The House That Ruth Built: A New Stadium, the First Yankees Championship, and the Redemption of 1923

by Robert Weintraub

The untold story of Babe Ruth's Yankees, John McGraw's Giants, and the extraordinary baseball season of 1923.

Before the 27 World Series titles -- before Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Derek Jeter -- the Yankees were New York's shadow franchise. They hadn't won a championship, and they didn't even have their own field, renting the Polo Grounds from their cross-town rivals the New York Giants. In 1921 and 1922, they lost to the Giants when it mattered in October.

But in 1923, the Yankees played their first season on their own field, the newly-built, state of the art baseball palace in the Bronx called "the Yankee Stadium." The stadium was a gamble, erected in relative outerborough obscurity, and Babe Ruth was coming off the most disappointing season of his career, a season that saw his struggles on and off the field threaten his standing as a bona fide superstar.

It only took Ruth two at-bats to signal a new era. He stepped up to the plate in the 1923 season opener and cracked a home run to deep right field, the first homer in his park, and a sign of what lay ahead. It was the initial blow in a season that saw the new stadium christened "The House That Ruth Built," signaled the triumph of the power game, and established the Yankees as New York's -- and the sport's -- team to beat.

From that first home run of 1923 to the storybook World Series matchup that pitted the Yankees against their nemesis from across the Harlem River -- one so acrimonious that John McGraw forced his Giants to get to the Bronx in uniform rather than suit up at the Stadium -- Robert Weintraub vividly illuminates the singular year that built a classic stadium, catalyzed a franchise, cemented Ruth's legend, and forever changed the sport of baseball.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction, History, Biography, Audiobook, New York

432 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Robert Weintraub is a sports columnist for Slate.com and has written for ESPN.com, Play, The Guardian, Football Outsiders, and many other publications, as well as written and produced for ESPN, Turner Broadcasting, ABC Sports, the Discovery Channel, and dozens of other television outlets. He lives in Decatur, Georgia.

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are few things better than reading a good baseball book, and The House That Ruth Built is certainly that. While the construction of "the Yankee Stadium" is the centerpiece of the story, like any good historian, author Robert Weintraub tells us everything that lead up to the creation of the stadium and all of the historical context.

There is considerable discussion of the differences between the "dead ball" era and the subsequent rule changes that forever altered baseball, and why they came about. We learn a lot about manager John McGraw and the innovations he brought to the game. We learn about the New York sports writers like Damon Runyon and Haywood Broun, and we learn about the dawn of baseball broadcasting on radio. Of course, we learn about Babe Ruth, the 1922 World Series, and the entire 1923 season (the inaugural year of Yankee Stadium). Very entertaining.

My biggest complaint about the book is that it is sometimes confusing. This reader has to stay on his toes to keep up with the switches in the narrative between the Giants in the NL and the Yankees in the AL. Part of this is due to differences in the leagues between then and now. I had to keep reminding myself that the Braves were in Boston, the A's were in Philly, the Brooklyn team was called the Robins, the Orioles were a minor league team, and St. Louis had the Browns who shared Sportsman's Park with the Cardinals. Weintraub could have helped out by more completely identifying the teams during the narrative more often, e.g., so-and-so was traded to the Boston Braves instead of just the Braves.

The book is very thoroughly researched and Weintraub presents lots of detail. I enjoyed this book almost as much as I enjoyed the Berra biography I read a year or two ago, and I enjoyed THAT book a lot. Any baseball fan who likes learning the history and/or strategy of the sport will like The House That Ruth Built.

Oh, and by the way, I'm a native St. Louisan and a Cardinal fan, which did not lessen my enjoyment of the book in the least.

[Matt Redmond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily one of the best pieces of non-fiction I've ever read.

[Fred · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is easy to forget that there was a time in Major League Baseball when the Yankees were the new franchise in The Big Apple. Not only that, but they were considered second fiddle to the Giants, unable to win the World Series and saddled with a "star" who choked in the big moments. Babe Ruth had come to the Yankees with two World Series wins, but they had come when he was pitcher and while he had electrified the sport and earned enormous amounts of money for every franchise that he played against crushing homers, he was a failure in his first two Series with his new team, the Yankees. This is the setting for the 1923 season, the first one in a new ball park and a crucial one for both the Bambino and the Bronx team.
Weintraub tells the story with great pace and drama. As in all of these "one season" books there is much more to the months of baseball than anyone remembers. And thought it is easy enough to look up the eventual winner of the fall classic, it is still amazing to hear how an aging Casey Stengel, playing for John McGraws' Giants, won a game with an improbably inside the park homer. He shows how much pressure Ruth was under, the utter obsession of the fans and the effect of the new medium, radio. It is a fascinating, roaring 20's baseball story and Robert Weintrub tells it with great skill.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been meaning to get to this one for a while. I've always been fascinated with the location of Yankee Stadium and wanted to know how it got built (and why). I also wanted to learn more about those old John McGraw New York Giants, baseball legends who have been memoryholed as deadball era thugs unwilling to accept the power of the home run and its impact on the game.

Robert Weintraub does a great job presenting all of this in narrative form, from the dominance of the Giants to the rise of the Yankees to the political arm twisting that made Yankee Stadium possible. There are occasional diversions to 20s touchstones that aren't really necessary but this book gave me exactly what I was looking for and I'm happy with it.

[Canon Don Muller · Rating 5 out of 5]

For baseball fans, not just of the Yankees. Read what baseball was all about in the early twenties, the people on the field and management. This helps the reading what baseball was like, what Babe Ruth meant to the game, and how Yankee Stadium upped the interest.

[Bill Hazlett · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read for the baseball fan/historian. Even a Yankee hater such as myself enjoyed reading about a time when they Yankees were they underdog.

[Amy Reynolds · Rating 5 out of 5]

My over all experience with The House that Ruth Built was just...WOW! SO MUCH information that probably nobody ever knew was dug out and presented in a comprehensible way. I loved the swag that came with the book order, too. Cracker Jacks, baseball stickers. So fun. I'm an adult and come from a family of baseball fanatics. GO ASTROS! GO PIRATES. I'm also a research nerd and love to find out the cool info that has been benched for the more mainstream narrative. And honestly, I never even knew that Babe Ruth was the one to initiate stadiums. My how baseball players have changed, especially their diets!! I highly recommend this book for all baseball fans, not just kids. I bought two for my over 60 cousins! They were thrilled. I can only imagine the hard work, research and hours and hours of time it took to perfect this book. The end product was high class and quality from beginning to end. Ms. Bennett hit it out of the park... Highly recommended.

[Joshua Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a very fun read and my only problem is that the author continues some of the negative myths about Ty Cobb. After having just read a book that perks back some of the layers between Cobb the actual player/person and the stories about him most are completely unfounded and several are just plain made up. So, for a book that is set to displace myths and unearths facts about the season and the game that's just a poor way to go.

[Karl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was not about Babe Ruth. It is about. A lot of important forgotten people in 1923. They built the original Yankee stadium Stadium. On April 18, 1923,. A young collage baseball player hit home runs at Yankee stadium Stadium. Scouts saw Gehrig as "the next Babe Ruth".

[Matt Garville · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great history of the early 20’s seasons as the game began to modernize.

Eerie how many parallels there are with Ruth’s struggles in big moments with the Bronx’s current larger than life slugger manning right field on 161st & River.

Hopefully Judge has a similar redemption arc.

[Mark T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good read

[Aaron Badgley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detailed, well written and fascinating account of The Yankees, Yankee Stadium, and Babe Ruth. I have read Weintraub's other book, which I love.

[Melissa Loucks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a neat perspective on the opening year of the Old Yankee Stadium.

[Jim Swike · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly great year by the Babe. A great read if you think the Babe was one dimensional. He wasn't. Enjoy!

[Sattik Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is less about Ruth and the new Yankee Stadium, and more about McGraw, the Giants, and their 1923 season. The story is well-crafted and a fantastic look at 1920s baseball.

[Cal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating: C-

[Heavensent1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

The House That Ruth Built is a non-fiction historical account of Babe Ruth's rise to fame and the Yankees stake in baseball history.

In the early 1920's the Giants were the team to beat, John McGraw knew the game and helped shaped baseball as we know it today. He was the owner/operator of the NY Giants and landlord to the Yankees, via the Polo Grounds, in which many of their first games were played.

John McGraw did not like Babe Ruth and often called him names and tormented him. The Babe was having a rough time, his fans were turning on him and his game was slacking. He decided to take a break from the game to refocus himself, and though by this time, he was already a superstar, his legend had yet to be born.

The book is chock full of true life stories and accounts on the glory of the game, the Yankees rise to fame, Babe Ruth's rise to glory and John McGraw's infamous hatred to all things Yankee. McGraw did everything he could to stall or stop the construction of the Yankee Stadium, nestled a short way across the river, sitting like a giant with the Polo Grounds in shadow. The inevitable was about to occur and the control McGraw curried was about to run thin.

I am not a huge baseball fan but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I loved all the historical references and the facts and figures that go with the territory. I loved Robert Weintraub's casual and friendly writing style, I could almost envision myself in the crowds of the people on opening day of the new Yankee stadium. He was able to write it in such a way that you could smell the hot dogs and the popcorn and feel the excitement of the 1923 World Series game.

I enjoyed all the attention to detail that the author was easily able to describe, from the cut blade of the grass to the dimensions of the stadium, nothing is left out and the research involved must have been insurmountable. What you get in the end is a well-documented piece of literature that is a must read for any baseball fan, but especially those who are fans of two of the countries most rivaled teams, the Yankees and the Giants.

It can be a bit of a dry read in places, especially when they're talking about individual stats of players, but the antics of "The Bambino" as well as, other known greats such as Lou Gehrig, Casey Stengel, Carl Mays etc. etc. We see a side of Babe Ruth that many are not aware of, as well we are shown his less controlled self also, leaving Babe exposed and human. We are escapulated by anecdotes that help to deliver a finely expressed love of baseball from the viewpoints of both the Giants and the Yankees, and how they became the epitome of all things American.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE HOUSE THAT RUTH BUILT Robert Weintraub 04/29/11
Goodreads; ****

This is a well written book that delves into a pivotal moment in baseball’s history—the 1923 season. This is the year that saw a shift in power in the hierarchy of baseball from John J. Mcgraw’s New York Giants to the New York Yankees and their most famous player, Babe Ruth. McGraw was the ultimate proponent of scientific baseball, what we today would call small ball, a great tactician who up until the World Series of 1923 was able to maneuver his team to victory. Ruth had been an ineffective hitter in the 1922 Series and John J. had called every pitch thrown to him from the bench. The result was a Giants World Series victory and humiliation for the Babe.

The 1923 season finds a revitalized Babe playing to record-breaking crowds in a new ballpark, Yankee Stadium, determined to make up for his failure in the 1922 championship. McGraw managed his team to another NL pennant in 1923, but found his pitcher’s skills diminished. When the Giants faced the 1923 version of Murderer’s Row, with Ruth at it’s heart, they were no longer up to the challenge. Ruth and the Yankee’s success was seen as a triumph of swing away style, long ball baseball over scientific baseball and the game was forever changed because of it.

I also found some interesting nuggets of trivia. For example: Casey Stengel’s ( a New York Giant in the 1923 season) real name is Charles Dillon Stengel. Casey comes from the nickname his fellow players gave him based on his hometown, Kansas City or KC. He later went on to greater fame as a manager of the Yankees and the Mets, using some of the principles of his mentor John J. McGraw and earning a new nickname “the Ole Perfesser”.


I liked this book and I am not a Yankee’s fan. It tells a balanced story of an important time in the development of baseball into the sport as it is played today.

Thanks Goodreads for another First Reads win! A book about one of my favorite subjects, baseball......

[Jim Gallen · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The House That Ruth Built” tells the story of New York Baseball: 1923. As much as I am a baseball fan, it told a story of a year of transformation in our national game with which I was unfamiliar. As 1923 began the Giants were New York Baseball and Manager John McGraw was “John J,, The Lord of New York.” In 1922 they had beaten their Polo Ground tenants, the Yankees, in the World Series and looked to repeat the following year. Babe Ruth was coming off an humiliating series. Expelling the Yankees from their shared ball park, the Giants forced Yankees’ owner, Col. Rupert, to build the histroic Yankee Stadium. Flush with ticket sales to fans anxious to see Babe Ruth, Rupert opened the stadium that would house a dynasty in 1923.

This book is the lore of the building of the stadium, its inaugural season and the World Series in which the Yankees turned the tables on the Giants and established themselves as the dominant team in New York and in the major leagues. It focuses on the premier characters of the era: Managers John McGraw and Miller Huggins and players Babe Ruth and Casey Stengel. Casey was a player for the Giants that year and his antics and heroics would set him on the road to baseball immortality.

What I like most about this book is the study of John McGraw and the “scientific baseball” that he managed. It sounds much like “Whiteyball” that we enjoyed in the 1980s. It was a style of baseball that was about to be crushed by the power of the Bambino. The tales of the rivalry between Ruth and McGraw, as the premier personalities of their teams gives the reader a sense of actually following the pennant chases and Fall Classic. “The House That Ruth Built” is a must for any fan or student of the Golden Age of Baseball.

[Holly Cline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book through first reads, and it did its job as far as being an enjoyable and informative book for baseball fans. However, this book is not going to launch itself onto anyone's favorite sports books list. And it doesn't achieve any sort of greatness that would make this a necessary read for someone who isn't a fan of baseball.

I enjoyed the stories and settings I'm far too young to know anything about. I always like getting a glimpse into a whole different time. The behavior of players and managers in that day would never stand up to the court of public opinion in today's media frenzied world.

I think the major thing that prevents this from being a must read or just a better overall book is its slight identity problem. I can't tell if this is merely a history book chronicling the rise of the yankees and the downfall of the mighty giants (though the marketing makes no mention of the giants and John McGraw, at least half of the book is devoted to them rather than the yankees and Babe Ruth), a love letter to the author's favorite team or some kind of 'We were once bad too!' show out of one too many ribbings about rooting for a perennial winner. If that focus had been determined, the makings a truly great book are all here.

I do find it funny that this book has been published in the year following the Giants return to World Series champions for the first time since leaving New York. And they did it largely due to their proficiency at pitching and small ball. The 'scientific baseball' thought dead at the end of 1923.

[Paul Brandel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a homerun,one superb sport's book.
*The summer of 1923,ex-Pittsburg Pirate Fred Clark,invented the clip-down sunglasses.Also in that year "Bullitt"Joe Bush of the Yankees
invented the forkball to great effect.
Had John J.McGraw known that Casey Stengel would use his tutelage to lead the hated Yankees to a spate of titles begining in 1949,he'd
have had Stengel shipped out of town on the next train.
Casesy would put to use McGraw tactics such as dedicated relief pitchers,using the full roster,and most notably,employing the platoon
system in which Stengel was himself a pioneer.
*The man Gehrig would take the job from,Wally Pipp,was having a decent year to that point.Pipp led the AL in runs batted in at the
end of June with 54,thanks mainly to hitting cleanup behind Ruth.
Today Pipp is a punch line,a cautionary tale.Anyone taking a sick day is advised not to get "Wally Pipped"-to allow his job to be usurped
for mild medical reasons.
His legendary headache that supposedly gave Gehrig his chance at the everyday gig is among baseball's shibboleths. Therefore it should come as no surprise that little of the story is true.Like a host of fine baseball players from Fred Merkle to Bill Buckner,Pipp was a very
good player whose career was completely overshadowed by a single moment. In Pipp's case it wasn't even a bonehead play or a failure
of nerve,he simply was replaced by an all-time great.
Yes sports fan this is a wonderful read!

[Anup Sinha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This really was an excellent book, among the best historical baseball books I have read..... And I have read many. I just stumbled upon this and am grateful I did.

You may think the Yankees and Babe Ruth and the Roaring 20's have been overdone in literature, but Weintraub presented the watershed 1923 MLB season in a way that did it justice and taught me much. It really was a remarkable year with the opening of Yankee Stadium, their first of now 27 World Series championships, Babe Ruth in his prime, and Lou Gehrig making his big league debut.

In addition there was the end of the New York Giants dynasty and the supplanting of then iconic manager John McGraw from the pedestal of the sport.

Weintraub combines both rabid baseball fandom with excellent historical research and a strong narrative that puts you into the era. I love this type of baseball book to begin with and because he was so thorough and informative, I was hooked. Along with the major events are a lot of background stories about other players and non-baseball happenings.

I found the stories of Ross Youngs, Jack Bentley, Mose Solomon and other promising young athletes to be quite intriguing footnotes.

I would have liked more insight into the Babe switching from incredible pitcher to incredible hitter, but I realize it really isn't his biography.

That is being picky.

Huge baseball historians will love this as I did!

[Tom Gase · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read on the 1923 season, the first for Yankee Stadium. The book describes not only the season but the World Series between the NY Giants and NY Yankees, who were playing each other for the third straight year. I probably should have read this book directly after finishing the book 1921 that also recently came out. This book isn't quite as detailed as 1921, but it does seem easier to read because of that. My only problem with the book is it seems to go off topic on some of the players and coaches of the two teams a little too much. For someone that is reading about this time period with these two teams for the first time, that might be perfect, and make this a five-star book. Since I have read a lot about this time period, however, it only gets four stars as I was waiting for more to be written on the season and series. The series is written about in great detail and still reads well, so I almost gave this a five but it just seemed to be lacking... something. I highly recommend this book to any baseball fan, especially of the Giants or Yankees or just history fans that want to know more about the building of Yankee Stadium. You might be surprised on just how long it took to build the historic site, which was just a stone's throw away from the Polo Grounds where the Giants played. A nice read, I will probably read Weintraub's next book.

[Jim Kulhawy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic book detailing the need for Yankees' owners Ruppert and Huston to build a new place for their ballclub.

The Yankees had been sharing the Polo Grounds with John J. McGraw's NY Giants until they acquired Babe Ruth and started to become a large gate attraction. After beating the Yanks in the 1921 and 1922 World Series, McGraw, never a fan of Ruth, or the Yankees, had had enough and figured he could displace the team and embarrass them into moving, and bankrupting them in the process.

The book tells how the owners of the would be dynasty came up with the location, the finances and the idea to build, what would become, the greatest ballpark the world would ever know. There is tremendous insight into the times, the characters and baseball, in general, during the innaugural Yankee Stadium season of 1923. Each chapter chronicles a different month, how the team was faring and what was going on around the baseball world at the various times of the season.

There is a breakdown on each of the major owners, managers and players, around the league, but the main focus is on Babe Ruth and his impact on, not only, the game of baseball, but on the United States itself.

All in all, this is a book not just for the Yankees' fan, but the baseball fan. If you only read one book this summer, make this the book and come to see how the Yankees became THE YANKEES

[William]

This is a very readable book, easily among the most lively of the baseball mini-histories I've read. Weintraub does a good job capturing the colorful characters of the 1923 season and the clash of the up-and-coming Yankees and the New York Giants, then the kings of Gotham's sporting world. I gobbled this book up--can't remember the last time a mid-level weighty tome flew by so fast. Weintraub has done a great job pulling from primary documents a vivid portrait of the Yankees, the Giants, and baseball in 1923, that also manages to give us great insight to American culture in general during the early years of the "Roaring Twenties." Almost having the feel of a "non-fiction novel," this book is recommended for serious baseball readers and casual baseball fans alike, maybe even those who aren't into baseball but have an interest in twentieth century American cultural history. I liked this one better than The Victory Season, which maybe tries to do too much by telling the story of the entire Major Leagues for a season (1946), instead of just two teams.

[victor harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

The core of the story deals with the bitter rivalry between the emerging Yankee dynasty and the old and powerful New York Giants managed by John McGraw. The Yankees rented the Polo Grounds from the Giants until Yankee Stadium was completed in 1923. Indeed, the Giants did everything they could to thwart the Yankees in constructing the new facility so they could charge exorbitant rent to the Yankees. Appropriately, the first home run in " The House That Ruth Built" was socked by the Babe. The narrative is replete with amusing anecdotes, and integrates significant features of the socio-cultural milieu of the era. Most prominent in the backdrop was Prohibition, and Ruth was a male version of the Flapper with his uninhibited hedonistic pursuits. Weintraub is a master of delicious prose, making this work a cut above the standard baseball " who did what" story line.

[Robert Morrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had this book on my Kindle for months, due to a complete lack of motivation to read another damn book about the damn Yankees. Glad I got over it! Weintraub is a superb writer with wit and insight and somehow he breathes new life and perspective to overly-chronicled legends Babe Ruth and John McGraw. The book is primarily a baseball book but also contains reflections on parallel changes in society and a not-excessively detailed description of the construction of the original Yankee Stadium. In the end, a well-told story that makes the case that 1923 did represent a significant shift in both baseball and in the way Americans viewed the path to success.

[Les · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice history of the year Yankee Stadium opened. Robert Weintraub gives the background of the rivalry of the New York Giants and the New York Yankees which led to the building of the stadium along with the clash of "Scientific Baseball" as practiced by John J. McGraw, manager of the Giants, and the rise of the home run as represented by Babe Ruth of the Yankees. The troubles encountered with the building of the stadium and the trouble between the two owners of the Yankees, Jacob Ruppert and Cap Huston are recounted. He gives nice portraits of the players involved, takes us through the season and to the 1923 World Series.

[Dale Stonehouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Filling in somewhat of a historical blank between Babe Ruth's Red Sox days prior to 1920 and the powerhouse 1927 Yankees, this book points out the contrast between baseball in the dead-ball era and the home run era that replaced it. There is also much on the Yankees-Giants rivalry and Giants manager John McGraw, a giant who disdained home runs and the demise of "scientific baseball." After dismal performances in the 1921 and 1922 Yankees' World Series losses to the Giants, Ruth sparked his team to its first world championship in brand-new Yankee Stadium.

[Glenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the author very much. While I thought there would be more about the actual building of "The House That Ruth Built" the book turned into an excellent account of the 1923 baseball season as seen through the eyes of the Yankees and John J. McGraw's New York Giants. Baseball was changing along with the popularity of Babe Ruth and John McGraw was desperately trying to live in the past. The "scientific" baseball he loved so much was leaving the scene as the advent of the Home Run and one swing can change the entire game became popular.