Let's look at some facts about the Babe and his pitching prowess.
Can you name the only left-handed pitcher to ever win at least 23 games in back-to-back seasons for the Boston Red Sox? The Babe. How about this question, name the four pitchers of all-time who won two 20-win seasons before they turned 23? Christy Mathewson, Smoky Joe Wood, Al Mamaux, and Babe Ruth - and yes, I had to google the name, "Al Mamaux" as well.
Who led the American League in ERA in their first full season as a big-league starter? The Babe (1.75 in 1916)
In the four seasons that Babe Ruth was primarily a pitcher, (1915-1918) he lead every left-handed pitcher in all of baseball in winning percentage (.659) and fewest hits allowed per nine innings (7.07). His ERA was under 2.50 for those four seasons.
Need more proof? Check out this next head-to-head comparison with the greatest pitcher of his era.
Let's try a different angle, you might have heard of Walter Johnson who was considered the greatest pitcher in Babe Ruth's career. Some people place him in the Top 5 pitchers of all time and yet the first seven times that the Babe and Walter met in a pitching duel guess who won the majority of those games? That's right - the Babe who won six of the seven games. And this was not Walter Johnson at the end of his career, this was in his prime and yet the Babe outpitched him, not just in those seven games but in 1916 and 1917.
1916 Stats
Walter Johnson - 25-20, 1.90 ERA, 290 hits in 369 2/3 innings.
Babe Ruth - 23-12, 1.75 ERA, 230 hits in 323 2/3 innings.
1917 Stats
Walter Johnson - 23-16, 2.21 ERA, 248 hits in 326 innings.
Babe Ruth - 24-13, 2.01 ERA, 244 hits in 326 1/3 innings.
Why the Red Sox didn't use Babe as a pitcher in the 1915 World Series is a mystery that has yet to be explained except for the diagnosis of incompetency. But when he did get his chance to pitch in the 1916 and 1918 World Series he rang up 29 2/3 consecutive innings without allowing a run. This record stood until Whitey Ford broke in 43 years later.
Of course the world knows that Babe Ruth claim to fame is as the greatest home run hitter of all time. As talented as he was as a pitcher, he was way more talented as a hitter. In fact, he only pitched 5 games after he turned 23, and of course he won them all.
We'll close with the story of the Babe in 1938 as he was coaching the Dodgers. Some of his players were taunting him about his pitching career and before the dust had settled Ruth had challenged them to take batting practice against him. (A caveat to this story was that the Babe had been secretly getting his arm in shape for weeks) Ruth threw BP to four of his players for around 10 minutes. The result was only 10 balls that made it out of the batting cage. This performance came almost 20 years after he had pitched his last game in the majors. And it goes to prove that the Babe was not only the greatest hitter in all of baseball history but could possibly have been the greatest left-handed pitcher of all-time as well.
