Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time
Actually, apart from the meaning of the word "great," this is a settled matter. The answer, of course, is George Herman Ruth. There has never been, nor with there ever be, an athletic figure of greater impact, fame and reputation than the Babe. He saved baseball after the Black Sox scandal and revolutionized it with his home runs (yes, the lively ball was part of it). There were times in his career when Ruth had more homers than whole teams. Very soon after arriving in New York, Babe broke the then career record for homers. For years afterward, until the day he retired, every Ruth homer was a major league record. He hit an astonishing 54 homers in his first year with the Yankees (1920) then came back the next year with 59, and probably the greatest season in baseball history. For cripes' sake, they built a stadium for him. Those old newsreels of him mincing around the bases don't convey his true greatness or athleticism. His lifetime BA was .342. He once stole home in a World Series game.
Plus, he had that great personality. Always willing to oblige the newsreels with some stunt or another. A big, fun loving kid, who adored being in the spot light, never took himself too seriously, and loved a good laugh, even if the laugh was at his expense. And that face. Somebody once said he looked like a well broken in catcher's mitt.
And let's not forget Ruth for a time was also the best left handed pitcher in baseball, with nearly 100 victories (94-45 2.28 ERA), and World Series pitching records it took Whitey Ford to break. Whenever someone gets close to Ruth's homer total, it's fair to ask two questions: How good is your curveball? And how many more dingers would he have had if he hadn't spent several seasons as a pitcher? Another 100? 150? Certainly more than 714.
As Bonds approched and then surpassed Ruth and Aaron we learned that because of his use of "the clear" his hat size and shoe size both increased. The only drug Henry and the Babe used was Budweiser. There is no place in the world you can go where Babe Ruth is not known and he hasn't played a game in about 75 years. The Curtis candy company, all these decades later, keeps up the pretense that their Baby Ruth candy bar was named after Grover Cleveland's daughter, or dog, or something. Yeah, right.
Ruth was truly a man ahead of his time. He ordered his mail answering service to discard any mail that didn't have money (or offers of money) in it or wasn't from a "broad." He installed his wife on a farm in upstate New York, while he occupied an 11-room suite in the Ansonia Hotel, and drove around in a monogrammed car. The guy was living way large. In the history of sport in America, it's doubtful any figure enjoyed life and lived life the way the Babe did. Joe Dugan got off the memorable line, he said "I don't room with Babe Ruth, I room with Babe Ruth's suitcase." Remember, no night games in those days, his evenings were always free!
On a syndicated TV series, Ted Williams once rated Ruth the greatest player who ever lived. That's good enough for me, since Ted was the greatest modern hitter. Sure the game has changed, set up men, closers, night games, conditioning, better gloves and all the rest. But just look at Ruth's career numbers (and don't lose sight of those years he spent on the mound) and he's easily number one. And that's quite apart from his unique star status. We didn't have Sports Center in those days, but how often do you suppose they'd lead their coverage with something he did? We have so much more sport these days than in Ruth's day, even so it's possible his reputation would be even bigger. I think the only modern figure who comes close to Ruth in the public's mind is Muhammad Ali. And Ali had way more media than newspapers, news reels and infant radio to get the word out.
Babe Ruth is the el numero uno towering figure of American sport. No one even comes close. Is he the greatest athlete? As I said in the opening, it depends in part on your definition of "athlete," and probably, "great." So if the question is altered just a bit to "greatest American sports icon, or legend or figure." then the Bambino is the man. Period.
