The Man Who Made Babe Ruth: Brother Matthias of St. Mary's School

by Brian Martin

Overview

At six-feet-six, the hulking Martin Leo Boutilier (1872-1944) was hard to miss. Yet the many books written about Babe Ruth relegate the soft-spoken teacher and coach to the shadows. Ruth credited Boutilier—known as Brother Matthias in the Congregation of St. Francis Xavier—with making him the man and the baseball player he became. Matthias saw something in the troubled seven-year old and nurtured his athletic ability. Spending many extra hours on the ballfield with him over a dozen years, he taught Ruth how to hit and converted the young left-handed catcher into a formidable pitcher.

Overshadowed by a fellow Xavierian brother who was given the credit for discovering the baseball prodigy, Matthias never received his due from the public but didn't complain. Ruth never forgot the father figure who continued to provide valuable counsel in later life. This is the first telling of the full story of the man who gave the world its most famous baseball star.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476673363
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	03/12/2020
Pages:	226
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.46(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Award-winning journalist Brian Martin lives in London, Ontario. He is a member of the selection committee of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and the Society for American Baseball Research.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Preface 1

1 Time for Reflection 7

2 A Farewell to Nova Scotia 16

3 St. Mary's 29

4 Birth and Rebirth 43

5 "He always built me" 58

6 A Star Begins to Twinkle 69

7 A Big Deal 82

8 A Homer for a Babe 95

9 Playing to Empty Seats 108

10 First Steps on the Big Stage 121

11 A Real Major Leaguer 133

12 Making History 148

13 The Peak and Past It 164

Epilogue 176

Appendix I Brother Matthias Speaks 185

Appendix II Statistics-Batting 188

Appendix III Statistics-Pitching 189

Chapter Notes 191

Bibliography 205

Index 209

Editorial Reviews

An enjoyable and easily read book which adds surprising new detail to a story we thought we already knew well.”—SABR Deadball Era Committee Newsletter

From the Publisher