Rare deadball ERA video

Man, those guys moved fast! They must have been coked out of their minds!

 

The year he hit 60, not a single HBP. (according to baseball-reference)

 

Wouldn't make much sense, with Gehrig up next.

Plus, a home run was a major production at times. In Mike Sowell's "The Pitch that Killed" on the Ray Chapman beaning and death, frequently there were major celebrations when homers were hit. Kids would run on the field to shake Babe's hand, or in another scene, the ex-mayor of Cleveland had just won his party's nomination for governor and had entered the park after a homer and all the Indians ran over during the middle of the game to shake his hand.

 

Plus, Babe was 6-3 and anywhere from 220-270, which would be about equivalent to 6-6 and about 300-350 now. And he was never reluctant to fight.

Not too many of the 6-0, 175-pound pitchers of the 1920s probably wanted to buzz one under his chin very often.

 

I loved how much the fans got into the game back then, it just seems like fans were more enthusiastic during those times then they're today.

A lot of people would chirp Babe Ruth, but most of the time it was people from the bench, or the field. Cobb was known to insult The Babe on a few occasions, usually calling him fat and not being able to run really fast. They've almost got into a few fights. But in the end they really respected each other.