I go with Babe Ruth since he never struck out over a 100 times in a season and was a .342 hitter with amazing power.
2007-07-02 06:05:15 · 25 answers · asked by Dodgerblue 5 in Sports ➔ Baseball
You have to take many things into account...
First Ill say that when it comes to Power, Babe Ruth was no doubt the best Power hitter to ever live.
Ruth hit 714 HRs, Aaron hit 755 HR's but you gotta think about 3 things. Babe Ruth played in about 5 less seasons that Aaron did. In the days of Babe Ruth, the amount of games per season were about 40 games less than what there were in Aaron's time. Also, in Ruths time, the outfield walls were 50-60 farther than the outfield walls were in Aarons time. When Yankee Stadium first opened, Center Field was 459 Feet and it stay at that distance throughout Ruths career.
When it comes to overall hitting, it is hard to choose.
Here is the number of games played followed by At Bats for them all...
Aaron - 3298...12,364
Cobb - 3035...11,429
Ruth - 2503...8,399
Williams - 2292...7,706
DiMaggio - 1736...6,821
When it comes to Batting Average, Cobb leads them all by far with a .367 BA. Williams and Ruth are close, .344 BA and .342 BA respectively. Next is DiMaggio at .325 and then there is a big drop off to Aaron at .305.
Although Aaron had the most HR's overall, Ruth was the best HR hitter based on HR per AB.
Ruth hit a HR 1 every 11.7 AB
Williams - 1 every 14.7 AB
Aaron - 1 every 16.3 AB
DiMaggio - 1 every 18.8 AB
Cobb - 1 every 97.6 AB
When it comes to Run scoring, Ruth leads that catagory
Ruth scored a Run 1 every 1.15 games.
DiMaggio - 1 every 1.24 games
Williams - 1 every 1.27 games
Cobb - 1 every 1.35 games
Aaron - 1 every 1.51 games
When it comes to Hits per AB
Cobb had 1 hit every 2.72 AB
Williams - 1 every 2.90 AB
Ruth - 1 every 2.92 AB
DiMaggio - 1 every 3.08 AB
Aaron - 1 every 3.27 AB
DiMaggio leads barely in RBI with 1 RBI every 1.12 games
Ruth - 1 every 1.13 games
Williams - 1 every 1.24 games
Aaron - 1 every 1.43 games
Cobb - 1 every 1.56 games
When it comes to BB's (Walks), Williams leads
Williams had 1 walk every 3.81 AB
Ruth - 1 every 4.07 AB
DiMaggio - 1 every 8.63 AB
Aaron - 1 every 8.81 AB
Cobb - 1 every 9.15 AB
Ruth leads by a fairly large margin in Slugging with a .690%
Williams - .634%
DiMaggio - .579%
Aaron - .555%
Cobb - .513%
Williams leads in On Base Percentage with .482%
Ruth - .469%
Cobb - .424%
DiMaggio - .398%
Aaron - .374%
Of the 8 Major Stat Catagories listed, here is the break down...
Ruth - 1st place (3)
Williams - !st place (2)
Cobb - 1st place (2)
DiMaggio - 1st place (1)
Aaron - 1st place (0)
Since Ruth was basically the same as DiMaggio in the RBI catagory, you can, if you want, call Ruth as a tie for 1st place.
The break down would then look like so...
Ruth - 1st place (4) (1 tie)
Williams - !st place (2)
Cobb - 1st place (2)
DiMaggio - 1st place (1) (1 tie)
Aaron - 1st place (0)
So if you go according to statistics, Babe Ruth would be the overall best player/hitter to ever play the game.
People say that Williams missed some 'prime' years because of Wars, well he did but when it comes to the numbers, the numbers are numbers. Numbers dont care how much or little some one played, they just show how good someone played and how good some one is.
So stat wise - Babe Ruth is the best over player/hitter in MLB history (thats not even taking into account his pitching statistics), and my personal oppinion happens to agree.
2007-07-02 08:44:55 · answer #1 · answered by broncosbucs77 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
As so many have said before me this boils down to Teddy Ballgame vs. The Bambino.
Since you specifically asked "In their prime who ...", my intent was to look at just the best years of each batter.
Here is the Babe's prime.
Age - Yr - BA - OBP - SLG - OPS (=OBP+SLG)
25 - 1920 - .376 - .533 - .849 - 1.382
26 - 1921 - .378 - .512 - .846 - 1.358
27 - 1922 - .315 - .434 - .672 - 1.106
28 - 1923 - .393 - .545 - .764 - 1.309
29 - 1924 - .378 - .513 - .739 - 1.252
And here is Ted's
Age - Yr - BA - OBP - SLG - OPS (=OBP+SLG)
22 - 1941 - .406 - .553 - .735 - 1.288
23 - 1942 - .356 - .499 - .648 - 1.147
27 - 1946 - .342 - .497 - .667 - 1.164
28 - 1947 - .343 - .499 - .634 - 1.133
Upon first glance it looks like the Babe takes it.
But a second look shows the two best years of the Babe's prime (at age 25 and 26) and what's missing from Ted.
His prime (24 to 26) was spent as a pilot in the air force.
There is another time element here too. When the Babe started playing, baseball was not really a popular sport. Believe it or not, indoor cycling was bigger (due to gambling). The Babe's awesome power and huge personally drew crowds the sport had never seen before. He was the first true Mega-Star.
With the growth of the game came more money. And more money made a baseball career a viable option to many kids that would never have considered it otherwise. This was exactly the situation with the DiMaggio brothers. Their dad thought they were nuts but when he heard how much his sons could earn, he was all for it.
Sadly for hitters this meant improved athletes on the mound as well. And I do believe that, in general, Ted and Joe faced a tougher brand of pitcher.
2007-07-02 22:24:40 · answer #2 · answered by harmonv 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Babe Ruth is the greatest hitter in baseball history. He's also the greatest player in baseball history. Not only was he an innovator of his era, but he was absolutely one hell of a pitcher. Before being traded from Boston, Ruth pitched the Red Sox to their last World Series championship.
Babe Ruth had a 94-46 record as a pitcher, with a 2.27 ERA and 107 career complete games. In 1917, Ruth won 24 games as a pitcher, recording 35 complete games.
His career slugging percentage is .690, which is best in baseball history. Ruth is 2nd all-time in RBIs, 3rd all-time in homeruns, and was the first player to hit 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 homeruns in a season.
Ted Williams might be the best pure-hitter, in terms of his ability to get a base hit with the game on the line. But he and Ruth had essentially the same career batting average (.344 to .342). And hats off to Ty Cobb, who hit .357 at the age of 41. But when you combine the three elements of hitting -- power, average, and driving in runs, nobody beats the Babe.
He wasn't the Sultan of Swat for nothing.
2007-07-02 17:29:41 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Of course there is no right or wrong answer to a question like this. When you take five of the greatest players of all time and ask to identify the best you will get answers all over the board. It would be hard for any of us to judge players like Cobb or Ruth because the game was so much different then. If you are just talking about hitting I would have to go with Ted Williams. There are still many former players alive today that say Williams is the best ever, and who are we to argue with them with Williams hitting 344 career and 521 homeruns, and that is with time out for military service in his prime. We all hear stories about the percentage of time he hit line drives and the fact that he never had more than 64 strikeouts in a single season and averaged less than 7% strikeouts per plate appearence, unbelievable when compared to today's standards. Well, there you have it, my selection and reason for it.
2007-07-02 06:24:36 · answer #4 · answered by Frizzer 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I would say Babe Ruth. He was hitting all those home runs in the dead ball era, as well as hitting about a .350 clip. He created standards that baseball players 50 to 60 years where chasing. Stats from the other hall of famers are great the only one close to Ruth would be Cobb, but he didnt have the power of Ruth or the luxury of having Lou Gehrig hitting after him like Ruth did for all those years.
2007-07-02 06:46:18 · answer #5 · answered by rikfreese 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Ted Williams. you said best HITTER. he by far doesn't have the most power but man he could hit anything. if he hadn't lost so much time for fighting in wars serving his country he could easily hold many more records than he already does.
and your thing about Babe never striking out over 100 times in a season is partially because he didn't play in as many games as teams do now or in the last half century for that matter.
2007-07-02 06:41:04 · answer #6 · answered by foooooood 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Ted Williams....he is a legendary hitter to this day, and he missed out on 5 prime years do to WWII! He's the last guy to hit over .400, and he was a power hitter as well.
The Babe was the best all around player ever as a pitcher and hitter, but for pure hitting you have to go with Williams......and i'm a die hard yankee fan :)
2007-07-02 06:08:36 · answer #7 · answered by Jon 2 · 3⤊ 1⤋
It is hard to say since all that I have ever seen from these players are stats. Not many of us were around to see them all play. From what I have heard from my older relatives and older baseball players, pretty much everyone has said that Ted Williams was the best hitter ever. He missed several years in his prime to serve our country. If you add in an average season into those, his stats are even more impressive.
I will say that I think Babe is the best player ever though since he was an awesome pitcher for several years.
2007-07-02 06:12:29 · answer #8 · answered by Frank P 3 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Ted Williams. Last one over .400. Served in WW2 and Korea during his prime. He doesnt have the big time numbers or the ring but he was still the best hitter ever.
2007-07-02 06:10:58 · answer #9 · answered by MyNameAShadi 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
ty cobb could put the ball anywhere. remember he played at the height of the dead ball era, when placing the ball was really tough. there wasn't a single pitcher in baseball that he didn't own, left or right handed. his swing wasn't even that fast, but his hand eye coordination is considered second only to ted williams in the history of baseball.
2007-07-02 06:16:06 · answer #10 · answered by Super G 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋