| | Babe Ruth's biggest mistake as an athlete was playing his entire career before there was television.
In case you missed it, the Babe finished second to Michael Jordan in ESPN's athlete of the century rankings. The Babe may have dominated his sport in a way Jordan never did but, alas, he didn't have his own line of athletic shoes or signature fragrance or appear in a TV commercial with a cartoon character hawking a long-distance phone carrier.
|  | | Babe Ruth was a World Series pitching hero before becoming the game's greatest hitter. |
I can't get too bent out of shape about these all-century lists, which can be interesting to think about but aren't meant to be taken too seriously. Like the official strike zone.
It's a bit silly, after all, to present a definitive list from a century's worth of athletes when the very few people still alive who were old enough to have actually seen all the candidates in their prime can't even remember where their keys are.
That's the problem with these lists. They always vastly undervalue the athletes we weren't fortunate to see and wildly overestimate those still fresh in our minds. It's why people think the Backstreet Boys are better than the New Kids on the Block when anyone with half a brain knows neither could hold a candle to the Bay City Rollers.
Still ... Jordan over Ruth?
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The
printed record shows Ruth was the best player in
the best sport there is. He began his career as the
Randy Johnson of his era and ended it as the Mark McGwire. As a wise man once said,
you could look it up. |
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Granted, Jordan was a wonderful player and his impact on sports was enormous. But he also benefits greatly from having his performances endlessly replayed each night on every news show in the country. We know how good Jordan was because we not only saw every play he ever made, we saw them repeated in slo-motion with sound effects to boot. Boo-yah!
Not so with Ruth, whose talents have been reduced to a few movie clips so jerky and grainy they make the Zapruder film look as if it was shot in Cinemarama by director Terence Malick.
But it's not fair to judge him on that. The printed record shows Ruth was the best player in the best sport there is. He began his career as the Randy Johnson of his era and ended it as the Mark McGwire. As a wise man once said, you could look it up.
Not only did he hit more home runs than anyone not named Hank Aaron, Ruth had a lower career ERA than Greg Maddux does and a higher career batting average than Tony Gwynn. He hit more home runs than he allowed during his five seasons as a pitcher, led the league in ERA in 1916, tossed 29 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings during the World Series, was 2-0 the same season he hit 59 home runs and remains higher on the career shutout list than Pedro Martinez.
After establishing himself on the mound, he moved to the outfield fulltime and became baseball's best hitter by a tape measure home run. The most popular athlete of his time, he also was so much better than everyone else that he outhomered every other team in the American League in 1920 (McGwire would have to hit more than 240 home runs to match that). Not only did Ruth dominate the game, he forever changed the way it was played.
And don't even bring up Jordan's championship rings. Ruth won seven World Series championships. He was so valuable that the Red Sox still haven't won a World Series after selling him.
We'll see how well Jordan stacks up half a century from now when his $120 shoes are just so much landfill. Meanwhile, rest assured that Ruth will remain among the elite where he belongs. He already has stood the test of time.
The official all-century lists may be recorded but baseball fans know better -- the Babe was the century's greatest athlete. Even if he died decades before SportsCenter.
Jim Caple is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.
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