Quote:
Originally Posted by drowssap
|
Maybe but Ruth batted 4th in several starts.
Quote:
|
Babe Ruth: When Ruth was a full-time pitcher, through 1917, he batted ninth. But starting in 1918 he saw more action as an outfielder than as a pitcher. In 1918 he batted cleanup while pitching 11 times and seventh once. (He batted ninth in seven of his starts.) In 1919 he batted cleanup in 13 of his mound starts and ninth in the other two. (Ruth led the American League in homers in both 1918 and 1919; I wonder if he’s the only player who ever led his league in homers during a season in which he started a game batting ninth?) Ruth started four games as a pitcher for the Yankees, during the years when he was a full-time outfielder, and batted third or fourth in all of them. The Babe is the only player in the 1916-2012 database who batted cleanup in a game he started as a pitcher and may be the only man in major league history to pitch a shutout while batting cleanup, his last major league shutout in 1918. Babe is also the only starting pitcher in postseason history, at least going back to the first World Series in 1903, to bat anywhere other than ninth; he hit sixth for the Red Sox in Game 4 of the 1918 World Series (he drove in Boston’s first two runs and was the winning pitcher). Ruth pitched the first eight innings of that game and spent the ninth inning in left field as Bullet Joe Bush finished the game on the mound; the only other player to pitch and play the field in the same postseason game, going back to 1903, was Cardinals’ reliever Todd Worrell, who finished Game 6 of the 1987 National League Championship Series in right field after pitching an inning. ADDED 10/23/15: Cubs manager Joe Maddon put his pitcher in the eighth spot four times in the 2015 postseason; details to follow.
|
https://prestonjg.wordpress.com/2013...it-most-often/
Based on this I may have to backtrack on my comments about Ruth not being a 2-way player. He didn't control his usage. 
__________________
Cheers
RichW
If you’re looking for a good cause to donate money to please consider a Donation to Parkinson’s Canada. It may help me have a better future and if not me, someone else. Thanks.
“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition …There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” Frank Wilhoit
|