Ruthian questions
By 
It seems rather negligent that LGM hasn’t discussed the amazing Shohei Ohtani much if it all:
The diagnosis blared through the press box speakers at 8:53 p.m. PT on Tuesday: Shohei Ohtani, the Los Angeles Angels announced, had exited the game as a pitcher due to a cracked nail on what was later revealed to be his right middle finger. Mere seconds later, Ohtani, now acting as a hitter, extended on a low-and-away splitter and unleashed a towering opposite-field home run, his second of the night, punctuating another breathtaking performance that left everyone around him in awe.
Ohtani reached all four times he came to bat and contributed 6⅓ innings of one-run ball, leading the Angels to a 4-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox. But it was the circumstances of his second home run that embodied his unprecedented value, unable to contribute further on the mound yet still acting as a force in the batter’s box.
Ohtani is currently both one of the best hitters (adjusted OPS 180!!) and best pitchers in the major leagues — a combination that we haven’t seen since Babe Ruth’s last year as a full-time pitcher in the pandemic season of 1918.
This raises a question I’ve wondered about occasionally, which is why Ruth didn’t remain a starting pitcher after his team(s) figured out that he was an awesome hitter, who needed to be in the lineup every day. Ruth was probably the best left handed starter in the AL at the time he was converted from pitching to full time outfield play. I realize Ohtani is being used as a DH, and maybe not having to play in the field at all when not pitching is the key difference here, but how much wear and tear does a right fielder endure from playing that position?
Of course we’re talking about incredibly small sample sizes here, since the odds of a player being both a great major league hitter and a great major league pitcher are going to be infinitesimal. In fact, Ohtani is pretty much the only player since Ruth to fit that paradigm (There have been a number of great pitchers who were at least credible major league hitters as opposed to automatic outs, but there’s a giant gap between credible and actually great).
In any case, let’s talk about Shohei and George Herman Ruth.
Bonus trivia: When the Curtiss Candy Company invented the Baby Ruth bar in 1921, it claimed it was being named after Grover Cleveland’s daughter, not the baseball player, in order to avoid paying him for the right to license his name.