The book: “From Spring Training to Screen Test: Baseball Players Turned Actors”
The author: Edited by Rob Edelman and Bill Nowlin
How to find it: SABR Digital Library, 410 pages, $19.95, released Feb. 22
The links: At Amazon.com, at the publishers website.
A review in 90-feet or less: A book this coffee-table-sized large lends itself to almost over-promising on what it contains. With further disappointment, this one also under delivers in a promise to shed more light on baseball players who have either dabbled in Hollywood or really gave it their all in a post-playing career.
Almost 60 essays written by some 40 SABR members such, most notably Edleman and Nowlin, give far too much coverage to the player’s onfield performance and very little depth on whatever their acting prowess might be. No where is it more unbalanced as the 12-page chapter on Babe Ruth’s career (already chronicled much more indepth by dozens of other writers) and completely lacking a mention of Ruth’s performances on the silver screen, most notably playing himself in the 1927 silent sports comedy “Babe Comes Home” (as “Babe Duan,” and there is only a photo of the movie poster included) or as himself in the 1942 classic “Pride of the Yankees,” which includes much detail from the 2017 book about it by Richard Sandomir.
Oops. Sorry. On page 233, there is this graph:
“Ruth also starred in a feature film entitled ‘Headin’ Home,’ which was filed in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The plot, such as it was, starred Babe as a country bumpkin who makes good in big league ball – not exactly playing against type. According to Variety, ‘It couldn’t hold the interest of anyone for five seconds if it were not for the presence of Ruth.’”
Later it mentions: “Ruth retired to a life of golf, fishing, bowling and public appearances.”
So there you go. At least another book coming out this spring, “Babe Ruth and the Creation of the Celebrity Athlete,” by Thomas Barthel, might do a deeper dive into this aspect of his life. Continue reading “Day 8 of 30 baseball book reviews for 2018: Lights, camera … action needs to be taken to further research about ex-players who dabbled in Hollywood”
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