Quote:
Originally Posted by NoOne
I'll be honest, i thoguht it was 1B and SP... OF may have some more tangible concerns... and the dogmatic thoguht was more bout how he only did it -half-way.. and only 1 or 2 years when it was clear the entire time he was an amazing hitter.
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Yeah, the 1B for most of Ruth's tenure in New York was Lou Gehrig. For the first part of his career it was Wally Pipp, who is mostly known as the guy who got a headache and gave up his job to Gehrig but who was a very good player in his own right. The All-Star Game didn't start until the 1930s but had it begun earlier Pipp probably would have been in a couple at least. He finished his career with 1941 hits and had the reputation for being a good hitting 1B in an era when there was a bit more variance at that position and therefore a good fielder was probably worth a bit more.
Also, I can't believe I spaced out on this but Ruth played about half his career OF games in right, which makes some sense given that he was a converted pitcher after all. Needless to say, you're not going to want to risk blowing out a guy's arm throwing from RF to third if he also happens to be something insane like 8% of the entire league's offense (which he was close to being in 1920 if memory serves). We mostly remember him today as a fat power hitter, which really only describes his later years. In fact, he had pretty solid speed himself, although like a lot of players in his era he was a bit too aggressive for it to be a plus on the basepaths. The 1926 World Series ended with him being thrown out trying to steal second base.