If Babe Ruth was a batter his entire career would he have beaten Hank's record?

Question

What if he was a pitcher his entire career, what would of been his estimated stats?

Answer 1

He probably would've had at least a hundred more. He would've been a Hall-of-Famer if he'd continued pitching, as well.

Answer 2

Actually your question should be (because Babe came first): Would Hank Aaron ever have beaten Babe Ruth's record if Babe had stopped pitching earlier in his career. It's possible. But I'm going to say that if Willie Mays had not been forced to play in Candlestick (saw him many times there) he would have had 800 and would have demonstrated once and for all the he was the greatest player ever for a non-pitcher. (Satchel Paige wins for pitching of course.)

Answer 3

Absolutely. No questions. Babe Ruth had 8399 career at bats. Hank Aaron had 12, 364 yet only one more season played. Even though Aaron broke Ruth's record it took him almost 2,000 more at bats than it took Ruth. The most homeruns Aaron hit in a season was 47. Ruth of course had 60 and several 50+.

Answer 4

I agree that the Babe would have probably reached 800. But, then you have to ask if Hank Aaron would have stopped at 755. He played a long time, but may have stuck around even longer if he was still chasing the Babe at the time. But, if you look at how many fewer at bats Babe Ruth had than Aaron or even Bonds, it shows how great of a home run hitter he truly was.

Answer 5

Babe Ruth is the greatest player in the history of the game. Ruth was hitting as many hrs by himself as some teams were combined. If he played his whole career as a player he'd probably have 900HRS and his record would've never been broken. he scary thing is, The Babe was one hell of a pitcher as well

Answer 6

Only if Babe started playing after the Dead-Ball era:

"The dead-ball era is a baseball term used to describe the period between 1900 (though some date it to the beginning of baseball) and the emergence of Babe Ruth as a power hitter in 1920."

The dead-ball era ended suddenly. By 1921, offenses were scoring 40% more runs and hitting four times as many home runs as they did in 1918 [1]. The abruptness of this dramatic change has caused widespread debate among baseball historians, and there is no consensus among them regarding the cause of this transformation [2] [3]. Five popular theories have been advanced:

* Changes in the ball: This theory claims that owners replaced the ball with a newer, livelier ball (sometimes referred to as the "rabbit ball"), presumably with the intention of boosting offense and, by extension, ticket sales. This theory has been denied by Major League Baseball. The yarn used to wrap the core of the ball was changed prior to the 1920 season, although testing by the United States Bureau of Standards found no difference in the physical properties of the two different types of balls.

* Outlawing of the spitball: The spitball, a very effective pitch throughout the dead-ball era, was outlawed at this time as well. This theory states that without the spitball in the pitcher's arsenal, batters gained an advantage.

* More baseballs per game: The fatal beaning of Ray Chapman during the 1920 season led to a rule that the baseball must be replaced every time that it got dirty. With a clean ball in play at all times, players no longer had to contend with a ball that "traveled through the air erratically, tended to soften in the later innings, and as it came over the plate, was very hard to see." [4]

* Babe Ruth: This theory alleges that the prolific success of Babe Ruth hitting home runs led players around the league to forsake their old methods of hitting (described above) and adopt a "free-swinging" strategy designed to hit the ball hard and with an uppercut stroke, with the intention of hitting more home runs. Critics of this theory claim that it doesn't account for the improvement in batting averages from 1918-1921, over which time the league average improved from .254 to .291.

* Ballpark dimensions: This theory contends that the cause of the offensive outburst were changes in the dimensions of the ballparks of the time. Accurate estimates of ballpark sizes of the era can be difficult to obtain, however, so there is some disagreement over whether the dimensions changed at all during this time, let alone whether the change led to the increasing offense.

Answer 7

Probably especially when you factor in that they only played 154 games. Add that to his pitching years, although he was an excellent hitting pitcher, he would have hit over 800 HR's. Remember Ruth was the recordholder for a long time until Hank broke it.

Answer 8

I always enjoy pointing out that Hank Aaron batted almost 4000(!!!!) times more then Babe Ruth.....give him those bats at his pace, Ruth would have hit over 1100 homeruns....and this does not allow for the time time he was a pitcher.....he actually had the scoreless innings pitched record in the World Series before Whitey Ford broke it.......Aaron did not break Ruth's record....he just passed it!!.............3985 more turns......Ruth hit one out every 11.6 turn at bat.....that is another 345 on top of the 714 he hit!!!....and that was (as someone pointed out) him not taking care of himself!!

Answer 9

He would've had more home runs, but Aaron still would have beaten him. Even if Ruth had 780 instead, Aaron would say, "Nope, I'm gonna stop a 754". No way. As for a pitcher, Ruth was good,but he wouldnt of been a HOF pitcher.

Answer 10

Depends. If you look at his season stats, there were a few years there where he did not hit as many homeruns as he should have due to some discipline actions. Should these be included along with the pitching seasons? Because if so, that adds another 6 years to his career. If so, then that would give him 765-770 homeruns.

Answer 11

Had Babe Ruth taken better care of himself he would have been in the mid to high 700's not quite 800.

His numbers were so far above everyone elses he never really pushed himself to do more.

Hank would not have been able to reach the mark of 700+.