His record says it all. Babe Ruth is the greatest hitter to ever play this game and the most famous athlete who ever lived. I was tempted to refer to his real-life exploits as Bunyanesque, but you could just as easily call Paul Bunyan’s feats Ruthian. Now that tells you something about the man: when you talk about those two American legends, the terms are practically interchangeable. The difference is that Bunyan was a fictional character while Ruth actually did those things, and while fact and fiction may become a bit blurry when people talk about the Bambino, the cold hard facts are enough to place him in a league by himself.

     No wonder America loved Ruth. He did more for baseball than probably any other individual. He was easily baseball’s most significant figure. He brought it back after the Black Sox gambling scandal, and he rejuvenated the game. He was a tremendous drawing card, a charismatic type of individual who was just perfect for the job. The game of baseball pretty near catered to what he could do. They livened up the ball. They build Yankee Stadium because of him. They did everything.

     Who’s to say he wasn’t the greatest? I don't know. Cripes, he was certainly the greatest power hitter this game ever saw, bar none. They say he borrowed his swing from Shoeless Joe Jackson.

     Wherever he got it, he went on an offensive rampage that will never be touched. He couldn’t run that well - he looked more like a sumo wrestler than a ballplayer - but he still hit .342 lifetime. He owns the major league record for the highest slugging percentage in a season with .847 in 1920 ~.847! He “dropped” to .846 the next year. His 714 lifetime homers stood as the all-time record until Aaron broke it in 1973. He hit 50 homers four times and 40 or more 11 times. His total of 60 round-trippers remains the record for a 154-game schedule.

     The very fact that Ruth hit so many more home runs per time at bat than other hitters puts him in a class by himself. A home run every 12 times up is almost unbelievable. Ruth led the American League in homers 12 times, and he holds a lifetime slugging percentage of .690, the best by far.

     I personally think that Ruth has to be the greatest player of all time, and I’ll tell you why I think that. He was not only a great slugger - the greatest slugger the game has ever seen or ever will see - but also a great pitcher. I know we’re talking about hitters here, but you can’t ignore the fact that he was one of the best pitchers of his time. He compiled a 94-46 win-loss record with a skimpy 2.28 ERA. They’ll never make me believe that he was a great outfielder, but all the old-times will tell you that he did a good job: never threw to the wrong base and all that stuff. And he played right field in Yankee Stadium, which is a tough field to play. More importantly, he resurrected the game with his allure for the fans and his flamboyant style of play. And his hitting! I’m damn sure the fans didn’t come to see Ruth play right field, they came to see him hit. And he never disappointed them.

     He had such magnetism about him, and he was the gusty with all the slugging marks. Ruth dwarfed everybody during his day, and the great players of the time all looked in awe to him. These were Ruth’s contemporaries, guys who had fought tooth and nail to beat his hated Yankees, and still he was the man they all looked up to as the draw, as the game itself - or at least as the savior of the game. Eddie Collins was a great player himself - a Hall of Famer - but when he talked about Ruth he talked about him with reverence. Looking back, it’s not much of an exaggeration to say that Ruth saved the game of baseball. When the Black Sox scandal threatened to destroy the integrity of the game, it was Ruth who led the national pastime out of its darkest hour and into a new era of popularity. He had those gaudy statistics, and he was an outrageous kind of guy. He had a zest for life and a kind of roguish charm that captured the imagination of the American public. Hell, he changed the very nature of the game by moving the focus from finesse to power. You know, they call it a game of inches - and it certainly was for his contemporaries - but it was usually transformed into a game of 500-600 feet when Ruth came to bat.

     During the so-called dead ball era, he hit more homers than anyone ever before. Then when the ball was enlivened in 1920, he exploded for 54 round-trippers, more than any single American League team.

     I read a book in which Ruth talked about hitting, and he said it pretty near the way I would say it. He described it a little differently, just like some of these guys today are saying things differently than I did in “The Science of Hitting”, but he certainly indicated that you had to have a good ball to hit and all the rest. What he said I liked and I agreed with.

     I only met Ruth once, at an exhibition game in 1944 when he was 46 or 47 years old. It was for some charity. He still had that fluidity to his swing but he was pretty fat by then, and I remember that he hurt his back that day swinging the bat. It must have been 106 degrees in the shade, and he and some other old-timers were drinking beer throughout the game.

     Even today the name Ruth is synonymous with baseball and, especially with hitting. He played his last major league game more than 60 years ago and you can still hear kids in school yards taunting their friends with, “Who do you think you are, Babe Ruth?” Hell, his name is a well known now, as it was when he played. You can’t say that about any other American athlete.