Babe Ruth (1895-1948) - The Greatest Baseball Player in History

[DonRocks]

"How Babe Ruth Became the Model for the Celebrity Athlete" by Jane Leavy on si.com

[DonRocks]

I think most baseball fans will find this to be an amazing statistic:

Babe Ruth had a higher Career OBP than Ty Cobb.

[DaveO]

On 10/8/2018 at 11:30 PM, DonRocks said:

"How Babe Ruth Became the Model for the Celebrity Athlete" by Jane Leavy on si.com

The first story is excellent and revealing.  How interesting.....the first celebrity pro athlete....and paid....and paid well for the publicity that went with his fame.  Very interesting.

On the other topic.  Admittedly I'm not an expert on the Babe.  He was way before my time, essentially a mythological figure in sports.  When one reviews his "stats" here its stunning.  He led his league and many times all of baseball in an overwhelming volume of offensive stats an overwhelming volume of times.  Cripes he led his league in some pitching stats one year.  He is the all time leader in Slugging percentage, On Base and Slugging Percentage and OBS+.   He was in a league of his own. 

I understand that at the peak of his career and his earnings it was mentioned to him that he was earning more than the President, to which he retorted he had a better year than the president.  He was apparently accurate on that point.

[DonRocks]

When a lot of people think "Babe Ruth," they think of the great 1927 Yankees team, but Babe Ruth's breakout season was the first year of the post-"dead-ball era," when he batted .372. This first year of the "live-ball era" was also the first year when Babe Ruth became a full-time position player, for obvious reasons.

Here are the top 4 AL Home Run hitters of 1920:

1. Babe Ruth       54
2. George Sisler  19
3. Tillie Walker     17
4. Cy Williams      15

To a lesser extent, Steph Curry did this in 2015-2016 - that was the first year when he took the 3-point rule to its logical endpoint. That season for Curry still ranks #2 all-time in individual 3-point attempts (after James Harden's 2018-2019 season).

Here are the top 4 NBA 3-Point-Attempt shooters of 2015-2016:

1. Steph Curry          886 <--- almost 35% more than the #2 player
2. James Harden    657
3. Klay Thompson  650
4. Damian Lillard     610

To put Ruth's feat in perspective, Ruth had more home runs that season than the #2, #3, and #4 hitters combined. Yow!

[DaveO]

I never bothered to gaze at Ruth's statistics.   If you peruse the statistical bible on Ruth's stats and want to count the number of positive stats wherein he led his league (and often both leagues) in significant offensive stats...there are 91 bolded totals.  From runs to walks, to HR's to you name it, Ruth dominated like no one else ever dominated in his own era.  Amazing.  He is ranked 10th all time in career batting average yet led his league in that total only once.  He led more often in Runs than RBI's.  (Guess it was good to be Lou Gehrig--batting behind Babe Ruth.).  His level of dominance is unsurpassable--amazing.  

Really bigger than life. 

[DonRocks]

Jun 23, 2015 - "Ernie Shore Threw a Quasi-Perfect Game ... after Babe Ruth Punched an Umpire" by Michael Clair on mlb.com