2012 MLB Regular Season Running Thread

I've always wondered how many Mays would have hit, not only because of the missed time in the military, but if he hadn't played in two homer hellholes like the Polo Grounds and Candlestick Park.

 

Fulton County Stadium was a hitter's park, sure, but Milwaukee County Stadium was a pitcher's park through and through.

 

ya know, speaking of parks, one bad a stadium built for his offensive strengths while the other played his home games in the freakin' polo grounds ... but whatever.

and if you ever had the chance to talk to people who actually watched ruth play, they have/had nothing kid to say about his defense.

 

wow. here are some odd numbers:
mays splits
abs: 5,238 home; 5,643 away
hrs: 335 home; 325 away
ba: .302 home; .301 away

interesting stuff: http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?id=mayswi01&year=Career&t=b

 

ruth hit 25 more road home runs in his career. hmmmm:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?id=ruthba01&year=Career&t=b

 

Old Yankee Stadium had a short porch in right field but absurd depth in center.

 

yeah, i've been with the same woman for 26 years. i'm so ok with admitting what i might have said was a fuck-up.

 

I tend to agree with this. It's as if early 2000s Randy Johnson all of a sudden became a position player and turned into early 2000s Barry Bonds.

There's no more dominant all-around player in baseball history.

Ruth's roly-poly, Fat Elvis "figure" that we tend to think of today really didn't take shape until he was getting into his mid-30s, around 1926 or so.

Before then, he was an incredible physical specimen. Easily the strongest and most athletic ballplayer in the major leagues.

If you look up any pictures of him with the Red Sox or pre-1925 with the Yankees, he looks lean and fit as hell. There's a well-known picture (that I can't seem to find on the Internet now) of him lifting weights with his agent, Christy Walsh, around 1925 and you can see just how muscular he is. Here's a good shot, too:



That's what he looked like for most of his career, especially in his prime. He gained weight later on.

If you watched Ruth in the outfield either very early or very late in his career, you are completely right. He had no idea what he was doing out there at the beginning in Boston and he was out of shape for his final years in New York.

But he was actually quite a good fielder in his prime until, again, he put on a lot of weight in his mid-30s. He was versatile enough that Miller Huggins could switch him and Bob Meusel interchangeably at both corner positions, allowing the Yankees to take advantage of Meusel's powerful arm in left field for home games (back when Yankee Stadium had 457-foot "Death Valley" in left-center) and in right field for road games. Ruth never would have won any Gold Glove awards, but he was no slouch in the outfield.

 

ok buck, you bastard. you got me. the three gentlemen i spoke with all had grown up in NY and retired to arizona. me and one of those guys were on the same saber chat board back in, crap, '96 or '97 when james still had a screen name and would exchange ideas "the common man."

the older gent from ny introduced me to two of his buddies and damn, i almost went and attempted a book on those guys.

but back to you being a bastard, of course: yeah, these cats were old even back in '96 or '97, but that still means they saw ruth late on in his career. the funny thing with these three guys was that one was a yankee fan, one a dodger fan and one was a giant fan. and each saw ruth play in their respective parks. i really wish i would have taken a month to hang with those guys.

 

How about that blown call by the first base ump to end the game? Tex was clearly safe.

 

Wow. That's a pretty clear pic right there. Well, as they say, as long as you have human umpires, you're going to have blown calls.