*Babe Ruth Thread*

[drstrangelove]

Just in case you meant me---since I said "swing from the heels"---I don't correlate swinging hard with being stupid. Ruth afaik did not try to hit behind the runner or choke up. He didn't go for singles. He swung hard not necessarily at everything he could reach, but at most things he could reach and which he felt he could drive. Here are quotes from Ruth:

“If I'd tried for them dinky singles I could've batted around six hundred.”-- Babe Ruth
“I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can.”-- Babe Ruth
“All I can tell them is pick a good one and sock it. I get back to the dugout and they ask me what it was I hit and I tell them I don't know except it looked good.”-- Babe Ruth

These quotes imply a batting strategy of swinging from the heels all the time. None of them mean stupid. Williams basically did the same thing although he skipped certain pitches, but when he swung it was still hard and meant to drive the ball.


swing from the heels (definition)

To swing very hard at a pitch in an effort to get an extra base hit. "They swing from the heels at all times, and . . . simply refuse to go with a pitch and be satisfied with a ground ball through the infield for a base hit."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_baseball_(S)

If anyone has quotes of Ruth saying that he choked up, tried to put the ball in play, would look to hit behind the runner, would lay off and look for singles to the opposite field, then those are ones I've never seen. If the argument is that he swung from the heels 97 or 98% of the time, not 100% of the time, then that's an argument not worth having.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

Looks to me like something is being missed here.
Why the total dismissing of the notion that pitching "may have" been a plus for Babe in hitting.
Is it that difficult to consider it may have helped.
I would think if he had never pitched he still would have gone down as a great hitter.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

“If I'd tried for them dinky singles I could've batted around six hundred.”-- Babe Ruth
“I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can.”-- Babe Ruth
“All I can tell them is pick a good one and sock it. I get back to the dugout and they ask me what it was I hit and I tell them I don't know except it looked good.”-- Babe Ruth



swing from the heels (definition)

To swing very hard at a pitch in an effort to get an extra base hit. "They swing from the heels at all times, and . . . simply refuse to go with a pitch and be satisfied with a groundball through the infield for a base hit."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_baseball_(S)

If people have an issue with saying Ruth swung from the heels all the time, they should talk it over with Ruth. He's the one who said it.

That was just Babe being Babe, off the cuff.
I read more than a few comments on some home runs he hit where he gave a detail of the pitch some years later.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

If I recall in Bill Jenkinson's book he found around 40+ bunt hits for Babe.
I did some searching a few years ago, found around 20 in the news archives.

Some of what I did find.

[strato]

If Retrosheet is accurate, Ruth had a career high 21 SH's in 1930, when he hit .359/49/153 with 136 walks, and then none for the last 5 years of his career. Retrosheet does leave category blank rather than enter a zero when there is no data-still seems a bit out of whack-

[1905 Giants]

I was thinking about this the other day, but in "The Head Game" Roger Kahn said that his father told him it was more exciting to watch Ruth strike out then to watch a mortal man hit a homerun.

[Honus Wagner Rules]

Babe Ruth: The Sultan of Margarine and Underwear

[SHOELESSJOE3]

He did do it, in a real game situation, 1932 World Series.
I wonder how many innings Root pitched, did he give Babe anything to hit.
Not saying he would have hit 2 if pitched to, just wondering, did they pitch to him.
Took a second look, Root with 3 at bats, so he was in most of the game.
Not sure, looks like Babe had only one official at bat.

[elmer]

la times 8.4.1920

[elmer]

Babe Ruth Shift

[SHOELESSJOE3]

Babe Ruth Shift

Unlike today's sluggers, there were times when Babe would go the other way, shifts did not last very long against him.
He did have 43 bunt hits in his career, maybe not all against the shift but some for sure.

I see so often today a slugger hitting into the shift and thrown out at first base by the fielder in short RCF.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

Babe Ruth What if He Played Today.

Open for discussion after that program takes place.

[DTF955]

Probably won't have time to watch even if I got that cable channel (I so need to just drop calbe4 & use the MLB network once in a while when i want, I never watch TV and have too little money fro mroe than basics.) However, here is how I envision him...

1. I think he'd tone down certain aspects of his lifestyle. He'd still party, but so, apparently, did Derek Jeter. He would be more careful - if watched a bit by management - and where he'd be vocal is the stuff like what Gronk does with the Patriots. So, no Ruth going into rehab, etc.; he was intelligent enough to avoid that.

2. I imagine he'd be watched by management. Not to the point of needing a babysitter, but enough so they'd have a personal driver for him who would accompany him to parties, etc..

3. Of course, I think he'd still visit lots of sick kids, be a very giving person, a bit like what I've read Lamar Odom was like as a Laker, just a big kid. With that team liaison there to make sure he doesn't go down the wrong path.

4. On the field (shows how much of a celbrity Rth was that I'm only getting to on the field here), I think he would hit monster shots and face the plethora of hard throwers by enjoying trying to hit one 500 feet. There would be images of him doing so, but also 1-2 a year of him screwing himself into the ground on a swing. He would learn, after his first year or two, to choke up more with 2 strikes and cut down on his strikeouts, but I think he'd still love the show of the strikeout as well as the home run.

5. I don't think he'd take quite as good a care of himself as other players, but he'd still have some modern nutrition and such advantages he didn't OTL. (our time line) he played till he was 40 OTL, which is kind of a surprise given how big he was by the end, I think we'd be looking at a guy who was getting past his prime at 35 but who can hand on as a DH a few years. So, he probably still retires at 40, with a poor final season or two, to balance out the better nutrition and such he'd have versus the fact he couldn't be a slob on the field near as easily now as he could agaisnt the competition of the early '30s.

I'm sorry if this was only for those who have seen the show - hard to tell from the description which that was supposed to be.

[thaa]

I think he'd hit about .340, with about 714 HRs, depending on whether he pitched or not.

[layson27]

Watching it now. Very good show. Quite fair to Ruth as well.