Daniel Booth37 said:His impact on baseball was massive, but honestly, where does he rank in terms of pure athletic physicality? Baseball was such a slow game back then, and Ruth himself was pretty chunky. It feels a bit silly to compare him to athletes who are out there pushing the absolute limits of human potential. He’s an icon of American sports history, plain and simple.
Only someone who's never actually picked up a bat and tried to hit a ball would say this. I don't know if there's any sport that demands more hand-eye coordination, insane speed, and quick reflexes. In baseball, you have about 0.3 seconds to judge where a tennis-ball-sized projectile is headed and actually swing at it. If you haven't tried it, you have no clue how hard that is—not to mention the mental toughness needed to face a rock-hard ball flying at you over 90 mph.
Even though you see some big guys playing (for the record, Ruth was incredibly mobile for a guy his size and was actually pretty muscular, which shows in his stats), baseball is physically and mentally brutal. I mean, I'm pretty sure almost everyone on this forum could sink an NBA three-pointer out of 100 tries or nail a penalty kick against a pro goalie, but very few people could even manage a single against an average MLB pitcher.
It really bugs me when people try to downplay certain sports just because there isn't a sport where you can reach elite levels without blood, sweat, and massive talent. As for Ruth's standing in baseball itself, the only real critique is that he didn't play against Black or Hispanic players, but even taking that into account, the guy is easily one of the top three players to ever play the game.
