Who was the better hitter, Babe Ruth or Ted Williams.

[yanksfan09]

Originally Posted by T's please

The question was the better hitter not the best player. Ted Williams played ball up to age 42 (avg that year .316), 2 years longer than Ruth (age 40 hit .181) did. Won MVP upon his immediate return to baseball having missed 3 years due to military service. Ted hit below 300 only once in his career and Ruth hit below 300 five times. And don't forget Ruth never hit over .400 either. I'm sure if Ted weighed an extra 50 pounds, he probably could have put a little more HR's on his record. Ted has the best OBP of all time. Ted also tried his hand at pitching, but wasn't as successful as Ruth.

Can't go wrong with either in my opinion though.

Not to attack you but to be fair: I have to say that the info about Ruth hitting bellow .300 5 times, is quite misleading, to say the least.

1. The first "season" was in 1914 as a 19 yr. old rookie pitcher where he saw a whopping 10, yes 10, at bats and got 2 hits (1 more and he would have been ".300")

2. The 2nd season was in 1916 as a 21 yr old PITCHER!, he got 136 ABs hitting .272 (not bad for a pitcher)***as a side note he also won 23 games and posted a 1.75 era with 9 shut outs and not allowing 1 HR in 323.2 IP. Oh yeah and he won a World Series Game.

3. 1925 98 gm. 426 abs .290, okay I'll give you that one in a short yr.

4. 1934 age 39 471 abs .288, okay, give you that.

5. 1935 age 40, overweight, washed up 28 games only 92 abs, dreams of managing, hits .181.

Looking at these numbers I see at most 2 legimate seasons as a hitter that he hit bellow .300.

Also, he may never have hit .400 but he did hit .393-41-141 with over 150 run, and 170 walks in 1923.
And in 1921 hit .378 59hr 171 Rbi 177 runs, the most ridiculous year by a hitter ever.

Ted also only pitched 2 total innings ever giving up 1 run, so I can't say he was successful or not, he just didn't really pitch at all. Ruth was considered one of the best Lefty's in the game. Most definatley would have been HOFer as a Pitcher, if not an All time great Pitcher. finished with .671 win % almost winning 100 games with 2.28 era