How the Babe shook America from its doldrums with the crack of his bat For a country exhausted by the tragedies of war and depleted by a raging flu epidemic, the timing of George Herman Ruth's arrival in New York in 1920 was perfect. Baseball had never seen anything like him on or off the field. His confident swagger, seductive charisma, and powerhouse swing at the plate was just what the country needed to forget its sorrows and kick off the jubilation of the Jazz Age. Babe Ruth: Launching the Legend is the story of that incredible year and the transforming power of Babe Ruth and the Yankees of 1920. When Americans wanted desperately to move on, drink gin, dance the Charleston, and enjoy a good game of baseball, the Babe gave it to them. Big time. Not only did he hit a record-breaking fifty-four home runs that season, he unleashed a new way to play the game, helped launch the Yankees dynasty, and saved baseball in the midst of the devastating "Black Sox" scandal. History was in the making.

Told in luminous prose by acclaimed baseball writer Jim Reisler, Babe Ruth: Launching the Legend is a rare glimpse into the story that started it all, a year when Ruth was simply a ballplayer, an emerging star on the very verge of becoming a mythic hero.