A salute to the Bambino
Each of Bill Keisling's nonfiction books is dedicated to someone who has made a significant contributon to American democracy. The Midnight Ride of Jonathan Luna is dedicated to Baltimore's Babe Ruth.
Where have you gone, Babe, and Boog, and Frank, and Brooks?
Keisling writes, "Babe Ruth swings his bat in the center of the golden moment of the golden age of baseball. And so he swings at the center of the golden age of America. On a fateful day in the 1932 World Series, playing against the Chicago Cubs, in the depths of the great Depression, Ruth stood at bat with two strikes against him. 'Never let the fear of striking out get in your way,' Ruth once advised the youth of America. As Cubs fans heckled, Ruth pointed to the center field bleachers. With the next pitch he slammed the ball out of the park, above the spot where he had pointed. It was the longest home run ever to be hit out of Wrigley Field.
"In that one mythic moment of instant prophesy, determination, and straightaway action, Babe Ruth embodies the American century, and the spirit of unstoppable American accomplishment. The Wright brothers pointing to the sky. Jack Kennedy pointing to the moon. Eisenhower pointing his men to the beaches of Normandy. FDR pointing our way out of the Great Depression, despair and darkness. As we point, in our new century, to an American renewal."
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