Is Shohei Ohtani already better than Babe Ruth?

Babe Ruth was so clearly the best of a 20 year window, your comment doesn't make that much sense, in that he got thru two 10 year windows, as not just a little bit better..but way better. What context?

Oh, the athletes are better today? No sh--.. but Ohtani, is not even close to the dominant hitter of this Era, he is a .263 hitter with a lot of pop. Those guys have existed in every, every Era.Guys that Hit .342 714 HRs and over 2000 RBIs, never striking out 100 times in a year? NEVER existed and the sport is plenty old for that to have happened.

how many distance runners have won five golds in a single year? one and he never once ran against an african runner his whole career.

how many nba players have scored 50 points a game? or won 11 rings? one and one. and they played against 7 other teams with horrible competition.

would bill russell and wilt still be good today? sure. paavo nurmi? maybe. babe ruth? could be. would they dominate like they did? not a chance.

Uhhhh--NO

12 strike outs, 101mph, 2 RBIs, 2-4, win number 9,.692 win % for a .438 team. Happy days

I think he is. This season is proving it.

Looks like Flagpole was wrong, yet again.

How about it Flagpole? 'I was wr... wr... wr... wrong

Ohtani is a joy to watch, is there a better athlete in the world right now?

* world = all humans on planet earth, unlike 'world series' = North America.

Wrong about what? Certainly not wrong about anything I've said about Ohtani.

He's very interesting as a two-way player, but he has yet to show he's headed for the Hall of Fame as either a pitcher or a hitter (he's not even close as a pitcher).

He has had 2 very good seasons so far...in a row even, so good for him, but man I can find a TON of guys who had two very good seasons in a row who didn't end up in the Hall of Fame.

Just off the top of my head, George Foster had two GREAT seasons in 1977 and 1978:

1977: 52 HRs, 149 RBI

1978: 40 HRs, 120 RBI

Better batting averages for each year than Ohtani had for his too, and he's not in the Hall of Fame.

Nope...not wrong about anything.

That’s like saying that Komen only had 2 great seasons even though no one has approached his 3000m record.

What Ohtani can do in the here and now is unprecedented. There has never been another pitcher at his level that could hit well enough to be a position player. George Foster probably couldn’t have thrown batting practice.

You should read what other players say about Ohtani. He’s doing what was considered impossible. It’s hard to come up with an analogy from another sport to compare to Ohtani. Maybe a strike thrower from the pocket that can run like Jackson.

You've got caught being wrong and then lying about posts on the Trump thread Flagpole, aka, proven wrong.

But this one is hilarious. Santiago is clearly correct. Flagpole is clearly wrong.

Word of advice Santiago, don't feed him. Flagpole is a full blown narcissistic human being. We live within an hour of each other and I wouldn't visit such a vile human being even if I was paid to do so.

Ohtani will be in the HOF, period.

Ohtani is better than any American to ever wear a mlb uni , ever , all time . Please , Ruth with his little squirrel length arms ....

Yes, but so is the average player in the CCBL so it really isn't saying much.

It all comes back to "greatest" (success relative to your peers) vs. "best" (skillset). People generally don't get worse at leisure activities over time, so usually the "best x ever" is whoever is currently the best at x.

Extrapolating out performance from old timers if they had today's training methodologies is useless, because for all we know someone who wasn't even in the league in 1920 would have had more success with today's training than those who were in the league back then. Likewise with regressing back performance of current greats. So the right comparison for greatness is your peer group.

And in terms of greatness, I don't think anyone will ever touch the Babe just because he was so far ahead of his time. To put into perspective, if Ohtani has 15 consecutive seasons like the one he had in his MVP year, he would still trail Ruth in career WAR.

Can't compare someone who played 100 years ago to someone currently playing (true for all sports). Most of today's players are better than Babe Ruth was. I don't think Babe would put up the numbers he did if he were playing today but that's just pure speculation.

Well he's really the only 2 way player we've had in 50+ years, and doing it at a time when specialization is stronger than ever.

On a short term basis, year by year, Ohtani is better than Ruth. Only as he both pitches and hits in this era of specialization.

Career wise, it's clearly Ruth due longevity of career and absurd stats. Lifetime .340 batting avg, .470 on base, low strikeouts. Also, probably was mgt's choice for Babe to give up pitching, not Babe's.

Ohtani will need 6+ yrs of hit/pitch to make HOF, I hope it's 10+. Some crazy number like 300 hrs and 150 pitching wins, or 1000 RBIs and 1000 pitching strikeouts will get him in.

Imagine watching Ohtani and trying to think of what he is not. You sad sad man.

Your analogy doesn't work at all. Ohtani didn't set a world record.

Also, you seem to be mistaking what I'm saying here. I AGREE that he's a special player to be able to be a starting pitcher and position player at the level he has been. The ONLY thing I'm saying...well, two things:

1) He's not Babe Ruth...really not even close.

2) He's not yet shown he's headed to the Hall of Fame. He MIGHT end up there, but he's got a LONG way to go to do that. He's been in the Major Leagues for 5 seasons, and just 2 have been Hall of Fame worthy seasons. He needs many more like that, and he's already going to be 28 in this next season. MOST MLB players who don't use drugs start to falter after age 34...that's not that much longer of a time to put up some HOF career numbers...and his batting average is .267. That's pretty low for someone who gets such high praise. As a pitcher, he's even less impressive over all (though last year he was better on the mound than at the plate for the first time in his career).

I think he's going to have a hard time making the Hall of Fame which would also solidify that he's not Babe Ruth.

1) Um...I have ONLY thought on my own that he's a great player right now.

2) The only reason why I have thought about him NOT being a HOF player is that people started going nuts about him really after he had his first HOF-worthy season in the major leagues. Mattingly was a can't miss HOF player...same with Albert Belle...same with Dale Murphy...same with Nomar Garciaparra, and none of them are in. No guarantees.

3) People discuss the ultimate HOF possibility for players in all sports all the time...hardly makes me a "sad sad man." Get serious.