Back in 1895, one of baseball’s best hitters was born. At first, though, he looked like one of baseball’s best pitchers.
I refer, of course, to Babe Ruth, who famously pitched so well for the Red Sox in the early days of his career while simultaneously developing as a position player. Although best known for his bat after being sold to the Yankees, Ruth was mostly a brilliant pitcher with the Red Sox, posting a 2.28 ERA, a 2.81 FIP and 12.4 WAR over 1221.1 pitching innings in his career. And that was all almost entirely before his was 24!
To think that, in 1919, Ruth hit .322/.456/.657 with a 9.4 WAR … and also put up a sub-3.00 ERA over 133.1 innings!
Happy birthday to Babe Ruth, who may have been a Hall of Fame-worthy pitcher if he stayed on that path. But I think most baseball fans are pretty happy he made the switch.