he approached the role by locating what he felt was the central metaphor for ruth 's life , which he found in a quote from ruth . ; `` he said , 'i swing big ; i hit big or i miss big ; and that 's the way i live my life -- as big as i can , ' `` lang explained. ; lang decided he 'd take a `` big bite '' of the role and play it the way the real ruth played ball .