*Babe Ruth Thread*

[Sultan_1895-1948]

Wouldn't that make a great movie. Tough waterfront kid placed in an institution for most of his youth, future not looking good at all. Released to a baseball club, then despite not playing any real organized baseball, no real training, the same year of his release, he is amongst the best pitchers in International League.

Only two years later 1916 he has close to a Cy Youing season and pitches in the World Series.
Considered the best lefthander in both leagues.
Then goes to the outfield and becomes arguably the game greatest hitter, should make anyone's best 3 hitters in the game, becomes the idol of millions.
Who would believe it.

---------------------------------------------
BRorphanage.jpg

[mi-billyb]

Sultan,

Great material you have been posting. Verrry impressive.

[Sultan_1895-1948]

A couple of my favorite Ruth stories -

Werber also was drawn to Ruth’s love of practical jokes. With great detail, Werber recalled how Ruth suckered pitcher Ed Wells into going on a double date with him after a game in Detroit.

“When they knocked on the door of the lady’s house, a big, ferocious guy opened the door with a gun and said, ’So you’re the guy who’s been chasing my wife,”’ Werber said. “So Babe said, ’Run, Ed. Run for your life!’ So Ed runs out the door and the gun went off, ’Bang, bang.’ Babe fell down on the porch. Ed ran into a fence, then turned the other way and made it back to the hotel.

“The players were sitting around — this was all staged, too — and they said, ’Babe is upstairs. He’s asking for you, but he’s dying.’ So he went up there and they had Babe with talcum powder all over his face and ketchup on his shirt. He thought Babe was dying.

“They pulled this stuff on a lot of ballplayers.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

"There was all of this snow piled up in the back of the house," Hunt said. "I thought it had been bulldozed into a pile. No. The Babe said he'd been trying to get his car, a big Packard, out of the backyard. He'd been driving the car back and forth, stuck, and built up the pile. He had burned out the clutch and was complaining about the cheap clutch. It wasn't the cheap clutch. He'd just killed it."

Hunt noticed a piano in the living room. The Babe said it had come with the farm. Hunt noticed some scratches on the top of the piano. The Babe said there was a reason. He had a cat that did a very good trick. Here...the Babe showed the trick.

He put the cat in a rocking chair. he waited for the cat to fall asleep, then brought out a shotgun and opened a window. he fired the shotgun out the window. The cat did one world-class leap from the rocking chair to the top of the piano, digging his claws into the finish as he landed. Wasn't that a good trick?

"I have no idea how many times he did it," Hunt said. "I don't know if the cat jumped every time. He did it this time, though. Jesus, what a trajectory."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

On a side note, I am going to begin work on the pitching section for the Ultimate Babe Ruth Thread. That requires transferring posts from here over to there.

Aside from page 5 dedicated to pitching, many contributions about his twirling have been made throughout this thread. If anyone stumbles across posts they feel are worth adding, please PM the post# so I can add to the list. Thank you.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

I wish I could find this artice, I have it some where, from the Buffalo News.
In the city or in the outskirts at a park Babe hit one of his bombs, exhibition game.
If I recall, it was when he returned to the hotel in Buffalo some one was there to greet him.
His home run ball broke a window and the home owner wanted the Bam to pay for it.
Which of course he did.

[Sultan_1895-1948]

----------------------------------

[Honus Wagner Rules]

It's a bummer the Babe never faced Honus Wagner.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

Without looking at specific hitters he faced, easy to see why he was the pitcher he was, three seasons he was a pitcher only 1915-16-17, both leagues.

BB/9 Inn, starting with the lowest per 9 Inn he was 10th on the list, 3.23 not very good.

Hits/9 Inn, he was number one, the lowest 6.64.

Strikeouts/9 Inn, 4.25, not bad, he was 5th.

ERA, third best 2.02, the two ahead of him, Grover Alexander and Walter Johnson. Both pitched more innings than Ruth, Alex 286 more innings and Walter 165 more innings.

[Sultan_1895-1948]

Without looking at specific hitters he faced, easy to see why he was the pitcher he was, three seasons he was a pitcher only 1915-16-17, both leagues.

BB/9 Inn, starting with the lowest per 9 Inn he was 10th on the list, 3.23 not very good.

Hits/9 Inn, he was number one, the lowest 6.64.

Strikeouts/9 Inn, 4.25, not bad, he was 5th.

ERA, third best 2.02, the two ahead of him, Grover Alexander and Walter Johnson. Both pitched more innings than Ruth, Alex 286 more innings and Walter 165 more innings.

It might not be necessary but it gives more perspective when you see how he fared against not just the league...but some of the leagues absolute best hitters

It's a bummer the Babe never faced Honus Wagner.

No doubt. A younger Honus vs a young pitcher Ruth would have been some matchup. You'd think a righty in a spacious park could put up decent slugging numbers, something around .400 would have been stellar against Ruth.

Interesting. Unfair to only look at '16 and '17 but it's the earliest we have available on bb-ref splits. Hans actually hit righties much better than lefties (.296/.237 BA) and if those years say anything about his earlier Forbes seasons, his home/road splits look to be huge.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

It might not be necessary but it gives more perspective when you see how he fared against not just the league...but some of the leagues absolute best hitters



No doubt. A younger Honus vs a young pitcher Ruth would have been some matchup. You'd think a righty in a spacious park could put up decent slugging numbers, something around .400 would have been stellar against Ruth.

Interesting. Unfair to only look at '16 and '17 but it's the earliest we have available on bb-ref splits. Hans actually hit righties much better than lefties (.296/.237 BA) and if those years say anything about his earlier Forbes seasons, his home/road splits look to be huge.

Maybe I worded it wrong, sounds interesting to me, how he did against some the greatest.

[Honus Wagner Rules]

How far back is the Babe's ancestry is known? Can Ruth's family line be traced back to Germany?

[Honus Wagner Rules]

I think Randy would get a kick out of this one. I post over at LetsRun.com. It's a running website with discussion forums. It's in(famous) for having fairly lax posting rules, far more lax than Baseball Fever. Anyway they were discussing Babe Ruth recently!

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=5510625

[SHOELESSJOE3]

And people fail to realize, or even consider a couple things. Not to put Ruth on the level of what Jackie accomplished/endured.

But you have to remember the state of mind back then. Ruth played exhibitions against black players in heavy KKK areas. He took some lumps for it. There were those who wouldn't play against them. Those who would play against them, only to get the check. And then there were guys like Ruth who played against them and seemed to enjoy their company, treating them like equals. For a man in his position, this went a long way and really mattered. Perhaps it's part of the reason Ruth never got a shot at managing, because he might push for inclusion much earlier than '47. The powers of baseball weren't exactly open minded.

It's sad too, because people of color, who are not educated on the matter, tend to have a negative view of Ruth. Maybe it's because Aaron was treated so poorly during his chase of 714, who knows. Those racist a-holes have nothing to do with Babe. If they took time to get educated on the matter, they'd understand.

As far as I know, this article was never picked up by any of the major newspapers, only this black newspaper.
Really odd because when Babe caught cold, it was in print.

[Sultan_1895-1948]

I think Randy would get a kick out of this one. I post over at LetsRun.com. It's a running website with discussion forums. It's in(famous) for having fairly lax posting rules, far more lax than Baseball Fever. Anyway they were discussing Babe Ruth recently!

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_re...thread=5510625

"Even though Ruth smacked the crap out of the ball, I am going to assume he was a pull hitter since the original Yankee Stadium was designed for him."

[csh19792001]

This might be my favorite Ruth game:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET191707110.shtml

[Sultan_1895-1948]

This might be my favorite Ruth game:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/bo...91707110.shtml

But wouldn't you rather be at this one? :scholar:

August 15, 1916 vs. Wash, 1-0 win, 13 inning game against Walter. Babe pitches on two days rest.

Ruth -----13 IP-----7 H---2 K---3 BB---0 ER
Walter----12.2 IP---8 H---5 K---5 BB---1 ER

Ruth gave up a mere infield single after the seventh inning and was robbed of a game-winning homer by Clyde Milan in the eleventh, ending at 1-4 with a double.