Trio of Bambinos

This was another one of those barely serious Ebay bids.  I saw a lot of Babe Ruth Panini cards, including a few Yankees cards, and threw a low bid on it.  And I won.  Here we have the holo-purple, serial-numbered red, and the base card (which is itself a variation of the regular base card, which is a Yankees card).  

I have a reasonable number of Babe Ruth cards in my Red Sox collection.  These three cards puts me at 68 Babe Ruth cards.  Honestly, it is still kind of a special thrill to find Babe Ruth Red Sox cards.  He is just so widely tied to his time with the Yankees, and even though the fact that he is infamous for having been sold to the Yankees by the Red Sox, I feel like his time with Boston is largely underrated.

I have talked at length about his accomplishments in Boston.  He was one of the greatest left-handed pitchers in the game at the time.  He set a scoreless World Series innings record that lasted until Whitey Ford broke it (29.2 innings).  He became more of a position player in 1919 and broke the home run record (which he immediately obliterated in his first year with the Yankees).  Ruth was a two-way star long before Shohei Ohtani and there was no one else quite like him.  Until Ohtani.

As a hitter in Boston, Ruth hit .308/.413/.568 with 49 home runs and 224 RBIs.  Bear in mind, this was the Deadball Era, which ended the year Ruth went to the Yankees.  He twice led the league in home runs (one of those as primarily a pitcher), once in runs and once in RBIs.  In 1929, his only full season as a regular position player (left fielder and still occasionally pitching), he hit .322/.456/.657 with 29 home runs, 103 runs and 113 RBIs.

As a pitcher, Ruth went 89-46 with a 2.19 ERA, striking out 483 batters and walking 425 in 1,190.1 innings pitched.  His best season was 1916 when he went 23-12 with a 1.75 ERA that led the league.  He tossed nine shutouts, which also led the league.  He struck out 170 while walking 118 in 323.1 innings pitched.

1919 was his best two-way season.  I discussed his hitting stats above, but that season he pitched in 17 games, starting 15.  He went 9-5 with a 2.97 ERA in 133.1 innings pitched.  Not exceptional numbers for Ruth the pitcher, but decent nonetheless, and terrific when added to his hitting stats.