Baseball agent Ron Shapiro said that in today's marketplace, Ruth could command a $10 million annual contract, "without even blinking an eye." In the memorabilia industry, Ruth "is still the Bambino" said Josh Evans, owner of Leland's auction house in Manhattan, who said an unrestored Ruth jersey fetches $150,000- $200,000. "We seem to need these larger-than-life figures," said Elliott Gorn, director of American studies at Miami University in Ohio. "But there is no one near the status of Ruth. FDR comes as close as anyone I can think of. Maybe John Kennedy might be a comparision." After Ruth died Aug. 16, 1948, more than 100,000 people stopped to view his body in the rotunda at Yankee Stadium, the line stretching around the block until midnight. A crowd of 75,000 stood solemnly in the rain outside St. Patrick's Cathedral during the funeral mass. Traffic in Manhattan came to a standstill as the procession began the trip to Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Valhalla, where the Babe was buried. The epitaph on the headstone of his grave reads, "May The Divine Spirit That Animated Babe Ruth To Win the Crucial Game of Life Inspire The Youth of America." But sportswriter Tommy Holmes had a better one. It went like this: "Some twenty years ago, I stopped talking about the Babe for the simple reason that I realized that those who had never seen him didn't believe me." THE MOVIE A REVIEW I VOWED NOT TO depend on all the predictable baseball jargon in reviewing "The Babe" so you'll have to look elsewhere for critiques reading, " `The Babe' hits a home run!" or " `The Babe' strikes out." But right off the bat (sorry), I can say that John Goodman is an authentic-looking Babe Ruth. And that's pretty much what I liked about the movie. Goodman paints Ruth in broad strokes - the irrepressible prankster, the brooding star - certainly capturing the essence of The Babe, but missing the subtleties which would have enriched the character. Ruth, for instance, was apologetic when his vulgar language offended women, although he could never understand why. Nor is Goodman helped by a script which purports to be a "true" story and, yet, plays fast and loose with the facts. For instance, Ruth is portrayed as being jealous of young . Actually, it was the other way around, Gehrig never comprehending why Ruth, with his boozing and womanizing, was more popular with fans and reporters. Factual errors neither make the movie a good one nor a bad one, just a less believable one. It's the mistakes at the heart of Ruth's personality that are more disturbing. Kelly McGillis, playing Ruth's second wife, Claire, is accurately depicted as shrewdly putting a rein on the Babe's runaway finances. But in one scene she admonishes Ruth for letting an underwear firm exploit him for a measely endorsement fee. The truth is, Ruth was a stubborn negotiator long before he married. Ruth was not book-smart and was exceedingly - really, ridiculously - generous, but nobody put one over on him when it came to endorsing a product. And, in "The Babe," the Babe seems to grow easily irritated by the newspapermen clamoring for a story. In reality, Ruth was a shameless publicity hound who loved reporters and often entertained them at his home. I can attribute to literary license the mistaken impression that Ruth retired immediately after belting three home runs in his final game, or that Ruth's impact on the sport isn't put into proper perspective until a fiery scene between Claire and Colonel Jake Ruppert, the Yankees' owner, near the end. But I can't accept Goodman pitching. As a hitter, Goodman - a natural righthander - does a credible job of swinging the bat lefty. Plus, he has The Babe's pigeon-toed scoot around the bases down pat. But trying to lefthanded gives Goodman away, so you wonder why they just didn't reverse the footage, like in "Pride of the Yankees" when Gary Cooper filmed sequences righty, but appeared on the screen as a southpaw. And Goodman is much too fat as Ruth, the young pitcher. He doesn't look like Ruth. He looks like Mickey Lolich. 1) Photos- LOOK-ALIKES: The real Babe (George Herman Ruth), left, and 2) actor John Goodman

Indexing (details)

People: Ruth, George Herman (Babe), Goodman, John, Creamer, Robert, Aaron, Hank

Title: BABE RUTH The Legend Yankee slugger remains larger than life nearly 44 years after death. SEE SIDEBAR: THE MOVIE A REVIEW- (see end of text): [NASSAU AND SUFFOLK Edition]

Authors: By Pat Calabria. STAFF WRITER.

Publication title: Newsday

Pages: 146

Number of pages: 0

Publication year: 1992

Publication Date: Apr 17, 1992

Year: 1992

Section: SPORTS

Publisher: Newsday Inc.

Place of Publication: Long Island, N.Y.

Country of publication: United States

Journal Subjects: General Interest Periodicals--United States

Source type: Newspapers

Language of Publication: English

Document Type: NEWSPAPER

ProQuest Document ID: 278480670

Document URL: http://ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/ docview/278480670?accountid=10226

Copyright: (Copyright Newsday Inc., 1992)

Last Updated: 2010-06-14

Database: ProQuest Central

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