Yu Darvish vs. Babe Ruth

Babe Ruth was by far the best player of his era and stands as perhaps the best-ever player relative to his era. But so much has changed since Ruth played baseball, and for a variety of reasons Ruth never faced a pitcher who looked anything like Darvish. Consider that at 6’2”, 215, Ruth was one of the very largest players of his era. Darvish is 6’5”, 225 – he’d look like a physical freak to any hitter from the 1920s.

Blogger Patrick Flood examined in detail how Ruth would fare in contemporary baseball and concluded that Ruth, transported to today, would still hit Major League pitchers – which is amazing, if you think about it. But Darvish isn’t just any Major League pitcher, and even at Ruth’s best he struck out a lot. Says here Darvish fools Ruth to pieces with an arsenal of pitches unlike anything Ruth would have faced in his heyday.

Watch more epic battles …

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Contributing: Ted Berg