*Babe Ruth Thread*

[pheasant]

And this guy never won an American League Cy Young award.

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That's John Goodman!

[Honus Wagner Rules]

Someone recently posted 14 minutes of the Stephen Lang Ruth film recently on youtube! Enjoy. :-)

[pheasant]

Ruth's pitching stats in Sept/October were amazing.

During Sept/Oct for his career, including the WS, Ruth in 268.0 IP went 23-6 with an ERA of 1.91.

His Aug/Sept stats(excluding the WS) were the following: 402.2 IP, 28-15 with a 1.52 ERA.

Other than his winning pct, his stats weren't too shabby against tougher opponents:
vs teams that were <.500: 656.0 IP, 58-17, 2.28 ERA, 7 shutouts, allowed .222/.293/.268
vs teams that were .500+: 565.1 IP,36-29, 2.28 ERA, 10 shutouts, allowed .220/.303/.258

[Honus Wagner Rules]

The Babe Hit his first career major league home run 100 years ago today!

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/57853/the-100th-anniversary-of-babe-ruths-first-home-run

[Honus Wagner Rules]

The New York Times, May 5, 1915


1915-05-07 NY Times pg 11.jpg

[Badge714]

A friend just informed me of this. It may be worth a look:

http://www.amazon.com/American-Hercules-Legend-Babe-Ruth/dp/B00REG9FBS

[Honus Wagner Rules]

A friend just informed me of this. It may be worth a look:

http://www.amazon.com/American-Hercu.../dp/B00REG9FBS

I'll have to get a copy of that.

I found this as well.

Babe Ruth's daughter remembers her father's legacy

[Badge714]

Thanks Honus, this was new to me:

I'll have to get a copy of that.

I found this as well.

Babe Ruth's daughter remembers her father's legacy

[pheasant]

I haven't seen this before.

[fan]

Pardon if this has been discussed. I posit Ruth probably played on the best (http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/NYY/1927.shtml) and worst(http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/BSN/1935.shtml) teams in the Modern Era.

[Bucketfoot]

Just leafing thru my Sports encyclopedia, always enjoy seeing the name 'Ping Bodie' next to Ruth's in the NYY roster of the early 20's. Just seems fitting.

[strato]

In Robert Creamer's book The Babe, He quotes Ty Cobb as opining that the Babe's status s a pitcher in his early seasons significantly helped his developments as a HR hitter

"He could experiment at the plate" said Cobb "He didn't have to get a piece of the ball. He didn't have to protect the plate the was a regular batter was expected to. No one cared much if pitcher struck out or looked bad at bat, so Ruth could take that big swing. If he missed, it didn't matter. An when he didn't miss, the ball went a long way. As time went on, he learned more and more about how to control that big swing and put the wood on the ball. By the time he became a fulltime outfielder, he was ready"

He did strike out 27 times in his first 100 AB's his first two seasons.

How much logic do you guys find in Cobb's blurb

[drstrangelove]

I thought Ruth had always swung from the heels and never minded missing. I think Cobb is discounting Ruth's success as if to say " If I (Cobb) had been allowed to experiment, I could have done that, too."

The Brother Matthias swing that Ruth copied and perfected was a home run swing, not a ground ball or line drive swing. My recollection is he had that swing long before 1914.



That's not to say that being a pitcher didn't help Ruth as a batter. I think Ruth said it did. And it's not to say that Ruth wasn't allowed to swing and miss with less criticism than position players. I just think it's a self serving quote from Cobb.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

In Robert Creamer's book The Babe, He quotes Ty Cobb as opining that the Babe's status s a pitcher in his early seasons significantly helped his developments as a HR hitter

"He could experiment at the plate" said Cobb "He didn't have to get a piece of the ball. He didn't have to protect the plate the was a regular batter was expected to. No one cared much if pitcher struck out or looked bad at bat, so Ruth could take that big swing. If he missed, it didn't matter. An when he didn't miss, the ball went a long way. As time went on, he learned more and more about how to control that big swing and put the wood on the ball. By the time he became a fulltime outfielder, he was ready"

He did strike out 27 times in his first 100 AB's his first two seasons.

How much logic do you guys find in Cobb's blurb

Long before I saw these word by Cobb, I said the same more than a couple of times on this board.
The fact that Babe was a pitcher, it would appear it helped him at the plate, not just home runs.

Pitch recognition playing some part. Lets remember he was not just a spot pitcher, pitcher only in 1914-15-16-17 and part time in 1918-19.
Can it be said with certainty that his pitching helped his hitting, maybe not, but I believe a good possibility.

[stuarthouse]

I thought Ruth had always swung from the heels and never minded missing. I think Cobb is discounting Ruth's success as if to say " If I (Cobb) had been allowed to experiment, I could have done that, too."

The Brother Matthias swing that Ruth copied and perfected was a home run swing, not a ground ball or line drive swing. My recollection is he had that swing long before 1914.



That's not to say that being a pitcher didn't help Ruth as a batter. I think Ruth said it did. And it's not to say that Ruth wasn't allowed to swing and miss with less criticism than position players. I just think it's a self serving quote from Cobb.

As I recall Ruth attributed his batting style to his attempt to emulate Joe Jackson. In looking at old Jackson film footage you can definitely see the similarity. As time passed however, he spread his feet a bit farther apart. Cobb is probably a bit right, but Ruth's batting style was definitely influenced much more by his days at St.Mary's where they played about 200 games a year. They even scheduled some games against small colleges. Babe's hitting as a pitcher was so good and the distance he could drive a ball so unbelievable that they switched him to the outfield. There did not seem to be much of a learning curve to his hitting talent. In 1915 he batted .315 and hit 4 homers as a 20 year-old rookie pitcher. One drive that year cleared the r.f. stand at St. Louis and then the 120' wide Grand Boulevard with its 4 street car tracks in the middle, on the fly. I think Cobb was merely trying to explain the unexplainable. We are still having trouble with it 100 years later.