Four years ago, I wrote, “It is too early in Shohei Ohtani’s Major League career to compare him to Babe Ruth, who many consider the greatest baseball player. But the comparisons are fun to make.” Now, it may be time to make those comparisons.
Consider this:
Babe Ruth: 159 home runs in his first 674 career games; W-L 35-18 in his first 455.0 career innings pitched. Shohei Ohtani had 160 home runs in his first 674 career games, W-L 35-19 in his first 455.0 career innings pitched.
Ruth, who was a starting pitcher for the Boston Red Sox and pitched a bit for the New York Yankees after that infamous trade, was too good a hitter only to play every four days. So, the Yankees made him their starting right fielder.
In May 2021, Ohtani pitched seven innings of one-run ball and struck out 10 Houston Astros hitters while serving as the Los Angeles Angels’ #2 hitter. In the bottom of the eighth, with the score tied and his spot due up the next half-inning, Angels manager Joe Maddon moved him to right field rather than pull him from the game.
In the modern era dating back to 1900, Ohtani became the first pitcher to strike out 40 or more batters and allow fewer than a dozen hits over his first five starts of a season.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody who’s that skilled at both things,” White Sox manager Tony La Russa told ESPN. Like most people still alive today, La Russa never saw Ruth play. But some forget what a unique talent the Bambino was on the mound. He had a lifetime record of 94-46 and an ERA of 2.28.
In 1916, Ruth won 23 games and posted a league-leading 1.75 ERA. He also threw nine shutouts — an American League record for left-handed pitchers (the Yankees’ Ron Guidry tied it in 1978). In Game 2 of the World Series, Ruth pitched all 14 innings, beating the Brooklyn Dodgers 2-1. Boston beat Brooklyn in the series four games to one.
Courtesy The Daily Dot
On May 6, 1918, in the Polo Grounds against the Yankees, Ruth played first base and batted sixth. It was the first time he had appeared in a game other than as a pitcher or pinch-hitter and the first time he batted in any spot other than ninth. Ruth went 2-for-4, including a two-run home run. The next day against the Senators, Ruth was moved up to fourth in the lineup — and he hit another home run — where he stayed for most of the season.
Manager Ed Barrow wanted Ruth to continue pitching, but Ruth would feign exhaustion or a sore arm to prevent that. However, he did throw over 100 innings in his final season with the Red Sox in 1919. When Ruth came to the Yankees in 1920, he switched from pitcher to everyday player full-time. He threw four innings during a spot start that year and pitched nine more across two games in 1921. But after that, he appeared done with it.
Late in the 1930 season, the Yankees seemed destined to finish third in the American League. The Red Sox were even further back in the standings. So, there was not much on the line when the Yankees went to Boston to end the season on September 28. Ruth approached manager Bob Shawkey with the idea of drawing fans to the meaningless game: he would pitch the season finale. Shawkey agreed, and after nearly nine years, Ruth was given the ball. To add to his mystique, he pitched a complete game and got the win. He scattered 11 hits and allowed three runs. As a side note, after hearing that Ruth would pitch, Lou Gehrig offered to take Ruth’s position in left field and was allowed to do so.
Three years later, Ruth similarly got the start in a meaningless final game of the season against the Red Sox. He again threw a complete game as the Yankees won 6-5. The Curse of the Bambino was alive and well.
Now, Ohtani is building his own mystique. When Ohtani switched to right field and stayed in the lineup, Maddon said: “That’s so unusual what he could do tonight. He does it so easy that we have to understand it’s not so easy to do what he’s doing.”
Photo courtesy Halos Heaven
Ohtani, a right-handed thrower, sustained a right UCL (elbow) tear during a start for the Angels on August 23, 2023. He hasn’t pitched in a Major League game since. He had surgery on the elbow that September, but his timeline to return to pitching hit the roadblock when he suffered a labrum tear in his left shoulder while trying to steal a base in the 2024 World Series.
Although Ohtani is in the lineup every day for his bat and has been throwing some bullpen sessions this spring, Roberts said, “His health is paramount, most important. So he’ll pitch for us whenever that time is, and his buildup fully matures.”
Babe Ruth: I don’t think a man can pitch in his regular turn, play every other game at some other position, and keep that pace year after year. I can do it this season all right and not feel it, for I am young and strong and don’t mind the work. But I wouldn’t guarantee to do it for many seasons.
Ohtani, 30, and his Los Angeles Dodger manager, Dave Roberts, may want to take Ruth’s words to heart. In the meantime, watching this highly gifted Japanese import do his thing is a lot of fun.
_____________
This article, which has been contemporized, first appeared in The Vacaville Reporter on May 19, 2021.
