Wilmington baseball fan's new book takes Babe Ruth to Cuba

It's been a great season for baseball books. North Carolina author Sandra W. Headon just released "Warrior on the Mound," a novel for young readers about baseball in the Jim Crow era, set mostly in Pender County.

Now local author Frank Amoroso has published "Diamond Fever," a novel about the early days of Babe Ruth -- a book very specifically for adults.

A retired lawyer and prosecutor from New York, Amoroso has been busy penning historical novels since moving to the area. "Behind Every Great Fortune" dealt with the forgotten Gilded Age financier Otto H. Hahn, memorable today mainly as the reputed model for Rich Uncle Moneybags in the classic Monopoly game. (Amoroso argues he should be remembered for much, much more.)

"Dread the Fed" offered a contrarian history of the origins of the Federal Reserve, co-starring the father of aviator Charles A. Lindbergh, a rather populist congressman from Minnesota.

"Korea: Forgotten Sacrifice" followed a combat photographer.

Amoroso's magnum opus, however, has been "Wopper," an epic retelling of the life of George Herman Ruth, whom many would argue was the greatest baseball player of all time. At three volumes, "Wopper" has only taken the Sultan of Swat as far as the 1918 World Series, when he was still playing for the Boston Red Sox.

"Diamond Fever," described as "a Wopper novel," follows Ruth on a little detour. It is a documented historical fact that after his first season with the New York Yankees, in 1920, Ruth toured Cuba with an American exhibition team.

"Diamond Fever" described what might have happened. Picture "The Great Gatsby" meets "Godfather II."

As Amoroso tells it, John McGraw -- manager of the rival New York Giants -- recruits Ruth for a tour with his All-Stars.

Ruth -- who's just set the major league record at the time with 54 home runs in one season -- might not be very well educated, but he's no dummy. Plus, he's been learning negotiating tactics from his pal, opera tenor Enrico Caruso. The Bambino drives a hard bargain.

No matter: McGraw has interests in a racetrack and casino down in Cuba and, knowing Ruth's foibles, he expects to win back all of Ruth's paycheck and more. With any luck, he might get Ruth stranded in Cuba, so that he misses the 1921 season.

To sweeten the pot, McGraw offers to pay for Ruth's wife Helen to come along, too. Ruth (who's narrating much of the book in first person) is dubious; as he puts it, it's like bringing the warden along on a jailbreak. (Poor Helen is all too well aware of her husband's extracurricular activities; she's already finding solace in the bottle.)

Ruth is soon deep in a hitting duel with Cristobal Torriente, a black Cuban player who claims that he, not the Babe, is the real "Monarche du Beisbol."

More serious, however, is the threat of El Mocho, a Cuban gang lord. Ruth and his friends have to flee into the jungle -- and Ruth has to figure out a way to rescue Caruso in the process.

Amoroso seems to have read every published source on Ruth's life. He's also a diehard fanatic who's played ball, coached ball and even toured modern-day Cuba with an American amateuur team. That background gives the book real flavor, while the scholarship never weighs too heavily on the action.

"Diamond Fever," reminds me in a way of George MacDonald Fraser's "Flashman" novels: historical pastiches in which fictional characters rub shoulders with real ones, laced with comedy and sex (PG-13 in this case).

Like Flashman, Babe Ruth is a scoundrel, although a much more lovable one. (Amoroso makes the point that, in a Jim Crow era, Ruth never objected to playing alongside blacks.)

"Diamond Fever" makes Ruth utter some unlikely, polysyllabic phrases: "the familiar odor of sweat, pine tar and liniment filling the cramped quarters like some sort of gaseous parasite") But it's hard to object when he's on a roll.

If you know what Sabermetrics are, "Diamond Fever" is the book for you.

Book review

Diamond Fever

By Frank Amoroso

Wrightsville Beach: Simply Francis Publishing, $24.95

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: In 'Diamond Fever,' Wilmington baseball fan takes Babe Ruth to Cuba