Bernie Miklasz on Babe Ruth

St. Louis sports columnist Bernie Miklasz recently wrote this column about how even though Babe Ruth is now #3 on the all-time home run list, a great case can still be made for considering him the best baseball player ever. In particular, Miklasz rightly points out that in addition to being arguably the best hitter in the history of the game, Ruth also had the start of a great pitching career before he gave up pitching to concentrate on hitting. In fact, it's very possible that he could have gone to the Hall of Fame based only on his pitching, if he had remained a pitcher for his entire career. Here are some specific numbers as given by Miklasz:

Ruth still endures as the greatest player in baseball history, period. He hit 714 homers, drove in 2,217 runs and batted .342. As a pitcher he went 94-46 with a 2.28 ERA and 17 shutouts and was 3-0 with an 0.87 ERA in the World Series. Until a modern slugger steps onto the mound to win 94 games, there's no discussion about who's No. 1. Ruth even outpitched the immortal Walter Johnson in head-to-head matchups, going 6-1.

Miklasz also makes an interesting point about how Babe Ruth's home run totals compared to other baseball players of his day:

No one can equal Ruth's historical impact. He changed the game. He took baseball out of the dead-ball era, the slap-hit mentality, and introduced the bombast of the home run into the culture, for better and for worse.

Put it this way: When Ruth hit 59 homers in 1921, the figure represented 12.3 percent of the league total. Last season 2,437 homers were hit in the American League, meaning that a slugger would have to hit about 300 homers to net 12.3 percent of the league total.

To baseball fans, none of this is new information. But it's interesting to reflect on just how great a player Babe Ruth was, and how he left a huge and permanent mark on the game of baseball.