andycummings65 wrote:Interesting.....
when Ruth popped to the top so quickly........
how quickly Mays & Aaron jumped into the top few........
when the list sat static through most of the 1970s......
So much has been written about Ruth and much of that centered on the most repeated story lines and pseudo myths. A great book is The Selling of the Babe by Glenn Stout who took the time to research as much as he could about Frazee and Ruth's early years as he transitioned from pitcher to player.
Ruth's raw and unorthodox hitting style from a very young age was tolerated because he was such a good LH pitcher and partially because of his quirky personality. Anyone else would have been ridiculed and benched. Swinging as hard as he could from his heels was worse than frowned upon. Ruth's reasons for hitting like that were immature at best. What it turned into and how the baseball world reacted inconceivable.
Ruth always felt he was a pitcher's pitcher and as refined and polished on the mound as the best in the game. When he started splitting time in the field between starts, his immaturity and selfishness undermined what he could have achieved as a spot starter. But, he could still throw great games nearly whenever he wanted to into 1919.
He threw two complete game victories on the last day of the regular season against the Red Sox when both teams were out of it in 1930 and 1933. It is difficult to find quality first-hand recollection of either game and it is certain that many starters did not play and maybe only Ruth took the game seriously. But, it is noteworthy to me that he threw complete games and was not relieved even though he got knocked around. I am also sure whoever was hitting for the Red Sox wanted to put the bat on the ball against the great Ruth even if the game was less than meaningless.
A final, small tidbit.... Ruth hit 29 HRs in 1919 for the Red Sox as a part time OF / 1B and spot starter. Then 54 HRs in his first season for the Yankees in 1920; his seventh season in the Majors. Ruth hit 50 HRs twice (59 in 1921) before he ever hit 30 or 40 HRs.