Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Malleus Dei
You're right, but for the wrong reasons.
Ruth utterly dominated his era, like no one does today.
Ruth was the prototype Wayne Gretsky/Michael Jordan - the superstar that made his sport into something bigger - also like no one else today.
Besides being one of the best - if not the best - batters of his era, Ruth was also a star pitcher. Like no one else today.
Barry Bonds can hit 800, 900, 1000 home runs and it won't matter a damn. Babe Ruth will still always be a legend, and Barry Bonds will still be nothing but a steroid-juiced cheating jerk.
|
Simplistic measure, since I dont' have win shares or WARP 3 in front of me.
Ruth's 3 best seasons: OPS+ of 255, 239, 227
Bonds 3 best seasons: 275, 262, 260
Furthermore, Ruth had a more limited talent base - as any basic statistic will show you, if you raise the mean level of talent, the outlier is liable to less of one, reducing one's domination in context to a league. Ruth played in a lily white league- today the major leagues are about 50% white. Even ignoring the fact that the vast majority of benchplayers tend to be white, that's a whole bunch of talent that wasn't allowed to play Mal - you think that might have stiffened the competition ?