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Part I: What Hath Ruth Wrought?
One of our readers, Don Jennings, wrote a wonderful article on Babe Ruth in 2014 to commemorate the anniversary of the Babe’s first major league game. I thought it was a great piece and one that all baseball history fans would enjoy. It’s a bit too long for a Facebook post, but, with Don’s permission, I intend to post excerpts from it in a couple installments.
To start things off, here’s an excerpt from the article which focuses on the Babe’s incredible power numbers, including his “off the charts” slugging percentage:
With Boston Ruth tied for the league lead in home runs in 1918 (11) and led the American League outright with 29 in 1919. This was with the old “dead” ball. In his first year with the Yankees in 1920 he hit 54 home runs, slugging an astronomical .847. In 1921 he hit 59 home runs with a slugging average of .846.
Slugging percentage is an index of a player’s power. It is the sum of the number of bases reached on each hit, divided by the total number of at bats. Only one person in the twentieth century ever exceeded a slugging percentage of .800 in a season – Babe Ruth. Hence, slugging .800 is a rarer event than hitting .400. (And this before the proliferation of performance-enhancing drugs or PEDs).
Ruth’s lifetime slugging percentage was .690 which is the highest ever. How significant is this? The following “sluggers” never reached Ruth’s lifetime .690 in their best years: Frank Robinson, Ernie Banks, Reggie Jackson, Harmon Killebrew, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Hank Greenberg, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Kluszewski, Duke Snider (who hit more home runs in the fifties than any other player), and Joe Adcock.
More instructive perhaps is Ralph Kiner as he led the National League in home runs for seven consecutive years. His best season effort was .658 in 1949. Mickey Mantle managed it only once, and that in his Triple Crown year of 1956 when he slugged .705. In addition to the two years when he slugged better than .800, Ruth slugged .700 or higher nine times. He led the league in slugging percentage thirteen times, another record. For the uninitiated these stats can be a bit overwhelming, nonetheless, they’re essential for an understanding of Ruth’s stature as the best ever.
He led the league in home runs a record twelve times. He won only one batting crown however, .378 in 1924. His nemesis Ty Cobb led the league in batting twelve times and home runs once. Ruth was the first to hit thirty, forty, fifty and sixty home runs in a season. Remarkably, his lifetime batting average of .342 is in the all-time top ten. There’s never been such a combination of power and batting prowess, and we’re not forgetting Boston’s Ted Williams.
He did strike out a lot, but nothing like players today. In his entire career Ruth never struck out over 100 times in a season. Other firsts include: three home runs in a World Series game, and twice at that; four home runs in a World Series; the first home run in “The House That Ruth Built,” on opening day in 1923; the first home run in an All-Star game in 1933; the first to clear the newly constructed double deck grandstand at Comiskey Park in 1927 – a 500 footer.
A 500 foot home run is a rarity. Babe Ruth is known to have hit more home runs in excess of 500 feet than any player in the history of the game. His 54 home runs in 1920 were more than any team in the American League. The runner up was George Sisler with 19. Only Philadelphia in the National League bested his total with 64. His 60 home runs in 1927 were more than any team in the American League also. The 1927 major league team average was 59 home runs. Incredibly, Babe Ruth hit more home runs than entire teams ninety times throughout his twenty-two years in the majors.
Gary Livacari
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Excerpts from article by Don Jennings: “What Hath Ruth Wrought?”
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