by Jane Leavy
(NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM)
In 1930, the new family Ruth created with his second wife, Claire Hodgson, became legal. On February 2, the Supreme Court of the City of New York granted an order of adoption, making nine-year-old Dorothy (second from right), the little girl Ruth had called his daughter since 1922, his legal offspring. On October 30, he adopted Claire’s daughter, Julia (far left), and Claire adopted Dorothy. When they sat for this family portrait in November, they looked much happier than they had in the newspaper photos taken during the ceremony.
(NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM)
Thanks to his father’s connections, Jack “Whitey” Stuart was Babe Ruth’s batboy at Recreation Park in San Francisco on October 22–23, 1927. Ruth’s hands were almost as big as Jack’s head. "Looming" is how he would describe the Babe to his daughter: “a big, looming guy.” When Stuart died, he was buried with the jersey he had worn for the occasion.
(CAROLE STUART TOLLEFSON)
A month after he retired in June 1935, “Admiral Ruth” appeared in Napoleonic-era military garb at the Westchester Country Club for the annual July 4 society softball game. Never was his dependence on baseball more clear than in the days after his career ended. “I’m the Admiral of the Swiss Navy,” he proclaimed. Brandishing a sword for Paramount Newsreel cameras and club members sitting in lawn chairs beside a makeshift baseball diamond, he threatened to cut a ball in half before the game between teams of bachelors and husbands. While Ruth held out hope for a managing position, organized baseball would never find a place for him.
(KEYSTONE/FPG/GETTY IMAGES)
Babe Ruth celebrated his fifty-third and last birthday a day late, as he always had, on February 7, 1948, the day his mother claimed he was born. Having spent much of the winter in the hospital, he told a friend, “I haven’t much further to go but I’m not going to die in here. I’m going to get out and have some fun first.” He shared his birthday cake with two five-year-old boys in Florida.
(AP IMAGES)
Babe returned to the House That Ruth Built for a last goodbye on June 13, 1948. He had to use Bob Feller’s bat, loaned to him by Eddie Robinson of the Cleveland Indians, to climb the dugout steps, gripping the shaft with both hands. He took a few feeble swings for photographers, then saluted the crowd—50,000 would-be residents of Ruthville—who had come to say farewell.
(KEYSTONE/FPG/GETTY IMAGES)
About the Author
JANE LEAVY, an award-winning former sportswriter and feature writer for the Washington Post, is the author of the acclaimed bestselling biographies Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy and The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, and the comic novel Squeeze Play. She lives in Washington, D.C., and Truro, Massachusetts.
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Also by Jane Leavy
NONFICTION
The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood
Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy
FICTION
Squeeze Play
Copyright
THE BIG FELLA. Copyright © 2018 by Jane Leavy. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Endpapers © Robert Riger/Getty Images
Frontispiece © The Stanley Weston Archive/Archive Photos/Getty Images
Cover design by Milan Bozic
Cover photograph © Condé Nast/Getty Images
Digital Edition OCTOBER 2018 ISBN: 978-0-06-238024-1
Version 09282018
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-238022-7
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