He was a pretty fat guy...but so was Cecil Fielder and he hit quite a few.
How many Home Runs would Babe Ruth hit in a season if he were in his prime but in today's era?
- Thread starter CySmurf
- Start date
Ruth would have trouble catching up with the modern pitchers fastball. He used bats that weighed between 38 to 42 oz. The average bat today is 32 oz.
Ruth never had to hit against sliders, cut fastballs or screwballs. During his time a pitcher was expected to go 9 inning. So there is no way that a pitcher could be throwing hard every pitch. Today a modern pitcher is asked to only go 5 to 6 innings, with maximum effort, the its turned over the parade of bullpeners, most throwing in the mid to high 90's.
Hitting well in todays game is the hardest thing to do in sports. Ruth would be a good player today, but nowhere near what he was in the 1910's and 20's.
Ruth never had to hit against sliders, cut fastballs or screwballs. During his time a pitcher was expected to go 9 inning. So there is no way that a pitcher could be throwing hard every pitch. Today a modern pitcher is asked to only go 5 to 6 innings, with maximum effort, the its turned over the parade of bullpeners, most throwing in the mid to high 90's.
Hitting well in todays game is the hardest thing to do in sports. Ruth would be a good player today, but nowhere near what he was in the 1910's and 20's.
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Starting pitchers NEVER throw max effort for 5 or 6 innings (maybe 5 or 6 pitches a game). Other than that I agree with you
A lot. He was a superior athlete for this time, and probably would be in any time.
Did he play against a single non-white person? Superior when most of the population isn't allowed to play...
Are you saying skin color has something to do with athletic ability? There are problems with that. He was a superior athlete, period--as shown by his accomplishments.
In 1930, white people made up 89% of the population of the United States. I'd say he competed against enough of the population to be able to say he was an amazing athlete.
I just googled how fast Bob Feller threw. 104mph. Weight training in the 20s and 40s was basically nonexistant so it shouldn't have changed much. Thinking the Babe couldn't hit 10 HRs in the modern game tells me some of you are on crack or just plain stupid.
Is the question more...
-- Take Babe Ruth from 1927 to 2019 in a time machine and put him in an MLB lineup (after the shock had worn off, of course) and see how he does?
OR
-- Take him as "raw material" from 18 years old (or 20 or 25 or something), let him learn and adapt to the modern game over time, grow used to the changes to hitting and pitching, let him benefit from modern nutrition and strength training, and see what happens?
I imagine those two give you extremely different answers.
I think the basic point that Ruth competed against a shallower talent pool, even if the country was close to 90% white in the 1920s, is a valid one.
U.S. population in 1927 = 119 million (6.0% of world)
World population in 1927 = 2.0 billion
U.S. population in 2019 = 327 million (4.2% of world)
World population in 2019 = 7.7 billion
So the U.S. has a larger population (and so does the world), and MLB (and the NBA, for that matter) has never had more international players with talent. The domestic talent pool is bigger now, as well as there being tons of players from Latin America, Asia, and even Europe (sometimes) that would not have had a chance at baseball in the U.S. back in the 1920s.
The lack of nonwhite players from the U.S. as well as not having the globalized talent pool, as we do now, meant Ruth faced what amounts to suppressed competition.
-- Take Babe Ruth from 1927 to 2019 in a time machine and put him in an MLB lineup (after the shock had worn off, of course) and see how he does?
OR
-- Take him as "raw material" from 18 years old (or 20 or 25 or something), let him learn and adapt to the modern game over time, grow used to the changes to hitting and pitching, let him benefit from modern nutrition and strength training, and see what happens?
I imagine those two give you extremely different answers.
I think the basic point that Ruth competed against a shallower talent pool, even if the country was close to 90% white in the 1920s, is a valid one.
U.S. population in 1927 = 119 million (6.0% of world)
World population in 1927 = 2.0 billion
U.S. population in 2019 = 327 million (4.2% of world)
World population in 2019 = 7.7 billion
So the U.S. has a larger population (and so does the world), and MLB (and the NBA, for that matter) has never had more international players with talent. The domestic talent pool is bigger now, as well as there being tons of players from Latin America, Asia, and even Europe (sometimes) that would not have had a chance at baseball in the U.S. back in the 1920s.
The lack of nonwhite players from the U.S. as well as not having the globalized talent pool, as we do now, meant Ruth faced what amounts to suppressed competition.
It's from ESPN. I simply googled "how hard did Bob Felleller throw"? But if you say he didn't I'm sure you have documentation to back it up.
He's not wrong. He threw 107 officially once. 2nd fastest mlb pitch ever recorded
16 teams v. 30 today.
He hit more dingers than entire teams.
According to Bleacher Report Nolan Ryan is the only pitcher in the top 4 velocity wise that has pitched in the last 50 years.
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The suppression of talent is a good point, but the fact that the talent pool that was able to play was concentrated on nearly half the teams is a big deal. Not to mention in those days every athlete pretty much played baseball. Now a lot of the best athletes don't even play baseball.
Good point about the larger MLB now.
Those effects would offset one another... not sure how it would net out, though.
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
Where is this located?
Growing up, the world record always used to be Nolan Ryan at 100.9 mph.
dude pitched in like 1940 no way it was accurately measured.