Review - It Was Never About the Babe: Jerry Gutlon's New Book is a Must Read for All Baseball Fans

Whether you are a Red Sox fan, a Yankee fan, or, really, any type of baseball fan, you are going to love Jerry M. Gutlon’s new book It Was Never About The Babe. This incredibly well-researched book completely debunks the myth that Boston’s 86-year World Series championship drought had anything to do with Harry Frazee’s trade of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees after the 1919 season.

Instead, as Gutlon demonstrates in great detail, the real reasons why the Red Sox couldn’t get over the hump for almost a century were: (1) racist ownership, and (2) stubborn, often stupid, and almost always inflexible management.

While the rest of baseball was embracing racial integration during the late 1940s and the 1950s, the Boston Red Sox remained an all-white team. It wasn't until 1959 that the Sox signed Pumpsie Green, making Boston the last team in baseball to integrate. As Gutlon shows, the Sox failure to sign an African-American player wasn’t because they didn’t have opportunities.

For example, in 1945, six months before the Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson, the team gave the future Hall of Famer a tryout. It was a disaster. During the tryout (which included two other black players, including future star Sam Jethroe), manager Joe Cronin stood with his back turned to the field. Fans from the stands hollered: “Get those niggers off the field!”

In 1950, the Sox were given an option to sign any of the players on the Birmingham Black Barons, a Negro League squad that featured another future Hall of Famer named Willie Mays. A scout who watched Willie play told the team that Mays was a great five-tool player who would give the Sox much-needed speed, defense and power. Cronin again showed no interest, saying, “we have no use for that boy at this time.” Just imagine if the Sox had Jackie and Willie in the 1950s.

Pinky Higgins, who took over as the team’s skipper in 1955, swore that no black player would play for the team so long as he was manager.

The discrimination wasn’t limited to black players. Yawkey also kept Catholics and Jews off the team, a practice that led to a 1959 lawsuit against the Sox.

Sox Mismanagement, On and Off the Field

But it wasn’t just racism that kept Boston down for so long. It was also a series of poor, stubborn decisions by ownership and management that contributed to the drought. Perhaps the most famous example of poor on-field management occurred in Game 7 of the 2003 American League Championship Series, when manager Grady Little left Pedro Martinez on the mound for much too long, a move that allowed the New York Yankees to turn an almost certain loss into another tragic BoSox loss when Aaron Boone hit a walk off homer that sent the Yankees, instead of the Sox, to the Series.

Debunking The Mythical Bambino Curse

The book also shows how the alleged Curse of the Bambino was nothing more than a fantasy dreamed up by noted (and often reviled) Boston sportswriter Dan Shaughnessy. In fact, according to Gutlon, the phrase “The Curse of the Bambino” didn’t really come about until Shaughnessy wrote his 1990 book by the same name. The term was so catchy and irresistible to down-and-out Boston fans, that it soon took on a life of its own, and it remained a mythical staple in the Red Sox diet until, of course, the team finally won it all in 2004.

This is a great book, both as a history lesson and as an ode to one of the most important teams in the history of the game. Buy it. Read it. Love it.

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Mar 8, 2009 8:33 PM

Guest :

I hope that this book makes up for the all the losses in life....including the Red Sox.

Mar 9, 2009 2:34 PM

Guest :

Jerry Gutlon is a master of detail and research. "It Was Never About the Babe" shows how his background as an investigative journalist paid off -- because the book wouldn't be able to exist without it. His journalistic skills are evident in every page -- in every sentence -- and he can be depended on for delivering thoroughly researched, verifiable facts, all of which are backed up by comments through interviews from sources involved or closely connected to the players and managers he's written about. If you're a baseball fan -- or a good writing fan -- treat yourself to this meticulous book. You'll want to read it over and over and pass it on to everyone you know who is a baseball fan. And you will see a masterpiece that results when a journalist of Jerry Gutlon's caliber crosses over and switches from newspapers to become an author. I know. I worked with him.
~ Marci Elliott