1919 Ruth vs 2021 Ohtani

[doug.goodman]

Originally Posted by G1911

The first post is directly comparing their numbers without regard to the context in which they happened, though. It's not really nitpicking to observe the titanic gulf between offense in 1919 and 2021 that makes directly comparing non-contextual statistics extremely misleading.

Ruth was a much, much better offensive season than Ohtani's in context, but worse pitching (His ERA was 2% better than the league). Ruth's season changed how the offensive game has been played ever since; we shall see if Ohtani has any real effect.

Yes, Ruth was much much better, blah, blah, blah, nobody disagrees with you (probably), and Ohtani will probably have no real effect in changing the offensive structure of the game. Ok got it, let's ignore you ignoring the point of Frank's post and allow me to ask you a single question :

What other player, in what other season since 1919 has done anything that could be even remotely compared to Ruth in 1919?

If your answer is "there isn't one" than you are acknowledging that "There is really no other season comparable to 2021 Ohtani since 1919".

I would suggest that it is nitpicking to point out how great Ruth was, the initial post was just saying that nobody compares to The Babe but this Ohtani kid has come closer than anybody in terms of all around pitching & hitting prowess.

Doug "Astutely picking my own Nits" Goodman