The designated hitter
It's really too bad baseball didn't have that back then because it might have made a big difference in Ruth's case towards the end.
shareWhat "big difference" are you talking about?
shareHe wouldn't have had to play in the outfield all he would have had to do is bat and he could still hit home runs at that point which might have enabled him to play a few more years.
shareHe wouldn't have had to play in the outfield all he would have had to do is bat and he could still hit home runs at that point which might have enabled him to play a few more years. - nelson95
Nah. Baseball has always been a young man's game. Babe Ruth was 40 when he played his last season in 1935 for the Boston Braves, and he didn't even finish the season--his last game was at the end of May, and in that last season he batted a paltry .181 with 6 home runs in 28 games and 92 plate appearances.
Ruth himself knew he was at the end of his career at that point, and he accepted the Yankees trading him to Boston only as a springboard to a managing job once he had retired. Ruth was done as a top-flight ballplayer after his age-38 season in 1933.
What is more fascinating in Ruth's case is if he had begun his career as a full-time position player. Recall that his first few seasons with the Boston Red Sox was as a pitcher, and he was a pretty darn good one (94-46, 2.28 ERA). After four seasons as a pitcher exclusively, Boston began playing him as a position player between starts, which began to wind down in his last two seasons in Boston before his infamous sale to the Yankees for the 1920 season.
Whether an additional four-plus seasons as a position player at the start of his career would have made a significant difference is a great what-if. Undoubtedly he would have reached 3000 career hits (he retired with 2873), but how many more home runs he would have hit is an even bigger question. This was still the dead-ball era, so he wouldn't have been clouting 40 or 50 per season, but he would have probably got into the 750 range for his career.
But even if there would have been a designated hitter in his time, it would not mean that Ruth could have extended his career, or even if he did, whether he would have been effective. A lot of the great ones (Aaron, Mays et al.) hung on for a season or two too long, usually to reach a milestone or two. Pete Rose did, certainly after he'd already passed Ty Cobb as the all-time hit leader--although Rose played until he was 44 and never DH'd once as he was always a National Leaguer.
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"We hear very little, and we understand even less." - Refugee in Casablanca share
Excellent points!
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