For a century, Babe Ruth stood alone as the Great Bambino, the Sultan of Swat, The Colossus of Clout.
Not just as the home run king, but as the symbol of baseball’s transformation — from a slow, strategy-driven game to a power sport built on spectacle. He was the first global baseball superstar, the man who single-handedly ended the dead ball era and made the home run the defining play of the American pastime.
And now, 100 years later, there’s finally a worthy challenger — not just to his stats, but to his myth.
Shohei Ohtani, the man they call “Shotime”, isn’t merely rewriting records. He’s reinventing what it means to be a baseball player.
Ruth: Power Personified
Before Ruth, the game was played on the ground — stolen bases, bunts, and strategic placement. Pitchers threw to contact. Teams scored a run or two and held on for dear life. It wasn’t called the dead ball era for nothing.
Then along came the Great Bambino.
In 1919, Ruth hit 29 home runs — more than most entire teams. In 1920, he hit 54. The next year, 59. By 1927, he set a mark of 60 homers in a single season — a record that stood until Roger Maris broke it 34 years later.
His slugging percentages in the 1920s were cartoonish. In 1920, he slugged .847. That number still stands as the highest single-season SLG in MLB history. He swung his 36 oz (1 kg) bat as if it were a twig.
But Ruth wasn’t just a hitter in his early years. With the Boston Red Sox, he was also a dominant pitcher with an ERA of 2.28. In 1916 he even led the AL with an ERA of 1.75. For non-baseball people, just know that is incredibly good!
Yet by the time he reached New York, his days on the mound were basically over. He pitched just five games total between 1921 and 1933. When the Yankees discovered his talent with the bat, they knew what to do with him.
Ruth was a great pitcher, and he became the best hitter in the game, but he wasn’t both at the same time.
Ohtani is.
Ohtani: The Two-Way Revolution
Baseball hadn’t seen anything like him before — and maybe never will again.
When Shohei Ohtani arrived in the U.S. in 2018, people were skeptical. Sure, he could throw 100mph and hit balls into the upper deck in Japan — but no one thought he could do both in the majors. Not at the same time. Not at the highest level.
And yet, that’s exactly what he’s done.
Every few days, Ohtani takes the mound and pitches like an ace. On the days in between, he’s crushing home runs and sprinting around the bases. He’s the starting pitcher one night and the leadoff hitter the next. Sometimes he’s both. And when he’s not playing, he’s in the gym or in the cage — working and improving.
And it’s not just that he does these things. It’s the way he does them. With power. With elegance. With precision. Other players — and I mean other sports’ players — talk about him like he’s a Marvel character made real.
He doesn’t just defy the odds. He defies the whole modern structure of baseball itself. A system built on specialization, analytics, load management, and roles. He’s not supposed to exist.
And yet there he is, every week — doing things even Babe Ruth didn’t do. In addition to hitting and pitching, he can run incredibly fast for a big guy. Last year he set a MLB record, becoming the first player in history to hit 50 homers and steal 50 bases in the same season.
Back then, Ruth had to choose. He chose the bat. Ohtani doesn’t choose. He refuses to.
The game has never seen that before. And it may never again.
Watch any sports show and you’ll hear almost everyone calling him a unicorn or the GOAT. The last time so many people consistently called an athlete the greatest of all time was when Michael Jordan was still playing basketball.
But with MJ — though he is still very often called the GOAT — one could make the argument that Bird and Magic, or even Dr J, had a larger impact on the game. With Ohtani we can make that arugment too, but he stands out a lot more.
A Tale of Two Eras
It’s tempting to reduce the comparison to stats. Who had more WAR? Who had the higher OPS? But the real story is in the context.
Ruth dominated in an era with train travel, wool uniforms, and limited integration. He never had to fly cross-country. Never dealt with a bullpen of flamethrowers. In 1920, the average pitcher threw 80mph and pitched to contact.
Ohtani plays in a world of international talent, laser-sculpted analytics, pitch counts, and optimized matchups. There’s no hiding on today’s mound. No coasting. You face the best, every night.
And he does it all in two languages, in a foreign country, under constant media scrutiny.
Ohtani lives and breathes baseball. Every waking moment seems to be spent training or thinking about the game. Presumably, now that he’s married, he devotes some time to his family — but from all appearances, his first love is still training his body to be the best baseball player of all time.
Ruth, by contrast, lived in an era when training might have involved throwing around medicine balls and maybe laying off the hot dogs. He guzzled alcohol like water, smoked like a chimney, and partied with a different woman every night. You can’t help but wonder: if Ruth had possessed Ohtani’s work ethic — and his modern trainers — how much better could he have been?
Legacy and Myth
Babe Ruth defined baseball. He turned it into a national obsession. Kids copied his swing. Candy bars were named after him. He was larger than life, a folk hero in cleats. And he has remained that way, casting a huge shadow over the sport.
Ohtani isn’t there. Yet. Former players and broadcasters regularly call him the GOAT. But culturally, he hasn’t reshaped the game the way Ruth did. Not yet. What he has done is go global in a way Ruth never could.
Japanese schoolchildren and American Little Leaguers both dream of being like Shohei. He’s the most beloved player in both countries — and quite possibly the most admired athlete in any sport. You see NBA players and NFL stars talking about Ohtani with reverence, like little kids gushing about their favorite superhero.
So Who Wins?
Maybe that’s the wrong question. It’s impossible to compare different eras in any sport.
Ruth made baseball exciting. After the long hangover of the steroid era, Ohtani is making it impossibly exciting again.
Where Ruth symbolized power and transformation, Ohtani represents range and reinvention. The Babe ended the dead ball era and started a new one — one we arguably never left. Shotime might be starting another.
If Ruth broke the game open, Ohtani is showing us how wide it can really go.
And we’re lucky enough to watch it happen. I remember my grandpa telling me about going to a Babe Ruth game when he was a kid. Now I get to tell my grandkids about watching Shohei play.
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David is an American teacher and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Mastodon. |