More Than Just a Ballplayer
“Game Called” by Grantland Rice was first published in The North American Newspaper Alliance in 1948. The focus of the article was Babe Ruth, who had recently passed away. Babe Ruth is a name that all baseball fans know. He was a star pitcher and hitter, holding the all-time home run record for many years, but Rice only spends about one paragraph talking about Ruth the ballplayer. The majority of the article serves as a tribute to the kind of human being that Ruth was, filled mostly with anecdotes and tales of what Ruth was like when he was not in a baseball uniform, hitting towering home runs and establishing himself as Rice describes as, “the greatest all-around ballplayer in the history of the game.” Rice is content to let the numerous statistics that Ruth racked up over his illustrious career back up that claim. What he is most concerned with in this article is giving readers an inside look at who Ruth was off the field.
Rice establishes himself as a supporting character in this article, strongly relying on ethos to get his points across, and for good reason. Rice was a close friend of Ruth’s for close to 30 years. The stories Rice shares about what Ruth was like off the field, stories many readers and fans most likely did not know about when Ruth was playing, he was able to do so because he was present with the Babe when they took place. Rice had a front-row seat for all of the stories he shares about Ruth, so readers don’t have to read with a skeptical eye, wondering whether or not the things he says the “Great Bambino” did are fact or fiction. They can take them at face-value because Rice was right there, witnessing it all first-hand.
The main purpose, and theme, of this article is Babe Ruth the person. After reading the article one can tell that Ruth was quite the character. He was a man, as Rice writes, “who had no regard for the conventions of the common or normal man, whether this included action or words” like when a traffic cop pulled him over for driving on the wrong side of the road but let him off the hook because he didn’t realize it was Ruth who was doing the driving. Or the time Ruth and a friend were shooting at a doorknob at the golf club, and nearly shot a man, and the response Ruth gave was, “He should have knocked”. Tales like these fill the article, causing the reader to question just what kind of man Ruth actually was. But Rice is quick to point out that, “beyond all this, he was open-hearted, friendly, always cheerful, a great guy to be with.” And perhaps no one knew better how open-hearted Ruth was than the children he so often visited and spent time. Rice includes an anecdote about Ruth driving 60 miles before a World Series game just to visit a sick kid to show the love that Ruth had for children.
Everyone knew about Babe Ruth’s greatness on the baseball diamond. Grantland Rice utilizes all these stories and more to paint the picture of who Babe Ruth was off the field. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at an individual who thrilled the nation with his play, but also someone whose life was about more than just what he did on the field.
