Ohtani: Babe Ruth 2.0?

Looking forward to seeing Ohtani in person when the Angels come to town next Monday. Many are comparing him to Babe Ruth. In their first 674 games / 455 innings pitched… 

.HR…W-L

159 35-18 Babe Ruth

160 35-19 Shohei Ohtani

All the kids on social media are saying Ohtani is clearing better than Babe Ruth because baseball nowadays is harder than it was a hundred years ago – that Ruth played against plumbers and pipefitters (aren’t they tough?), that Ruth only played against whites (how many elite black pitchers have there been in the past 50 years?). Ruth made it to the big leagues as a 19 year old. They say Ruth would struggle against the superior athletes of today. No mention of all the unathletic looking ballplayers who continue to thrive in MLB year after year.

Who is better? Lots of arguments both ways. Back in the day starting pitchers pitched 9 innings. Very few relievers. But pitchers were stronger back then. Conditioning better now – or is it really? The ball is different. Ballparks are smaller. If Ohtani is so great, why does he lag so far behind Ruth in the following categories? Ohtani’s slash lines may be good, but they’re not off the charts. Ruth’s slugging percentage, On Base + Slugging, and OPS+ are the highest in history. Let’s see Ohtani hit 714 home runs.

BA.OBP.SLG..OPS.OPS+

342 474  690 1.164 206 Ruth

272 361  553 0.914 146 Ohtani

Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it.

Tonight Ronald Acuna stole his 50th base of the season, with more than two full months to go. 

That 28 hour ESPN book just about wore me out. They take a topic and have 5 or 6 people comment on it. For the most part they all say the same thing, trying to sound important. Men puffing out their chests. Most said how important the event was. Is everything that happened a key moment? Like any other business ESPN is concerned with making money. ESPN. ESPN2. ESPN News. ESPN Classic. ESPN Radio. ESPN the Magazine. Sports Century. Sports Century the book. Not sure if this book is just another look at us vehicle, though it was compiled by an independent source. Could’ve been easily cut by two thirds. Thumbs down.

Next up: Sea of Tranquility, a time travel novel by Emily St. John Mandel. Not sure I’d realized that Catherine Norman had read this one. It's okay, but not a knockout.

BILLY SUNDAY [SABR Bio] his reputation for speed and sobriety were the reasons his time in the majors outlasted his mediocre performance. His manager, Cap Anson was enamored of those two of Sunday’s traits. He was not a terrible player. Thrice he had double-digits in doubles, but his 8 seasons in the majors produced only a 3.0 WAR. In his autobiography he wrote: “I never drank much.  I was never drunk but four times in my life.  I never drank whisky or beer; I never liked either.  I drank wine.”  When he went “to the saloons” with his teammates, “I would take lemonade or sarsaparilla.” In the days before radio, he was the most successful evangelist America had ever known. Players and fans were attracted to him and felt he had been called to preach the word of God.