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RINGOLSBY: Rice vs. Ruth is apples vs. oranges

By Tracy Ringolsby, Rocky Mountain News

Published January 15, 2009 at 7:31 p.m.

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Which eligible player most deserves to be in the National Baseball Hall of Fame?


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Hall of Famer Jim Rice.

Photo by Photos By Otto Greule / Getty Images/1989

Hall of Famer Jim Rice.

Hall of Famer Babe Ruth.

Photo by Tom Sande © Associated Press/1942

Hall of Famer Babe Ruth.

The rotation

The demands on starting pitchers continue to diminish. Last season, 45 pitchers worked a combined 73 starts that resulted in 120-plus-pitch efforts, a 60.8 percent drop from 2004. CC Sabathia led all pitchers with five, including four with Milwaukee. Ben Sheets of Milwaukee and Tim Lincecum of San Francisco made four apiece. The 120-pitch games during the past five seasons:

YearGames
200873
200784
2006120
2005137
2004186

First pitch

NUMBERS GAME

2 left fielders voted into the Hall of Fame this week - Jim Rice and Rickey Henderson. It's the first time a left fielder was elected in 20 years.

HE SAID IT

"I got up from (last year's 65.9) percent to 67. I hope I'll be on track for next year. It's good to move up. I hope it doesn't take 15 years, though."

Andre Dawson, on not being in the Hall of Fame, even though he is the only eligible player who recorded more than 1,000 extra-base hits.

YEAR TO REMEMBER

The most intriguing year on the horizon for Hall of Fame voting will be 2013, when the first-year eligibles will include Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa.

More Sports Columns & Blogs

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Amid the debate over Jim Rice's Hall of Fame candidacy came a missive from a New England fan who wanted it known that "Jim Rice's offensive stats for his first 10 years in the Majors were better than Babe Ruth's."

Times change.

So do the value of stats. Be careful of such traps.

Just like the value of the dollar, the value of a stat must be adjusted to the era in which it is compiled.

Rice had an impressive career, but did he have a better first decade than Ruth?

Well, Ruth was a 20-game winner twice in his first 10 years. He was 92-46 overall, having been primarily a pitcher in his first four full big-league seasons.

It wasn't even until his fourth full season, when he led the majors in home runs, that he became thought of more as a hitter than a pitcher.

In drawing comparisons, the stats have to be weighted to the impact of the era.

Consider that, while Ruth is best remembered for the record-setting 60 homer runs he hit in 1927 - the mark stood for 33 years - the truth is, he actually held the single-season home run record for 41 years. He first claimed that distinction when he hit 29 home runs in 1919, the last year he split time between pitching and hitting, and then broke it with 54 in 1920 and 59 in 1921.

How dominant was Ruth as a home run hitter?

He became the team's all-time home run leader in 1921, when he had 162, and held the top spot for 53 years.

Ruth led the majors in home runs more times than any player in history - 11 times from 1918 through 1931 - and led the American League 12 times during that 14-season stretch.

And any hitting comparison needs to factor in the pitchers.

In 1871, Al Spalding was 19-10 and led the majors in wins. In the next 123 years, only once did at least one pitcher fail to win as many as 20 games in a season - 1981 when Dennis Martinez, Steve McCatty, Jack Morris, Tom Seaver and Pete Vuckovich each won 14.

In the past 13 years, however, there have been three seasons in which there wasn't one 20-game winner.

So was Spalding a piker? Were Martinez, McCatty, Morris, Seaver and Vuckovich underachievers?

Well, consider that Spalding's Boston Red Stockings of the National Association were 20-10 in 1871, reliever Harry Wright picking up the one victory Spalding didn't claim. And factor in that more than two months of the 1981 season - roughly a third of the season - was wiped out by a players' strike.

There hasn't been a pitcher with 10 complete games in the past 10 years, and there have been only two in the past 15. Before 1994, there hadn't been a season without a pitcher completing at least 11 games.

Does that make today's pitchers lesser? No. What it means is the role of the starting pitcher has changed and the value system in determining greatness must be adapted.

Infield chatter

* The Cubs are expected to renew talks with San Diego about right-handed pitcher Jake Peavy once the Tribune Co. finalizes the sale of the franchise.

* With Derek Lowe getting a four-year deal from Atlanta, the Mets are focused on left-hander Oliver Perez, but the price figures to go up from the Mets' previous offer of $30 million for three years.

Out in left field

Tampa Bay third baseman Evan Longoria and right-hander Matt Garza declined opportunities to play for the Mexican team in the World Baseball Classic.

Why? They would like to play for the United States and, if not this year, then in the future. If a player with dual-nationality eligibility opts to play for a country other than the United States, he is eliminated from future consideration for the U.S. team.

Closing statement

Major league owners approved a rule change allowing any postseason game that is halted to be considered a suspended game and resumed at the point where play ended.

It was a response to how commissioner Bud Selig dealt with the rain delay in Game 5 of the World Series, where the teams actually had a full day off between the rain delay and completion of the game.

That's a first step. Now the owners and players need to take it further and implement the suspended-game rule for the regular season.

MILE HIGH WATCH

* The Rockies are coming of age.

Having joined the National League in 1993, the Rockies have had limited representation in Hall of Fame voting, but that's about to change. In the next four years, there figures to be as many as 12 former Rockies on the ballots.

Next year, Ellis Burks, Andres Galarraga and Todd Zeile will be up for consideration.

In 2011, Charles Johnson, Steve Reed and Larry Walker will be eligible.

In 2012, Pedro Astacio, Jeromy Burnitz, Vinny Castilla, Jose Hernandez and Eric Young will be eligible.

And in 2013, Jeff Cirillo will be eligible.

Dale Murphy was the first former Rockies player on the ballot in 1999 and has been a candidate 11 consecutive years. Walt Weiss made an appearance in 2006, and Dante Bichette and Bret Saberhagen appeared on the ballot in 2007.

* With the addition of right-hander Jason Marquis, the Rockies will face an interesting decision in filling the fifth spot in their rotation from among left-handers Jorge De La Rosa, Greg Smith and Franklin Morales and right-handers Jason Hirsh and Greg Reynolds.

Reynolds is the only one with an option remaining, meaning the Rockies would risk losing any of the others on waivers if they don't keep them in the big leagues.

The front four in the rotation seems set with Aaron Cook, Ubaldo Jimenez, Jeff Francis and Marquis, depending on how Francis bounces back from shoulder problems that cut short his 2008 season.

* Toronto right-hander Roy Halladay, an Arvada West High graduate, ranks second among pitchers with 113 wins since 2002, two behind Houston's Roy Oswalt.

Comments

  • January 16, 2009

    1:01 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    fuzzyjim writes:

    That Boston fan clearly doesn't know his baseball history. Ironic since Ruth hit the majors in Boston, fer cryin' out loud. George Will (I'm not a fan but he knows his baseball) said about the discussion of who the greatest player ever, that it is no contest, it's gotta be Ruth. I agree. Not only was Ruth the most prolific home run hitter for decades, but he was one of the best pitchers in baseball when he started out. What other player can say that? Ruth was also a good fielder, if I recall correctly.

    As for the Rockies becoming eligible for the Hall of Fame, they all provided good moments and were good players, but hall worthy? Uh, I dunno...

  • January 16, 2009

    1:10 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    primafacie writes:

    If a player's worthiness must be debated, he's not worthy. No one would honestly dispute Babe Ruth's place in the Hall of Fame, not to mention the whole the game's history. The true greats, no matter who you slice the numbers, need no discussion.

    That we have to debate Jim Rice and Andre Dawson and Bert Blyleven at all, well, doesn't that say everything?

  • January 16, 2009

    3:47 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    jimboelrod writes:

    Babe Ruth scored 925 more runs (2174) than Jim Rice did (1249) in 173 more AB's. As far as I'm concerned Babe's most outstanding statistic is that he SCORED at a .259 avg for his career. When you compare Rice and Ruth as hitters there is no comparison. Then you add to that the fact that, not only did Babe play in the field in his games, but he was an outstanding southpaw pitcher while Rice was DH in about half the games he played in.

    Jim Rice was an outstanding player, but to compare him to the Babe does both players a disservice.

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