Babe Ruth: Great Hitter – and Pitcher
Picture credits: OOTP Developments
If he had never hit a home run, Babe Ruth would have made it to the Hall of Fame as a left-handed pitcher.
That’s how he started at St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys in Baltimore, It’s why the minor league Baltimore Orioles signed him and in 1914 sold him to the Boston Red Sox.
As a 20-year-old rookie in 1915, he won 18 games, then won 60 in the next three years before he was converted to a full-time outfielder/part-time pitcher because of his bat.
In the 1916 and 1918 World Series he was 3-0.
Sold to the Yankees in 1920, he became a fulltime outfielder. He made one appearance on the mound in 1920 and two in 1921, winning them all.
First-hand accounts of Ruth’s pitching are rare. George Burns was an American League first baseman 1914-1929, a left-handed lifetime .307 hitter. Baseball researcher Marshall Smelser once asked him to describe Ruth as a pitcher. This was his reply.
George Burns
The Babe was great.
He used a three-quarters delivery. Babe had just the ability that a great pitcher needs: the will to win. He was mostly a fast ball pitcher. His most effective pitch was his fast ball, although he had a very good curve. He never threw a spitball, a knuckleball, fork ball or palm ball. He didn’t need any of those.
He was as strong in late innings as in early innings. He could pitch all day. And he could field his position well. He didn’t need to throw at a hitter. The same as Walter Johnson of Washington.
In a World Series, the Babe would be my second pitcher, Walter Johnson my first. That’s all I would need in a 4 out of 7 series; they could pitch every other day.
Ruth pitched occasionally for the Yankees in his later years, more for old times’ sake than anything else. And he won every one of those starts. His last appearance on the mound was on Sunday, October 1, 1933, the last day of the season. He was 38. He went the distance, won, 6-5 – fittingly on his own home run.
In all the year Ruth pitched he never had a losing record. His final pitching record was 94-46 with a 2.28 ERA. His 9 shutouts in 1916 is still the AL record for southpaws.
