How Good Was George Herman “Babe” Ruth?

(Zell's Pinstripe Blog)

     “The Great Bambino”,”The Babe”, “The Sultan of Swat”, “The King of Crash”, “The Colossus of Clout”,’The Titan of Terror” were all nicknames given to one man. That man’s name is George Herman Ruth.

People don’t realize how good he really was. He dominated the era in which he played. He was hitting home runs right and left in a time where it wasn’t an everyday occurrence. Not only was he a great hitter, but he was one of the best left-handed pitchers the game has ever known.

As a hitter, Ruth compiled a .342 AVG, 2873 H, 714 HR’s, & 2217 RBI’s. He led the league twelve times in home runs in his 22-year career. He also led the league in SLG %13 times, OPS 13 times, RS eight times, and RBI six times.

The seasons were shorter, the ballparks were bigger, and there wasn’t anything to really enhance your game. Steroids, HGH, and other performance enhancing drugs weren’t being used. He did it purely on hot dogs. (It is said that the legendary baseball player Babe Ruth once downed 24 hot dogs between games of a doubleheader.)

-Babe Ruth was the first player to hit 60 home runs in a single season. The record stood for 34 years until it was broken by Roger Maris in 1961.

Ruth pitched from 1914-1933. He finished his pitching career with a record of 94-46. That is 48 games above the .500 mark. His career ERA was a remarkable 2.28. He pitched in 1,221.1 innings, and managed to throw 107 complete games.  

“The Babe” is considered one of the greatest sports figures in American culture. He is still considered by many to be the best player of all-time. I agree with them. The power numbers he put up in that time were unheard of, and he was on a level of his own. That’s what defines this legend...

His Hitting Statistics:

G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	BB	SO	Avg.	OBP	SLG
2,503	8,398	2,174	2,874	714	2,217	2,062	1,330	.342	.472	.690

His Pitching Statistics:

W	L	ERA	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER			BB	SO	WPct	WHIP			K/9
94	46	2.28	163	148	107	17	4	1,221.1	974	400	309			441	488	.671	1.16			3.60

The statistics he put up were remarkable:

He was third on all-time home run list with 714, 10th on all-time batting average list with .342, second on all-time RBI list with 2,217, first on all-time slugging % with 0.690, 2nd on all-time on-base % list with .474, 1st on all-time OPS with 1.164, fourth on all-time runs list with 2,174, sixth on all-time total bases list with 5,793, & third on all-time bases on balls list with 2,062 . 

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