[As promised, here is the "Cool Babe Ruth Facts" section from The Babe, published in 2019 by the Society for American Baseball Research.]
After years of looking at Babe Ruth's career statistics – both for research and for pleasure – I have come to the inescapable conclusion that the man considered by many as the greatest player in the history of the sport is wildly underrated. The more you learn about Ruth – his life on and off the field – the more unbelievable and improbable his story becomes. It becomes increasingly difficult to comprehend the fact that he truly existed.
What follows are some Ruth statistics and factoids I have gathered over the years, both from my own research and curiosity and from other sources, including Ryan Spaeder's "The Ace of Spaeder". All statistics are from Baseball Reference. The statistics in the yearly charts begin with 1918 because that was the first season Ruth began playing in the field every day.
CAREER SPLITS
OPS BY MONTHS
September 1925 to August 1932: Ruth posted an OPS over .900 in 41 of 42 months, over eight seasons. In the lone month his OPS was below .900 (April 1929), he played in only 10 games. It was, of course, a momentarily slip. Ruth batted .376 .467/.738 over the next two months.
In nearly half (45) of the 93 months that Ruth was a full-time outfielder for the Red Sox and Yankees (1919-34, 16 seasons), his OPS topped 1.200, including 13 months over 1.400.
OPS AGAINST AL TEAMS
1920: Ruth's worse slugging percentage against any team was .720 against the Senators. That percentage was still at least 88 points higher than any other player in the majors. His worst on-base percentage (.473, also against the Senators) would have finished third in the AL.
1922: Ruth had a .605 on-base percentage against the Red Sox, reaching base 26 times (12 hits, 14 walks) in 43 plate appearances. . . . Ruth went 20-for-50 against the Athletics, with 7 singles, 3 doubles, 1 triple, and 9 home runs.
1930: Ruth had a 1.585 OPS against the Tigers, with 16 of his 28 hits going for extra bases.
OPS SPLITS
Data for these splits not available before 1925.
FACTOIDS
Babe Ruth would have to go 0-for-1501 for his career OPS (1.164) to fall below 1.000.
Only 25 players in history finished their careers with a slugging percentage over .550. Ruth would have to go 0-for-2135 for his career slugging percentage to fall below .550.
Barry Bonds has the fifth-best slugging percentage of all-time (.607). To topple Ruth's .690 slugging percentage from the #1 spot, Bonds would have to hit 247 consecutive home runs. OR if Ruth went 0-for-1147, his slugging percentage would drop below Bonds's .607.
Ruth had three seasons with a .375+ batting average, .500+ on-base percentage, and .750+ slugging percentage. No other player in history has had even one season with those numbers. In fact, only four players have had even one season with any two of those benchmarks.
.375 batting average and .500 on-base percentage
Babe Ruth, 1920: .376 .532 .847.375 batting average and .750 slugging percentage
Babe Ruth, 1921: .378 .512 .846
Babe Ruth, 1923: .393 .545 .764
Babe Ruth, 1924: .378 .513 .739
Rogers Hornsby, 1924: .424 .507 .696
Ted Williams, 1941: .406 .553 .735
Ted Williams, 1957: .388 .526 .731
Babe Ruth, 1920: .376 .532 .847.500 on-base percentage and .750 slugging percentage
Babe Ruth, 1921: .378 .512 .846 Babe Ruth, 1923: .393 .545 .764 Rogers Hornsby, 1925: .403 .489 .756
Babe Ruth, 1920: .376 .532 .847Ruth had seven seasons with at least a .350 batting average, .480 on-base percentage, and .730 slugging percentage. Everyone else in baseball history – more than 22,000 players – has combined for only five such seasons.
Babe Ruth, 1921: .378 .512 .846
Babe Ruth, 1923: .393 .545 .764
Barry Bonds, 2001: .328 .515 .863
Barry Bonds, 2002: .370 .582 .799
Barry Bonds, 2004: .362 .609 .812
Babe Ruth, 1920: .376 .532 .847Note: Ted Williams did it twice, at ages 22 and 38!
Babe Ruth, 1921: .378 .512 .846
Babe Ruth, 1923: .393 .545 .764
Babe Ruth, 1924: .378 .513 .739
Babe Ruth, 1926: .372 .516 .737
Babe Ruth, 1927: .356 .486 .772
Babe Ruth, 1930: .359 .493 .732
Rogers Hornsby, 1925: .403 .489 .756
Ted Williams, 1941: .406 .553 .735
Ted Williams, 1957: .388 .526 .731
Barry Bonds, 2002: .370 .582 .799
Barry Bonds, 2004: .362 .609 .812
* * *
In 276 games from May 11, 1920 to October 2, 1921, Ruth batted .388.
In 250 games from April 30, 1923 to August 8, 1924, Ruth batted .402.
In 162 games from July 24, 1927 to July 30, 1928, Ruth hit 71 home runs.
Only 11 players in history have had even one season with an OPS+ of 206 or better. That is Ruth's career average.
Ruth's first season in New York started slowly. In 1920, after 18 games, he was batting .210 and slugging only .371. On May 11, everything clicked. Ruth batted .403/.564/.924 (1.488 OPS) for the remaining 124 games of the season. He reached base by either a hit or a walk in 121 of those 124 games. There were 33 games in which Ruth did not get a hit, but his on-base percentage in those games was still .326, thanks to 42 walks.
Ruth finished the 1920 season with 54 home runs, outhomering all but two teams. The Phillies hit 64 and the Yankees (minus Ruth's total) hit 61.
The original Yankee Stadium was known as "The House That Ruth Built", but the Babe must have been sad to say good-bye to the Polo Grounds. In 1920, he slugged .990 at his home park in upper Manhattan. More than two-thirds of his hits went for extra bases (56 of 81, 69%) and he hit more home runs (29) than singles (25).
In 1921, Ruth slugged .926 at the Polo Grounds, with 63 of his 103 hits (61%) going for extra bases, including 32 home runs.
Over the 1920 and 1921 seasons, Ruth slugged .847. On the list of players with at least 600 plate appearances over those two seasons, Rogers Hornsby (at #2, .599) was closer to #105 than he was to #1.
Over the 1920 and 1921 seasons, Ruth hit 113 home runs. Tillie Walker had the second-most home runs, with 40. Bob Meusel was third, with 35. Ruth outhomered 10 major league teams over those two seasons. The Red Sox, for whom Ruth had played before 1920, hit a total of 39 home runs in those two seasons.
On June 11-14, 1921, Ruth went 8-for-12 in a four-game series against the Tigers, with two doubles and six home runs. Ruth scored nine runs and drove in 12. He walked six times and struck out only once in 18 plate appearances. His OPS for those four games was 3.111. He also stole a base . . . and he pitched five innings in the third game of the series and picked up the win. Ruth hit more home runs in those four games than any Red Sox batter hit in the entire season. Del Pratt led the Red Sox with five home runs and Shano Collins hit four. Ruth set a new single-season record – for the third consecutive year – with 59.
On August 31, 1923, Ruth's batting average was .405. He finished the season at .393. Just four more hits – one additional hit every six weeks – would have given him a .400 average. Ruth's OPS dropped below 1.120 on only three days (May 13, 14, 16). Ruth's on-base percentage never dropped below .484. It was below .500 on only eight days (all between May 14-22)
In Ruth's first five seasons with the Yankees, he led the majors in RBI three times. He drove in 653 runs in 709 games, more than 100 more RBI than any other player (Highpockets Kelly knocked in 562 runs in 744 games.) Yet in those five seasons, there were only three games in which Ruth had more than four RBI – and only 26 games (out of 709, 3.7%) with more than three RBI.
In 1930 and 1931, Ruth had 315 RBI in 290 games, but collected more than 3 RBI in any single game only eight times.
Ruth had only 28 games in his career with five or more RBI. That seems low, especially when I found out Lou Gehrig had 41 such games. But among the all-time leaders in career RBI, Ruth's total was not unusual. Hank Aaron had 22 games with five or more RBI, Ted Williams had 24, Alex Rodriguez had 29, Barry Bonds had 23. Stan Musial had only 12 (and only two games with more than five RBI).
Babe Ruth had six seasons with an OPS over 1.250. Only two other players in history have had even one.
Babe Ruth
1920: 1.379Barry Bonds
1921: 1.359
1923: 1.309
1924: 1.252
1926: 1.253
1927: 1.258
2001: 1.379Ted Williams
2002: 1.381
2003: 1.278
2004: 1.422
1941: 1.287Ruth holds eight of the top 17 spots on the Best Single-Season OPS+ list (1901-2018). The only three players with more than one season in the Top 20:
1957: 1.257
Babe Ruth 8 (1919, 1920, 1921, 1923, 1924, 1926, 1927, 1931)Bonds's top nine seasons: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 9th, 30th, 37th, 89th, 90th, 120th.
Barry Bonds 4 (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004)
Ted Williams 2 (1941, 1957)
Ruth's top nine seasons: 4th, 5th, 6th, 10th, 11th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 23rd.
In the five seasons from 1919 to 1923, only 11 players hit more than 50 home runs. Ruth hit 218.
Home Runs, 1919-1923 (5 Seasons)
Babe Ruth 218 Cy Williams 109The average American League team (not including Ruth's team in each season) hit 238 home runs.
Ken Williams 108
Rogers Hornsby 97
Tillie Walker 89
Harry Heilmann 75
High Pockets Kelly 68
Home Runs, 1919-1927 (9 Seasons)
Babe Ruth 396Home Runs, 1920-31 (12 seasons)
Rogers Hornsby 198
Cy Williams 194
Ken Williams 185
Babe Ruth 562All-Time Home Run List, When Ruth Retired In 1935
Rogers Hornsby 268
Lou Gehrig 233
Cy Williams 202
Babe Ruth 714 1914-35In 10 World Series, Ruth batted .326, slugged .744, and hit 15 home runs. He also pitched 31 innings with a 0.87 ERA.
Lou Gehrig 378 1923-35 (Final season, HR total: 1939, 493)
Jimmie Foxx 302 1925-35 (Final season, HR total: 1945, 534)
Rogers Hornsby 300 1915-35 (Final season, HR total: 1937, 301)
Al Simmons 256 1924-35 (Final season, HR total: 1944, 307)
Cy Williams 251 1912-30
Hack Wilson 244 1923-34
Mel Ott 242 1926-35 (Final season, HR total: 1947, 511)
Chuck Klein 232 1928-35 (Final season, HR total: 1944, 300)
Goose Goslin 218 1921-35 (Final season, HR total: 1938, 248)
Jim Bottomley 206 1922-35 (Final season, HR total: 1937, 219)
Ken Williams 196 1915-29
Gabby Hartnett 189 1922-35 (Final season, HR total: 1941, 236)
Harry Heilmann 183 1914-32
Ruth had a combined pitcher and position player career WAR of 183.6, which is 1.3 more WAR than Derek Jeter & Tom Seaver combined.
Ken Griffey Jr. batted .284/.370/.538 over his career.
Ruth batted .314/.382/.534 in the 163 games in which he pitched.
Ruth batted .314/.382/.534 in the 163 games in which he pitched.
Ruth was the youngest player in history with at least 40 home runs & 120 walks in a season (1920, 25 years old, 54 homers, 150 walks) until Bryce Harper (2015, 22 years old, 42 homers, 124 walks).
Ruth stole home 10 times, more than Rickey Henderson, Lou Brock, & Tim Raines combined (9).
Ruth is the only player in history to hit grand slams in consecutive games . . . twice.
September 27, 1927 off Lefty Grove (Athletics)September 29, 1927 off Paul Hopkins (Senators)August 6, 1929 (G2) off Bobby Burke (Senators)August 7, 1929 (G1) off Howard Ehmke (Athletics)
Ruth is the only player to hit three home runs in a World Series (or any postseason) game . . . twice (1926 World Series, Game 4; 1928 World Series, Game 4).
Ruth's 659 home runs with the Yankees is still the all-time record for home runs with a single team.
Ruth hit 259 home runs in the original Yankee Stadium. Only Mickey Mantle hit more (266), but he needed six additional years to hit seven more homers (18 seasons to Ruth's 12).
When Ruth played his last game for the Yankees in 1934, he had hit 28.3% of all home runs in Yankees history.
Ruth's 847 slugging percentage in 1920 was the single-season record for 80 years, until Barry Bonds slugged .863 in 2001.
Ruth walked 170 times in 1923, which was the most in any season until Bonds had 232 walks in 2004.
Ruth still holds the record for the most extra-base hits in a season, with 119 in 1921 (44 doubles, 16 triples, 59 home runs).
Ruth still holds the single-season record for total bases, with 457 in 1921.
Ruth is the all-time leader in Isolated Power (.348), which is basically slugging percentage minus batting average. It measures how many extra bases a player averages per at-bat. Mark McGwire is second, at .325.
In 1923, Babe Ruth reached base by hit, walk, or hit by pitch 379 times, which is still the all-time record.
Most Times On Base (H, BB, HBP), Season
Babe Ruth 1923 379Ruth holds the all-time record for games with two home runs (70).
Barry Bonds 2004 376
Billy Hamilton 1894 362
Ted Williams 1949 358
Barry Bonds 2002 356
Babe Ruth 1921 353
Babe Ruth 1924 346
Ted Williams 1947 345
Games with 2 HR: Ruth (70), Barry Bonds (67), Sammy Sosa (63), Mark McGwire (62), Hank Aaron (61), and Willie Mays (60).
Ruth holds the all-time record for games with two or more home runs (72).
Games with 2+ HR: Ruth (72), Barry Bonds (71), Sammy Sosa (69), Mark McGwire (67), Willie Mays (63), and Hank Aaron (62) and Alex Rodriguez (62).
Games with 2+ HR: Ruth (72), Barry Bonds (71), Sammy Sosa (69), Mark McGwire (67), Willie Mays (63), and Hank Aaron (62) and Alex Rodriguez (62).
Ruth has the three of the top four all-time single-season Wins Above Replacement (WAR) totals, as calculated by Baseball Reference: 14.0 in 1923, 12.9 in 1921, and 12.4 in 1927.
Ruth led the major leagues in home runs 11 times, slugging percentage 12 times, OPS 11 times, walks 11 times, on-base percentage 10 times, runs scored eight times, total bases six times, and RBIs five times.
Hank Aaron (755 home runs) hit 41 more homers than Ruth, but had 3,324 more plate appearances.
Barry Bonds (762 home runs) hit 48 more homers than Ruth, but had 1,983 more plate appearances.
Babe Ruth never went more than two games in his entire career without a hit or a walk. He had two-game droughts – far too small to label a slump – only 21 times. If you exclude his seasons as a full-time pitcher, games in which he pinch-hit or came into the game after it had begun, and games shorter than nine innings, there are 14 instances. From September 21, 1928 to July 31, 1934 – a span of 786 games – Ruth had back-to-back games with no hits and no walks only twice.
Hitting Streaks
Over a period of 90 games in 1920 (May 11 to August 14), Ruth batted .427/.584/.986 (1.570 OPS), with 40 home runs and only 45 strikeouts.
Similar streaks are littered throughout his entire career, sometimes several of them in one season. The following is only a sampling.
June 1 to July 31, 1920 (63 games): .445/.596/.965 (1.561 OPS); more than twice as many walks (73) as strikeouts (36).
June 9-16, 1921 (eight-game hitting streak): .577/.703/1.538 (2.241 OPS); 15-for-26, with 4 singles, 4 doubles, and 7 home runs; on base 26 times in eight games (15 hits and 11 walks), with only 5 strikeouts.
July 28 to August 25, 1921 (career-high 26-game hitting streak): .483/.610/1.045 (1.655 OPS); 43-for-89, with 8 doubles, 3 triples, and 12 home runs; 35 runs scored, 39 RBI, 29 walks, 10 strikeouts.
August 2 to September 11, 1922 (32 games): .370/.444/.843 (1.287); 33 runs scored, 35 RBI.
May 15 to June 4, 1923 (19 games): .420/.565/.928 (1.493 OPS).
June 30 to July 19, 1923 (22 games): .468/.596/.861 (1.457 OPS).
July 7 to September 1, 1923 (53 games):.460/.585/.864 (1.449 OPS); more extra-base hits (35) than strikeouts (26) (15 doubles, 4 triples, 16 home runs).
July 27 to August 30, 1923 (29 games): .500/.624/.940 (1.564 OPS); 50-for-100, 13 doubles, 9 home runs, 32 runs scored, 32 RBI, 31 walks. (The Yankees went 15-14.)
July 27 to October 7, 1923 (the final 62 games of the season): Ruth batted .423 (91-for-215) and slugged .842, with 62 walks and 37 strikeouts.
Last four games of 1923 regular season: .643/.737/1.500 (2.237 OPS); 14-for-19 PA (9 hits, 5 walks), 9 RBI, 3 home runs, 6 runs scored.
July 6 to August 9, 1924 (38 games): .504/.595/1.015 (1.610 OPS); 114 hits and walks in 170 plate appearances. (This period included hitting streaks of 18 and 12 games.)
May 5-20, 1926 (14 games): 16-for-46 (.348), 4 singles, 1 double, and 11 home runs.
August 26 to September 13, 1927 (18 games): 22-for-70, only a .314 average, but .929 slugging, with 5 singles and 17 extra bases hits, including 12 home runs.
September 6 to October 1, 1927 (last 24 games of season): .393/.491/.978 (1.468 OPS); 35-for-89, 16 home runs, 40 RBI.
May 1-28, 1928 (27 games): .424/.562/1.000 (1.562 OPS); 14 home runs.
June 21 to August 17, 1929 (52 games): .403/.498/.874 (1.372 OPS); 23 home runs and 70 RBI.
May 21-24, 1930 (six games): .522/.621/1.565 (2.186 OPS); 12-for-23, with 8 home runs and 18 RBI.
July 3 to August 28, 1932 (52 games): .427/.577/.805 (1.381 OPS).
July 28 to August 28, 1932 (30 games): .459/.616/.929 (1.545 OPS).
May 28 to June 30, 1933 (34 games): .350/.477/.683 (1.160 OPS).
PITCHING
Ruth finished his career with a 2.28 ERA in 1,221.1 innings pitched. Since Ruth's last game on the mound in 1933, only Mariano Rivera has pitched as many innings with a lower ERA (2.21 ERA, 1,283.2 innings pitched).
While Ruth was rewriting the record book as a hitter for the Yankees – and for almost three decades after he retired – he also held the record for most consecutive scoreless innings pitched in the World Series (29.2, eventually broken by Whitey Ford in 1961). (He once said that was the record he was most proud of.)
Ruth is the only player to have pitched in at least 10 seasons and had a winning record in all of them. (Andy Pettitte of the Yankees would have held the record at 13 seasons if he had retired after 2007. But Pettitte kept pitching and went 14-14 in 2008.)
Among American League lefties with at least 1,000 innings pitched in the 1910s, Ruth had the lowest ERA (2.19) and highest winning percentage (.659). He was tied for fourth in shutouts and was ninth in strikeouts.
Career ERA+
Ruth never wore the now-famous interlocking NY logo on his jersey. It didn't become a permanent part of the team's jerseys until 1936, two years after Ruth's last season with the team.
In 1936, the year after Ruth's retirement, the Hall of Fame inducted its first five players (Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, and Ruth). Ruth received 95.1% of votes. Eleven of the 226 voters left him off their ballots.
Tom Seaver 127
Juan Marichal 123
Zack Greinke 123
Madison Bumgarner 122
Babe Ruth 122
Bob Feller 122
Don Drysdale 121
Warren Spahn 119
Nolan Ryan 112
Pitching Streaks
July 13 to October 6, 1915: 17 games, 15 starts, 1.67 ERA, 0.994 WHIP, 83 hits allowed (76 singles), .198 opponents average, .148 opponents slugging.
August 12 to September 29, 1916: 15 games, 12 starts, 9 complete games; 0.76 ERA, 0.943 WHIP, 117.2 innings, 10 earned runs, 73 hits allowed (66 singles), .181 opponents average, .149 opponents slugging.
July 11 to September 29, 1917: 21 games, 18 starts, 18 complete games, 2 saves; 1.46 ERA in 166.2 innings, .192 opponents average, .243 opponents slugging.
July 5 to August 31, 1918: 11 starts, 10 complete games, 1.76 ERA, 0.918 WHIP, .184 opponents average, .178 opponents slugging.
September 2, 1915 to June 13, 1917 (66 games): Over 494.2 innings and 1,956 batters, Ruth did not allow a home run. He did hit three homers as a batter during that period, though.
* * *
In 1936, the year after Ruth's retirement, the Hall of Fame inducted its first five players (Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, and Ruth). Ruth received 95.1% of votes. Eleven of the 226 voters left him off their ballots.
Ruth also had the greatest stationery in baseball history.
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