Breaking Babe Ruth: Baseball's Campaign Against Its Biggest Star

Rather than as a Falstaffian figure of limited intellect, Edmund Wehrle reveals Babe Ruth as an ambitious, independent operator, one not afraid to challenge baseball’s draconian labor system. To the baseball establishment, Ruth’s immense popularity represented opportunity, but his rebelliousness and potential to overturn the status quo presented a threat. After a decades—long campaign waged by baseball to contain and discredit him, the Babe, frustrated and struggling with injuries and illne...