Wasn't Babe Ruth awarded a home run in 1969 for rule changes regarding game-ending hits?

Question

It seems that Willie Mays and Hank Aaron were both closing in on 714 and so the home run was taken back just in case on of these fellows fell one short of 715. Will he ever get it back?

Answer 1

Yes. Prior to 1920, what we'd now call a walk-off home run would only count for as many runs as were necessary for the home team to win by 1 run, and the batter would only be credited with as many bases as were necessary to score that run.

In Ruth's case, he hit a ball over the fence in the 10th inning of a tie game on July 8, 1918. Because there was a runner on first, only that run counted and Ruth was credited with a triple.

In 1968, the Special Baseball Records Committee voted to retroactively credit Ruth and other such players with those home runs. The Committee changed its mind and reversed that decision early in 1969. Thus, Babe Ruth had 715 career home runs for less than a year.

Answer 2

Boy, there are a lot of people here who don't know much about Babe Ruth. Yeah, he cavorted, but so did most of the sports people of that time. (Not all, but many.) And he was not even doing that until the early 20s, when he'd had almost a decade in the game. He was a brick of muscle for most of his career. The images we see and the legends that we here came mostly from the last 7 or 8 years of his career. He was truly an athlete and a fabulous one at that. With steroids, the Babe just might even have gotten 2,000 homers. Remember, before he came along no one imagined that in one season he could out homer every team in the league!!!

Answer 3

There used to be a rule that if you hit a home run to end a game (walk off homer) you only got credit for however many bases you needed to score the winning run. I think Babe lost one Home run to this. More to the point if he played in modern stadiums he would probably crank out 70-80 home runs a year.