Ruth = Balboni X 4

Someone mentioned former Royals first baseman Steve Balboni in the same sentence with Babe Ruth. Thirty lashes with a wet noodle. I find few if any similarities. Must be some weird nickname thing I'm not aware of.

Ruth played 22 years to Balboni’s eleven, and played 2-1/2 times as many games, with three times the plate appearances.  But Ruth did not double Balboni’s stats – he quadrupled them. Four times the home runs. Four times the hits. Four times the doubles. Four times the RBIs. Ruth legged out 136 triples to Balboni’s eleven. I could go on.

avg.OBP.SLG.OPS

229 293 451 0.743 SB

342 474 690 1.164 BR

games.PA…..hits...2B..3B..HR..RBI...BB…..K

0960 03440 0714 127 011 181 0495 0273 0856 SB

2503 10626 2873 506 136 714 2214 2062 1330 BR

Ruth had eight times the number of walks but struck out at a rate half that of Balboni. The ex-Royal’s strikeout rate is in Dave Kingman range (though less than Bo). Balboni averaged 16 home runs per season. Can that even be considered a power hitter? These days middle infielders hit more home runs. And hit for higher than a woeful .229 average. Bob Uecker had the same on base percentage as Balboni. That replacement player they talk about in WAR? Steve Balboni.     

.BB%...K%...........WAR

07.9% 24.9% SB     0.9

19.4% 12.5% BR 183.1

The Babe of course started out as a record-setting pitcher. Balboni only stole one base in his career. Ruth swiped 123.

The only thing Steve Balboni has in common with Babe Ruth: they played the same sport. But it could be said that Ruth played a game that Balboni wasn’t familiar. No soup for you. Bye bye, Balboni. NEXT!

NOTE: had to write this whole blog post just cuz it was too many characters for a tweet.