Posted By:
DaveWasn't Ruth something like 6-2 against Mathewson? ERA under 2? Not too shabby for the greatest slugger of all time.
Remember nostalgia for the dead ball era was a lot higher back then when these polls were conducted. It's kind of like how we yearn for the pre-roids era. The people voting probably remembered the game from when they were children, and favored that style of play over the big-bopper style that Ruth himself created. Just hypothetical on my part, but it's always easier to see historical significance the further away you are from something. So yeah... to them Wagner probably WAS the best.
No one will ever match Ruth in baseball, or any other sport for that matter. Period.
He changed the history of the game by himself, and to some extent, the history of our country.
EDITED: MEANT WALTER JOHNSON, NOT MATHEWSON.