Marvin wrote:
> > John: the big issue here is racism -- the different
> > standards applied to black and white athletes.
>=================================
>In general, yes, but how to square this statement with the similar response
>to Dave McGuire's steroid use when he broke Babe Ruth's home run record in
>1998?
You mean Mark McGwire breaking Roger Maris's record? Nobody's taken heat like Bonds, even before the most damaging allegations came out. And nobody really called McGwire on anything until he melted down in front of Congress after he retired. He got heat for being an idiot more than he did for taking anything.
But speaking of Babe Ruth, everybody loves to laugh and say he did it on hot dogs and beer, but there's evidence he injected himself with extract of sheep testicles, a stop on the slouch towards steroids.
=============================== Yes. Abashed...Is extract of sheep's testicles any good for memory?
_^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^ CB: Wow. First I've heard of sheep's testicles. I guess that would be from rams.
Also, I don't know if this is a Bronx legend, but "they" say Babe would do the wild thing , stopping off in a cab on the way to games at Yankee Stadium. I wonder whether that might pump up his testosterone or some other hormonal level. On the other hand it is said when a player hits a lot of or long home runs in soft ball games that he has been "sleeping on the couch", 'cause doin' it heavy does use up a lot of strength. We don't know if Babe was doin' it heavy or light. Hey Babe , hey Babe !
I still can make an argument that Babe Ruth was the best all around player ever, because he was on his way to the Hall of Fame as a pitcher, when he was switched to an outfielder. None of the other home run kings could pitch. Also, Babe Ruth used to hit like .375 _and_ hit 50 home runs. Of course, being a good pitcher, probably made him a better hitter, because he knew how pitchers were thinking.
Plus, he wasn't a slow runner , stole bases, despite his image as sort of stout ( I see from the pictures in wikipedia that he wasn't stout when he was "younger" before the classic images of him with a big potbelly hitting home runs). Babe Ruth used to play in the inter-racial , barnstorming games mixing major leaguers and negro leaguers. Ty Cobb on the other hand was a notorious racist.
Yet, on advantages, when Ruth jumped up the season home run total to the 40's and 50's, baseball had just outlawed doctoring the ball - spit ball, emory board balls, cut the cover balls, grease balls, all kinds of foreign substance balls. In other words , the pitchers were suddenly disarmed. Ruth caught them in the interim years before they developed new weapons.
And what about tobacco, chewing tobacco ? That gives the players a jolt from a drug. Even alcohol gives some a lift. Micky Mantle and his gang were drinkers. In the long run tobacco and alcohol shorten life, but in the immediate situation they may give an advantage.
Many baseball players historically , the ones whose records are being held up as sacred now, were gashouse gang , Chicago Black Sox and other street life types, not "good " role models. You have Pete Rose in contrast with Cal Ripken , Jr. You have Babe Ruth ,the bad boy, in contrast with Lou Gehrig , sort of a straight arrow, I believe, college man, Iron Horse.
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Babe Ruth
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This article is about the pitcher and outfielder. For the band, see Babe Ruth (band). For award, see Babe Ruth Award. For the candy bar, see Baby Ruth.
Babe Ruth
Outfielder/Pitcher
Born: February 6, 1895 Died: August 16, 1948 (aged 53) Batted: Left Threw: Left MLB debut July 11, 1914 for the Boston Red Sox Final game May 30, 1935 for the Boston Braves Career statistics AVG .342 HR 714 RBI 2213 Pitching Wins/Loss: 94-46 ERA: 2.28
Teams Boston Red Sox (1914–1919) New York Yankees (1920–1934) Boston Braves (1935)
Career highlights and awards All-Time records Career SLUG: 0.690 Career OPS: 1.164 Notable achievements Inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936 2nd in career OBP (.469) 3rd on All-Time Home Run list (714) Only player to hit 3 home runs twice in a World Series game (1926 & 1928) Won the 1923 AL League Award (precursor to MVP) Appeared in 1933 & 1934 All-Star Game First player ever to hit 60 home runs in a season
Member of the National
Baseball Hall of Fame Elected 1936 Vote 95.13% George Herman Ruth, Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948), also known as "Babe", "The Great Bambino", "The Sultan of Swat", "The King of Crash" and "The Colossus of Clout", was an American Major League baseball player from 1914-1935. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest baseball players in history. Many polls place him as the number one player of all time[citation needed].
Although he spent most of his career as an outfielder with the New York Yankees, Ruth began his career as a successful starting pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. He compiled a 89-46 win-loss record during his time with the Red Sox and set several World Series pitching records. In 1918, Ruth started to play in the outfield and at first base so he could help the team on a day-to-day basis as a hitter. In 1919, he appeared in 111 games as an outfielder. He also hit 29 home runs to break Ned Williamson's record for most home runs in a single season.
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More than his statistics, Ruth completely changed baseball itself, and the popularity of the game exploded in the 1920s largely due to him. He ushered in the "live-ball era" as his big swing led to gargantuan home run totals that not only excited fans, but helped change baseball from a low-scoring, speed dominated game to a high scoring, power game. He became the first true American sports celebrity superstar whose fame transcended baseball. Off the field he was famous for his charity, but also was noted for his often reckless lifestyle that epitomized the hedonistic 1920s. Ruth became an American icon, and even though he died nearly 60 years ago his name is still one of the most famous names in all of American sports.
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Early life Ruth was born at 216 Emory Street in southern Baltimore, Maryland.[1] His maternal grandfather, German immigrant, Pius Schamberger was an upholsterer; he rented a house located only a block from where Oriole Park at Camden Yards now stands.[1] Ruth's parents, Kate Schamberger-Ruth and George Herman Ruth, Sr.,[2] eventually owned saloons on Lombard and Camden Street in Baltimore.[3] Only one of Ruth's seven siblings, his sister Mamie, survived past infancy.[2]
George Ruth Sr. sent the seven-year-old Ruth to St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys, a reformatory and orphanage, and signed custody of his son over to the Catholic missionaries who ran the school.[2] While Ruth was there, a man by the name of Brother Matthias became a father figure in his life. Brother Matthias taught Ruth the game of baseball. He worked with Ruth on hitting, fielding and, later, pitching.
Ruth (top row, far left) at St Mary's Industrial School for BoysIn early 1914, a teacher at St. Mary's brought George to the attention of Jack Dunn, owner and manager of the Baltimore Orioles. After watching Ruth pitch, Dunn signed Ruth to a contract. Since Ruth was only 19 years old, Dunn had to become Ruth's legal guardian as well (at that time, the age of majority was 25) [4] When the other players on the Orioles caught sight of Ruth, they nicknamed him "Jack's newest babe." The reference stayed with Ruth the rest of his life, and he was most commonly referred to as Babe Ruth from then on.[5]
On July 7, 1914, Dunn offered Ruth, along with Ernie Shore and Ben Egan, to Connie Mack of the Philadelphia Athletics. Dunn asked $10,000 for the trio, but Mack refused the offer. The Cincinnati Reds, who had an agreement with the Orioles, also passed on Ruth. Instead, the team elected to take George Twombley and Claud Derrick.[6]
Two days later, on July 9, Dunn sold the trio to Joe Lannin and the Boston Red Sox.[7] The amount of money exchanged in the transaction is disputed.
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[edit] Emergence as a hitter After the 1917 season in which he hit .325, albeit with limited at bats, teammate Harry Hooper suggested that Ruth might be more valuable in the lineup as an everyday player. In 1918, he began playing in the outfield more and pitching less. His contemporaries thought this was ridiculous; former teammate Tris Speaker speculated the move would shorten Ruth's career, but Ruth himself wanted to hit more and pitch less. In 1918, Ruth batted .300 and led the A.L. in home runs with 11 despite having only 317 at bats, well below the total for an everyday player. He also pitched well, going 13–7 with a 2.22 ERA. Ruth's excellence as hitter and pitcher made a strong case as the best player in baseball during the 1918 season.
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Yankee years
1920-1925
Babe Ruth in 1921, maybe his finest season. (picture)
Ruth hit 54 home runs and batted .376 in 1920, his first year with the Yankees. His .849 slugging average was a Major League record until 2001, when it was broken by Barry Bonds. Aside from the Yankees, only the Philadelphia Phillies managed to hit more as a team than Ruth did as an individual, slugging 64 in hitter-friendly Baker Bowl.
In 1921, Ruth had an even better year, arguably the best of his career, hitting 59 home runs, batting .379 and slugging .847 while leading the Yankees to their first league championship. On July 18, 1921, Babe Ruth hit career home run 139, breaking Roger Connor's record of 138 during only the 8th year of a 22 year career. That fact was not known at the time, as Connor's correct career total was not firmly established until the 1970s. If it had been celebrated, it would have been on an earlier date, as Connor's total was at one time thought to be only 131
In the 1920's, Ruth became synonymous with the home run, in part because he led the transformation of baseball strategy from the "inside game" to the "power game", and in part because of the way he hit them. His ability not only to hit many home runs, but to hit a significant number of them in the 450–500 foot range (and farther), resulted in the lasting adjective "Ruthian" to describe any long home run hit by any player. Probably his deepest hit in official game play (and probably the longest home run by any player), occurred on July 18, at Detroit's Navin Field, in which he hit one to straightaway center, over the wall of the then-single-deck bleachers, and in the intersection, some 575 feet from home plate.
As impressive as Ruth's 1921 numbers were, they could have been more so under modern conditions. Bill Jenkinson's 2006 book, The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs, is a detailed examination of each of Ruth's 714 career home runs, plus several hundred long inside-the-park drives and "fair-foul" balls that would have been ruled fair after a 1931 rule change made balls that hit the foul poles home runs. The title comes from the stellar 1921 season, in which the author concludes that Ruth would have been credited with 104 home runs, if modern rules and field dimensions were in place.
Ruth's appearance in the 1921 World Series also led to a problem and triggered another disciplinary action. After the series, Ruth played in a barnstorming tour. At the time, there was a rule that prohibited World Series participants from playing in exhibition games during the off-season. Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis suspended Ruth for the first six weeks of the 1922 season.
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Despite those batting heroics, he is also remembered for a costly failed stolen base. He had a reputation as a good and (sometimes too) aggressive baserunner (he had 10 steals of home in his career, for example). With two outs in the 9th inning of the deciding 7th game, he tried to steal second base, but was caught, and the Series was over. As of 2006, it is the only time in a World Series since 1903 that the final out of a Series was a Caught Stealing.
Weight Misconception Though Babe Ruth is usually remembered as overweight, this is largely because of oft-repeated showings of newsreels taken late in his career. Ruth was a large man who did indeed battle weight gain (especially given his sometimes careless diet), but for much of his career he was not especially overweight. In fact, photographs from his early career show a trim and athletic Ruth, one unfamiliar to most.
Career batting statistics Season G AB R H HR RBI BB SO Avg. SLG 1914 5 10 1 2 0 2 0 4 .200 .300 1915 42 92 16 29 4 21 9 23 .315 .576 1916 67 136 18 37 3 15 10 23 .272 .419 1917 52 123 14 40 2 12 12 18 .325 .472 1918 95 317 50 95 11 66 58 58 .300 .555 1919 130 432 103 139 29 114 101 58 .322 .657 1920 142 458 158 172 54 137 150 80 .376 .849 1921 152 540 177 204 59 171 145 81 .378 .846 1922 110 406 94 128 35 99 84 80 .315 .672 1923 152 522 151 205 41 131 170 93 .393 .764 1924 153 529 143 200 46 121 142 81 .378 .739 1925 98 359 61 104 25 66 59 68 .290 .543 1926 152 495 139 184 47 150 144 76 .372 .737 1927 151 540 158 192 60 164 137 89 .356 .772 1928 154 536 163 173 54 142 137 87 .323 .709 1929 135 499 121 172 46 154 72 60 .345 .697 1930 145 518 150 186 49 153 136 61 .359 .732 1931 145 534 149 199 46 163 128 51 .373 .700 1932 133 457 120 156 41 137 130 62 .341 .661 1933 137 459 97 138 34 103 114 90 .301 .582 1934 125 365 78 105 22 84 104 63 .288 .537 1935 28 72 13 13 6 12 20 24 .181 .431 Career Statistics 2,503 8,398 2,174 2,874 714 2,217 2,062 1,330 .342 .690
Career pitching statistics W L ERA G GS CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR HBP BB SO WPct WHIP AVG BB/9 K/9 94 46 2.28 163 148 107 17 4 1,221.1 974 400 309 10 29 441 488 .671 1.16 .220 3.25 3.60