Mind blowing thing I learned today. Babe Ruth’s 714 HE only took 8,399 at bats. A chunk of his hitting career was lost to full time pitching. Barry Bonds has 9,847 at bats and Henry Aaron had 12,364 at bats. Ruth could have hit 1,000+ HR with as many AB as Aaron.

18 comments

1. He is the Goat, he did Goat things.

2. I’d love to know how many homers the babe would’ve hit had CC been throwing 92 mile an hour sliders. Maybe, the fat boy would’ve put the cigar down and quit pointing had José been allowed to swim 90 miles to throw him a junk ball.

3. Title is bothering me. It should say 714 HR only took 8,399 at bats.

4. Way better pitching in Aaron and Bonds era. Babe faced guys who were part time plumbers.

5. Now imagine if Barry and Aaron played during that Era lol

6. Sultan of swat!

7. How many if those ‘Home runs’ were ground rule doubles?

8. He also played a shorter season by alot

9. You just can’t have a Babe Ruth post without “plumber” and “couldn’t hit in todays era” type of comments. Yall are so weird.

   I wish folks would give him the benefit of the doubt — that if he played (and grew up) in a later era, whatever skills it takes to barrel a baseball, and whatever made him so much better than the players of his era would translate to the game and technology of a later time.

   We never hear this rhetoric for Cobb, Gehrig, or Ted Williams (slightly later i know). I think that’s a testament to how good Ruth really was.

   We’ll never know how he’d fair today. We’ll also never know how Trout would fair without analytics, film, scouting reports, proper nutrition, or sports science of any kind.

   I don’t understand how someone can claim to love baseball and shit talk the games first slugger. Or even the need to compare legends of different eras – this ain’t the NBA. Rant over, have some fun.

10. Not that is changes the underlying point, but using PA is the correct stat here. ABs don’t properly represent how many times you get to the plate, especially for a guy with a career .474 OBP.

11. You can’t really compare eras like that. Bats changed, balls changed, and health and performance sciences changed.

12. I still say the best hitter ever

13. You can only compare against peer groups of the same era.

    Babe was so much better than his contemporaries.

    Like arguing the greatest of any sport. It’s about the gap they showed against the next best of their generation.

    Anything else is a waste of time.

14. Always wondered what Ted Williams would have done if he didn’t miss all that time serving our country. Sam with Bob Feller.

15. A sports writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch considers Aaron to be the greatest hitter, even though Ted Williams lost four or more years to the military. He says that he cannot take I to account at-bats that did not happen. Now this about Ruth. I think that writer is FOS.

    Don’t get me wrong, Aaron was great. But his accomplishment was outlasting everyone else.

16. don’t think there’s ever been a more dominant player

17. I thought this was common knowledge? People complained harsh about modern players having more games per season when they were chasing Ruth’s season records

    Heck they gave Maris an asterisk over that for decades until guys like McGwire / Sosa / Bonds started juicing up

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    As well lets be serious; Ruth smoked and drank and ate red meat etc etc is there any doubt he would have hit more homers if he used steroids?

18. What if Bonds juiced the entire time? That’s what I’d like to know about it.