The most passionate argument in all of sports has to be, Who is the greatest baseball player of all time? However, 9 out of 10 times, no matter how low brow or high brow the analysis, The Fat Man always comes out on top. I would pick the Babe as the greatest ever for 4 reasons: 1) Had he not went into the outfield, he was on track for being a Hall of Fame caliber picture. He still has one of the best winning percentages for a pitcher (.671) and one of the lowest ERAs (0.87) in World Series play. 2) The magnitude of his batting statistics, while still awesome today, were beyond comprehension in his day. I won't list them all; but I will mention that he still holds the all-time record for Runs scored in a season (post-1900 era), with 177 in 1921. 3) Wherever he went, teams won. He garnered 3 World Series Titles with Boston and 4 more with the Yankees (who never even went to a Fall Classic until Ruth's arrival). Ruth, of course, factored in many of these victories. 4) His combination of athleticism and off-field antics has made him something of a mythological hero. The Called Shot, his alledged ability to party all night and go out and hit 3 homers the next morning, his nicknames like Bambino and Sultan of Swat, and the fact that they even coined a word after him, Ruthian (for prodigious), are examples of how an ordinary ballplayer achieves legend status. The only knock I got on him is that he played in an era where there were no Black ballplayers, but that was not within his control. Barry Bonds presents a chllenge to Ruth's hold as the greatest ballplayer ever. But how many Series' rings does Bonds have. Ruth is the Greatest of All Time and All Sports

The best ever.. nuff said.

One of the top 3

Babe Ruth played baseball like he lived his life with loud, gaudy, entertaining gusto. There was nothing subtle about the happy-go-lucky. Sultan of Swat, who paraded through his career, forged an enduring relationship with adoring fans and then withstood the test of time as the greatest power hitter in baseball history. Ruth's legendary homerun totals - 714 in his career, 60 in 1927 - are no longer records, but they still stand as milestone numbers by which all power hitters are judged. His legendary carousing still enhances the irascible image that colors his aura. More than anything, the the magnetic Ruth is hailed as the savior of the game, the man who ushered in the longball era revitalized baseball when it was mired in the bog of 1919 Black Sox scandel. The Babe, a former Baltimore orphan, actually started his career as a 6-foot-2 lefthanded pitcher who carved out a 94-46 regular-season record and a 3-0 Wolrd Series mark for the Boston Redox from 1914 - 1919. But the real Ruth emerged in 1919 with a major league-record 29 homers abd soared to a mind-boggling total of 54 in 1920, his first season as a full-time right fielder with the New York Yankees. Ruth became a New York icon and a New York legend. He powered his way through the roaring 20's and the Great Depression, posting shocking homer totals of 59 (1921) 60 (1927) abd 54 (1928) while leading the Yankees to four World Series championships and anchoring one of the most devastating lineups in history. Lost in the fog of Ruth's 12 American League homerun titles, 13 slugging championships, four 50 homer seasons ans six RBI titles, and a average of .342 which ranks 10th all time. In 1935 Ruth was traded to the Boston Braves where he hit only 6 homeruns and an average of .181. Bbae Ruth will be remembered for a great New York Yankee hitter and a great Boston Redsox pitcher. Babe Ruth was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 1936 with a percent of vote of 95.1. The New York Yankees retired Babe Ruth's number 3 in 1936. Babe Ruth: Boston Redsox:1914 - 1919, New York Yankees: 1920 - 1934, Boston Braves: 1935.

Maybe he'd havea tough time today with a longer season , relief pitchers, etc.. But so what. The Babe remains the greatest combination of player and personality.

the father of baseball!

Larger than life

i hate him no affence babe but the sport sucs( and so do u )

The Babe may have lost a lot of his records in recent history, but he's still the greatest lifetime slugger to ever play the game. ie.-Ted Williams is arguably the greatest hitter baseball has ever produced. However, his lifetime slugging% of .634 finishes 8.1% below the Babe's .690!!! Now, that's a record that'll never be broken!

THe Sultan of Swat Rules!!!!!!!

Lowest World Series ERA All-Time! Oh yea, the home runs too.

Best of all-time. Just look and the numbers 11 seasons he hit 40+ homeruns, 13 100+ rbi seasons, 3 season with 200+ hits. He even stole over 100 bases, hit over 500 doubles, 136 triples, and let's not forget his unbelievable 714 career homeruns. So with a .342 lifetime batting average and a 2 time 20 game winner as a pitcher, Babe Ruth should certainly at least be considered for the greatest player in baseball history.

sry, got to do it for mr.cobb

Although he doesn't get my vote for the greatest, he's certainly up there. He was one of the 2 greatest hitters of all time, both in average and power. He was also much like Barry Bonds today, striking so much fear into pitchers that it would help the entire lineup. He was also the best young pitcher in the league when he was a Red Sock. My only knock on him was that he wasn't a 5-tool player, but full 5-toolers are pretty rare. Hitters, and pitchers, of Ruth's caliber are even rarer. The greats change the game, and Ruth ushered in the modern power era. When he hit 60 home runs in 1927 that was more than any other TEAM combined.

Overrated Fat*** Sexist

I appoligise for my earlier post. PBeaver told me his stats, and he deffinately is a legand. However, I also cant give him a 5.... Its just because I truely belive that Ted Willams should have the best baseball player ever title. Back in the days Babe played, it was easier to get into the Big leauges, than when other greats where in, so baseball was easyer. Hell, my grandfather made it into the minor leauge system of the yankees at the time of DiMagio! Plus, like someone pointed out earlyer, he would get drunk and stuff like that. If you look at Ted Williams, he has had SO much success, on top of the fact that there were more people that were stars! take today for example. Bonds, Sosa, Gonzalaz, and others, who are just starting to show their stuff. Going back to what I said about the majors not being developed when Ruth played. Before Ruth hit any single season home run statistics, the record was 27,set in the year 1884, wich was about 40 years before the Babe.

The best all around player in history,a great pitcher and batter a legend.He like Jim Brown is more than his numbers .He is the gold standard to be judged by period.

He is baseball's best all around player ever,he hit above 700 career homers and had a 20 win season as a pitcher.Need I say more

The Babe playing today? .310 (plus or minus), 30-35 homers/year (about 450 for his career, TOPS). An historical aberration--could NOT duplicate numbers in today's era.

I'm not the biggest fan of Ruth, but he is the flesh-and-blood incarnation of baseball.

The Best ever. Had more homeruns than entire teams. As a pitcher, he had an ERA under 3. Led the league in walks, RBIs and HRs. Had an average over 330. There will never be another player like him. He coined a phrase. When it's huge, we call it "Ruthian".

He's a awesome baseball player... but damn him! I'm starting to believe that his curse is working. The Red Sox have some of the best players... I dont know what thier problem is.

By far the greatest ballplayer of all time, no questions asked!!! People today don't realize the impact he had on the game. The way the game is played changes over time so the best way to compare players from different eras is to compare their surroundings. This sums it up--check the record books: In his 2 best home run seasons, he hit more homers than the total number of homers hit by any one team! Love ya Barry Bonds, but before I can compare you to Ruth, you need to out slug all the other teams in the league which is in the area of 150 to 200 homers.

No contest. .342 lifetime B.A. 714 HRs after spending his 1st 5 years as a PITCHER in Boston. Has the 15th best ERA ever for a pitcher with more than 100 decisions and still holds the World Series record for scoreless innings. He also stole bases early in his career. No doubt, the best ever.

okay, lets talk about ruth being good just in his day supposedly. yes, there are pitches today that ruth didnt have to swing at. ruth also had to put up with pitches that were later deemed illegal, so that ends that argument. fat?! he holds the post 1900 record for most runs scored by a player with 177, and most seasons of scoring 150+ runs. oh yeah, he also led the yanks in stolen bases a couple of times. the man drew over 2000 walks, he had incredible patience. however, if a run was needed, he would expand his strike zone. proof of this: he was the single season rbi king in 1921. lets see: a .342 avg is excellent, but, batting avg is overrated. the more importants stats are on-base% and slugging avg. ruth has a .471 career on-base%, 2nd only to ted williams(.483), and he blows away ted williams in slugging with a staggering .690 slugging%, ted's was second, at .623. in the world series, he dominated, having 2- 3hr games. his batting avg is very impressive as well. his .847 slugging avg has since been surpassed by Barry Bonds, but who cares, ruth dominated 1921 much more than bonds did 2001, and bonds had all the advantages, like steroids, creatine, smaller ballparks, the juiced ball, watered down pitching, not to mention that he's exempted from a rule limiting size of elbow braces, so he can crowd the plate all he wants. and, bonds had company in 2001, with sosa at 64, luis at 57, and arod at 52. bonds to ruth? no way, never. ruth won 20+ games in consecutive seasons, and had seasons of pitching over 300 innings, his career era was around 2.00. one more thing about him to bonds, bonds has the better bat technology, and, uses a kid-sized 31 ounce bat. ruth used an enormous 44 ounce bat, no comparison. one more little thing....babe ruth saved baseball from the 1919 betting scandal. if it werent for him, there would likely be no mlb today. BABE RUTH.....GREATEST BALLPLAYER OF ALL TIME!!!!!

One of the premiere ballplayers ever to play the game, only Hank Aaron is better, all around. Ruth could hit for power and average. He was a team leader and fantastically fun spokesman/figurehead for the game as it became the national past-time! not only that, but he could pitch and eat, like a workhorse. In this age of men dressing like women and crying over their clothes and shoes, we could use more of us like Babe Ruth!

Blaqpower WHY are you so angry? Babe Ruth played in a long gone by era and YES you idiot he was one of the best in his day. Comparing him to later players in later times is like saying typewriters are less helpful in the office than a personal computer - Well, NO DUH! But in their day they sure beat writing everything by hand. Get a grip on your biggotry and experience reality why don't you.

of all time greatest athlete of the century

He is probably the greatest all-around player to ever live. It is so unknown that he was a great hitter for average, too. He had a .393 average one year! He was a masterful pitcher and obviously hit 714 homers in his illustrious career. The legends surrounding this icon are many: the called shot, the infield homerun, etc. I couldn't possibly have said my comment any better than potch1214, right on brother!

HERE'S a challenge... Give me fact, not opinions, not judgements on weight or character, facts or stats that explain how Babe Ruth sucked. GIVE ME ANY STATS THAT SAID GEORGE HERMAN "BABE" RUTH SUCKED... COME ON... YOU CAN'T!!! Ruth was the most dominat player EVER. EVER!!! Rating Ruth any less than a 5 star player is like saying the Yankees suck. It's merely an opinion or emotion unsubstantiated by mere fact. It's like saying Bill Gates is a horrible business man because he's a scrawny, four-eyed geek. It's an idea that can not be credibly backed up. Ruth was the most dominat sports figure of all time, in any sport! Period! No one revolutionized a sport, or dominated both ends of it the way this man did. To simply say he was "a homer or an out" is simply proving your own lack of knowledge about Ruth. The man was a power hitting machine, sure, but one with a .325 lifetime average. If you took his 1927 season (where he batted a paltry .356) and took away all of his hits except his homers, his homer avg. would be .111. This suggests he JUST MIGHT have done more than hit homers. Oh, and his OBP that year was .476. Take his homer out of that and it would be .365, which oddly enough, most players these days would kill for. So any of you giving Ruth his deserved 5 stars, right on. Anyone giving him anything less than 5 stars has their heads firmly up their keisters.

Great player. Yes. Great person. From what I heard: no, but I personally didn't know him, so I can't judge him on that. He made baseball into what it is today. He was the best all-around player (in terms of pitching and hiting goes). He lived in a baseball society that if you hit 30 home runs, you were like a king. He was hitting 50 every season, imagine how he was treated! Every pitcher feared the Babe. If he had not pitched in his career, maybe he would have 800 home runs! Yes, maybe he showed off and would taunt the opposing pitcher, but who doesn't? When Sammy Soso hits one out, he does that leap thing. When Ken Griffey Jr. hits one he stares at the ball for a while, trots around the bases and has that look like he expects the pitcher to fear him. They are fan favorites in the league. He's slow? So is McGwire (think I spelled it wrong!) but he is loved by so many. For some of you, stop trying to dis the greatest ever, but respect him as he shaped out what is know as: BASEBALL.

so what he was a homerun king for a while. he was fat and i doubt he would be considered great in todays game.

THE GREASTEST PLAYER OF ALL-TIME. Besides the home run single season and career records (that were later broken), look at the other records he set that are still standing today: 1. Babe Ruth was one of only two people (Reggie Jackson being the other) to ever hit three home runs in a World Series game and is the only one to do it twice (1926 & 1928); 2. Babe Ruth is ranked first among outfielders with the highest average home runs per at-bat; 3. Babe Ruth holds the record for the longest complete game victory in World Series history. In 1916, as a member of the Boston Red Sox, Ruth went 14 innings to defeat the Brooklyn Dodgers; 4. Babe Ruth led the American League in home runs 12 times and has the most base on balls with 2,056; 5. In 1920, Ruth established a still-standing mark with his .847 slugging average. He followed that with the second-highest mark ever (.846) in 1921; 6. When Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs in 1927, he hit 14% of all home runs in his league that year. For a player to hit 14% of all home runs today, he would have to hit over 300 home runs in one season; 7. From 1915-17, Ruth won 65 games, more than any other southpaw in the majors; and 8. After the Red Sox sold him to the Yankees, Ruth single-handedly outhomered the entire Boston team in 10 of the next 12 seasons. These are just a few of the records Babe holds. Babe Ruth deserves more than a 5-star rating. . .a million stars would start to reflect on how great he truly was.

The "Babe Ruth" of Baseball. Enough said. .....

The all time greatest sports figure. He did more for baseball on & off the field than anybody else ever did.

And what about the curse of the bambino? Ask anybody in Boston what happens when you "sell" the best player to ever play the game...

wow! He could hit for average, for power-he was hitting 60 home runs when most teams would be led by twenty. He could draw walks and before he was a hitter, he was the best pitcher in the league. far and away the best player of all-time

The fat bastard beat his wife, got drunk, bet on baseball and had no i repeat no table manners.

Babe Ruth was the best EVER!

Babe Ruth is the greatest of all-time.

ruth is the most important star in sports history .he saved a major sport from a disaster and for two decades was the big banana in all spectator sports.

Babe Ruth did just as much for American society as he did baseball. He was a true All-American hero.

All these players are Hall of Fame material thus everyone warrants ratings of at least 3.

He's over-rated.

Ruth deserves a three. He was good for his time. He was overweight however, he either hit a bomb, or got thrown out. A true athlete will never weigh as much as the babe. An athlete is someone who can throw, RUN, hit, jump, punch, slap, whatever....the babe was not an athletic person. He was just a talented ball player.

George Herman Ruth - The Sultan of Swat, The Bambino . . .if he were President, he would've been Babraham Lincoln . . .if he were the son of a President, he would've had a candy bar named after him . . .if he were in the movie, The Natural, he would've been called Whammer - oh, he was.

He was the first superstar athlete and is still the greatest baseball player of all time. If he had stayed a pitcher, he would have been one of the best. Instead, he changed the way the game was played. Babe Ruth is one of the few athletes who transcended sports.

The reason Ruth is a 5 is the fact that he hit 714 HR's and hit .328 for his career along with being an unbelievaable pitcher.

Anyone who says that anyone other than Ruth is the best player ever is a moron. A dominant pitcher before he even came to the Yankees and his hitting far outmatched anyone in his era. If you don't give him a 5-- than you cannot give anyone a five!!!

THE BABE. The Best!