Game changer

摘要

FOLLOWERS or other sports argue about their "best-ever": Jack Nicklaus versus Tiger Woods in golf; Don Bradman versus Sachin Tendulkar in cricket; and umpteen contenders for the title of best boxer pound-for-pound. Baseball is different. Here Robert Weintraub, a leading American sports columnist, is able to claim that just one man, Babe Ruth, is "by general consensus the most important and greatest player in the game's history." Mr Weintraub's main theme is the role Ruth played in the 1923 season, when the New York Yankees famously won their first World Series after moving to a brandnew stadium in the Bronx. His far more interesting sub-theme is how Ruth's might helped change the character of baseball for the better and for good.