.45s Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 This morning's Coffee and Football happened to mention Shohei Ohtani's incredible season this year followed by a brief discussion about greatest players. I am old enough to see guys like Hank Aaron and Willie Mays play, and have some recollection of Mickey Mantle and Sandy Koufax. I always remember some incredible statistics about Babe Ruth's career and that he was an incredible pitcher and then paved the way for homerun hitters. I did a quick search and found something that Tim Kirkjian wrote about his career and am providing some of that (edited) below. The fact that he was hitting more homeruns than most teams is amazing. "The game was reeling in 1920, but Ruth brought it back with tape-measure homers and overwhelming charisma. He became the first player to glamorize the home run, hitting 54 that season, more than the next three home run hitters in the American League combined. Also, the most startling statistic is that Ruth’s 54 homers in 1920 was more than the team totals for every other team in the American League. Ruth’s old team, the Boston Red Sox, hit only 20 homers. In fact, the only MLB team to hit more homers than Ruth was the Philadelphia Phillies with 64. Ruth was the first to hit 30, 40, 50 and 60 homers in a season. In 1921, he hit his 137th home run, passing Roger Connor as the all-time home run king: the next 577 only added to his record. When he retired with 714 home runs, no one in the game had half that many. In certain seasons, he hit more home runs than complete teams, from 1926 to 1932, he out-homered the Washington Senators, 343-327. Ruth finished with a career slugging percentage of .690. No active player has ever had a single-season slugging percentage of .690. But Ruth was more than a slugger even though movies made about him depict him as a non-athletic clown; they turned the greatest player of all time into a cartoon character. Ruth was a great athlete. He was a great basketball player, quick and agile for a big man, He could run; he had 136 triples, more than any active player, and 130 more than Mark McGwire. Plus, Ruth was the best left-handed pitcher in the AL when he decided to become only a hitter. Ruth's record for scoreless innings (29⅔) in World Series play lasted nearly 42 years. Ruth still has as many career shutouts as Pedro Martinez (17). The final homer of his career that day in Pittsburgh was the first one ever to clear the right-field roof in the 26-year-old history of Forbes Field, a fitting finale to an amazing career. In 1982, I asked Burt Hawkins, a baseball writer who covered the game starting in the 1920s, to name the best player ever." 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators CJ Vogel Posted September 3 Moderators Share Posted September 3 None other than Mr. Barry Bonds. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkates Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 Shohei's 2024 season would be Bonds' 7th or 8th best season at the plate? I saw one tweet suggest it would be Bond's 11th best offensive season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Gerry Hamilton Posted September 3 Moderators Share Posted September 3 Ohtani is the best baseball player I have ever seen He’s doing things that we may never see again … literally an All-Star level hitter and pitcher - when healthy. And his athleticism at 6-4, 215’ish Hes different than anyone I have ever seen Will he have the best career stats? Probably not. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Lala Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 The modern day ball players are indeed amazing, no doubt. But the Babe did it in the dead ball era. Today the ball jumps out of parks. And he might have won 300+ games had he continued as a pitcher. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJJ_Sports Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 Barry bonds is the greatest baseball player of all time 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Blake Munroe Posted September 3 Moderators Share Posted September 3 22 minutes ago, Jack Lala said: Today the ball jumps out of parks. But, to play Devil's Advocate, Ruth also wasn't going against athletic freaks who could throw 100 mph. In fact, they weren't anywhere close to that. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.45s Posted September 3 Author Share Posted September 3 A lot of great players listed above. To put Babe Ruth's homerun numbers in to perspective when he hit 54 homeruns in 1920, think of this quote in the initial post- "He became the first player to glamorize the home run, hitting 54 that season, more than the next three home run hitters in the American League combined. Also, the most startling statistic is that Ruth’s 54 homers in 1920 was more than the team totals for every other team in the American League. Ruth’s old team, the Boston Red Sox, hit only 20 homers. In fact, the only MLB team to hit more homers than Ruth was the Philadelphia Phillies with 64." By today's standards and comparing the 1920 and 2023 seasons to see how the Babe outhit whole teams, last years team homerun leader was Atlanta with 307, followed by Minnesota with 249. This means that the Babe would have hit the equivalent of 250 homeruns. Perhaps not the best analogy, but he was way ahead of everyone at the time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Lala Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 14 minutes ago, Blake Munroe said: But, to play Devil's Advocate, Ruth also wasn't going against athletic freaks who could throw 100 mph. In fact, they weren't anywhere close to that. Absolutely true. But there were pitchers that could hit 90, and the junk they threw. Whew. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Lala Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 30 minutes ago, AJJ_Sports said: Barry bonds is the greatest baseball player of all time He was definitely great. And he and Roger both belong in the HOF. Stop the silliness sports writers. And put Berknan in there too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.45s Posted September 3 Author Share Posted September 3 3 hours ago, Blake Munroe said: But, to play Devil's Advocate, Ruth also wasn't going against athletic freaks who could throw 100 mph. In fact, they weren't anywhere close to that. So true, and Ruth might not even approach the 50 or 60 homerun mark if he were playing today and in his prime; however, the main point was really how far ahead he was of everybody else at that time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiggsTX Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 As a Giants fan, it's Barry or Willie Mays. As an L.A. resident, it sure is fun to watch Ohtani make history and I absolutely love Mookie, rivalry be damned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkates Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 5 hours ago, Blake Munroe said: But, to play Devil's Advocate, Ruth also wasn't going against athletic freaks who could throw 100 mph. In fact, they weren't anywhere close to that. The reason this point doesn't hold water is because it's only one side of the equation. Improve Ruth's nutrition, training, etc. in the same manner that pitchers have if you want to make a fair comparison. Give Ruth weight training and a modern bat and hitting velo wouldn't be the issue. By the way, hitting velo isn't as big of an issue as some non-baseballers think. Good hitters can time up a fastball. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkInAustin Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 Barry Bonds is the only human I know of whose head size grew as an adult. Ted Williams was the best hitter I have ever seen. Mays was the best baseball player I saw. My parents saw Ruth play in Yankee Stadium. He never had trouble with a fast ball, swinging a ridiculously heavy 42 oz bat. Today he would have been swinging 34 oz at most. Williams spanned eras and lost about 5 seasons to military service. He ate up 96-98 mph fast balls. His worst hitting, which was still better than any of his peers, came against junk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJJ_Sports Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 (edited) I am unfortunately one of the type of guy that believes back then they couldn’t play in today’s game. No one on earth could convince me that babe Ruth could hit a 92 mph slider from CC sabathia lol Edited September 3 by AJJ_Sports Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jbro52 Posted September 4 Share Posted September 4 The kid in me will always say Jeff Bagwell lol 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Gerry Hamilton Posted September 20 Moderators Share Posted September 20 Ohtani is a true freak He continues to things never done in the history of the game before. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4thandFive Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 5 minutes ago, Gerry Hamilton said: Ohtani is a true freak He continues to things never done in the history of the game before. He’s a true unicorn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bierce Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 Luke Gofannon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatHornsGuy87 Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 It was Bonds easily. But Ohtani has over taken him. What he's doing I highly doubt we will ever see again. But my favorite player to this day is Ken Griffey Jr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatHornsGuy87 Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 Honorable mention is Tony Gwinn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hashtag Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 (edited) I think you could make a point for any of these guys: Barry Bonds Babe Ruth Willie Mays Colt Munroe With regards to Ohtani, it will come down to longevity and how long he can do both at the high standard he's currently doing them. Also I'll have a hard to putting him in the category above due to his gambling controversy. I don't buy that interpreter non sense at all. Edited September 20 by Hashtag 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hashtag Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 (edited) On 9/3/2024 at 10:09 AM, Blake Munroe said: But, to play Devil's Advocate, Ruth also wasn't going against athletic freaks who could throw 100 mph. In fact, they weren't anywhere close to that. To be devils advocate to your devils advocate, hitters today aren't swinging tree trunks except for Aaron Judge haha! I always find this kind of video interesting. Mechanically Babe Ruth was a great hitter regardless of era. Adjustments for the era your in would be key but mechanically he's great. Edited September 20 by Hashtag Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texcoyote15 Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 10 hours ago, Gerry Hamilton said: Ohtani is a true freak He continues to things never done in the history of the game before. I mean the 50 homers are great, but who at his size steals 50 bases? That’s like crazy. Base stealing is hard in the big leagues……..every catcher can throw and they look at tendencies and holds guys on alot better. So 50-50 is unreal in today’s game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hashtag Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 4 minutes ago, texcoyote15 said: Base stealing is hard in the big leagues Not anymore with recent rule changes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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