Someone is stretching the truth :)
Moving on. We are consistently reminded about how much smaller the ballparks are these days. Although technically true, it is a misleading proclamation. Horseshoe shaped baseball fields were the normal in Ruth's day. Although the center field wall would sometimes be as far as 500ft away, right field would be as close as 256 ft away (as was the case in Ruth's home park during his 1920-22 seasons at the 'Polo Grounds') When Ruth played at the Polo Grounds, center field was 433 ft away (comparable to the Astros field today) and right field was 256 ft (comparable to a little league field in your neighborhood). The more I think about it 256 ft would've been an illegal distance in High school and College, where the minimum distance is 300 ft. Let's classify this field as a product of the 'Horseshoe Era'. A time when most major league ballparks had short porches in right and left field (as short as 256 ft) but gigantic center fields with depths sometimes reaching past 500ft. (Creating a horseshoe shape)
Ruth's first season at this little league field was memorable. He hit 54 HR's with 9 triples, while hitting a staggering .376. This was a great production increase from the numbers he put up in the much bigger Fenway park just a year earlier (29 HR's 12 triples in a similar amount of at bats). Also, strong 'lulz' for having to call Fenway park "much bigger".
Turns out Ruth would have been 2nd in triples in the American league with his 9 if he had played today. His 12 with Boston would've given him the triples title. But I thought he was a big slow fat white guy!?! Nope, only the white part is true the rest is just another myth! Look at the picture below. Ruth was really quite fit and a decent runner. To top it off, he also had 14 stolen bases. Cecil Fielder ended his career with 2. (now that was a fat baseball player...not white) At 6'2'' weighing 210 lbs, Ruth was a gigantic human for those times, which I'm sure led to a lot of the legends. Every time someone told their grand kids about Ruth, he got bigger and bigger and his home runs got further and further. (note: 6'2'' 210 lbs. is small to normal nowadays in baseball)
John Goodman perpetuating the myth that Babe Ruth was a super fat white guy.
In 1923, Ruth and the Yankees moved to the house that he built. Now Ruth's right field porch was a staggering 295 ft. away! (still illegal for high school and college) Left Field was 281 ft. away and center a massive 490ft.
Maybe it was the bigger dimensions, but Ruth's home run stats took a hit his first year at Yankee stadium. In a comparable amount of at-bats to his 59 homer campaign at the 'Polo Grounds', Ruth hit 41 homers in his first season at his new home. Still a great number, but still a drop. He did hit 13 triples and set a career high with 45 doubles in his first year at Yankee Stadium. When you take a look at the field you can start to see why there were so many extra base hits. With that massive center field, outfielders had to play deep otherwise a ball over their head was an easy inside the park home run. According to the infallible wikipedia, Babe Ruth may have hit more than a 100 inside-the-park home runs.
I can easily imagine a nice 390ft laser shot into the gap, rolling all the way to the 460+ wall and being a piece of cake inside-the-park home run. I can also visualize the outfield playing deep to avoid such hits, only to surrender otherwise catchable singles and doubles. Perhaps this explains the ridiculous averages of this 'era'? If you get a chance check out the wikipedia triples record page and have a look at the years in which these records were set. here. (spoiler alert: Nearly all of the triples records are pre 1930)
So I have established that if you are able to hit a ball around 400 ft, hitting home runs wasn't very hard during Ruth's era. Hell, if you could hit it 270ft you could make a decent living. The problem was that Ruth was one of the only players who could do that. Everyone else suffered from "too small humanitis". Ruth was one of the only players who had the size and strength to do it. At 6' 2'' he was one of the tallest players in the game, and at 210 he was the heaviest. And as the picture shows above, his weight was not all fat as we were told growing up.
That makes me wonder though, how good was the pitching back then? If we had a bunch of 5 ft nothings throwing a ball that was of less quality, were they really that unhittable? Does anyone honestly believe that with all of their windup gimmickry, pitches could throw 102mph like Joel Zumaya or Stephen Strasburg?
To accentuate the point: I remember watching a documentary on a mid 80's Minnesota Twins minor league team. At one point they talk about a "throw off" where the team was going to pick between 2 pitchers. The pitcher that threw the slowest was going to be released. The winning pitcher threw 83 mph, the loser 82 mph. It was epic! The players spoke as if 83 mph wasn't tragically slow. So, even since the 1980's the game has changed drastically. 83 mph wouldn't even get you consideration for most Division 1 colleges let alone a chance in the minor leagues. So again, forgive me for questioning whether the pitchers of Ruth's era would even make a decent Division 2 college team these days.
Today the average height of a man is 5'10''. In the early 1900's it was 5'4 3/4''. So basically 5 inches shorter on average back in Ruth's day. That means Ruth was 7-8 inches taller than the average. So if he were around today he might be 6'6''. Now 6'6'' is a beast for sure, so you can imagine what Ruth appeared to be in his day.
Cliff notes: Ruth was gigantic in his day but would only be an average major leaguer today (in terms of height and weight, Jack Cust is bigger and heavier). He played in a home ballpark that had a right field wall only 256 ft. away. I honestly believe that if Jack Cust played in a home ballpark that had a 256 ft. right field short porch, that he could approach 50-60 home runs. Especially if Cust was facing 5'5'' windup gimmick pitchers who probably threw in the 60-70 mph range.
But the center field wall was almost 500 ft away you say... True, but Ruth may have hit as many as 100 inside the park home runs. Think about that for a moment. Without a doubt it is because of the gigantic center field space. Players these days hit maybe 2 a career. Ruth also hit over 8 triples in a year 9 times! Again a product of the gigantic center field. For more proof of this phenomenon simply go to the wikipedia page for triples records here and note when these records took place. A vast majority took place during the 'Horseshoe Era' as I like to call it. The 'Horseshoe Era' is when nearly every field had a tiny right and left field but an enormous center field (sometimes over 500 ft.)
