The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth (48 page)

Psychological tests in 1921 established that Babe Ruth was a pretty darn good baseball player. It was not a surprising conclusion.

Walter Johnson vs. the Babe. The Big Train had problems with the Big Bam, but gets him to foul this pitch.

The well-dressed fisherman.

The Sudbury farmer. Maybe the log will be shaped into a bat.

Injured (date unknown). Whenever he was hurt on the field, the Babe brought true drama to the situation.

President Warren G. Harding meets the Babe, 1922. The Babe, no doubt, had something to say.

The swing was never subtle or tentative.

He always said he could hit .600 if he only tried for singles.

He didn’t want to try for singles.

The famous face, a photographer’s dream.

Celebrity. He drew a crowd no matter where he stood.

George Ruth and George Ruth. The Babe and his father at his father’s Baltimore bar.

The Bellyache Heard Round the World. The Babe is taken from the ambulance in his famous 1925 distress.

The Bellyache Heard Round the World (recuperation). The true reason for his 1925 hospitalization has never been determined.