Could you hit today�s fastball with a 54 ounce bat?

Hankphenom · #1 10-01-2022, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CurtisFlood

Babe swung a 54 at times, but I don't think he would have used it today. That would be superman stuff. I am not familiar with many of the AL teams, but I don't believe any of the current players could get around on a fastball with that huge wagon tongue bat. Maybe a slow curve, not the high hard one.

The Babe did pretty well against Walter Johnson.

pawpawdiv9 · #2 10-01-2022, 03:51 PM

i can hit the toilet half the time, pretty sure i can hit anything with a wiffle bat.

brianp-beme · #3 10-01-2022, 04:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pawpawdiv9

i can hit the toilet half the time, pretty sure i can hit anything with a wiffle bat.

Always on the lookout for new slang...I have never heard it called a wiffle bat before.

Brian

JollyElm · #4 10-01-2022, 05:21 PM

I couldn't even hit a tee-ball with a 54 ounce bat.

jingram058 · #5 10-01-2022, 08:11 PM

It was early on that he used a bat that big, but he always swung a club and made it look like a toothpick. Then there was his step into it swing. He was so far ahead of everyone else that he made what were previously great hitters look like kindergarten t-ballers. So many people today scientifically and with metrics and data, try to definitively say Ruth couldn't hit his way out of a wet paper sack today and that pitchers back he was playing were throwing slow pitch pitching machine softballs. Pure, unadulterated, BS, hogwash. If you believe that modern day, armchair, or just out and out jealous crap, I've got some beautiful beach front property for sale, cheap. Vote for me when I run for President.

Yoda · #6 10-01-2022, 09:21 PM

"Wee" Willie Keeler.

mr2686 · #7 10-01-2022, 11:10 PM

I think Dick Allen used a 42 for quite awhile. Can't even imagine using a 54.

jakebeckleyoldeagleeye · #8 10-01-2022, 11:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jingram058

It was early on that he used a bat that big, but he always swung a club and made it look like a toothpick. Then there was his step into it swing. He was so far ahead of everyone else that he made what were previously great hitters look like kindergarten t-ballers. So many people today scientifically and with metrics and data, try to definitively say Ruth couldn't hit his way out of a wet paper sack today and that pitchers back he was playing were throwing slow pitch pitching machine softballs. Pure, unadulterated, BS, hogwash. If you believe that modern day, armchair, or just out and out jealous crap, I've got some beautiful beach front property for sale, cheap. Vote for me when I run for President.

All I say is put all these pumped up weightlifters back in Ruth's day with none of that stuff used, no special diets, riding lousy trains, no AC so they put their mattress out on the fire escape and slept there and no pampered traveling All-Star kids teams during your childhood. No batting helmets or body armor, brush back pitches, not a new baseball every pitch and work on the farm bucking hay or slopping the pigs. I can't see Trout doing that and he wouldn't be 220 with 6 percent bodyfat. So don't tell me how today's player is better because not one of them could take that.

Snowman · #9 10-02-2022, 04:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jakebeckleyoldeagleeye

All I say is put all these pumped up weightlifters back in Ruth's day with none of that stuff used, no special diets, riding lousy trains, no AC so they put their mattress out on the fire escape and slept there and no pampered traveling All-Star kids teams during your childhood. No batting helmets or body armor, brush back pitches, not a new baseball every pitch and work on the farm bucking hay or slopping the pigs. I can't see Trout doing that and he wouldn't be 220 with 6 percent bodyfat. So don't tell me how today's player is better because not one of them could take that.

OK, I'll play along. Players today are better than they were 100 years ago.

Snowman · #10 10-02-2022, 04:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jingram058

It was early on that he used a bat that big, but he always swung a club and made it look like a toothpick. Then there was his step into it swing. He was so far ahead of everyone else that he made what were previously great hitters look like kindergarten t-ballers. So many people today scientifically and with metrics and data, try to definitively say Ruth couldn't hit his way out of a wet paper sack today and that pitchers back he was playing were throwing slow pitch pitching machine softballs. Pure, unadulterated, BS, hogwash. If you believe that modern day, armchair, or just out and out jealous crap, I've got some beautiful beach front property for sale, cheap. Vote for me when I run for President.

Ruth would be an elite hitter in any era. But that doesn't change the fact that the pitches he faced were far slower and with less movement than what hitters face today.

CurtisFlood · #11 10-02-2022, 03:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jingram058

It was early on that he used a bat that big, but he always swung a club and made it look like a toothpick. Then there was his step into it swing. He was so far ahead of everyone else that he made what were previously great hitters look like kindergarten t-ballers. So many people today scientifically and with metrics and data, try to definitively say Ruth couldn't hit his way out of a wet paper sack today and that pitchers back he was playing were throwing slow pitch pitching machine softballs. Pure, unadulterated, BS, hogwash. If you believe that modern day, armchair, or just out and out jealous crap, I've got some beautiful beach front property for sale, cheap. Vote for me when I run for President.

I will unless one of the parties comes up with a better candidate than we have seen in the last 20 years. Please run, you can do better.

JollyElm · #12 10-02-2022, 03:52 PM

I imagine a good percentage of the members here would look like this trying to pick up a 54 ouncer...

hugelog.jpg

FrankWakefield · #13 10-02-2022, 04:05 PM

Valid points, Hank.

EVERYONE should listen to the CDs of The Glory Of Their Times.

Before Ruth, bats were a bit longer, and the handle a bit thicker. The center of gravity of the bat was different. Players didn't want to break bats, that could get expensive.

When Ruth starts swinging for the fences, he's using heavy bats with thin handles, that moves the center of gravity toward the barrel and away from the hands. Other players start swinging those bats.

I do think that there are repetitive exercises that can increase arm speed a bit, but not to the point where everyone (I'm including all kids, not future college and professional players) can be throwing in the 90's.

Seems to me that Ruth's time and now are different. Lighting is better (I know, night games, but on dark, cloudy days parks turn on their lights). Baseballs that are in the game are cleaner; and are manufactured to be more consistent. Health care is better, including eyecare. Travel is better. Players and teams are mindful of physical fitness and conditioning. Players are generally in better shape, better able to excel at the game. If Ruth were around today, maybe he'd have a cell phone or two to facilitate carousing...

EddieP · #14 10-04-2022, 09:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brianp-beme

Always on the lookout for new slang...I have never heard it called a wiffle bat before.

Brian

We use to play wiffle ball indoors during gym when it was raining.

http://www.wiffle.com/

packs · #15 10-04-2022, 10:17 AM

I could probably hit a boomerang the second time it came around.

frankbmd · #16 10-04-2022, 10:32 AM

The players are in better condition today, but the batboys were stronger 100 years ago.

JollyElm · #17 10-04-2022, 03:43 PM

Who cares if someone could hit a fastball with a 54 ounce bat, the only thing that matters around here is what would that person's WAR be???????

Snowman · #18 10-02-2022, 04:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

The Babe did pretty well against Walter Johnson.

Despite romantic tales to the contrary, Walter Johnson was not throwing anywhere near 100 mph heat.

earlywynnfan · #19 10-02-2022, 08:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snowman

Despite romantic tales to the contrary, Walter Johnson was not throwing anywhere near 100 mph heat.

Why not?
Was Feller or Grove?
Nolan Ryan?
Steve Dalkowski?

What's the magic year pitchers were able to hit 100?

ALR-bishop · #20 10-02-2022, 08:56 AM

Having stood in the batters box at the Louisville Slugger Bat Museum exhibit where you can have a simulator throw a ball at the speed of your chosen pitcher it would not matter if the bat was 54 oz of a wiffle ball bat because I tended to back up and close my eyes even with that protective barrier in front of me

Exhibitman · #21 10-02-2022, 09:17 AM

It is all in how you measure it. Today's numbers are generated from radar guns that measure velocity at 50 feet from the plate. Older measurements required the pitcher to throw through some contraption at a longer distance. Those older measures have to be recalculated to account for the differences in measurements. Nolan Ryan, for example was clocked at 100.6 in the tech of the time, which seems fast but not overpowering, BUT that translates into 108.5 in today's measurement standards, which makes him the ultimate gunslinger. Feller's recalculated velocity was 107.6. Johnson's was 93.8 based on a 1917 test from a Bridgeport, Connecticut, munitions laboratory, but that equipment was less accurate than the newer stuff, so it is harder to say what his velocity was.

Seven · #22 10-02-2022, 09:18 AM

I would think someone like Giancarlo Stanton, who swings his bat like a toothpick, could give it a halfway decent shot.

Exhibitman · #23 10-02-2022, 09:20 AM

FWIW, i've held and swung a Ruth gamer. It was only in the forties but it was a hunk of iron compared to the thin-handled whips of the modern game.

icurnmedic · #24 10-02-2022, 10:16 AM

My son’s baseball team in high school had kids(plural) throwing 90+ miles an hour. Definitely not beyond the realm of probability that pitchers were throwing close to or above 100 miles an hour

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