Would the Legendary Babe Ruth Still Be a Star if He Played Today?

[Snapolit1]

Funny, I would say anyone who makes it to AAA has amazing, one in a million, hand eye coordination. I've often though what separates the good from the truly great is more a matter of mental disposition and temperament.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Funny, I would say anyone who makes it to AAA has amazing, one in a million, hand eye coordination. I've often though what separates the good from the truly great is more a matter of mental disposition and temperament.

That's part of it too, and that drive to be better like coordination is something you either have or don't.


As far as the hand/eye coordination and reaction times go, there was an article in Sports Illustrated a while back about reaction times vs perception. They mainly focused on Pujols, who surprisingly has a very average reaction time. Like almost dead on average compared to random people you can find anywhere. What he does have is a TON more information available. The test was flashing a picture of a pitcher who'd just thrown a ball. for a very brief time. In the time shown, he was able to tell pitch and location as well as other info like who the pitcher was. The average person? The better ones could tell the pitcher wasn't still holding the ball. They had a bunch of examples from other sports including a volleyball player who didn't know the balls trajectory, but identified the player and what game it was in a space of time when most of us would see nothing more than a flash of light. Simply astounding.

Steve B

[brianp-beme]

Would the Legendary Babe Ruth Still Be a Star if He Played Today?

Yes, he would still be a star, but he would have been called George Ruth, not Babe Ruth. 'Babe' is so turn of the 20th century.

Brian

[Bill77]

Would he be a pitcher or an outfielder?

Another interesting question would be is how big of an impact on baseball would he have made if he remained a pitcher for his entire career?
Even today everyone is still chasing Ruth on the home run lists even though he was pasted by Hank Aaron and now Barry Bonds. If Ruth stays a pitcher who would become the original home run king? Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, someone else? Or would baseball have still remained more about hitting for high batting average and home run hitting specialists need not apply?