In the movie “The Sandlot,” the kids in the movie get in a dilemma of having lost a baseball signed by Babe Ruth. One of the co-stars in the movie who does not know a whole lot about baseball has no clue who Babe Ruth was. That is until his friends remind him that he is considered the greatest baseball player ever.
“The Great Bambino.” “The Sultan of Swat.” “The Colossus of Clout.” Those are the nicknames Babe Ruth was known by and since he retired, he is considered the greatest of all time. Now we have Shohei Ohtani playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers and has already helped them win another World Series title in his first year with the team last season.
The Dodgers are heading back to the Fall Classic after wiping out the Milwaukee Brewers in four straight games. After six seasons with the Los Angeles Angels, Ohtani started game four of the National League Championship series and in not just my opinion but probably in many others had the greatest single game performance in professional baseball history.
Even the great Babe Ruth could not match what Ohtani did on Friday, October 17 in front of thousands of Dodgers faithful. His performance was legendary, historic, and downright mind boggling. Sent to the pitching mound as the starter, Ohtani also was at the top of the Los Angeles’ batting order. With four plate appearances, all the Japanese import did was smash three home runs and be walked once. It was said that one of his dingers traveled nearly 500 feet. It wasn’t just a home run, it was a blast of a home run.
Ohtani’s line score is absolutely incredible. Four times up, walked once, three hits, all three round trippers. All three round trippers were single shots so across his stats it was a night of three offensively. Three at-bats, three hits, three runs, three RBIs, and three big home runs. But that is not what made his night special.
From the mound, Shohei Ohtani pitched a full six innings. He surrendered just two hits and three walks, but it is his strikeout total that is alarming. Ohtani struck out 10 Brewers batters. Ten! That’s crazy. On 22 of his pitches, 12 of those were a first strike pitch.
Breaking it down further, batters that Ohtani faced had 14 pitches called strikes, another 19 they whiffed on, 24 came on foul balls for a strike, and another nine were in play strikes. Ohtani got batters out three times on ground balls and another four hitters who flew out. So, when comparing Ohtani to George Herman Ruth, how do the two players’ stats line up? It’s time to find out.
Thus far Shohei Ohtani has seven seasons under his belt and is in his eighth. Matching up his first eight seasons versus Babe Ruth’s first eight, one has to keep in mind that for most of his first eight seasons, Babe Ruth was mostly just a pitcher. Offensively however, the number of games each player took part in for the first eight seasons of both athlete’s careers is not far off.
Ruth played in 113 games and Ohtani 127. The current superstar leads in every category. Known as a home run hitter, Babe Ruth held the career record for a very long time until Hank Aaron passed his 714 by. Thus far through eight seasons Ohtani has slammed a total of 280 where Ruth in his first eight hit only 46. But he was a pitcher first. Ruth had 143 RBIs, and the Japanese import has had 669. What might be a better indicator is what their season averages were and are.
For his 22 years in Major League Baseball, Babe Ruth averaged 32 home runs per season. Ohtani? 35. Ruth beat the Dodgers’ star in RBIs 101-84. But Shohei Ohtani is a much better athlete than Babe Ruth was. Ruth is well known for his off-the-field antics and being very social but on the field, he just knew how to pitch and hit. Ohtani with his physical skills has averaged 24 doubles a season in his career thus far with an average of 16 triples over the 162-game schedule. Ruth’s numbers in those two categories were 23 and six.
Both players average the same number of hits per average of a season with 131. Ohtani has averaged 21 stolen bases per season whereas Ruth managed only six. In evidence of how sharp a hitter Babe Ruth was, he struck out per season at a rate of only 60 on average where the current day stud averages 138. Babe Ruth crossed the plate more often than Ohtani, bettering him by 10, 99-89. Ruth also walked much more 94-68.
Going back to the pitching mound, given Ohtani’s incredible performance in this championship series just ended, we must remember that he has pitched far less in his first eight seasons than Ruth did in his first eight. His pitching power is more obvious by the number of strikeouts he averages a season. That number is 84 compared to Ruth’s 61.
From the mound Babe Ruth finished his career with a record of 92-46. Ohtani is 39-20. Those numbers equate to a winning percentage for the Babe at .666. For Ohtani that number is .661. Complete games and shutouts are a thing of the past so Shohei Ohtani has few but Babe Ruth? 105 and 17 respectively. Babe Ruth surrendered only 10 home runs in his career as a pitcher while Ohtani has forked up way more with 56.
We could run through these numbers all day and bring up more but what this discussion boils down to is more of a subjective opinion. Old timers may sway towards Ruth because of his legendary accomplishments including the fabled home run in the World Series calling his shot before hitting it out of the park. His popularity and impact on baseball might be greater than the current day Ruthonian, known as Shohei Ohtani but the Dodgers super star is quickly becoming a legend in his own right.
There is no question that if it is not Babe Ruth as the greatest ever that Ohtani is rapidly accomplishing things that will help him surpass anything Ruth did on the field and by far, he has already exceeded great players like Lou Gehrig, Stan Musial, Willie Mays, and more current day players like Barry Bonds, the all-time home run king. Ohtani gets the nod because he is a two-way player pitching, fielding, and batting. This and he does it outstandingly. For that, in my opinion, he has surpassed Babe Ruth as the greatest ever and he is far from retiring from the sport he excels at.
When all is said and done and Shohei Ohtani has played his final game, it’s a scary thought to think what his numbers will look like.
