*Babe Ruth Thread*

[SHOELESSJOE3]

Took a look at some old pics I have of Ruth and some others from the 1920s and 1930s while taking batting practice. In some of the pics batting practice took place with a catcher in full gear. Some with a catcher in full gear and a small screen behind the catcher.

So it's possible we may see some pics of batters from those times swinging with that catcher behind them and they could be taking batting practice not batting during a game. That screen might not be in the picture not visible.

[Bill Burgess]

Good News Update:
Sports Illustrated assures me that this summer, hopefully by July, they will have a search engine installed on their website, and all will be able to search their vast inventories by player name, team name, etc. Happy days! I have searched for 3 of their photos in vain for many months!
--------------------
Also, in case no one knows about it, the Cooperstown Hall of Fame, which has over 500,000 photos, the world's largest baseball photo collection, will send anyone, via email, photos of any player one requests.

This does not apply to a player with too many photos. Ruth, Cobb, etc. have hundreds of photos of them. But others, like Waddell, Walsh, Vance and lesser famous players, they will send you what they have.

[Brownie31]

Tuesday, April 13, 1921 The Polo Grounds New York: Babe Ruth is shown in the Yankee dugout with child star Jackie Coogan just prior to the Yankees' 11-1 Opening Day win over Connie Mack's Philadelphia A's. Years later Coogan would portray "Uncle Fester" on The Addams Family. (Corbis)

Brownie31

[SHOELESSJOE3]

More Good News Update:

Hear ye!! Hear ye!!

I heard today that Sporting News, via paperofrecord is now free of charge to the public. Formerly charged $100/yr. for public, $49./yr. for SABR members. Check it out my brothers/sisters!

http://www.paperofrecord.com/Default.asp

They have more Babe news on there than Proquest, if you can believe it!!

Joe/Randy! You guys just gotta sign up and register today. They got all the Babe news in the world!
Just thought you'd wanna know. You heard it first from me, as usual! This will partially make up for loss of Proquest.

All good news, all the time.

Bill

Thank you Bill, heading that way at this minute to take a look,

[Honus Wagner Rules]

Sultan,

I got a question for you. Did Ruth ever talk much about his approach to hitting? Any books or articles? We always read about Cobb and Williams being "scientific" or "cerebral" hitters, a thinking man's hitter. We don't hear much about Ruth's approach to hittng which I find odd since Ruth is the greatest hitter of all time. At times it seems that the general belief is that Ruth just went up the plate and dominated on pure talent.

[Windy City Fan]

I actually have a related question that's been on my mind for a while. Did Ruth consciously calcualte that his style of hitting was more productive? Or did Ruth just instinctively play for slugging because it was fun for him?

We always kind of get the impression that Ruth wasn't too bright, so I always pictured Ruth hitting the way he did just because he wanted to, not because it was more productive. But like a lot of things about Ruth, the truth is often clouded by the myth. Did Ruth ever talk about why his game was better than the predominant style of the game at his time?

[Honus Wagner Rules]

I actually have a related question that's been on my mind for a while. Did Ruth consciously calcualte that his style of hitting was more productive? Or did Ruth just instinctively play for slugging because it was fun for him?

We always kind of get the impression that Ruth wasn't too bright, so I always pictured Ruth hitting the way he did just because he wanted to, not because it was more productive. But like a lot of things about Ruth, the truth is often clouded by the myth. Did Ruth ever talk about why his game was better than the predominant style of the game at his time?

I've thought about this for a long time. I find it implausible that Ruth just dominated on brute strength and talent. Hitting is an art that takes great concentration and thought. In some of the film I've seen of Ruth giving interviews he kind of comes across as a baffoon but this may just be the public Babe Ruth persona or it may be just a 1920s thing. Other athletes from that era don't come across as particulary articulate either. I'm sure Sultan can enlighten us on his personal side.

[four tool]

Supposedly, Ruth once said he could hit .600 if he went for "them dinky singles" Looking at his relative BA compared to other sluggers like Foxx, Gehrig and his non contemporaries, Ruth knew what he was doing. The only liveball (thus excluding Cobb, Hornsby, et al) slugger with a better relative BA was Williams. Ruth is/was 29th in relative BA, Williams is 4th or 5th. (Cobb and Hornsby are 1 and 2 unless Joe Jackson edges Rajah in relative BA.)

[Brownie31]

Thursday, April 22, 1920 The Polo Grounds New York: Babe Ruth is shown in his first New York appearance as a member of the Yankees. The Babe's debut in Gotham was an 8-6 Yankees win over Connie Mack's Philadelphia A's. (Corbis)

Brownie31

[Bill Burgess]

June 4, 1920,------------------------------------June 4, 1920
June 4, 1920.jpgU115219INP.jpg

[SHOELESSJOE3]

Sultan,

I got a question for you. Did Ruth ever talk much about his approach to hitting? Any books or articles? We always read about Cobb and Williams being "scientific" or "cerebral" hitters, a thinking man's hitter. We don't hear much about Ruth's approach to hittng which I find odd since Ruth is the greatest hitter of all time. At times it seems that the general belief is that Ruth just went up the plate and dominated on pure talent.

Get what you can out of the Bam's quotes.

I swing big, I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can.

Every strike brings me closer to my next home run.

All I can tell you is I pick a good one and sock it.They ask me what it was and I say I don't know except that looked good.

Don't let the fear of striking out hold you back.

One thing for sure, in one respect he was 180 degrees different than the one he is often compared to, Ted Williams.

A known fact, Ted in most cases would not bite on a pitch a
fraction off the plate.

Babe would at times slap at a pitch easily off the outside of the plate. After reading actual game recaps in the news archives I can attest to that.

From what I could gather, he had no philosophy on hitting, no plan, step to the plate and just let it happen.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

Two bombers.

[csh19792001]

This are some great quotes I stumbled upon in Bill's files from Frank Lane, one of the most esteemed sportswriters in history and the editor of Baseball Magazine for two decades. Lane was much more critical of Ruth during his playing days, but this quote below is effusively positive. And any historical information that dispels the notion that Ruth was a corpulent, vacuous human being (whose success was borne of sheer talent alone) is a step in the right direction.

"But there also were numerous occasions when the Babe made plays which he had craftily thought up beforehand. Such as the day he played left field in Detroit and trapped no less an experienced hand than Charley Gehringer into thinking a fly ball had cleared the fence for a homer instead of coming down for an easy out. This was before the present double deck stands had been erected in what then was call Navin Field. There was just a board fence in left and to the Babe one day it occurred that with a runner on second it could be possible, with a high fly ball hit out toward left, to fake all the notions of a dejected outfielder who knows a homer is about to sail over his head. So he bided his time and one afternoon it came. With Gehringer on second, a high fly soared out to left. The Babe ran back to the fence, looked up at the ball for a moment and then with a motion of utter disgust shrugged his shoulders and cast his eyes on the ground. It was a beautiful piece of acting and fooled Gehringer completely. Certain the ball was clearing the fence, the Tiger second baseman headed for home. And in that same moment Ruth darted forward, got his eyes back on that ball and caught it some five feet in front of the fence. Doubling up Gehringer at second was then a simple matter. Of course, in order to accomplish the trick an outfielder must be equipped with the gift of being able to take his eye off the ball for an appreciable length of time. But then the effervescent Babe Ruth was ever a very gifted hand at anything he tried on a ball field." (Baseball Magazine, 1946)

[SHOELESSJOE3]

"But there also were numerous occasions when the Babe made plays which he had craftily thought up beforehand. Such as the day he played left field in Detroit and trapped no less an experienced hand than Charley Gehringer into thinking a fly ball had cleared the fence for a homer instead of coming down for an easy out. This was before the present double deck stands had been erected in what then was call Navin Field. There was just a board fence in left and to the Babe one day it occurred that with a runner on second it could be possible, with a high fly ball hit out toward left, to fake all the notions of a dejected outfielder who knows a homer is about to sail over his head. So he bided his time and one afternoon it came. With Gehringer on second, a high fly soared out to left. The Babe ran back to the fence, looked up at the ball for a moment and then with a motion of utter disgust shrugged his shoulders and cast his eyes on the ground. It was a beautiful piece of acting and fooled Gehringer completely. Certain the ball was clearing the fence, the Tiger second baseman headed for home. And in that same moment Ruth darted forward, got his eyes back on that ball and caught it some five feet in front of the fence. Doubling up Gehringer at second was then a simple matter. Of course, in order to accomplish the trick an outfielder must be equipped with the gift of being able to take his eye off the ball for an appreciable length of time. But then the effervescent Babe Ruth was ever a very gifted hand at anything he tried on a ball field."[/I] (Baseball Magazine, 1946)

More of Ruth in the field. With the Braves, 1935.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

And this one, May 4, 1923.