Should Babe Ruth be credited with more home runs?

Question

If Barry Bonds can hit more homers with steroids, couldn't Babe Ruth have hit more homers if he didn't drink as much as he did (performance decreasing activity)?

I think Babe Ruth should be creditied with 100 more homers to compensate while Bonds should lose 100 homers.

Answer 1

I think that's fair.

But we'll have to deduct home runs from Ruth cause he never faced black or latin or japanese or korean or whatever type pitchers. Also, he faced the same pitcher for 3 or 4 at bats a game, while Bonds had specialty pitchers brought in just to face him. You know the lefty vs lefty and righty vs righty stuff.

Plus, Babe didn't have to travel cross country, or play night games where the ball doesn't fly as well. So we'll give him 100 homeruns cause of his drinking, but we'll subtract 100 for the stuff I mentioned, so he finishes with, ah, we'll say 714...sounds good.

Answer 2

How can you credit or discredit someone's home runs? You can't. There is no way for sure to tell if Babe Ruth would have hit 100 more home runs. That's like saying Kerry Wood should be credited with 30 more wins because he was hurt for a long time or something just as unrealistic, it's just not plausible. I do agree with you that there is a major difference in the types of players in the game now then from back in the day. Players are bigger and stronger and most ballparks are smaller. What can you do? It's the evolution of the game.

Answer 3

If one wants to argue that alcohol constrains a player from performing to his best, Ruth is NOT the example to cite. Even if he was falling-down drunk every game (and he was not), he's still The Best Player In History, and that's not the sort of achievement that indicates he was playing below his abilities.

Similarly with LSD -- given the one established example of a player playing a game while high resulted in a no-hitter, there is no empirical evidence to support that LSD inhibits baseball performance.

Answer 4

Ruth playing drunk is just a testament to his talent. It’s a shame today’s players aren’t up to the challenge of playing with that kind of a handicap.

Answer 5

Didn't David Wells admit that he was drunk when he threw his perfect game? I guess by your logic he should be credited with 10 perfect games to compensate what he would have done if he hadn't drank so much.

Answer 6

well if your gonna do that you better add 300 to mantles, take away 100 from aaron (he used ampethamines), and add 100 to all the players who had to quit early due to illness, injury or death. cmon man you hit as many as you hit thats it!! rules change, parks change, players change, and its there own choice if they choose to not take care of themselves.

Answer 7

I wish we could. But the only thing we can hope for right now is to wait for A-Rod to go for the record.

Answer 8

Makes no sense whatsoever & i like ruth.

Answer 9

Babe Ruth should have an asterisk by his name based on the fact that he didn't play against African Americans. I think all baseball records prior to blacks being allowed to play should have an asterisk by them because perhaps they were not playing against the best. At the end of the day this home run chase comes down to the fact that another black man is achieving something. Most of you hang Aaron up as if he is your hero now, when you only do that as a way of masking your hatred for blacks. It's always about race white people. At least blacks can admit it's about race, whereas white will choke on denial. I root for Bonds because white people root against him. Outside of that I could personally care less about home runs

Answer 10

I have seen some very idiotic suggestions on this site. But this one tops them all.