I wonder which player (non-pitcher) who has been inducted to the HOF has the lowest career batting avg.? I never got the chance to see Ripken play in his prime, but from what I remember he was more of a "defensive specialist", like Ozzie. I was suprised to see that he has hit over 400 HR though.
Sorry Weedy, didn't look at the heading address I miss read it..Crafty I am not from Detroit a navy brat for over 40 years and I got to see a lot of the parks in both leagues because of my fathers' and grandfathers' love of the game. I have always considered myself lucky because I got to see as a very young boy all the legends from Ruth to Mays to Mantle to Williams. I was one of the lucky kids in the world to have been able to see and experience the famous Yankees' Murders Row in the 1927 World Series. My father was a very good friend of Red Adair who played with Ruth on the Yankees and he got us tickets to all the games. Weedy you asked about Bonds vs Ruth yesterday and I want you to look at the stats as of 2002 Babe Ruth ranked then #2 in HR, #9 in batting average at .342, #3 in runs, # 2 in walks, #2 in RBI's, #1 in the most important of all slugging percentage at .690 and #5 in total bases. Bonds isn't even near in any except homeruns. Ruth's hr per at bats is the lowest of all players. Aaron may have hit more but it took him over 6000 more at bats. Take nothing away from Bonds one of the most talented players of this era but believe me nobody even comes near Ruth as a players, hitter, personality. He was crazy hard headed,stubborn, sometimes a little off the wall but when it came to playing the game, George Herman Ruth is the player I would want coming to the plate in any situation against any pitcher. You hear people always say he was only a homerun hitter, but I will tell you a story about the Babe the year he hit .399 or there abouts. Going into the last game of the season he was told that he only had to get one hit and that his average would be rounded up to .400 . His first at bat he got a hit and was told by the manager, I think Huggins, to take it easy and he would have someone run for him. His remarks from what my grandfather said are not printable and he when 1 for 4 and finished at .399. So much for not being a hitter. He could have hit .400 anytime he wanted if he cut down on always swinging for the fences. Let me name a few names of the players he played with and against during his heyday...George Sisler, Ty Cobb, Bob meusel, Lou Gehrig, Ken Williams,Sam Rice, Al Simmons,Earle Combs, Charlie Gehringer, Jimmie Fox, Goose Goslin, Eddie Collins, John Mostil,George Burns these all the types of players that he played with and against and he had to hit pitchers like Walter Johnson, Stan Coveleski, George Uhle, General Crowder, Lefty Grove, Waite Hoyt, Wilcy Moore, Red Ruffing , Garland Baxton and Monty Pearson. In this era the pitchers could do anything and everything to the ball. Forget the spitters, they used belt buckets and knives to cut the ball to make it do funny things, marked it up with tar, shoe polish, and whatever else they could find but still he hit for a lifetime average of .342 even when he was extremely overweight slow of foot and getting slower every year. How many players, without the use of drugs, have done this remember his last game 3 homeruns and a single. Yes, there has been better hitters, Cobb, Hornsby, Williams, Sisler , Jackson but none of them could hold a candle to the Babe. Plain and simple it was said that even as a old old man every pitcher in baseball didn't look forward to facing his hands and bat. I think that to compare Bonds to Ruth does Ruth a injustice only because what he did was so much harder then what Bonds has done and it has taken him more atbats, and facing watered down pitching staffs that has become the major leagues of today's era. Ted Williams to me was the greatest hitter I have ever seen in my lifetime and Koufax the greatest pitcher. But that is only my opinion of what I have seen over the years. But when Mickey Mantle makes a statement after the 65 first game of the world series and says that Sandy Koufax was the most unhittable pitcher he has ever seen and Joe DiMaggio later made a statement that watching Williams was an experience he would never trade any hitting for gives you some thoughts about what baseball was and has now become looking at todays games. Didn't mean to get so carried away here but sometimes I love to look back and remember watching even just the local kids play baseball in the fields.
Wow, thanks Old Man for making the end of my Friday so entertaining.
Old Man, if you are worried about rambling on, I have only on thing to say to you, ramble on, ramble on. I know more about the Babe now then I did a few minutes ago and can now appreciate how special he really was.
trox and apoch, here are some stats on Ted Williams he was 12th in rbi, 2nd in sluggingg percentage 18th in total bases,5th in batting average,12th in hr,15th in runs, 3th in bob, now take into the fact that he missed 5 years of his life to the wars, ww2and the Korean War average those years 45 hrs/135rbi, 97walks, 2000 more at bats, 500+runs and he is ranked # 1 in almost all of the ratings. 225 more homeruns make him number 1 or at least #2, 500 walks puts him almost at the top, 500 more runs at the top, batting average his last year was 40points under his lifetime and remember he hit 406 in 1941 triple crown winner and didn't win the MVP because of an idiot sports writer in Boston that didn't put him on the ballot for whatever reason. He was a awarded Marine pilot during both wars, multi all star and if a comparison was to be made he didn't as well as Ruth as younger men and couldn't pitch as well as Babe did for the same Boston RedSox. My whole family was his last game in Boston and got to watch him in his last abat hit a homerun and the closest to that was Gibson's in the 85 world series for feeling and emotion. My father as well as most of baseball lovers will tell you, Ted Williams had the sweetest swing of any player in history. Yes that includes Babe. Here is a question for all you baseball fans and triva nuts: Who was the last NL player to hit 400? And don't look it up.
Bill Terry? And thanks ... this has been some excellent reading.
This man was no prima donna - an excellent ball player and even a better person. Cal, I'll see you at the Hall of Fame.
Anybody out there remember the Pacific Coast League Champions 1956 Los Angeles Angels and can you reminder the starting lineup? Hint: the starting second baseman turned out to be one the best managers in baseball. Another where did DiMaggio and Williams start their baseball careers? Good Night Folks.................
Old Man: I did a little digging on your behalf, and I found the Sporting News' boxscore from the game you attended in which Ruth hit the home run. 
Obviously, it isn't very clear. The game recap reads (as far as I can tell): AT DETROIT -- A strong finish, in which the Yankees scored eight runs in the last two innings, gave the champions a 10-to-7 victory over the Tigers. Babe Ruth hit his seventeenth home run of the season while Gehrig had a double and two singles. All told, the Yankees made 13 hits off the deliveries of Frazier and Fischer. Ruffing went seven innings for the visitors when he was relieved by Wilcy Moore, who was given credit for the victory. Ruth's home run, off Frazier, was the only one he hit in Detroit that season. It was a three-run jack in the eighth which ultimately proved the difference in the game. Unfortunately, there is no mention of his outfield assist. Also unfortunate, it appears you were robbed of seeing Ruth in a second game -- a note at the end of the boxscore indicates that rain prevented the second game of a double header from being played. That was some game, though. By my count it featured eight Hall of Famers. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to experience your memory of that game this way.
Thanks for the excellent research crafty. Certainly a nice supplement to the old man's comments.
Crafty, you are talking about too many year passing here to remember everything, but my brother has the score card my grandfather used that day. After my father died in 1980 he had left me something that I am quite sure nobody else has. My grandfather had given my father a autographed baseball with the Babe's, Lou's and Miller Huggins signature on it. I got Mickey Mantle's, Whitney Ford's and Sandy Koufax's on it and my son got Nolan Ryans' a couple of years ago. This is one of my biggest prizes but the one I really have on the wall is a letter from Grover Cleveland Alexander to my grandfather talking about what he is going to do in the offseason and if he still wanted to go fishing after the season was over if he didn't get into the world series.
Just so you guys know it takes me a little time to remember things. So sometimes bare with me remembering makes the days go longer and brings smiles to my face and the faces of my kids, grandkids and greatgrandkids.
