Why is this arguable? Isn't the salaries in baseball higher than football and basketball? Isn't there a much greater chance that of being injured in basketball and football than baseball? Seems to me that in 98% of the cases, if a player can play baseball at a high level, they do. You don't see many players that play in both leagues or that could play in both leagues, and that is because more often than not athletes don't have all the physical and mental toolsets to succeed in both. I don't think this comes even close to making up for the talent that Ruth missed out on facing. Now, mind you, I'm not saying Ruth was a worse player. As a hitter, I think they are very close. As players, Ruth's pitching stats easily make him better than Bonds. I think he has the edge in hitting too, but I just don't buy this idea that the NBA and NFL sucking athletic talent can cancel out the talent that Ruth didn't face when he only played white players. There is a much bigger difference than that.
What about stealing bases? Bonds does that pretty well. I know close to nothing about Ruth, except for the big stuff, so did he do any baserunning, though he may not have needed much of it? Or did they even count those? Sorry if I sound ignorant or something. Just curious about the stat.
He wasnt fast but he lead his teams in steals at times. Then again, those Yankee teams weren't exactly built around speed. BTW, Major League Baseball is hardly the end all of baseball statistics. The fact that they won't give in to Bill James is an absolute joke. They are hard-asses that will never give in that an outsider has bested them in recording their own game in statistics. Babe Ruth played in stadiums that were 480 to center and he played when the talent wasn't as diluted as it is now. He's world's better as a hitter and (obviously) a pitcher. http://baseball-reference.com/leaders/OPSplus_career.shtml That tells the truth. They probably will. The fact that players like Brian Giles and Todd Helton are even near names like Babe Ruth and Ted Williams just shows how the balls are tighter, talent is more diluted, ballparks are smaller, etc. Babe Ruth will always be better than Barry Bonds, no matter what he does from here on out.
I don't know why, but I always thought Ruth would have like 10 career steals or something like that. This really changes my perspective of his greatness, which was already rather..um..great. Thanks for the info.
Why are you even talking about Greenberg? He wasn't in Babe Ruth's era. 5. Todd Helton (28) 1.0319 L 6. Barry Bonds (37) 1.0233 L 9. Manny Ramirez (30) 1.0097 R 10. Frank Thomas (34) .9999 R 11. Brian Giles (31) .9863 L 13. Jim Thome (31) .9818 L 17. Vladimir Guerrero (26) .9733 R 18. Larry Walker (35) .9727 L 19. Jason Giambi (31) .9678 L 20. Jeff Bagwell (34) .9650 R 21. Mike Piazza (33) .9637 R 23. Alex Rodriguez (26) .9585 R 24. Edgar Martinez (39) .9520 R 25. Chipper Jones (30) .9487 B Most of these guys arent going anywhere. Infact, I bet most of them have a higher OPS this year than they do in this list. Why? The talent is more diluted than they started, some are just plain getting better with age, and the parks are getting smaller by the second. Babe Ruth was fat and out of shape, and he ran circles around all of the pill-gorging machines of today. I can't even imagine what he'd do if he had the conveniences of modern medicine, weak pitching, and small ballparks.
What are those #s in parenthesis? The age when they achieved those numbers? I didn't know Giles was 31. Guess it makes sense, Marcus is in his mid twenties.
Ages as of 2002. Those are career numbers. So, Todd Helton has the 5th best OPS entering this year in the history of baseball over his career.
I read the thread title. I read and re-read the first post. And I still can't figure out how the f*ck you guys brought Babe Ruth into this and turned a player appreciaton thread into yet another long-winded arguement. Classic Clutch BBS.
Babe Ruth would beat Barry Bonds in a drinking contest.... ...but Batman Jones would crush them both.
I wonder how the Babe would do if he came up in this era? I got tired of reading this, don't know if anybody has posted this, but Bonds used to be good in the outfield. He's also a good base stealer.
No one can deny his greatness. He hit No.40 against Randy Johnson... in his first game back after his dad died. Incredible... no one is better...
