Ohtani vs. Ruth goes beyond stats

We’ve never seen a two-way force like the Angels’ dynamic All-Star

It’s strictly a matter of guesswork. We know all about the statistical treasure chest, but when it comes to comparing Shohei Ohtani to Babe Ruth, we’re running out of first-person accounts. To actually have witnessed Ruth’s most Ohtani-like season, with memories even approaching clarity, one would have to be at least 110 years old.

It’s that “season,” in the singular, that needs proper recognition. There’s a widespread assumption that Ruth was a two-way player at the highest level, pitching and slugging his way to glorious heights over a substantial period of years, but that’s not how it happened.

Ohtani cherishes his gift, nurturing it to preserve its longevity as each season takes on a surreal quality. Ruth’s talents left him confounded, even conflicted, which is why just a single year, 1919, found him notably successful both at the plate and on the mound.

And let’s stop right here to remind everyone that Ohtani hasn’t come close to approaching Ruth’s numbers — and might never do so. As a pitcher, and by the age of 23, Ruth already had led the Boston Red Sox to three championships (1915, ’16 and ’18), compiling a World Series scoreless-inning streak (292⁄3 innings) that stood for 43 years. His best seasons found him going 23-12 with a 1.75 ERA in 1916, then 24-13, 2.01 the following year — and he won some epic duels against Walter Johnson, considered the greatest of all pitchers at that time.

Once he got to New York, in the sparkling Yankee Stadium opening in 1923, Ruth’s 60-homer season (1927) wasn’t even his best. He hit .378 in 1921 with 59 homers, 168 RBIs and a .512 on-base percentage. Two years later, he hit .393 in 699 plate appearances. Go ahead and examine the rest of it, then settle your boggled mind back down with a nice cup of tea.

Was it a different time? Good heavens, yes. People of color were almost exclusively banned, and Ruth never faced the storied Black players of the day. There were only eight teams in the American League, clubs bound by the reserve clause (no free agency) and often doomed to futility. Most teams didn’t need much more than a six-man pitching staff — starters tended to go deep into games, if not completing them — so for Ruth, intimate familiarity was a staple. There were highquality fastballs, curves, changeups and for a very best, screwball-type pitches that broke away from hitters on either side of the plate. But nothing close to today’s preponderance of high velocity and exotic repertoire.

Just know this: Ruth was not Ohtani when he racked up his best numbers. Until May 1918, Ruth had not played a position other than pitcher. Red Sox management wanted him to focus on pitching, a debate that found him nearly quitting the team and, finally getting his way, going five weeks without taking the mound. Over 59 games in the outfield and first base that season, he hit .300 — hardly notable in those days — and although he led the league with 11 homers (it was the deadball era), he didn’t hit one from July 2 on as he played every day.

By 1919, his final year with the Red Sox, the debate was a full-fledged controversy. In July, Ruth returned to pitching on a regular basis for the last time in his career, going 9-5 with a 2.97 ERA and allowing just two home runs in 133 innings. By August, he was pitching only for publicity reasons — while on his way to 29 homers, a record at the time, with 113 RBIs and a .322 average. Such was the prelude to a magical convergence: Ruth’s sale to the Yankees and the arrival of a new, livelier baseball.

There he was, blasting 54 homers (nobody else hit more than 19) and crafting an image of mythical proportions. Ruth had no intention of pitching again, and Yankees manager Miller Huggins made it clear he’d employ him only in the field.

It’s easy to take Ohtani’s performances for granted, given his gentle nature and humility. Ruth was an irreverent, high-living sort whose nasty habits and dietary extravagance made him as fit for burlesque as Cooperstown. In terms of personality and presence, there isn’t a single comparison to be made. The beauty of Ohtani’s twoway career, steady as it goes, is that there is no precedent.

WNBA players deserve better

Sometimes you must take pity on commissioners in the major sports. Beholden to club owners and parroting their selfcentered opinions, they seem to have no mind of their own. Baseball’s Rob Manfred has been so pitifully out of touch when it comes to the A’s relocation plight, you wonder if he’s actually the commissioner of asparagus.

Cathy Engelbert seems like a responsible, likable sort as she runs the

WNBA. But in large part, she represents a bunch of cheapskate owners who have no appreciation for women’s sports.

She can’t possibly believe there’s “no rush” to expand the league, with the Bay Area and many cities so primed for the occasion as attendance and television ratings skyrocket. And she really needs to stop saying it will take $20 million-$25 million, as if that’s an insane amount of money, to fund leaguewide travel on charter flights for an entire season.

Meanwhile, after the very conspicuous Brittney Griner was harassed by a conservative socialmedia provocateur in the Dallas/Fort Worth airport terminal, causing a scene that spread alarm among players around the league, Engelbert spoke only to “beefing up security” for players traveling commercial. The Associated Press sent reporter Doug Feinberg to follow the New York Liberty on their trip from Connecticut to Las Vegas last week, and found it to be a 13-hour saga, hotel to hotel, including two bus rides, two commercial flights and three airports. No wonder the excellent Liberty team got routed by the Aces; it was a matter of oppressive fatigue.

Always ready to speak frankly and forcefully in the face of injustice, the WNBA players are demanding change. Hall of Famer Rebecca Lobo told justwomensports.com that “this league’s going to be great when you get owners with, like, real money. When you get the billionaires willing to spend.”

But with free-spending teams (think New York and Las Vegas) not even allowed to use charter flights this season, “The league needs to take travel off their plate and give it to the teams,” Teri Jackson, executive director of the WNBA Players Association, told ESPN. “Let’s not let ‘competitive disadvantage’ hold us back from what we need to do.”

In the meantime, stop dancing around the obvious and reach out for assistance with that $20 million-$25 million. You don’t think some of those adoring NBA players wouldn’t be willing to aid the cause? Where’s the NBA, so apparently supportive of the women’s game, with a helping hand? Oh, wait, the NBA is busy offering $500,000 to each player on the winning team in the ludicrous “in-season tournament” coming this winter.

Forget establishing a “sustainable model” for an all-charter arrangement, as Englebert says. Get that money any way you can. From that point on, it will be a pretty clear decision for clueless owners: Get on board with charters or get out of the business.