Barry Who? The Babe is Still King

[il ragno]

As we're all probably sick of hearing by now, Barry Bonds' record-breaking homer the other night only fuels the controversy of whether his feat should be considered legit. But I don't even accept Hank Aaron as the HR king. The Bambino.....George Herman Ruth (1895-1948) is still the game's greatest slugger and all-around player.

And no, it has nothing to do with Balco Barry or Hammerin Hank's melanin-overload. My two reasons:

1: As opposed to Aaron, Mantle, Teddy Baseball, etc - all of whom put up big power numbers in eras when lots of guys did - the Babe hit tape-measure shots to Death Valley in the dead-ball era when nobody hit for remotely the same power he did. Example: in 1920, Ruth hit more dingers than the next top three finishers combined. He routinely finished with more than the #2 and 3 sluggers combined. In fact, it was Ruth's dominance that led owners to introduce the livelier modern baseball and bring their fences in - so that their guys could compete with him.

He single-handedly made baseball the National Pastime. The crowds attending Yankee road games were there only to get a glimpse of him. He changed the damn game.

By comparison, Aaron was an excellent ballplayer who put up steady power numbers but never once outshined Mantle, Musial or Mays in his own era. And Bonds - another great player - has not only, ermm, reinvented himself, he got to play in both the juiced-ball era as well as the artificially-enhanced, post-strike offenses that baseball, desperate to regain their popularity (and thus keep their tv deals intact) used to lure the fans back.

2- even if the above weren't true....just to catch the Bambino's 714, Aaron needed 3,000 more at-bats than Ruth needed to set it. Bonds needed nearly a thousand more abs plus Balco.

While I'll admit that Aaron and Bonds have hit more total homers than Babe Ruth, I don't consider that to be much more than a technicality. The Babe is still the home run king.

[Count Eustace II]

Babe Ruth won the ESPN poll as the greatest home run hitter of all time followed by Aaron and the despicable Barry Balco Bonds. I agree that Babe Ruth is the greatest home run hitter ever in MLB history and will always be the greatest.

I'm happy whenever I hear people booing Bonds. He's a cheater with an arrogant negro attitude. Bonds never hit more than 49 home runs in a season until he hit 73 in 2001! And he was already old by MLB standards!

That's because he's a racist nigra who didn't want to be outshined by McGwire and Sosa's record breaking seasons (those two were allegedly juiced up too) so he juiced up, everyone knew it and MLB didn't do anything to stop him.

As far as I'm concerned the entire Major League Baseball industry is tainted from here on out because of Barry Bonds.

[MadScienceType]

Any truth to the rumor Bonds doesn't sign autographs for white kids?

[Crowley]

Any truth to the rumor Bonds doesn't sign autographs for white kids?

I can testify to the fact from eyewitness accounts from an acquaintance who works at Giant's Stadium that Bonds snubs kids when they run up to them, but whether it is because of their race I am not sure. I will look into it.

[ironweed]

Not that many negroes attend baseball games these days, from what I understand. So its probably just white kids looking for autographs from that freak.

Edit: Wasn't one of his mistresses white? Or just high yella?

[The Retard]

Any truth to the rumor Bonds doesn't sign autographs for white kids?

Ron Kittle wrote about it in his book Ron Kittle's Tales from the White Sox Dugout.

[Keystone]

As we're all probably sick of hearing by now, Barry Bonds' record-breaking homer the other night only fuels the controversy of whether his feat should be considered legit. But I don't even accept Hank Aaron as the HR king. The Bambino.....George Herman Ruth (1895-1948) is still the game's greatest slugger and all-around player.
The Babe will always be the greatest player ever until a slugger can compile a 94-46 record as a pitcher before he became the full time Sultan of Swat.
He didn't always have a beerbelly. He was a very good outfielder with a very good arm for many years.

The Bambino will never be surpassed as a player and as an asset to the Game. Ever.

[il ragno]

Ruthian numbers.

In 1916, age 21, Babe compiled a 23-12 record, allowing 230 hits in 323 innings for a 1.75 era. A year later, he posted a 24-13, 2.01 mark in 38 starts. Of those 38 starts, 35 were complete games.

http://www.baberuth.com/flash/about/biograph.html

In his first World Series game for Boston in 1916, Babe set a record that still stands today. Ruth took the mound in Game 4 against the National League Champion Brooklyn Robins. He got off to a rocky start in the first inning by giving up a quick run, but settled down to pitch 13 scoreless innings for the 2-1 win. The 14-inning gem stands as the longest complete game in World Series history.

Two years later, now the ace of the Boston staff, the Babeorchestrated another pitching masterpiece in Game 1 by pitching a complete game 1-0 shutout. He was called to the mound again in Game 4 against the Chicago Cubs. Once again, it seemed like Ruth was untouchable. He went eight strong innings, until giving up two runs in the top of the 8th. However, The Red Sox stormed back in their half of the inning with one run to put them up 3-2, and give Ruth his 3rd win in 3 World Series games. Most importantly, combined with his shutout innings in 1916, the nine scoreless innings in Game 1 of the 1918 World Series, and the eight scoreless innings in Game 4, Ruth notched a total of 29 2/3 scoreless World Series innings, breaking Christy Mathewson's record. This amazing record stood for 43 years. A dubious streak also began after that World Series win: It would be the last World Series title the Red Sox would win until 2004.

In 1920, Ruth's first as a Yankee and a full-time outfielder, he led the majors in HR, RBI, RS, BB, SLG and OBP. He hit .372, but George Sisler hit .407 that year. However, Sisler came second in HR leaders, hitting 19 to Babe's 54. Over in the NL, the home-run crown went to Philly's Cy Williams, who hit all of 15 that year.

He couldn't have eaten that many hot dogs - he collected 136 triples in his career, and stole 123 bases. And the Bambino's defense is always overlooked.... but he's still got more outfield assists (190) than Bonds (169).

The Babe also came up harder - much harder - than Aaron. (Bonds was a pampered son of a millionaire ballplayer, and has been treated like royalty from the crib on up.) Sure, Aaron was a po' black child growing up in the Jim Crow South, but at least he had parents. Ruth had parents, too....both alcoholics, incapable of caring for, or about, their kids. Whenever the kids got in the way of their benders, they'd dump em off at the local Catholic orphanage/reformatory....finally, when the Babe was seven, they made it permanent, and he was essentially raised in spartan barracks by no-nonsense, drill-sergeant-like priests (one of whom was a fiend for baseball, and encouraged Babe to take up the game) for the next 12 years. So the next time some umber-hued whiner demands a walk on manslaughter charges because he was raised in a broken home by a single parent, imagine what it would be like to be raised as an orphan while your parents are still alive - try to grasp that catastrophic degree of rejection on a kid's psyche. If the Babe liked to chase skirts and wash down too much sauerbraten with too much speakeasy beer, I'd say he was entitled to some fun.

[Berianidze]

Agreed with Keystone on Ruth's phenomenal pitching status. He was indeed a very talented pitcher, and his numbers in that regards alone would've made him an instant Hall of Famer.

[Jake Featherston]

The mere fact that I don't even follow baseball, and yet 70-80 years later, I still know who Babe Ruth was, and remember anecdotes about him (such as the way he used to point to where he was going to send a homer before slamming it in), and am familiar with his nickname ("the Sultan of Swat") is good enough for me. My great-grandson isn't going to know squat about Barry Bonds (yet will likely be at least almost as familiar with Babe Ruth as I am). There's a reason for a disparity like that.

[Ace Rimmer]

What a bunch of envious white rednecks :222:

[Keystone]

What a bunch of envious white rednecks :222:
Bonds' godfather, Willie Mays, was one of the best players of all time. He was a "five tool" player if there ever was one. He also lost 2 seasons to the Army. Playing those two seasons just might have allowed Willie to pass Ruth's HR total before Henry Aaron.

He was also universally admired and didn't use "enhancers". Only Ruth's pitching ranks him higher than Mays in my mind.

[The Retard]

At least it wasn't a Canadian that broke the record -- that would have been a disgrace to God and country.

Anyway, I think Bonds record will be surpassed and probably by that other jerk Alex(I'll give you a signed jersey for my 500 HR ball)Rodriguez.

[Ace Rimmer]

At least it wasn't a Canadian that broke the record -- that would have been a disgrace to God and country.

Anyway, I think Bonds record will be surpassed and probably by that other jerk Alex(I'll give you a signed jersey for my 500 HR ball)Rodriguez.

Why is he a jerk?

[Crowley]

What a bunch of envious white rednecks :222:


Hell yeah we envy Babe Ruth. :whip:

[il ragno]

Bonds' godfather, Willie Mays, was one of the best players of all time. He was a "five tool" player if there ever was one. He also lost 2 seasons to the Army. Playing those two seasons just might have allowed Willie to pass Ruth's HR total before Henry Aaron.

He was also universally admired and didn't use "enhancers". Only Ruth's pitching ranks him higher than Mays in my mind.

Hell, Ted Williams pulled two tours of duty - and he played his whole big-league life in a right-hand hitter's park. Put him in Tiger Stadium or Wrigley his whole career and give him back his 'army years' and he'd be out of everybody's reach.

[Keystone]

Hell, Ted Williams pulled two tours of duty - and he played his whole big-league life in a right-hand hitter's park. Put him in Tiger Stadium or Wrigley his whole career and give him back his 'army years' and he'd be out of everybody's reach.
I consider fielding to be a big part of a player's "greatness". Very few ballplayers had the combined hitting and fielding skills that Mays did.

Williams didn't.

[The Retard]

Why is he a jerk?
Reread my post. He is a jerk because he makes millions of dollars and was only going to give the fan an autograph jersey for the ball he hit and he knows very well on the open market what the ball would fetch. I don't feel it is right to make money off that stuff but that is how it is now.

This is speculation but Jose Canseco(another jerk) will name A-Rod in his new book. Baseball is in a terrible state and it is only getting worse. The only steroid user I still have some respect for is Giambi because he went straight out and said he uses.

[Keystone]

Reread my post. He is a jerk because he makes millions of dollars and was only going to give the fan an autograph jersey for the ball he hit and he knows very well on the open market what the ball would fetch. I don't feel it is right to make money off that stuff but that is how it is now.
Bonds is a jerk. He also does a very few nice things and probably some nice things that no one knows about.
Also, 758 HRs is a fucking ton, even considering the "enhanced" ones. Most were not. I watched him play in Pittsburgh for 7 years and his bat speed and eye-hand co-ordination were outstanding. The guy could flat-out hit. He was very good in the field and ran the bases very well. Very well.
Being a jagoff is definitely a drawback in the MLB where the fans can be jagoffs and the beat writers get paid for being jagoffs. You won't come out looking good.
I don't excuse Bonds' alleged juicing or cry-baby attitude, but the guy was a great ballplayer, deserving a spot in the HOF along with a few other famous "cheaters".
This is speculation but Jose Canseco(another jerk) will name A-Rod in his new book. Baseball is in a terrible state and it is only getting worse. The only steroid user I still have some respect for is Giambi because he went straight out and said he uses.
Football fans are funny in this regard. I was around for the Super Steelers of the 70's, and everyone knew most of the big guys were juiced---there was talk of it even then---but no one cared. They still dont. those 4 Super Bowl victories should have ****, but they don't. That's funny.