*Babe Ruth Thread*

[TomBodet]

So was it VD that Ruth had in '25?

[Victory Faust]

So was it VD that Ruth had in '25?

I thought it was from eating too many hot dogs. :hyper:

[SHOELESSJOE3]

Awesome post from 2006. I like his confidence. He believed he could win 30 games. I believe that he eventually would have done it. After all, he was only 22 during his last full season of pitching. I don't think he had peaked yet, which is scary. Imagine if he took care of himself like Gehrig did. Granted, he really buckled down after he almost killed himself in 1925. I really need to go back and read this thread from the beginning. The more I read about the Bambino, the more impressed I am. That would be great if you added those 2 years to your old post. I am really curious as to why he didn't pitch in the 1915 WS. Ruth's 14 inning victory in the WS at age 21 is arguably the greatest feat in WS history. It compares well to his pair of 3 home run games. Ruth really seems like a cartoon character.

A possibility, why Babe was not used in the 1915 WS, maybe.
Philadelphia was loaded with right handed hitters in the starting line up.
All RH hitter except for one, Fred Luderus, Dave Bancroft a switch hitter. Every starting pitcher for Philadelphia batted RH.

Notice Boston starters,

Game one Shore---game two Foster--game three Leonard--game four Shore---game five Foster. Boston used only thee pitchers to take the 5 game WS, all complete games. Leonard the only lefty.
Possible they used lefty Leonard over Babe because he was in MLB since 1913, not much more than Babe but also Babe was in the minors in 1914.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

So was it VD that Ruth had in '25?

You know how rumors are Tom.
Even if not true, if repeated enough it will be accepted and believed by some.
Possible it was true. But just think, it could take only one person to start any rumor and then it gets passed on by dozens and hundreds of others.................who just keep passing it on..............one person, thats all it takes.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

Did Babe ever dabble with the 'spitball', emory ball, etc.

Some words on that from George Burns, .307 career.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

The story of a young Russian girl, who knew nothing about baseball or Babe Ruth, her reaction.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

Jack was right on with this one.
Also, another "Ruth Shift"

[SHOELESSJOE3]

Just another story about a Babe home run, one of many.

[pheasant]

I had to see how Ruth did against the team with the best ERA in the AL(other than the Yankees). Some very good players of the past ran up their stats vs the worst pitching teams in the league. Thus, I looked at the best pitching teams from 1920-1931 while Ruth was in his prime with the Yankees. To say the least, Ruth wasn't running up the score against the doormats of the league.

listed below are the teams with the best team ERA and their team ERA. Note: The Yankees actually finished 1st in team ERA 4 times. Thus, 8 of the teams below finished 1st in ERA.

1920 CLE 3.41
1921 CLE 3.90
1922 STL 3.38
1923 CLE 3.91
1924 SEN 3.34
1925 SEN 3.70
1926 PHI 3.00
1927 CHI 3.91
1928 PHI 3.36
1929 PHI 3.44
1930 SEN 3.96
1931 PHI 3.47

Here's how Ruth fared against those best pitching staffs:

1920 20 games, 83 pa, 55 ab, 20 runs, 18 hits, 27 BB, 6 HR, 11 RBI, .327/.554/.782
1921 22 games, 95 pa, 64 ab, 27 runs, 30 hits, 29 bb, 9 hr, 22 rbi, .469/.642/1.078
1922 22 games, 102 pa, 88 ab, 15runs, 20 hits, 14 bb, 5 hr, 14 rbi, .227/.333/.477
1923 22 games, 98 pa, 64 ab, 19 runs, 24 hits, 34 bb, 4 hr, 12 rbi, .375/.592/.609
1924 22 games, 96 pa, 75 ab, 15 runs, 23 hits, 17 bb, 5 hr, 7 rbi, .307/.447/.587
1925 12 games, 55 pa, 44 ab, 3 runs, 9 hits, 9 bb, 0 hr, 2 rbi, .205/.352/.250
1926 22 games, 93 pa, 68 ab, 14 runs, 25 hits, 24 bb, 3 hr, 16 rbi, .368/.533/.559
1927 22 games, 105 pa, 73 ab, 17 runs, 23 hits, 25 bb, 6 hr, 13 rbi, .315/.490/.699
1928 22 games, 100 pa, 75 ab, 24 runs, 25 hits, 21 bb, 6 hr 23 rbi, .333/.495/.653
1929 22 games, 94 pa, 84 ab, 13 runs, 21 hits, 9 bb, 6 hr, 21 rbi, .250/.323/.512
1930 19 games, 81 pa, 66 ab, 15 runs, 23 hits, 13 bb, 4hr, 15 rbi, 13 bb, .364/.468/.773
1931 20 games, 90 pa, 75 ab, 17 runs, 29 hits, 15 bb, 8 hr, 17 rbi, .387/.489/.760
Total 235 games, 1112 pa, 831 ab, 199 runs, 270 hits, 237 bb,64 HR, 173 RBI, .325/.471/.646
per 162 games, 573 ab, 137 runs, 186 hits, 163 BB,44 hr, 119 rbi, .325/.471/.646

note: Of the teams above with the best team era, The Yankees were in tight pennant races in 1920,1921,1922,1924,and 1928.

Ruth vs those opponents during those years of tight pennant races put up:
108 games, 476 PA, 357 ab, 101 runs, 116 hits, 108 bb, 31 HR, 73 rbi, .325/.492/.692

Cleveland refused to pitch to Ruth, despite being 1st or 2nd in team ERA while they were contending for the pennant.
vs Cleveland, Ruth walked 90 times in only 64 games while hitting 19 HRs in 183 AB for a .393/.598/.825 avg.

This guy was virtually unstoppable. He hit Lefty Grove extremely well. I'll have to dig deeper into how he fared against the Big Train. I know as a pitcher, he went 6-2 against him despite the fact the Ruth's Red Sox were usually 4th or 5th in runs scored in an 8 team league(Johnson's team was much worse).

[SHOELESSJOE3]

. I'll have to dig deeper into how he fared against the Big Train. I know as a pitcher, he went 6-2 against him despite the fact the Ruth's Red Sox were usually 4th or 5th in runs scored in an 8 team league(Johnson's team was much worse).

Not a complete list but some info.
Let me fiirst say, Babe had the advantage playing on a much better team, but you can see some scores so close, low scoring , well pitched.

At the bottom you will note that Johnson in relief beats Babe, Babe was the starter in that game, Johnson one inning in relief.
Let me go from memory, too lazy to go through my folders.

Babe lost that game 4-3 in 10 innings.
If I recall Johnson came into the game as a pinch hitter in the 9th and his sac fly scored the winning run.
Johnson pitching in the 10th retired the first batter now faced babe.
Babe doubled but was thrown out attempting to steal third.
Talk about a tough loss, 4-3 in 10 innings, more to the story.
The starting pitcher Babe Ruth was 5 for 5, a single, 3 doubles and on triple.

Also attached, an article, Babe and Walter 13 inning battle. Walter was one tough guy to beat, even with a bad or so so team behind him.

[Badge714]

Great stuff, as always, Shoeless. I know it would be pure speculation but do we have any idea at all about how fast Ruth was. I've seen some old footage and he seemed to be very smooth and mechanically sound as a pitcher. I remember reading somewhere that he probably threw in the low 90s, which is a pretty good heater. I'm just curious about this. He's bound to have had some zip.

Not a complete list but some info.
Let me fiirst say, Babe had the advantage playing on a much better team, but you can see some scores so close, low scoring , well pitched.

At the bottom you will note that Johnson in relief beats Babe, Babe was the starter in that game, Johnson one inning in relief.
Let me go from memory, too lazy to go through my folders.

Babe lost that game 4-3 in 10 innings.
If I recall Johnson came into the game as a pinch hitter in the 9th and his sac fly scored the winning run.
Johnson pitching in the 10th retired the first batter now faced babe.
Babe doubled but was thrown out attempting to steal third.
Talk about a tough loss, 4-3 in 10 innings, more to the story.
The starting pitcher Babe Ruth was 5 for 5, a single, 3 doubles and on triple.

Also attached, an article, Babe and Walter 13 inning battle. Walter was one tough guy to beat, even with a bad or so so team behind him.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

Great stuff, as always, Shoeless. I know it would be pure speculation but do we have any idea at all about how fast Ruth was. I've seen some old footage and he seemed to be very smooth and mechanically sound as a pitcher. I remember reading somewhere that he probably threw in the low 90s, which is a pretty good heater. I'm just curious about this. He's bound to have had some zip.

I guess we will never know but here are a few or more comments on his pitching.

[TomBodet]

You hear @ Ruth having trouble with junkballers. I wonder what he did vs. Eddie Plank or Howard Ehmke.

[Sultan_1895-1948]

You hear @ Ruth having trouble with junkballers. I wonder what he did vs. Eddie Plank or Howard Ehmke.

Looked some things up for 1920...do you have a list of all the AL grandfathered tricksters?

1920

Coveleski

(5/15) 0-2 with 1 BB, 1HBP, 1K
(5/19) 0-1 with 2 iBB
(7/22) 2-3 with 2 doubles, 1BB, 1k
(8/12) 0-2 with 2 BB
(8/16) 1-4 with 1 single, 1k
(09/9) 1-2 with 1 HR, 3 iBB

Caldwell

(6/12) 0-3 with 1 iBB
(7/21) 0-3 with 1 BB
(8/13) 1-2 with 1 single, 2 BB
(8/19) 2-3 with 1 double, 1 HR, 1 BB
(9/10) 1-5 with 1 HR, 2k

Shocker

(6/20) 1-2 with 1 single, 1 IBB, 1 BB, 1k
(6/23) 3-4 with 1 HR, 2 singles, 1 BB
(7/13) 1-4 with 1 single, 3k
(7/28) 0-1 with 2 BB, 1 iBB, 1k
(7/31) 1-3 with 1 HR, 1 BB, 1k

Leonard

(5/25) 1-3 with 1 HR
(6/11) 0-4 with 1k
(8/23) 1-2 with 1 double, 3 BB, 1k

Faber

(6/16) 2-3 with 1 triple, 1 HR, 1 iBB, 1 BB
(7/20) 1-1 with 1 HR, 3 BB
(08/3) 1-1 with 1 single, 3 iBB
(9/17) 0-3 with 1 iBB

Russell

(05/3) 0-3 with 2k
(5/28) 1-2 with 1 single, 2 iBB
(6/27) 1-4 with 1 triple, 1k

Ayers

(07/8) 1-4 with 1 triple
(08/3) 0-3 with 1 BB
(8/24) 1-4 with 1 single, 1 iBB

Sothoron

(7/15) 2-5 with 1 single, 1 HR, 1 BB, 1k[/QUOTE]

[SHOELESSJOE3]

You hear @ Ruth having trouble with junkballers. I wonder what he did vs. Eddie Plank or Howard Ehmke.

Don't know how often he faced Plank, not many times if any, Plank left the game in 1917.

I think he liked Howard Ehmke. His first home run at Yankee Stadium was off of Ehmke.
Babe' career home runs top 3.....Walberg 17....Dauss 14.... Ehmke 13.
At least two home runs into the CF bleachers at Fenway, those are long drives.
Navin Field July 21, 1921 right field across Trumbull Ave. This may be the one that ended up in the Brook's Lumber Yard.
1930, Shibe Park RCF over roofs of first row of houses and came down on houses on Opal Street.

Not taking any chance on this day, July 18, 1921. Ehmke walks Babe 4 times.
Bert Cole relieves him and Babe hits one of his longest ever at Navin, centerfield corner, to the corner 467 feet, 500+feet.