The Ballpark Guys Announce the Babe Ruth Award

By Larry Crino

George Herman Ruth Jr. was the greatest baseball player in history. Few if any observers of the game of baseball dispute that. That may be because it's indisputable.

His grand style and legendary achievements made him more than the National Pastime's greatest player and its most illustrious star; he was the world's most famous American. He lived on Broadway and played his home games in "The House That Ruth Built." After pitching the Red Sox to their last two championships, he personally launched the first Yankees dynasty with his legendary home run hitting. He was the Babe, the Bambino, the Sultan of Swat. By any name, his accomplishments border on the absurd when you compare them to those of all others who have ever played The Game.

In 1914, Babe Ruth broke into the major leagues shortly after turning 19 years of age. At 21, he posted the first of his two 20-win seasons in three full seasons of pitching. He led the American League in ERA one year and shutouts another. He complemented those seasons spent as baseball's premier left-hander by helping his Red Sox to two World Series championships with record-setting mound brilliance. At age 24, he won his second home run title, while setting the all-time single-season home run record. He became a Yankee at 25. At 26, he completed the two greatest offensive campaigns in history, shattering his own home run record and setting marks for slugging, total bases, bases on balls and runs scored that have never even been approached. When he set his record of 54 homers in 1920, the next closest man slugged 19. When he retired in 1935, the next closest man to his 714 career homers had 349.

A few hurlers have come along and logged two 20-win seasons in their first three years, as Ruth did. Three sluggers have surpassed his single-season home run record. It took 34 years for the first man to surpass it. One slugger has topped his career homer mark. It took him nearly 4,000 more at-bats to top it.

But no man will ever come along whose mastery of both the mound and the batter's box will match the Babe's. It will n e v e r happen.

For that reason alone, baseball should institute an award in Ruth's honor that recognizes and rewards the player of the year in each league.

That's exactly what they did in 1956, the year after baseball lost its all-time winningest pitcher, Denton True "Cy" Young. The Game instituted an award for pitchers named in Young's honor.

If baseball recognizes the Babe simply for his on-field achievements, which, to this day are unmatched, it ignores the fact that his unique contribution to baseball is chiefly responsible for The Game's immense popularity. The need for a Babe Ruth Award is clear. The Game's leaders should long ago have accorded the great Babe Ruth the same honor as the great Cy Young. It has been 52 years since the Bambino's death, and his impact on The Game dwarfed Young's.

The Ballpark Guys refuse to wait any longer for baseball to act.

For the players of the year in the National and American leagues for the 2000 season, an esteemed panel of Ballpark Guys from throughout the nation and Canada have voted for the inaugural Babe Ruth Award. Here are the results:

Delgado Edges MVP Giambi and Wins AL Babe Ruth Award

By Larry Crino

Carlos Delgado's monster season was slightly better than Jason Giambi's monster season, in the eyes of the voters for the Ballpark Guys American League Babe Ruth Award. That makes Delgado the AL player of the year for 2000.

In keeping with the spirit of the award, which should be awarded to the outstanding performer in each league, irrespective of his team's success, Delgado really was the AL player of the year. He played every day, and topped Giambi in games, at-bats, runs, hits, batting average and slugging percentage. He and Giambi both drove in 137 runs and Giambi had two more homers, 14 more walks and a slightly higher on base average. Giambi was the true MVP of the league. His banner season, and colossal September, was the driving force behind a division winner. But Delgado was not to be denied player of the year honors after his career year.

Voters were asked to cast votes for their top five choices in each league. Five points were awarded for a first place vote, four for second, etc. Giambi actually received one more first place vote than Delgado (48-47), but Delgado's 417 total points edged the Oakland slugger, who finished with 402. Here's a look at the two sluggers' remarkable statistical lines for 2000:

Three-time Cy Young Award winner, Boston's Pedro Martinez, finished a strong third after garnering the four first place votes that didn't go to Delgado or Giambi, along with 29 seconds and 22 thirds. Martinez was the league's best pitcher by far, and that was enough to give him serious consideration as the league's best player-even in a year that featured such strong performances by several everyday players.

Erstwhile Indians right fielder and Martinez' new Red Sox teammate, Manny Ramirez, finished fourth with 189 points, including the most third and fourth place votes. Ramirez had a remarkable season. He missed a sizable portion of the campaign with a leg injury. But he still hit .351 with 38 homers, 122 RBIs, a .697 slugging average and 306 total bases in only 118 games. If he had played a full campaign, he would have easily surpassed his 1999 homer total of 44 and may have matched or surpassed that year's staggering RBI total of 165.

Texas' new shortstop, Alex Rodriguez, finished fifth in the balloting with 119 points for his typically fine campaign in his last year as a Seattle Mariner. A-Rod's 41 homers, 132 RBIs and .316 average were, well, average for The Game's best player. That's how great he is.

Here are the complete results of the American League voting:

Todd Helton's Historic Year Helps Him Coast to NL Babe Ruth Award Win

By Larry Crino

Colorado first baseman Todd Helton enjoyed an even more productive campaign than the ones posted by Carlos Delgado and Jason Giambi. The sweet-swinging lefty slugger had one of the finest offensive campaigns in history and the finest of any National Leaguer since way back in the late '40s, when another sweet-swinging lefty line-drive hitter named Stan Musial was pacing the NL. Helton's 2000 batting, slugging and on-base averages were astronomical. For several months, there was talk of him challenging the hallowed .400 mark, before he settled in and finished at .372. Helton did reach the 400 mark in total bases. He was only the fourth player to reach the mark since Musial in '48. Of Helton's 216 hits, 103 were for extra bases, including 42 homers and an eye-popping 59 doubles.

Throughout Helton's historic rampage, his gaudy numbers were ascribed to his playing his home games in hitter-friendly Coors Field, where the air is thin, the alleys are wide, the breaking pitch is useless and the baseballs are carbonated. In support of the home-field advantage assertion, he posted a home batting average of .391, a slugging average of .758 and an on-base average of .484. Coors Light was the site of 27 of his 42 homers and 88 of his 147 RBIs. But his road numbers were still outstanding in any light (or atmosphere). Helton's batting average on the road was a lofty .353. His slugging average away from home was .633 and his on-base average was .441. Also, 31 of his 59 doubles came on the road, indicating that his generous doses of smoking liners would produce lofty batting and slugging averages just about anywhere. Even if one were to adjust his numbers for the Coors Light factor, he was still the NL's player of the year with his colossal campaign.

Helton was named first on 86 of the 99 ballots cast. He also received five votes for second, two thirds and three fifths. Three voters thought that the Coors Light advantage padded his numbers so significantly that they overlooked him completely. Jeff Bagwell of Houston, who enjoyed a home field advantage of his own (more on that later), finished second with 297.5 points. Sammy Sosa finished third with 264 points and Barry Bonds placed fourth with 172. The Montreal Expos' Vladimir Guerrero, whose numbers were right in the same neighborhood with the other runners-up, got a first place vote and strong fourth and fifth place consideration for his outstanding 2000 campaign. His 157 points put him in the fifth place slot behind Bonds. It was the third star campaign in a row for the slugging right fielder, who hit .345 with 44 homers, 123 RBIs and a .664 slugging percentage in 2000.

Given the climate of skepticism that dogged Helton during his rampage, perhaps there should be mention made of the advantages enjoyed by the next three Babe Ruth Award finishers Jeff Bagwell of Houston, Barry Bonds of San Francisco and Sammy Sosa of Chicago.

Let's first address Sosa's Wrigley Field advantage, which has caused cynics to downgrade his astronomical homer totals for the last three seasons. When you look at his numbers for the 2000 campaign, he actually posted better offensive numbers on the road. Except for his one triple and one extra walk at home, Sosa's road numbers were better across the board. His slugging percentage was 83 points higher on the road. He had 20 more RBIs and 39 more total bases away from the "friendly confines."

When Bonds first laid his eyes on Pacific Bell Park and its short porch in right, the lefty pull hitter started regaling us with his goal of hitting over 600 homers. His godfather, a man named Mays, scoffed that if Bonds doesn't hit 50 in a season, he should be ashamed of himself. Bonds hit a career-high 49 in only 143 games. But just barely over half of them (25) came at home. His Pac Bell batting average was 30 points higher and his slugging percentage was 108 points higher. The huge expanse in Pac Bell's right center field gap added more points to Bonds' batting and slugging averages than the short porch added to his homer total.

Bagwell's new haunt, Enron Field, helped him enjoy significant differences in runs (87/65), hits (101/82), homers (28/19), RBIs (72/60), batting average (.353/.270), slugging average (.720/.516) and on-base average (.462/.389). His batting, on-base and slugging averages were all drastically higher at home.

The advantage Bagwell enjoyed appears to be as great as that of any other player of the year candidate, including Helton. Bagwell's marvelously productive 2000 campaign made him the logical runner-up to Helton in the Babe Ruth Award voting, but it was seldom mentioned that Enron Field significantly aided his cause, in some cases more significantly than Coors aided Helton's. The Coors Light advantage argument was waged against Helton from the beginning of his run at .400 in an attempt to demean all of his offensive achievements. It worked. Some cynics have branded his season with an asterisk. And the so-called advantage of playing in Wrigley Field doesn't really seem like an advantage at all.

Here's the 2000 stat line for each of the top four finishers, with his home/road breakdown:

Sosa's totals:

Bonds' totals:

Bagwell's totals:

Helton's totals:

The National League voting:

Back to Awards page.

Phil Rogers, Chicago Tribune