Babe Ruth: Against All Odds, World's Mightiest Slugger

To honor the 100th Anniversary of Babe Ruth’s entry into professional baseball, America’s leading Ruthian scholar has written this definitive book, which conclusively proves Babe’s historic superiority over all other sluggers. Based on thirty-five years of intensive research, this chronicle, once and for all, banishes the false caricatures and lingering misconceptions about Ruth’s abilities and persona. 

The Babe was a man of energy, passion, warmth, generosity, dedication, courage, human foibles, and, most importantly to this story, nearly super-human physical power. It was that final trait which set Ruth apart from all other men. Babe’s home runs soared into the heavens, farther than anyone had imagined possible, and filled a nation with joy, wonder, and hope. Here is a captivating account of Ruth’s amazing transcendence, told through the prism of his mightiest home runs and irrepressible spirit.

Bill Jenkinson is one of the country’s most trusted and respected baseball historians. He has served as either official or de facto consultant for The Baseball Hall of Fame, Major League Baseball, SABR, The Babe Ruth Museum and ESPN. He has been quoted in nearly every major American newspaper as well as Time Magazine, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated. Jenkinson is a career investigator, who has been trained to separate fact from fiction. Starting in 1979, Jenkinson has personally interviewed almost every top slugger, including Hank Aaron, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Mark McGwire and Ken Griffey Jr., as well as many others. He has also studied the careers of every great power hitter in Major League history. Jenkinson has written articles for various Major League teams including the Orioles, Red Sox, Phillies and Reds. He has also written several pieces for the nationally distributed Sports Weekly. When SABR published the Home Run Encyclopedia, they arranged for Jenkinson to write a special chapter on the history of long distance home runs. He has given countless radio and television interviews including an ESPN appearance when that network produced a show about “tape measure homers”. A Japanese network also sent a crew to his home, when filming a documentary about Babe Ruth. Whenever someone needs information about the legendary Bambino, they usually wind up at Bill Jenkinson’s doorstep. With the publication of his book about The Babe in 2007 that process accelerated. Titled: The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs, this compelling chronicle received exceptionally positive reviews from all sources. Accordingly, the author participated in a series of interviews and public speaking engagements with audiences from coast to coast. In 2008, Bill had the honor of delivering the 60th-Anniversay eulogy for Babe Ruth at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Jenkinson’s newest book, BASEBALL’S ULTIMATE POWER, was published by Lyons Press in March 2010. It tells the fascinating story of epic power-hitting throughout the history of baseball, and discusses every great slugger on an individual basis. Among baseball historians, only Bill Jenkinson is qualified to address this topic in definitive fashion. Bill also possesses the unique ability to clarify many of the conflicting assertions about steroid use. He has researched every homer hit by all the top power hitters, thereby creating power-performance-curves for each of them. In 2011-2012, while also writing his next book, Jenkinson served as the primary baseball consultant for Hot Springs, Arkansas when that historic city established their nationally recognized “Historical Baseball Trail.” That ambitious enterprise is now in place, consisting of twenty-six individual, cast-aluminum plaques, located in carefully selected sites throughout the “Valley of the Vapors.” Bill lives in Willow Grove, PA with his wife, Marie. They have four children and five grandchildren. Besides researching and writing baseball history, Jenkinson enjoys reading, the arts, travel, playing sports and all other fields of history.