Originally posted by pheasant
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Often overlooked, Ruth had to know a good deal about hitting other than just hitting balls out of parks. He might not hit ..342 today but I think he would be higher than .290. He does have the 5th highest career batting average in modern times, saying a good deal about a free swinger.
He did have the edge in slugging in his time because he was the foreunner of the long ball and the name of the game was contact in his early years.................But he was beating 90% or better of the contact hitters, 5th highest batting average in the 1920's decade, .355. Evident of his all around hitting skill, the window breaker and yet his batting average is higher than a great number of hitters going to the playe with one thought in mind, make contact.
I would agree the bigger parks were a plus for his batting average, outfielders playing deep, bigger area for balls to drop in front of. On the other side some very long drives in those big parks, especially centerfield, just a long out. There were a few parks in tha AL then at 430-450+ feet, Yankee Stadium 481 feet.
He would have to make some adjustments today and he knew enough about hitting to realize that.
Yes he faced no relievers but we have a good number of players today hitting high numbers of home runs so why would a big strong guy with a great eye not match them today.
He had some favorable conditions but so do todays hitters, livelier ball, a joke for a strike zone, overall smaller parks.
Every era has some more and less favorable conditions compared to other era's.
He would be fine in todays game, so would Cobb and some others. Send Carew, Brett, Aaron and some others back to Babe's time and they do fine. Great hitters will hit in any era with some adjustments for numbers.
We can never say with certainty how some past or recent players would do if transported to a different time period. I read an article some years back that sounded reasonable. Take the top 5 or 7 percent of the elite hitters in any era and chances are they will hit in any era.
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