Why Babe Ruth stands alone

On Aug. 11, 1929, Yankees outfielder Babe Ruth became the first player in baseball history to hit 500 home runs, when he hit his 30th of the season in a 6-5 loss to the Cleveland Indians at League Park in Cleveland.

That only tells half the story of Ruth's dominance as the premier power hitter in baseball history. When Ruth hit No. 500, another future Hall of Famer, Rogers Hornsby of the Cubs, was in second place — with 263 home runs after also hitting a home run that day, in a 3-0 victory over the Braves in Boston. Nearly a decade into the "live ball" era, Ruth had nearly twice as many home runs as the next best power hitter on the all-time list.

According to news reports, including this one from the Chicago Tribune, Ruth paid $20 to the fan who retrieved the historic ball, plus an autographed baseball. That $20 is $369.13 in today's money — still pretty cheap. The home run ball hit by the Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani to become the first player ever with 50 homers and 50 stolen bases in a single season sold for $4,392,000 last season.

The whereabouts of Ruth's 500th home run ball are unknown today. But the bat he used to hit the historic home run sold for more than $1,000,000 at auction in 2019.

On the day Babe Ruth hit his 500th career home run, the runner-up on the all-time home run list, Cubs second baseman Rogers Hornsby, hit his 263rd career home run in a 3-1 victory over the Braves.

What Ohtani is doing as a pitcher and hitter today actually exceeds Ruth's pitching/hitting feats a century ago. Except for two seasons (1918-19), Ruth was either a full-time pitcher or outfielder in his career. Ohtani is doing both at the same time — pretty impressive.

But Ruth's power-hitting dominance still stands alone. When Ruth hit a record 54 home runs in 1920, he alone hit more home runs than every other team in the American League (the St. Louis Browns hit 50). No other player in the league hit more than 19 (the Browns' George Sisler). Ruth broke his own record again in 1921 with 59 — more than five of the seven other teams in the American League. And more than twice as many as runners-up — Yankees teammate Bob Meusel and Browns outfielder Ken Williams (no relation to the former White Sox general manager), who hit 24.

At 34, Ruth finished with 46 home runs in 1929 to win his 10th home run title (11 more than teammate Lou Gehrig, who hit 35). He would hit 214 more home runs after hitting No. 500. In fact, from 1930-32 — at ages 35-37 — Ruth's 136 home runs were more than any other player in baseball (Jimmy Foxx of the Philadelphia Athletics — at 22-24 — was next with 125.)

Babe Ruth famously broke the all-time single-season home run record with 54 in 1920, 59 in 1921 and 60 in 1927. But he less conspicuously first broke the record in 1919 with the Red Sox when he hit his 26th home run on Sept. 8, 1919. He finished with 29 that season, and also went 9-5 with a 2.97 ERA in 17 games (15 starts) as a pitcher.