Sultan and Billy Hops

He was the greatest personality the game had ever known, transforming baseball from a game of bunts, stolen bases and stifling pitching to one of power, excitement and big innings with one swing of his mighty 42-ounce bat. And yet, after he retired as a player, George Herman (Babe) Ruth was considered pretty much poison within the baseball world, desperately trying to keep his career alive as a major league manager, but to no avail. Why?

Personalities on the outer portion of his orbit may provide some clue; a New York cop and a big believer in the America he fought for in World War One; a shady character from Babe's speakeasy days who may have had something to do with the death of Babe's first wife, Helen, in a fire in the late 1920s; a once-proud, well-bred, college-educated brew master who catered to speakeasies, but who fell on hard times once trying to sell suds legally; and one of the first female baseball club owners.

As information travels through the grapevine that Babe may not have been the All-American boy the nation thought he was, battle lines are being drawn as to what role Babe played (if any) in Helen's mysterious demise. All that anyone knows for sure is that Babe followed his baser urges, regardless of whether the women in his life got hurt, as long as the good times continued to roll and his game didn't suffer.

Who knows what about whom -- and when -- remain the burning questions behind Sultan and Billy Hops. As justice or vengeance are sought in Helen's death and men on both sides of the law are made to answer for happened, decisions are being made in club offices throughout the major leagues, one of them run by a woman who may eventually hold the key to the Babe's future.

Sultan and Billy Hops is about more than just The Bambino himself; it is about the way New York, and America as a whole, saw itself as the country makes its way out of an economic Depression, into a world war, and a moral exemplar to the world. How Ruth's life unfolded as his vast talent dwindled and his career ended serves as a metaphor for how society changed as the 20th century wore on and what role women would play in that society!

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