re: T or F: Babe Ruth Hit longest dinger in MLB history (575 ft)

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By the way, how old are you, 12 ?

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No, I’ve just seen too many times where legends grow over time into pure bullshite.

I just posted a video of actual footage of Mickey Mantle in a homerun derby and you can see his swing and power for yourself. Then compare it to how far batters hit the ball today.

You can try to come up with a tornado of bullshite all you want, but the video doesn’t lie.

I’m not saying Mickey Mantle isn’t a legendary player. I’m saying he’s not some god that can hit the ball further than players today. On the contrary, it’s logical to assume players today have improved since the 50’s, and that’s also backed up by video evidence.

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Neither does this one.

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That game was played at Ebbets Field. It was only 297 feet to right.

And there are no stands in right. It’s simply a fence with a street running directly behind it.

It’s like hitting it into Minute Maid Park’s Crawford Boxes if the Crawford Boxes were only 297 feet.

You are wrong about the former, but are right about the latter. You are severely lacking in baseball facts. One previous poster has already posted a picture of the Babe in his prime. But of course, everything and everybody today is better than any of the great players of previous generations. That is sadly what you propose, which exposes you as a biased, binary thinker.

"Video evidence." Show me those videos. And it is not "logical to assume players are better" because time has passed. I was wrong about one thing though. You can't possibly be 12 years old. You have to be under that age. Even ten year olds have a better grasp of the game of baseball than you do, you little biased lightweight snowflake.

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the athletes of today are so much more physically fit?

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Yes. It isn't a question.

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Don't give me nutrition or modern training or any of those bullshite words. That's just code that, I think everything that is now is the best ever.

And there is no empirical evidence for that on the whole. There are some who are better now...but it's not people who played sports are always empirically worse across the board.

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But of course, everything and everybody today is better than any of the great players of previous generations.

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Babe Ruth played from 1914 to 1935. He started his career over 100 years ago. You better believe players are better now. It’s not even a question.

Let’s look at a couple sports where we can actually measure performance: track and swimming.

100 meter dash record:
1929: Eddie Tolan 10.4 seconds
2009: Usain Bolt 9.5 seconds

For context, the Texas high school 100 meter dash record is 9.98 seconds... and that was set last year. High school kids today would have smoked the world-record holder in 1929.

200 meter dash:
1932: Roland Locke 20.6 seconds
2009: Usain Bolt 19.1 seconds

And again, a ton of high school boys have ran faster in recent times than 20.6


Swimming:
200 meter freestyle:
1934: Jack Medica 2:07.2
2009: Paul Bieder-mann 1:42.0

Yes, you read that right. The current world-record holder swam the 200 meter freestyle 25 seconds faster than the 1934 record holder.

200 meter butterfly:
1959: Mike Troy 2:19.0
2019 Kristof Milak 1:50.73

Yes, you are seeing that right. The current record holder is nearly 30 seconds faster than in 1959. 1959 is the earliest I could find, so I’m sure its even faster than records during Babe Ruth’s era.


You can find this kind of improvement over the years for everything from shotput to long jump to distance running.

In basketball, there was nobody in the 40’s playing like Michael Jordan or LeBron James. Why do you think baseball is any different?

Players and athletes are just better now. That’s a fact.

So excuse me for being skeptical when some claim is made that somebody who played in the 1920’s smashed a record that players today can’t come close to touching, particularly when there are many other ridiculous claims out there such as the claim that the hardest thrower at the time threw 115 mph...

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There is a question of focus that is missing from the development and pursuit of records, especially in the athletic sports. In our day and time, and it's been thus since the 80s at least, these athletes begin training, not just participating, but training in their sport at a very young age.

Swimmers, gymnasts, runners begin that life as children. Old-time baseball players played the sport, mostly, for fun during summer breaks from school only. There was no rec.ball and travel ball. As professional ball players, if they didn't barnstorm right after the season ended, most of them simply went home and held a job during the off season.

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Yes, that is true, but we’re not judging on a curve here. There is no handicap. If we’re simply comparing the ability of players today and players nearly 100 years ago, it’s not a question that players and athletes today are WAY better.

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They had no nutritionists, no personal trainers, etc. and yet Ty Cobb still managed to hit over .400 a number of times, Babe Ruth hit over 50 homeruns any number of times.

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Yeah, against others players in their era who were also part-time players plucked from a shallow talent pool. If you took 1920’s Babe Ruth and put him against pitchers like Randy Johnson, Justin Verlander, and Pedro Martinez, he wouldn’t have come close to having the career he did.

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Ruth's swing was unorthodox. It had a lurch forward. Don't see how that would help generate bat speed.

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After seeing that footage, It’s hard to believe that he hit 500 ft balls. I guess he did, but it’s hard to see how. That’s a slow clumsy swing.

The baggy uniforms really do those guys a disservice. Makes them all look fat, although it’s easy to see Lou Gehrig was built strongly.

Also, were the baseballs themselves identical to today’s in weight, firmness, and symmetry? Were the seams the same size and height?