The Babe: A Life in Pictures

Text and photographs highlight the astonishing career of baseball's legendary "Babe" Ruth, from his awakening talent at a Baltimore boys' school to his tenure with the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees

He was a big man, and The Babe is a big book--a four-bag celebration of the Bambino, the greatest baseball legend of them all. Lawrence S. Ritter, author of The Glory of Their Times, the classic oral history of America's national pastime in the first decades of the 20th century, weaves together a workmanlike, often elegiac, narrative of Babe Ruth's life and career. But it is the all-star collection of photos--of the Babe in action, the Babe just hanging around being the Babe, and rare Ruth collectibles--that sends this volume where the Babe used to send high fastballs: out of the park. Hank Aaron, who sent a few out himself, pens a warm introduction to the idol whose career home-run record he ultimately surpassed.