Babe Ruth's name is showing up a lot these days.
In many ways, this has been a record-setting season in Major League Baseball. Players like Shohei Ohtani, Cal Raleigh, Kyle Schwarber and Aaron Judge are all putting up legendary statistics. And all of them, in various ways, have been connected through the baseball timeline to the greatest of the greats, the New York Yankees' superhero Ruth.
This modern baseball world, with so many in-depth databases, allows for stats to be made for almost anything.
And whenever anything crazy happens on the ballfield, it often traces back to a time that Ruth had done it, too.
Just on Wednesday night alone:
- Judge became the first Yankees player with consecutive 50-homer seasons since Ruth
- Raleigh tied Ruth, twice, by hitting his 59th and then 60th homers of the season
- Schwarber closed two home runs closer to Ruth's record for most home runs hit in a player's first four seasons with a new team
The night before, Ohtani had pitched a gem in his 100th career start, making him only the second player to ever start 100 games as a pitcher and hit more than 55 career home runs.
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It really all just captures how magnificent Ruth was.
He must've seemed superhuman, hitting home runs in a way no one could've ever even imagined, all after being a pitcher who was nearly unhittable.
Ruth was the genesis of a curse that lasted for 86 years.
He had multiple legendary nicknames: the Great Bambino, the Sultan of Swat, the Colossus of Clout.
Shoot, Babe was a nickname, too, for George Herman Ruth.
And it's just a brilliant thing that a century ago, Ruth did so many marvelous things, and that baseball keeps a through line traveling in its history that allows for the numbers of one era to tie together with the numbers of another era.
Baseball loves its statistics and numbers, yes, and they form links.
But sometimes, it just makes it fun to imagine what it would've been like to watch Ruth play. It would've felt a bit like Ohtani, or Raleigh, or Judge, or Schwarber. And that's a cool way to be remembered.
More MLB news:
- Cal Raleigh just tied Babe Ruth
- Nationals' former slugger announces retirement at 29
- Shohei Ohtani does another thing only Babe Ruth has done before
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- Edmundo Sosa had the home run game of his life for the Phillies
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