Why Babe Ruth was the Greatest Athlete of All Time
Everyone knows the story of the Babe. Born in Baltimore the young Ruth was sent to St. Mary’s Industrial School by his father, a barkeep who would no longer put up with his mischievous ways. He went on to star for that school as a pitcher and was noticed by the manager of the then minor league Baltimore Orioles who brought him into the world of professional baseball. He made his major league debut for the Boston Red Sox in 1914, and in 1920 was the subject of their infamous folly that sent him to the rival New York Yankees in exchange for $100,000 in cash.
Everyone knows the story. But few realize just how dominant Ruth was on the field, and how he changed the very game that he played, allowing it to prosper and to become the multi-billion dollar industry that it is today.
How far superior was Ruth to his contemporaries? In 1921, Babe led the league in home runs, breaking his own all time record in that statistic. But here’s where it gets even more incredible. In slugging 59 homers, Ruth totaled more round-trippers than any other team in the American League. To accomplish that same feat today, a player would have to hit well over 200 home runs in a single season.
In his career, Babe Ruth hit 714 homers, setting a record that stood for 49 years until it was broken by Hank Aaron. What many fail to realize, though, is that the Babe set his mark in nearly 4,000 less at bats than Aaron. He also had many fewer times at the plate than Barry Bonds, who passed the 714 plateau this year, and than most of the other great power hitters in baseball history.
Today the home run is widely considered baseball’s most exciting and marketable play. Crowds go wild for them, constantly coaxing players out of their dugouts for curtain calls. Television and radio broadcasters build their careers on specialized home run calls. The great power hitters are glorified like no others.
But prior to the Babe, homers were a negligible part of the game. Before Ruth set his first record by swatting 29 long balls in 1919, when he was still a pitcher, the single season mark was held by Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Gavvy Cravath at 24. A’s third baseman Frank Baker earned the nickname “Home Run” despite never hitting more than 12 of them in a season. Ruth’s homers changed the way the game was played, multiplying its popularity and paving the way for sluggers like Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx, and for the bombers of today.
But Ruth’s prowess was far more than just home runs. He remains baseball’s all time leader in slugging percentage, while he ranks second in on base percentage. His .342 lifetime batting average places in the top ten of all time, as do his totals for runs scored, total bases, and walks.
In case all of that weren’t enough, Babe Ruth was also one of the most feared pitchers the game has ever seen. Had he not been moved to the outfield upon his trade to the Yankees, he would undoubtedly have made the hall of fame at that position. The Babe posted a .671 winning percentage, the twelfth best in history, and a minuscule 2.27 earned run average, good enough for fifteenth on the all-time list.
Ruth’s ability to excel in all aspects of the game is unheard of at any other time, or in any other sport. His accomplishments would be the equivalent of a great defensive end in football changing positions and becoming a hall-of-fame quarterback, or a superstar goalie in hockey removing the pads and emerging as the best goal scorer ever.
No other player in any sport has ever altered the fortunes of two franchises by changing teams in the way that Ruth did. Before the Red Sox sold the Babe to the Yankees, they were the dominant force in the American League winning five World Series crowns and six pennants between 1903 and 1918. The Yankees, meanwhile, were among the dregs of baseball, never reaching the World Series, and winning better than 80 games in a season only three times. After the Ruth deal, the two teams’ roles reversed. New York went on to win 26 championships and 39 American League pennants in the 86 years that elapsed before Boston again reached the pinnacle of the baseball universe.
No athlete, present or future, can ever hope to achieve the stranglehold over his sport that the Babe maintained for so many years. Ruth’s charisma and dominance will simply never be duplicated as long as professional sports are played.
