re: Marlins announce Ali has died

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How the frick did ruth change how baseball was played? In an era wasn't segregated...you rally don't have a clue.

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You should learn your history

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Babe, who walked a major-league leading 138 times, hit his 60 homers in 540 at-bats, a rate of one homer every nine at-bats. His 60 homers were more than any of the other seven American League teams hit that season. He drove in 164 runs, second in the majors to teammate Lou Gehrig, who had 175 RBI and 47 homers.

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Ruth's slugging changed the sport in substantive ways. Eager to cash in on the popularity of his power hitting, the owners created the lively ball and outlawed the spitball and other trick pitches in 1921. As a result, league batting averages jumped 35 points, and runs scored increased from about 9,000 a year in the 1910s to almost 12,000 in the 1920s

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In 1921, Ruth broke Roger Connor's career record of 136 round-trippers - in only his third full season as an outfielder. When he reached 700 homers in 1934, only two other players had as many as 300. When he retired in 1935 with 714, he had more than twice as many as anybody.

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Perhaps most impressive, Ruth altered the salary structure of the game - via a trickle-down effect. His highest salary was $80,000 annually in 1930 and 1931. He suffered a $5,000 pay cut in 1932 despite hitting .373, leading the majors with a .700 slugging percentage, tying for the lead in homers with 46 and knocking in 163 runs in 1931.

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When Babe stopped playing, the new king of paychecks was Gehrig, who was making $30,000. Nevertheless, Ruth's salaries, as gargantuan as his home runs, helped jack up major-league wages across the board, so much so that teammate Waite Hoyt said years later, "Every big leaguer and his wife should teach their children to pray, 'God bless Mommy, God bless Daddy, and God bless Babe Ruth.' "

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"As a batter, Ruth is an accident," an article in The Sporting News said. "He never plays inside baseball at the plate. He goes up trying to take a swing on every strike, a style that would cause any other player to be benched. He either knocks home runs or strikes out. Any man who strikes out as many times as Ruth did last year [1921] can never be classified as a great hitter" (Smith, p. 79).

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Others, however, began to find value in what Ruth was doing. Sportswriter Hugh Fullerton speculated that although slugging itself may not lead to wins, "the real baseball is the middle ground, the judicious mixture of real baseball and slugging, with the manager deciding when an how the batters shall hit" (Smith, p. 81). His language suggests a shift in "real" baseball strategy from pure science to a mixture of science and strength. Slugging was becoming a legitimate tactic rather than an aberration.

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Ruth’s impact on the game of baseball can be best summarized by a passage from a 1921 Baseball Magazine article entitled "The Home Run Epidemic": "Babe has not only smashed all records, he has smashed the long-accepted system of things in the batting world and on the ruins of the system has erected another system or rather lack of system whose dominant quality is brute force" (Smith, p. 79). With one mighty swing of his bat, Babe Ruth changed the way baseball was played. Cobb could only shake his head in disgust as his own star waned. "Given the proper physical equipment—which consists solely in the strength to knock a ball 40 feet farther than the average man can do it—anybody can play big league baseball today," Cobb said. "In other words, science is out the window" (Ward, p. 159).

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Wasn't Bush part of National Guard?

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Replace Bush with Trump or Reagan then if you want.

Ali didn't serve because he had a moral objection to the war itself not out of cowardice or anything-- hell, he had a point it was kind of bullshite to draft people to fight at the same time large parts of the country refused to treat them as equal citizens.

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How would you know? He quit in 81 and was in the decline in the late 70's... so unless you are in your 50's you would have no idea.

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So you are saying someone can't know about space unless they were an astronaut? Or people can't know about Christ unless they were watching him in person 2000 years ago?

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tduecen

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You're making yourself look dumb

Well, you would be wrong again.

Most famous in the 60s was Ali
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Because boxing was not only the highest global sport but at that time being the HWY champ of the world was like being King of the world. Sure Pele was great, but there were other players. In a team sport.

Pele was team. Ali was singular global icon. It's not like it is today....being the Hwy champ was everything.

Ali held the greatest title in world sport that the time ....and if you do not know that, you are posting without knowledge.

10 X more people saw Ali fight than Pele play. You're thinking from the todays standards.

Ali fights were broadcadt worldwide. World cups weren't. They were like this Olympic event, not like a heavyweight for fight...all world involved fight.

Boxing was still king in the world when Ali was champ.

Being the HW champ be meant you were the greatest athlete in the world.

Ali trumped Pele by far...villages in Africa knew Ali, the famous American champion of the world...that's a real title. Unlike nest soccer/football
player.

No, but making such a bold statement means you watching him play. I did not so I can not say he was the best ever. He faced a lot of great boxers and I've seen the highlights but I'm no boxing expert just another person offering commentary on a message board.

Nope but I can read about how Ruth changed baseball, where can I read about how Ali revolutionized boxing?

Google? The same way you read about anything else in the world

But why does he have to "change boxing" for him to be important enough to you in the first place?

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Google? The same way you read about anything else in the world

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No they have several books on the topic as well....

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But why does he have to "change boxing" for him to be important enough to you in the first place?

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Well I said Ruth changed the sport and Ali did not and then you started on this crusade. So what did Ali do that was so great for boxing? Because he refused to fight for blacks? I mean it didn't really affect how Joe Louis is viewed among the boxing community.

He was a great boxer, however, that was it.

If Tyson were to die tomorrow does he have the same reaction? What about Foreman?