This is a Babe Ruth card I don’t think I have seen before. It was posted on Facebook recently by Charles Cox. It’s Babe Ruth’s 1918 APBA card when he was with the Red Sox.
It proves how versatile Ruth was. Not only was he coming into his own as a slugger (an unheard thing at the time) but he still “had it” as a hurler too.
Batting .300, the Babe led the AL with 11 homeruns. This was the first time he was homerun king. Except for 1922 and 1925, he would lead his league in homers every year until 1931.
The strange thing is about Ruth’s 1918 season, he only played in 95 games that year. He also led the league with a .555 slugging percentage.
Note also that Ruth had eleven triples as well. That was good for only 5th in the league, a sign of the era.
| Split | G | GS | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1918 Totals | 95 | 89 | 382 | 317 | 50 | 95 | 26 | 11 | 11 | 61 | 6 | 59 | 58 | .300 | .413 | .555 |
Ruth contributed on the mound, too. He started 19 games and completed 18 of them. He went 13-7 for the Red Sox with a 2.22 ERA. He neither walked many nor struck out a lot of opponent batters.
Assuming this stat is correct, it’s pretty cool even considering the era. Ruth gave up one homerun in 167 innings. Dennis Eckersley, eat your heart out.
| Split | W | L | W-L% | ERA | G | GS | CG | SHO | SV | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1918 Totals | 13 | 7 | .650 | 2.21 | 20 | 19 | 18 | 1 | 0 | 167.0 | 125 | 51 | 41 | 1 | 53 | 43 |
First things first, 1918 Ruth is a fast baserunner which should not be too surprising. Ruth was known as a good baserunner. He is rated as a OF-1, a P-1 and a 1B-3.
As a hitter, Ruth has that funky kind of double column card that APBA cardmakers create. These cards include non-zero power numbers in the first column that are not ones. In fact of the five power numbers Ruth’s 1918 card has, he only one zero. He has a very strange combination of 1-2-6-6-0. I don’t know of any card that has same combination.
If you happen to roll a 55 on this card, don’t expect much. The second column is not that powerful. It’s littered with 11s, twenty to be exact. He sports a 66-4 and a 11-5 and the rest are 6s.
Ruth’s 1918 card does own a 55-7 plus five 14s. He should be able to hit .300 depending what pitchers he faces.
At 13-7 with a 2.22 ERA, Ruth’s grade A seems very plausible. Grading pitchers in historical eras is tricky. Ruth did rank 9th in ERA in 1918 (four Boston pitchers made the top ten).
More importantly, Ruth ranked second in WHIP behind Walter Johnson with a 1.046 mark.
Babe Ruth would pitch consistently for one more season in 1919 before focusing his attention to delighting fans by hitting the long ball. Yeah, you know the story.
Thanks Charles for a very interesting card!
That might be the most interesting Monster card I’ve seen posted.. Great write up Thomas… Very reminiscent of some of the Negro League cards in terms of versatility, being about to swing the bat and still have an A grade as a starter.
Nice post!
66s