Was Hank Aaron better than Babe Ruth?

[freakhappy]

Originally Posted by 71buc

Satche,
Personally I believe all records established prior to 1947 should have an asterisk. I agree with everything you said regarding Hank Aaron and Willie Mays. Furthermore, Mays and Aaron were far more complete players than the oafish Ruth. Mays may have been flashier than Hank. However, Aaron retired with two thirds of the career triple crown. If you subtract his career home runs from his hit totals he still has over 3000 career hits.

I have grown weary from hearing about how IF Ruth had played as many games, or had as many at bats as Aaron how much more staggering his offensive production would have been. Well he did not have those opportunities, because he was not in the athlete that Aaron was. Nor did he care to take care of himself, or comport himself as a professional. He was an obese victim of his own self-indulgence.

I agree that Ruth dominated his era more than any player past, present, or future. However, he was protected by the press, played against whites only, played only day games, didn't fly coast to coast, faced an inferior level of diluted competition, nor did he face pitching specialists.

Hank Aaron critics use the very same virtues that defied Gehrig to minimize Aaron’s place in history. Aaron came to work every day, was quiet, professional, dignified, consistent, and humble. I don’t believe that you can compare players from different eras. Nonetheless, if you must compare Hank to a pre-war player do so with a man cut from the same cloth, perhaps a gentleman like Lou Gehrig.

I have never understood fans obsession with Babe Ruth. He was the most dominant player of his generation. But that generation was almost 100 years ago. As I said in an earlier post: a Chalmers could not compete with a Ferrari, Lindbergh does not compare to Neil Armstrong, Bobby Jones would not beat Tiger Woods, the film King Kong is not comparable to Jurassic Park, Eddie Cantor is not Robert Deniro, vacuum tube radios are not superior to LCD televisions, the slide rule is not better than the PC, the abacus is not as efficient as a calculator, and Babe Ruth is not as good Hank Aaron.

I like it! You make great points!