David O. Stewart. The Babe Ruth Deception. Kensington, 2016.
The Babe Ruth Deception tips it hat to The Great Gatsby as it tells a fictional tale concerning people peripherally involved with the life of Babe Ruth. Some are historical figures like Arnold Rothstein (whom we have taken a look at in a few places and who inspired the character of Gatsby’s shady friend Meyer Wolfsheim), Abe Attell (a champion boxer known as the Little Hebrew who would work for Rothstein), various baseball players and executives, and the Babe himself.
The novel also tips it hat to Gatsby in one of the main plot lines. The young Joshua Cook, son of former baseball player and Negro League official Speed Cook, is in love with a white debutante Violet Fraser. Violet’s father is a New York doctor and her mother is a former actress and now a film and theater producer.
The Cooks and Frasers are friends, but neither set of parents see any possible good coming from an interracial marriage in 1921. In this case, though, Violet is unmarried. She had been dating an eligible Yalie until she is injured and slightly crippled in the 1921 bombing of a Morgan bank branch in the city. This actually further complicates things because Joshua and some of his friends have been associating with some radicals like W.E.B. DuBois. Some authorities suspect these Negro anarchists were behind the bombing of the bank.
We can see, then, how this historical fiction ties in with real historical events and characters. What does this have to do with Babe Ruth?
Mrs. Fraser played a role in the filming of a movie featuring Babe Ruth, which happened to be released the year he shattered the home run record for a season. From all accounts Headin’ Home is not a great film, but the author in an afterword assures us that it is worth checking out because we see a young and fit Bambino, not the overweight and over the hill Ruth in the 1930s film clips most people are familiar with.
The film’s original backers withdrew, and it almost did not get produced until Abe Attell came up with fifty thousand dollars. This is complicated because Attell like his boss Rothstein were implicated in the fixing of the 1919 World Series. Attell was actually indicted but his case was dismissed by a Chicago judge who may have been bribed.
There had been rumors that a few players in the 1918 World Series may also have been bribed. Of course, Ruth played in that series for the Boston Red Sox against the other Chicago team, the Cubs. Now Ruth pitched back then, so he only played in two games and did well. Nobody accused him of being bribed, but one of the men who was permanently banned from baseball because of his role in the 1919 World Series, Eddie Cicotte, claimed that a few Cubs helped throw the 1918 series.
If there could be more of a connection made between Attell or Rothstein and the Babe, it could look bad for baseball. Many baseball historians, probably most notably Ken Burns in his PBS miniseries, credit Ruth with restoring interest in baseball and saving the sport. If he were even indicted or suspected of some kind of connection with gambling and fixing games, it could mean big trouble for him and for the game.
Because the Babe worked with Mrs. Fraser on the film, the Frasers think their friend Mr. Cook may help. In the book, Speed Cook was one of the last black players to play on an integrated professional team as well as being a current Negro League executive. He knows many baseball people of both races, so they seek Cook’s help in trying to see if there is any possible scandal to be associated with Ruth. It turns out that Ruth owes Rothstein some money for a loan but Rothstein refuses to have him pay it off. It seems Rothstein has some kind of hold over Ruth that Ruth will not talk about.
Oh, and Joshua Cook decides, not unlike Jay Gatsby, that if he is going to make decent money to support Violet and impress her parents, he is going to have to go into bootlegging. This is the era of Prohibition. Without going into too much detail, Joshua’s biggest problem is not with the authorities but with rival criminal operations.
A major scene takes place outside of New York City proper at an estate with a wild party. In this case it is at Saratoga, not Long Island, and the party features gambling. There is also a automobile wreck that kills one of the main characters. Perhaps a few more echoes of Gatsby?
This is a lot of fun. We do know that Rothstein was primarily a financier. According the biography reviewed here, he probably had nothing to do with fixing the 1919 World Series directly, but he was likely the only person in the country who could have provided the money to the syndicate that did fix the games.
According to Pietrusza’s biography, he always made sure that people owed him money so he could influence them. He also made sure to take out loans from others so that people would not hurt him. (Pietrusza believes that the mob hit that killed him was a mistake.) That he or Abe Attell would try to hold something on Ruth is believable.
However, if Pietrusza is to be believed, there may be one quibble with The Babe Ruth Deception. The biography notes that Rothstein started his gambling operations when they were still legal in New York. He was able to keep them going after they were outlawed because he had a reputation of not rigging his games and many of his clients were government officials. Yes, the odds were in the house’s favor, as they are in every casino, but his gambling operations were successful precisely because people trusted them. In the novel he may be portrayed in a slightly more sleazy manner. Of course, since most of his operations were in the underworld, we will probably never know for sure.
What is the actual Babe Ruth deception? The Frasers, with some information from Speed Cook, are able to create a scenario that manages to get the Bambino extricated from the clutches of Rothstein and Attell. And they are able to make some money on the side. Readers will get a kick out of its cleverness. If only Jay Gatsby had been a little more clever…