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Gift of the Bambino
It is 1914. A young boy takes in a baseball game with his father and sees a tall, lanky Babe Ruth hit his first home run as a professional. The ball sails through the sky and drops into the bay just beyond the fence. Thus begins an epic tale of hopes, dreams, and fantasy that the boy takes with him on the journey of his life. He shares it with no one as he toils through triumph and tragedy, and not until he finally confides in his own grandson some two generations later is his struggle vindicated.
In Gift of the Bambino, that grandson's coming-of-age as a young man and his grandfather's worshipping of Babe Ruth when he himself was a boy are woven together in a web of fantasy, ambition, and unswerving belief in an ideal. The poignant relationship they share culminates in a mutual acceptance of morality and the realization that myth and reality are intertwined. And when death is at the door, past and present meet in a dramatic rendezvous with the mystical home run ball from 1914.
Gift of the Bambino is a baseball novel that tugs fiercely at the heart and refuses to let go. It looks back into the early days of baseball, when the game was just a game and the thrills of a home-run everlasting.
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"Myth and reality intertwine in this captivating baseball novel involving an old man, his grandson, and a mystical home run ball." - Jerry Amernic in The Gift of the Bambino : A Novel (April 2004)
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Baseball Almanac believes the Gift of the Bambino by Jerry Amernic will hold your interest from the prologue:
"A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove. But the world may be different because I was important in the life of a boy." - Forest Witcraft, Boy Scouts of America
..through the final page:
"It will stay with him long after I'm gone and long after my children are gone. It will stay with him after the last man has departed from this earth and even after the next Ice Age comes to carry everything away. It will stay with him when his remains are but another granule in an earlier layer of life not far above those of the ancient trilobites and sea turtles. It will stay with him.
Forever."
..and the entire trip can be best described as a wonderful surprise. Amernic writes via the novel about the two most important people in his life, his father and his grandfather. He spins a warm tale by reminiscing about his younger days through a fictional account of what could have been the Bambino's minor league start.
The first home run hit by Ruth landed in a lake. The ball was not recovered and it was the last minor league home run he hit. The grandfather shares this and other facts about the Bambino with his grandson. Fantasy & fact are woven together seamlessly in Gift of the Bambino and the exploration of life's relationships through baseball are warm & timeless.
If you are looking for research, history & statistics, Gift of the Bambino is not for you (stick to Baseball Almanac). If you want a poignant story about life, relationships & baseball then this book will be a grand slam.
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| Editorial Reviews |
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From Toronto Sun: "I had absolutely no idea how enjoyable a journey it would be... [a] touching yarn."
From The Hamilton Spectator: "Weaves a warm tale... Jerry Amernic may well awaken baseball magic in some readers."
From Publishers Weekly: "In 1914 in Toronto, Lazaros Slackowicz, then a young boy, sees Babe Ruth, the 'bambino' of Amernic's O. Henryesque debut, hit a monstrous home run in a minor league game. This glimpse of baseball's first superstar transforms Lazaros into a devoted fan and a dedicated, if ultimately unsuccessful, player; this is his story, told through the eyes of his grandson, a narrative device far too reminiscent of Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie."
From Wall Street Journal: "Gift of the Bambino will make the perfect gift for a young baseball fan."
From W.P. Kinsella (author Shoeless Joe): "Like all good baseball novels, Gift of the Bambino is a love story that is peripherally about baseball. Babe Ruth's first home-run ball is the axis on which this tale of triumph and adversity turns. It is at times both heart-wrenching and heart-warming, and a thoroughly enjoyable read."
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| The Gift of the Bambino : A Novel by Jerry Amernic |
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The back of the book has the following information about the author: Jerry Amernic started his career as a newspaper reporter. He has been a feature writer for magazines, an editor, and a public relations consultant, specializing in media. Gift of the Bambino is his first novel. He lives with his wife and family in Toronto.
The Sultan of Swat hit his first major league home run in 1915. The best account of this historical moment is posted below:
Babe Ruth's First Home Run, May 6, 1915
by Harvey Frommer
In the third inning at the Polo Grounds, 20-year-old pitcher Babe Ruth slammed the first pitch off Yankee right-hander Jack Warhop into the second tier of the right field grandstand for a home run. It was the first home run for the youngster in his 18th time at bat in the major leagues.
As Ruth trotted around the bases running out the home run he had blasted, the 8,000 in attendance, including Red Sox owner Joseph Lannin, American League president Ban Johnson and sportswriters Damon Runyan and Heywood Broun, cheered him on.
Runyan wrote in his account of the game: "Fanning this Ruth is not as easy as the name and the occupation might indicate. In the third inning, Ruth knocked the slant out of one of Jack Warhop's underhanded subterfuges, and put the baseball in the right field stands for a home run. Ruth was discovered by Jack Dunn in a Baltimore school a year ago where he had not attained his left-handed majority, and was adopted and adapted by Jack for use of the Orioles. He is now quite a demon pitcher and demon hitter when he connects."
Ironically, the momentous first of the Babe's 714 career home runs came against the team he would come to symbolize—the New York Yankees. The homer was his fifth major league hit. In ten times at bat in 1914 and eight times at the plate in 1915, he had notched three doubles and a single.
"Mr. Warhop of the Yankees," wrote Wilmot Giffin in the New York Evening Journal, "looked reproachfully at the opposing pitcher who was so unclubby as to do a thing like that to one of his own trade. But Ruthless Ruth seemed to think that all was fair in the matter of fattening a batting average."
Ruth's singular shot and two other hits notwithstanding, the Yankees were able to eke out a 4-3 triumph in 13 innings over the Red Sox who committed four errors. The Babe was saddled with the loss.
Source: Harvey Frommer Newsletter
Did you know that George Herman Ruth earned his nickname during the 1914 Spring Training camp when his teammates on the International League Baltimore Orioles began referring to him as owner Jack Dunn’s new "babe?"
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