Babe Ruth vs. Ted Williams: Two Tales of Dominating Consistency

By almost every single objective metric, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams are the two greatest hitters in the history of Major League Baseball. Here are a few career statistics that Ruth and Williams rank first and second on in MLB history (by no means an exhaustive list): OBP, SLG, OPS, OPS+, wOBA, wRC+, Offensive Win Percentage, and Batting Runs per plate appearance. The metrics in which they excelled in also run the gamut from the traditional (Ruth with his career 714 home runs, Williams with his .406 season in 1941) to the sabermetrically-inclined (Ruth is first in WAR/650 plate appearances, while Williams ranks third in Wins Above Average to Wins Above Replacement ratio among hitters). At their respective peaks, they were getting on base over half the time they came up to bat, and their career marks of a .482 (Williams) and .474 (Ruth) OBP rank first and second in MLB history. In the batter’s box, they had no equal (save for a steroid-aided Barry Bonds), and they combined a fantastic batting eye with elite power. Again, aside from that four-year period from 2001-2004 where Bonds went haywire, there have not been any real challengers to the two’s positions as A and B among best hitters in MLB history. However, the question of whom was better must be asked, but to answer it, we have to dig a little into the background of when the two played, and the offensive environments they dealt with.

For as amazing as both Ruth and Williams were in their respective careers, the issue of missed time rears its ugly head. For Ruth, he spent the first four years of his MLB career being used primarily as a pitcher, and it was only in 1919, the year he set the record for most home runs in a season with 29, did he accrue enough at-bats to qualify for the AL’s rate stat leaderboards (in both his and Williams’s time, 400 at bats were the minimum to lead the league in batting average, as they didn’t track OBP, SLG, or OPS in that era). It was the first of a record eleven times he would achieve an OPS+ of 200 or greater. What his numbers would have looked like had he been a full-time position player instead of a pitcher is a mystery, but in my opinion, his lack of hitting opportunities in his formative MLB years actually helped his rate stats look better, because he did not have to experience a steep learning curve, instead getting to take his time adjusting to big league pitching. For Williams, though, his missed years to serving in two wars were devastating to his overall numbers as well as his rate stats, as he missed his prime to WW2 and his late career renaissance was shortened by missing the 1952 and 1953 seasons to flying combat missions during the Korean War. Also, Ruth played during a time when offense was easier to come by than the era Williams played, as the average OPS during Ruth’s tenure of 1919-1934 was .749, 4.8% higher than the .713 OPS during Williams’s career from 1939-60. Of course, Williams played in a hitter’s park, though Fenway was tough to hit home runs if you were a lefty like Ted. Ruth also played in a hitter’s park, though his home field wasn’t as hitter-friendly as was Ted’s.

So with the above context out of the way, we are in a better position to compare the careers of Ruth and Williams. What I have done is go on a year-by-year basis by each of the hitter’s age, i.e. comparing Ruth’s age 27 season to Williams’s age 27 season. Additionally, Williams missed all of his age 24-26 seasons and the vast majority of his age 33 and 34 seasons to wars, so I used the methodology of Steve Treder from this article on FanGraphs to calculate how he would have fared in the years he missed relative to his contemporaries. Then, I took the yearly offensive environments each played in and compared their numbers on a rate basis to the averages for said year. The result is as accurate a comparison I could make that shows their stats for different years, allowing a comparison between Ruth’s 1923 and how Williams’s 1941 would look in 1923, and vice versa. I’ve listed their triple slash lines, OPS+, wRC+ (I modified wRC+ to include intentional walks and only counted AL totals in my re-calculation of the linear weights used to compute the figures that form wRC+, but they are close to FanGraphs’s values), home runs, and walks, giving us a thorough look into how they compare to one another. And for the ages in which only one of them played or can be estimated (like Williams above), I wrote a quick summary on how that age season ranks among all 8,736 qualified seasons in AL history (I used a cutoff of 400 plate appearances in a season) and only included what their stats were in the year they played. For years in which both had the same aged season, I included their stats in both Ruth's and Williams's years, so Ruth's age 29 season (1924) and Williams's age 29 season (1949) will show as their actual stats in the year they played and their estimated stats based on how they would have fared in the other's hitting environment for that year. Finally, I highlighted the line in bold of which player I thought was the better hitter for that age. Let's get to it.

Age 20 Season: Ted Williams (1939) - .327/.436/.609; 160 OPS+, 156 wRC+; 31 HRs, 107 walks

Williams started off his career with one of the most impressive hitting campaigns a 20 year-old has ever had, with the 6th-highest OPS+ and wRC+ of anyone that age. Interestingly enough, this would arguably be the worst season of his career hitting-wise, save for his age 40 season in 1959, so to have a 160 OPS+ and lead the AL in total bases in your second-worst hitting season is a pretty incredible accomplishment. He also totaled a career-high in extra base hits, gathering 88 over the course of the season, and combine that with over 100 walks, he excelled in all areas while in the batter's box. For a rookie, it was a special season, and even more for a young buck who just a couple years before, had never been anywhere near the East Coast, having spent his child and teenage years in San Diego. The culture shock didn't seem to bother the Kid, though, and his performance reflected a baseball IQ well beyond his years. Overall, while it would prove to be a weak year in Williams's own career, it was still good enough to rank 30th among all AL hitters in wRC+ in the decade of the 1930s. That's pretty amazing all things considered, and what's more incredible is that his 1939 season would be the last time he did not lead the MLB (not just the American League) in on-base percentage in a season he qualified for (basically, he did not have enough plate appearances in 1950 or 1955 to qualify for the title). In other words, from 1940 to his retirement, in every season Ted Williams had with at least 502 plate appearances, he led the majors in OBP (and if you lower the minimum to 400 PAs, as I did for my analysis, he led the AL in 1950 and led the majors in 1955). He was setting himself up well for a storybook career.

Age 21 Season: Ted Williams (1940) - .344/.442/.594; 162 OPS+, 159 wRC+; 23 HRs, 107 walks

Williams continued his great hitting into his sophomore season, increasing his ranking from 6th among 20 year-olds in AL history to 4th among 21 year-olds. The only names above him are Ty Cobb in 1908, Jimmie Foxx in 1929, and Mike Trout in 2013, not too shabby at all. His batting average increased substantially, but this was the year that he began to get heavily booed by the Fenway fans, primarily because his power output substantially declined. He went from a great total of 31 his rookie year to a merely good 23. In fact, it's even more of a decline than it first appears because he homered 2.8x more often than league average in 1939, and that dropped to "only" 1.9x more often in 1940. The home run rate actually increased from 1.6% of all PAs to 1.8%, so Williams dropping his homer frequency was not something the Boston crowd took kindly to. According to Ben Bradlee's work The Kid, Williams stopped tipping his cap to the Red Sox faithful this season, and began a war against the sportswriters that would last for another 2 decades until his retirement. But while Ted was getting booed at home and savaged in the papers, he was embarking upon maybe the most impressive multi-season streak in baseball history. As noted above, Williams led the majors in OBP, and would continue to do so for the next 18 years whenever he had at least 502 plate appearances (and that's not even counting his aforementioned 1955 year, when he led the MLB .496 mark, but only had 417 PAs that season). He would have led both leagues in OBP during the three years he missed from '43-'45, as his WORST OBP from 1941-1947 (the two years before the his missed time and the two directly after) was .497; the highest OBP from 43-45 was Phil Cavarretta's .449 in 1945. The same could be said during the '52 and '53 seasons, as Jackie Robinson's .440 OBP in 1952 was the highest in either league during Williams's absence, and in the surrounding four years, his lowest was .452, and he averaged a figure of .481 from '50-55 (not counting his short stints in '52 and '53, when he totaled 122 plate appearances combined). In total, Williams led the AL in OBP 14 straight years and the MLB 13 straight years out of 14 qualifying seasons from 1940-1958. He was a machine, and the best was yet to come for him.

Age 22 Season: Ted Williams (1941) - .406/.553/.735; 235 OPS+, 229 wRC+; 37 HRs, 147 walks

At this point, there's not much more that can be said about Ted Williams's 1941 season. Every serious baseball fan knows that he was the last one to hit .400 (I'd be shocked if anyone does it again, unless the rules are substantially changed to favor the hitter to the point where pitching is almost unrecognizable from its current form), and that he went 6-8 in the last two games of the season to push him over that milestone. He was the only player aside from Ruth to put up a 1.250 OPS across a full season until Barry Bonds did it four years in a row during his Incredible Hulk stretch of 2001-2004, and his 1.287 mark in this year was a career-high. He set career highs in all of his triple slash lines, and his 235 OPS+ was also a personal best. Again, those are all stats relatively easy to understand and find, but what happens if we dive a little deeper, taking a sabermetrics-heavy approach and comparing what he did to others in not only AL history, but in National League also? Well, for starters, Williams did this as a 22 year-old, and he put together those colossal numbers. Among all 22 year-olds in both AL and NL history, the closest to Williams's 235 OPS+ and 229 wRC+ is Bryce Harper in 2015, when he put together a historic 198 and 203 OPS+ and wRC+, respectively. Williams's OPS+ was 18.7% better and his wRC+ 12.8% higher. Williams ran circles around his closest comparison, so much so to the point that finding a valid benchmark to serve as a foundation to compare him to is pretty much impossible, at least when you're talking about 22 year-old hitters. He outclassed other notable hitters in this age season, with only Ty Cobb coming anywhere close to him with a 189 wRC+ in 1909. For reference, Mike Trout had a 169 wRC+ as a 22 YO, and Mickey Mantle could only manage a 163 figure. Again, those are phenomenal seasons for a hitter so young, and Ted just utterly annihilated everyone. It is far and away the greatest hitting campaign a 22 year-old has ever had, and unless Juan Soto is imbibed with Ted's spirit in 2021, I don't think there will be a close challenger. He also homered at a rate 4.05x more often than league average. For perspective, Mike Trout's career best is 2.18x more often than league average, which he attained in 2014. If you take Ted's figures relative to the league and apply that to the 2019 environment, well, that equates to 87 long balls, which is pretty good. Finally, there's his bWAR tally of 10.4, which is great in its own right, but he did that in only 606 plate appearances. Pro-rate that to 650 PAs and he winds up with 11.2 bWAR. Do the same for his 11.0 fWAR and you get an almost unbelievable 11.8 wins. Nothing more really needs to be said about Ted in 1941.

Age 23 Season: Ted Williams (1942) - .356/.499/.648; 216 OPS+, 211 wRC+; 36 HRs, 145 walks

Williams followed up his otherworldly 1941 season with a terrific age 23 year. While it wasn't quite as awe-inspiring as his third year in the Show, in a season in which baseball had to use a more pitcher-friendly ball due to rationing rubber for the war effort, it was still a fantastic year at the plate. While his raw numbers took quite the dip, this is easily explained by the aforementioned depressed offensive environment, as the average OPS went from a decent mark of .730 to a Deadball-esque .683, the lowest in the AL since 1918. And with all this against him, Ted still had an amazing season even by the surface stats. But if we put his 1942 performance relative to league average, and put him in a more neutral hitting year, well, that's when his seemingly great numbers like 36 homers and 1.147 OPS become almost unbelievable. For starters, Williams actually homered at a much higher rate in 1942 and than he did in 1941, at least compared to league-average (4.74x in 1942 compared to his 4.05x mark the prior year). Baseballs went yard at a clip of 1.5% in '41, compared to the paltry 1.1% in 1942. What does his 1942 season look like in a year in which the ball didn't provide a huge advantage to the pitcher, like, say, 1941? How does 46 home runs and a slash line of .369/.518/.705 sound? Or what about his stats in 1940, when homers were aplenty and the league-wide OPS was .750? It equals 58 home runs and a triple slash of .376/.520/.738. It just goes to show important context is when making conclusions about a player's performance, and how misleading even decent metrics like OPS and home runs can be. Among all 23 year-olds in MLB history, his 216 OPS+ and 211 wRC+ are the highest among that age group, with Ty Cobb coming in second place with marks of 205 and 200, respectively. While Ted didn't separate himself from the competition to the same extent as he had year before, it was still one of the greatest hitting seasons ever, coming in at 14th all-time in AL history for OPS+ and 15th for wRC+. In summation, Williams had another outstanding season, and it was his second year in a row that he set the record for highest OPS+ and wRC+ in his age. Unfortunately, he would have to miss the next three years to WW2, but I've utilized Treder's methodology from the FanGraphs article to arrive at an approximation of how he would have fared. And now, for the first time, we can compare him to Babe.

Age 24 Season: Babe Ruth (1919) - .322/.456/.657; 217 OPS+, 211 wRC+; 29 HRs, 101 walks

1943 Ted Williams in 1919 environment - .379/.510/.649; 14 HRs, 102 walks

1919 Babe Ruth in 1943 environment: - .299/.441/.626; 55 HRs, 121 walks

Ted Williams (estimated 1943) - .352/.492/.618; 217 OPS+, 213 wRC+; 27 HRs, 135 walks

So here we have the first age in which we can make some comparisons between the two, albeit very imprecisely, as we have to rely not on what Williams actually accomplished in 1943, but on what we can only approximate. However, what's also important to note is that the aforementioned balata ball was in effect until 1945, so if there were no WW2, I think it can be safely argued that Ted would have put up much better raw numbers than what we estimate him doing. So obviously, the first thing that should get your eye is that amazing HR total we estimate Ruth achieving. In 1919, the Babe homered at an almost incomprehensible rate of 9.48x more often than league average. Even with the depressed offensive environment making hitting more difficult on the whole in 1943 compared to 1919, AL batters homered much more often in '43 than they did in 1919, so Ruth's almost doubling his total dingers to 55 is not that much of a surprise. He also walked at a very high rate, and in an era when pitchers were dominant, to eclipse the century mark in free passes is no easy feat. Ruth's age 24 season ranks tied for second with Ted's in OPS+, and his wRC+ is third behind Williams and Lou Gehrig (whose 1927 is first in OPS+ in that age group and second in wRC+). With all that said, though, I have to give the very, very slight edge to Williams. While, yes, it's true that he didn't actually have an age 24 season, his numbers very likely would have approached the relative values that we calculated. Consider that from 1941-1947, Williams had an average OPS+ of 217 and an average wRC+ of 214 in those four seasons, so he's right around those marks. I see little reason why he would not have similar success, and the fact that he possibly could have exceeded that, because he wouldn't have been rusty in 1946 after missing three prime years. Yes, it's a lot of assuming and guessing, but in order to be as fair as possible, I think the methodology is valid when comparing these hitting titans. Babe beats Ted in slugging (Babe beats everyone in that metric), but Williams betters Ruth in just about everything else, especially OBP, the more important component of OPS. All in all, it's very, very close, but because of Ted's amazing ability to get on base, I'll have to say he would have had the better age 24 season between the two. Williams leads 1-0.

Age 25 Season: Babe Ruth (1920) - .376/.532/.847; 255 OPS+, 236 wRC+; 54 HRs, 150 walks

1944 Ted Williams in 1920 environment - .390/.523/.689; 20 HRs, 113 walks

1920 Babe Ruth in 1944 environment: - .344/.498/.772; 67 HRs, 149 walks

Ted Williams (estimated 1944) - .358/.490/.628; 211 OPS+, 209 wRC+; 25 HRs, 130 walks

This was Babe's magnum opus, the single most dominant hitting season in a career chock full of mythical campaigns. Until Barry Bonds in 2001, no player had come within 80 points of his .847 SLG, with teammate Lou Gehrig's .765 the closest anyone had been since. His 54 home runs were more than any other American League TEAM in 1920, so he revolutionized baseball in a way that no one had before. There was no template for the Babe, no benchmark to compare him to. He broke the single-season MLB record for home runs by 25, breaking his old record he had set the previous year. His HR+ mark was a laughable 1,136, meaning he hit home runs 11.36x more often than the league average. The only valid comparison you can make to Ruth's 1920 home runs would be Barry Bonds' 120 intentional walks in 2004; the disparity between first and second is almost too vast to comprehend. So it should be no surprise to say that Ruth would have had an absolute field day hitting dingers in 1944, even though the offensive environment as a whole was much lower in '44 than in 1920. We see him knock 67 long bombs out of the park, which would have been a personal best for the Bambino. And while his slash line does suffer, that SLG is still absurdly impressive at .772, which would have bettered anyone in MLB history aside from Bonds. Among all 25 years-olds, Ruth's 255 OPS+ and 236 wRC+ lead everyone, with the only real close competitor Mickey Mantle's 1957 season with a 221 OPS+ and a 224 wRC+. Now, the above is not meant to disparage Teddy Ballgame, because given the best estimates, he would have been absolutely phenomenal in 1944 had he been allowed to play. A 211 OPS+ and 209 wRC+ are normally more than enough to call you the best given whoever is your competition. At a time when home runs were very tough to come by, 25 in a year when the average rate was 1 every 100 plate appearances is phenomenal. Throw in a .490 OBP and a .628 SLG when the league average was .325 and .346, and you come out as exceptional. Indeed, Ted compares very favorably with Babe when it comes to batting average and on-base percentage, trailing just behind Ruth in OBP and besting him fairly easily in batting average. Williams's would-be age 25 season for OPS+ and wRC+ is greater than every other player's in league history aside from the titans mentioned above. Ted was unbelievable, but Ruth's age 25 season may have been the greatest hitting season of all-time. It's tied 1-1.

Age 26 Season: Babe Ruth (1921) - .378/.512/.846; 239 OPS+, 226 wRC+; 59 HRs, 145 walks

1945 Ted Williams in 1921 environment - .394/.536/.731; 26 HRs, 121 walks

1921 Babe Ruth in 1945 environment: - .330/.467/.716; 52 HRs, 141 walks

Ted Williams (estimated 1945) - .344/.489/.618; 210 OPS+, 211 wRC+; 23 HRs, 143 walks

Ruth continued his devastation of American League pitching in 1921, hitting even more dingers in his third full season as a position player and increasing his batting average by two points. It was his third straight season with an OPS+ above 215, something that had never been done before up to that point in MLB history, and would only be match by Williams and Bonds. The traditional stats really love this season by the Babe, with his 177 runs scored and 168 RBIs. His total bases were something out of a video game, as he accrued an amazing 457, still the most in MLB history. In addition to his 59 homers, he had 44 doubles and 16 triples, which gave him an almost impossible-to-believe 119 extra base hits for the season, which also is still the record. In fact, so historic was that campaign (even by Ruth's standards) that it was voted as the greatest hitting season in baseball history by voters in an ESPN poll. He totaled 12.8 bWAR and 13.9 fWAR, just obscenely good figures. In many ways, especially by the counting stats, it can be considered better than his 1920 season (though I personally think he was better the year before), but even if you don't believe that, it's the second or third best year he ever had with the bat. Once again, Ruth homered more often than anyone, with a HR+ mark of 869, good enough for fifth all-time in AL history (Ruth owns all of the top 7 marks except for fourth). Once again, Ruth's dominance in comparison to his competition almost overwhelms what Williams would have been able to do if he played that year, which is somewhat sad because Ted would have probably, once again, put up an OPS+ and wRC+ of at least 200. His numbers in a 1921 environment, while not on the level of Ruth, are still astronomically astounding. His OBP would have been .536, over a .700 slugging percentage, an OPS of 1.267, numbers only he, Ruth, and Bonds have touched. And while he's overshadowed by Ruth (along with every other hitter ever) when it comes to home runs, his HR+ figure of 381 is good enough to place him in the 98.8th percentile in American League history, and his walk percentage is in the 99.7th percentile ever for this year. Again, it's difficult to overstate just how amazing The Kid was, and the sad part for him is that his would-be age 25 and 26 seasons just so happened to coincide with perhaps the greatest display of batting in back-to-back season with Ruth's 1920 and 1921. Now, again, it's closer than the gap between the '20 and '44 years for the two, but I still have to give the edge to the Bambino. Ruth leads 2-1.

Age 27 Season: Babe Ruth (1922) - .315/.434/.672; 182 OPS+, 179 wRC+; 35 HRs, 84 walks

1946 Ted Williams in 1922 environment - .381/.528/.729; 32 HRs, 125 walks

1922 Babe Ruth in 1946 environment: - .283/.408/.616; 41 HRs, 89 walks

Ted Williams (1946) - .342/.497/.667; 215 OPS+, 215 wRC+; 38 HRs, 156 walks

After putting together three straight seasons with an OPS+ of at least 215, Ruth heavily regressed from a hitting deity to a merely fantastic batter in 1922. In the previous two seasons, Ruth slugged 113 home runs and averaged a slash line of .377/.522/.847 while totaling 218 extra base hits (lol). He did that in two years, during a time when the season was only 154 games. Now, there was no real expectation that he could have maintained that pace over multiple additional seasons, but it probably surprised Yankees fans with just how far he fell. Now, with all of the above said, we shouldn't confuse ourselves and think it was a poor year overall, because he still was a monster at the plate, performing well enough to achieve a 182 OPS+ and 179 wRC+, numbers good enough to put him in the 98.9th and 98.8th percentile, respectively. He had his fourth straight year with an OPS above 1.100, and it's good enough to land him at 11th all-time in AL history among all age 27 seasons. An awesome year by almost anyone's standards, but for Ruth, it's just subpar, and also subpar compared to what Ted did in his inaugural year back from the war. The Kid picked right up from where he left off back in 1942, reaching a new career high of 38 home runs and hitting well enough for a 1.164 OPS, the second-highest of his career. No one in either league came anywhere close to his OPS+ and wRC+ figure of 215, as it seemed that not only was Ted as good as he had been before the war, but he was that good at a time when everyone else was trying to get back to their pre-war form and during a depressed offensive environment where the overall AL OPS was only .692, the fifth straight year it had been below .700. In hindsight, it sucks that Ted's best years were missed to serving in the armed forces and that when he was playing, his '42, '46, and '47 seasons were all in low-scoring years. However, it makes what he did accomplish in those three seasons all the more impressive, and demonstrates what a savant he was. His 1946 season is one of the best in baseball history, the best any age 27 player has produced offensively, with Barry Bonds's 209 wRC+ in 1992 and George Brett's 203 wRC+ in 1980 coming in second and third in the group. His wRC+ and OBP+ rank 9th in AL history, good for the 99.9th percentile. He takes this one convincingly. It's tied 2-2.

Age 28 Season: Babe Ruth (1923) - .393/.545/.764; 239 OPS+, 232 wRC+; 41 HRs, 170 walks

1947 Ted Williams in 1923 environment - .379/.525/.676; 21 HRs, 124 walks

1923 Babe Ruth in 1947 environment: - .355/.517/.717; 62 HRs, 187 walks

Ted Williams (1947) - .343/.499/.634; 205 OPS+, 209 wRC+; 32 HRs, 162 walks

Ruth came back with a vengeance in 1923, garnering the highest OBP of his career and the most walks he would ever draw in a season. His home run rate of 6.41x the league average rate was actually the lowest of his career up to that point, but he made up for it by hitting doubles and triples at a very high rate, the highest of his career in fact. His BB%+ figure of 289 is second in his career after his 1920 season, and his OBP+ of 155 would end up being the greatest he ever had. It all combined to total up to an insane OPS+ of 239, tied with 1921 for the second-highest mark he ever had. His WAR total is what really stands out, however. He amassed an incredible 14.1 bWAR and 15.0 fWAR: both of those being the highest wins above replacement any position player has ever had. He played great defense as a right fielder, saving 19 runs and having an incredible win% of .576 (this estimates how well an otherwise average team would perform if they had this player for the season). It shouldn't surprise you that it's the highest figure ever. I personally think this was the best season Ruth ever had as an overall player, and he laps the field in the American League when it comes to wRC, with Ted's above 209 mark placing second, and Rogers Hornsby's 226 wRC+ is second overall (as he did it in the National League). Ruth was also just 28 at this time and in just 5 full seasons as a position player, already had the four greatest hitting seasons by OPS+ since the establishment of the American League in 1901. He really had no valid comparison, and like 1920 and 1921, his dominance heavily overshadows Williams's own greatness and what he accomplished in 1947. Ted was fantastic, as '47 was the year that he actually eclipsed a record the Babe had set earlier, with The Kid accomplishing his fourth straight year with an OPS+ and wRC+ greater than 200. The only other player who has ever matched him was Barry Bonds (amazing how often we come back to him in this post), so he's in some pretty prestigious company. His OBP was again .499, the fourth straight year he had an OBP of at least .495, which not even Ruth accomplished in his time. He set a new career high in walks with 162 (a figure he would tie in 1949), and it was the third time that he had drawn at least 100 more walks than strikeouts. He would go on to accomplish that five times in total, which is an MLB record. He combined probably the best batting eye in baseball history with the patience of a monk, a deadly combination for any pitcher to have to go up against. Like I mentioned above, Ted is second in AL history and third overall among all 27 year-olds when it comes to wRC+, but he just can't contend with Ruth, even though Teddy Ballgame had a fabulous season. Ruth leads 3-2.

Age 29 Season: Babe Ruth (1924) - .378/.513/.739; 220 OPS+, 213 wRC+; 46 HRs, 142 walks

1948 Ted Williams in 1924 environment - .403/.510/.640; 14 HRs, 94 walks

1924 Babe Ruth in 1948 environment: - .346/.500/.711; 82 HRs, 172 walks

Ted Williams (1948) - .369/.497/.615; 189 OPS+, 189 wRC+; 25 HRs, 126 walks

The Bambino continued his hot streak from 1923 into '24, amassing his fifth season out of six with an OPS+ and wRC+ of at least 210. It was also his fourth season with an OPS of at least 1.250, coinciding with the same frequency of an OBP of .500 or higher and SLG of .700 or greater. There was no denying at this point that Babe was the greatest hitter ever, and many give him that designation to this very day. To put his accomplishments into an even greater perspective, before Ruth, no one had ever hit 30 home runs in a season. In the six years since he had become a full-time outfielder, the Babe averaged 44 home runs a season during a time when the second-best player hit 133 (that would be Cy Williams). His AVERAGE slugging percentage was .759. There really aren't any words to accurately describe his dominance during this time, just because he was so far and away the best, most devastating presence any sport had ever seen up to that point, (I personally think only Wilt Chamberlain and Wayne Gretzky can match his dominance, and they came well after Babe retired). Amazingly enough, Ruth did not lead the majors in either OPS+ or wRC+, as Rogers Hornsby laid claim to that title with his historic 1924 season. However, in just about everything else, Ruth led the AL and NL, including home runs, walks, runs scored, total bases, OBP, and SLG. It was also the fourth time in his career that Ruth accrued at least 100 batting runs, a record that no one will probably come close to approaching (he ended his career with five such seasons), mainly because only Bonds and Gehrig have done it, and both combined to accomplish it four times, one fewer than Ruth by himself. As we can see, Babe in 1924 was as amazing as he'd ever been. Among all age 29 seasons, Ruth's 1924 is first in both wRC+ and OPS+. Contrast Ruth's fantastic year with Williams, who fell offs somewhat compared to his previous four years. He still had an amazing OBP, and his batting average was second up to this point, but his slugging percentage declined to "only" .615. The previous four years, his average SLG was .669, so it's not an insignificant decline, even though it's of course not a bad mark by any means, as he led the American League and finished second to Stan Musial among all hitters. The primary driver of his low (for his standards) SLG was a decline in power, as his HR+ rate of 267 was the second-lowest of his career up to that point. Now, the amazing thing about all what I just said is that Williams's 1948 is one of the best offensive seasons we've ever seen from an American League hitter. Even the weakest part of his season, his home run total, was still fantastic when matched up historically. It ranks in the 95th percentile of all qualified AL seasons, and his SLG, OPS, and wRC+ figures were all above the 99th percentile. His OBP was fantastic as always, in the 99.6th percentile. He also set a career-high for doubles with 44, as his 2B+ mark of 180 was his personal best. His walks dipped to "only" 126, but his BB%+ of 183 is still in the 93.9th percentile ever. It was objectively a fantastic year, as his wRC+ and OPS+ figures have only been eclipsed three times over the past decade (once a piece by Miguel Cabrera, Mike Trout, and Bryce Harper), but it was slightly subpar for him (pretty amazing that the fourth-greatest hitting season for a 29 year-old among AL batters is considered a slight disappointment). Consequently, Ruth leads 4-2.

Age 30 Season: Babe Ruth (1925) - .290/.393/.543; 137 OPS+, 135 wRC+; 25 HRs, 59 walks

1949 Ted Williams in 1925 environment - .380/.500/.699; 28 HRs, 115 walks

1925 Babe Ruth in 1949 environment: - .261/.385/.505; 38 HRs, 80 walks

Ted Williams (1949) - .343/.490/.650; 191 OPS+, 189 wRC+; 43 HRs, 162 walks

Babe Ruth's 1925 season is something else. On the one hand, he continued to hit home runs more frequently than anyone else in the league, with a HR+ figure of 536. On the other hand, he had by far his worst year up to that point, and no other year comes all that close to his '25 campaign. In every single major offensive category, Ruth set new career lows, from batting average and WAR to doubles and walks. The reasons for his extraordinary decline are speculative, but the notion of a "Bellyache Heard Round the World" is probably not the cause, as alcohol abuse or an STD is a much more legitimate explanation (Ruth was a famous womanizer). Regardless, Ruth really struggled in comparison to what he had done in the prior years, as his OBP dropped by 120 points and his SLG almost 200. It was pretty stunning, and the fact that he still managed a very respectable 137 OPS+ and 135 wRC+ says a lot about how high he had set expectations when such marks are rightly thought of as massive disappointments. All in all, it was a very forgettable season for the Babe, and it would end up being his lowest OBP and second-lowest SLG of his time as a position player, and he ends up finishing 114th in wRC+ out of all 30 year-old seasons in AL history, by far the lowest of his career and way worse than what the low point of any of Williams's qualified seasons. By contrast, Ted was his typical, excellent self in 1949, winning his second MVP (even though it should have been his fifth, and if he hadn't missed his three prime years to the war, safely add on another two or three to that). He led the American League in just about every meaningful offensive category, among them bWAR, fWAR, oWAR, OBP, SLG, OPS, OPS+, total bases, home runs, RBIs, runs scored, walks, and doubles. In most of those categories, he led the entire MLB as well, so it was another dominant season in a career chock-full of them. In many ways, it resembles his 1948 year, although he dramatically improved his HR rate to 3.69x league average, much better than the previous year's 2.67x. His SLG+ mark went from 161 to 172, an notable increase. However, his OPS+ only increased by two points, even though his power numbers really went up. The explanation for this is because Boston's park factor went from 105 (hitter-friendly) in '48 to 108 in '49 (very hitter-friendly). While it is true that Williams did hit better at home, with a higher OBP and SLG, he wasn't helped as much as right-handed Red Sox hitters, as Fenway had deep dimensions to right field, and Williams was a dead-pull hitter (left-handed hitters pull to the right side of the field). In some ways, I think the park factors may result in Ted's being slightly underrated when it comes to OPS+ and wRC+, both which incorporate park factors into their calculation. However, all that being said, Williams had a stellar season, and he ranks seventh all-time among AL hitters in wRC+ for age 30 players. Williams closes the gap against Ruth, taking this round very comfortably. Ruth leads 4-3.

Age 31 Season: Babe Ruth (1926) - .372/.516/.737; 226 OPS+, 220 wRC+; 47 HRs, 144 walks

1950 Ted Williams in 1926 environment - .340/.446/.629; 12 HRs, 66 walks

1926 Babe Ruth in 1950 environment: - .357/.523/.758; 106 HRs, 176 walks

Ted Williams (1950) - .317/.452/.647; 164 OPS+, 164 wRC+; 28 HRs, 82 walks

Let's get the elephant out of the room: I don't think transporting a 1926 Babe Ruth to 1950 results in his hitting 106 home runs. The reason it shows up as that figure is solely due to how far and away better Ruth was at hitting home runs than his competition. Let's do some simple math: In 1926, Ruth hit home runs at a rate of 8.16x more often than the league's average HR %. In 1926, the average HR% was 0.8838%, so one home run about every 113.6 plate appearances. Babe's HR% was 7.208%, so if you divide 7.208%/.8838%, well, you get 8.16. So, if you multiply 8.16 by the HR rate in the American League in 1950 (which was a mammoth 1.997%, the highest by far up to that point), you will get about 16.3%. So, multiply 16.3% by Ruth's estimated plate appearances in a 1950 environment (648 PAs), and viola, you get 106 home runs! Now, of course it's not an exact science, but it does give one a sense that a guy like Babe was just playing a different game than his contemporaries. His HRs also overshadow his other accomplishments, because what Babe actually did in 1926 is amazing. He had his fourth year with an OPS+ of at least 225 (spoiler alert: it wasn't his last), and the fact that this came on the heels of his worst year in the bigs showed a resiliency that he hadn't demonstrated before in his time in the game. It was his fifth year with an OBP above .500, a record that I don't think will ever come close to being broken, as Bonds and Williams (one retired, the other dead) did it four and three times, respectively. It was also the fifth time he eclipsed a SLG of .700 or higher, which again won't get approached unless the rules of baseball are fundamentally changed. There's not really much more that needs to be said about Babe, as unsurprisingly, he leads both leagues in wRC+ for all age 31 seasons. Williams had kind of a down season, at least for his standards. His OBP, OPS, OPS+ and wRC+ were all his lowest since his sophomore season back in 1940, so he declined pretty substantially from 1949. His SLG looks real nice on the surface, as does his OBP, but in a very high offensive environment (the league-wide OPS was .759, tied with 1939 for the highest of his time in the league), they weren't as great relative to the league as his figures had been in the past. Overall, it was a relatively forgettable year for Williams, as his next year would be as well. It wasn't bad, actually really good on the whole, as both his OPS+ and wRC+ are in the 97th percentile. However, it wasn't Williams-esque. He ranks 18th among 31 YOs in AL history in wRC+. Really good, but not fantastic. Babe laps the floor with Ted in the aged season. Ruth leads 5-3.

Age 32 Season: Babe Ruth (1927) - .356/.486/.772; 225 OPS+, 215 wRC+; 60 HRs, 137 walks

1951 Ted Williams in 1927 environment - .347/.477/.582; 16 HRs, 116 walks

1927 Babe Ruth in 1951 environment: - .326/.472/.737; 115 HRs, 162 walks

Ted Williams (1951) - .318/.464/.556; 164 OPS+, 166 wRC+; 30 HRs, 144 walks

As you can probably imagine, everything I said in regards to Ruth's home runs in the above section applies to this year as well. Ruth was just so far ahead of everyone when it came to hitting dingers that it's wildly unfair to compare his figures to anyone else. He again had an OPS+ above 225, the fifth time in his career and a record that will never be broken. His OPS was 1.258, which he accomplished for the sixth time in his tenure, another record (sense a theme here). And of course, he hit 60 home runs, which would stand until Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa and their steroids broke it in 1998, which Bonds would then break three years later (there he is again!). A glance at his sabermetric stats would bring your eyes to his 12.5 bWAR and 13.0 fWAR, along with his .545 wOBA. He was as dominant as any player ever has been, and he had no real competition from anyone when it came to the claim of the best hitter in the game except for Hornsby. Other notable categories that he led the league in include walks, (the sixth time in his career), isolated power (SLG - BA), runs scored, strikeouts (Ruth struck out an extraordinary amount for his time), and OBP. Keep in mind that this was the same year that his teammate Lou Gehrig had his magnum opus, with a 220 OPS+, a .475 OBP, .765 SLG, and 1.240 OPS. Pretty amazing that Gehrig didn't lead the league in any of those categories. Ruth leads all age 32 year-olds in wRC+ and OPS+, both the AL and the NL. For Williams, pretty much all that was said for his 1950 season is applicable here. He put up very good but not great slash lines, but even though his OPS was 80 points lower than his prior year, because the league-wide OPS dropped by 36 points, he didn't suffer greatly in OPS+, as he still managed a great mark of 164. He still walked more than anyone else in the game, getting 144 free passes against only 45 strikeouts (unlike Ruth, Williams was very good at not striking out). He led the American League in total bases with 295, as well as OBP, SLG, OPS, and OPS+. Even in a relatively poor hitting season, Williams was still better than anyone else in baseball, which is pretty amazing. He ranks 16th among all age 32 seasons in AL history in wRC+, about the same as his figure from the prior year. Compared to everyone, Williams was great, but compared to the Sultan of Swat specifically, he just can't compete. Babe wins another round, and Ruth leads 6-3.

Age 33 Season: Babe Ruth (1928) - .323/.463/.709; 206 OPS+, 200 wRC+; 54 HRs, 137 walks

1952 Ted Williams in 1928 environment - .350/.476/.619; 18 HRs, 102 walks

1928 Babe Ruth in 1952 environment: - .290/.444/.653; 88 HRs, 157 walks

Ted Williams (estimated 1952) - .314/.456/.570; 175 OPS+, 176 wRC+; 29 HRs, 127 walks

Coming off the heels of two 225 OPS+ seasons, Ruth couldn't sustain that pace, though he still managed a fantastic 206 OPS+ and 200 wRC+. It was seventh time he had a SLG above .700, and the eighth time his wRC+ and OPS+ hit the 200 mark. He tied his 1920 home run total, the ninth time he led baseball in homers. He also led in runs scored and walks (each for the third year in a row), as well as pacing the AL in strikeouts for the fifth time of his career. Even though his batting average declined, he still had an OBP of .463, and his 380 total bases led both the AL and NL. It was another dominating year for the Bambino, par for the course for the King. He ended this season with 470 home runs; Cy Williams was second at the time with 246, and he had over 1,200 more at bats than Ruth. Ruth dominated the HR leaderboards like Wilt dominated scoring in the 1960s. While his age 33 season wasn't as transcendent as his previous two years, he nevertheless ranks first by a huge margin when it comes to wRC+ among the age 33 guys, with his 200 mark eight points higher than the NL leader Johnny Mize and nineteen points greater than Lou Gehrig's 1936 season. For Ted Williams, just like his 1943-1945 seasons, we once again have to approximate how he would have fared had he played the full season instead of just the six games he did. He went off to war again, this time seeing combat over Korea as part of the Marine Air Corps. He served with distinction over 39 missions, earning an Air Medal with two gold stars. John Glenn, who would later become famous as an astronaut and U.S. senator, said he was one of the finest pilots he had ever seen, and Ted served as his wingman in the war. He was just as good a fighter pilot as he had been a hitter, but again, it is sad to ponder what he would have been able to accomplish had he not missed nearly all of his '52 and '53 seasons (even though he wasn't as dominant in the years leading up to Korea as he had been preceding WW2). Regardless, using the same methodology as we did for his missed time earlier, he probably would have fared very, very well. It's interesting to note that as soon as Ted came back in '54, he had his best season since 1947, so perhaps the time away from baseball refocused his mind and did him some good. In any case, Williams estimated slash line is good for a 175 OPS+ and 176 wRC+, mainly due to the depressed offensive environment (the league-wide OPS went from .723 to a paltry .695). Compared to Babe's 88 dingers, his 29 homers aren't anything to write home about, but a rate of 2.90x league-average is still great. Overall, Ted's approximated wRC+ ranks 4th among all thirty-three year-olds, pretty good, and he's a lot closer to Ruth in this aged season than he was the prior two. However, for the third year in a row, Babe wins this age bracket. Ruth leads 7-3.

Age 34 Season: Babe Ruth (1929) - .345/.430/.697; 193 OPS+, 190 wRC+; 46 HRs, 72 walks

1953 Ted Williams in 1929 environment - .373/.517/.679; 21 HRs, 107 walks

1929 Babe Ruth in 1953 environment: - .319/.415/.656; 67 HRs, 77 walks

Ted Williams (estimated 1953) - .345/.499/.639; 192 OPS+, 195 wRC+; 31 HRs, 121 walks

Babe was starting to show his age in 1929. It was the first time in four years that he didn't have at least a 200 OPS+, and his walk percentage was a new career-low. About the only thing he did better in '29 compared to his previous season was increase his batting average, but when he's losing 33 points in OBP and 12 in SLG, it's not worth it. Still, he managed 46 home runs, and with it eclipsed 500 home runs for his career, the inaugural member of a club that currently hosts 27 individuals. He still led both leagues in SLG, OPS+, and HRs, and gathered 348 total bases. It was another great offensive season among many, and even though his OPS+ was actually 13 points lower than his career, among all qualified AL seasons, it's still great enough to be in the 99th percentile, alongside his wRC+ and HR+ mark of 680. In fact, the only major part of his offensive season that wasn't fantastic was his BB%+, which was 146 (still good enough to rank in the 85th percentile). In fact, it was only the second time in his career that he slumped below the 200 mark, so he could afford to have a "down" year in that regard. He actually ranks first among all 34 year-olds in OPS+ and places second in wRC+. Coming in at the 2-spot for OPS+ and No. 1 for wRC+ is Ted Williams (albeit our approximation of how he would have done). He only played in 37 games after coming back from Korea, but he was beyond dominant in those contests, slashing .407/.509/.901 for a 268 OPS+ in 110 plate appearances. Perhaps the most impressive part of his season was his 13 home runs, averaging a dinger every 8.46 times he stepped up to bat. It's pretty obvious that he wouldn't have kept up that pace over a full season, but it's still extremely impressive what he did considering he hadn't swung a bat since April of 1952 (he returned in August of '53, a span of 18 months), and then came back better than he had ever been. Just goes to show what a genius the guy was. His approximated stats leap off the page, with an OPS of 1.138 and getting a 195 wRC+ and 192 OPS+, finishing first among American League 34 YOs in the former and second in the latter. So in comparing what Williams would have done to what Ruth did, and in factoring the offensive environments in which they played, they are pretty much neck-and-neck, with neither of them dominating the other. Williams does lead comfortably in OBP, OPS, and walks percentage, and 1953 was a lower offensive year than 1929 (league-wide OPS in 1929 was .756 compared to 1953's .720), but the reason why Ruth narrowly edges out Williams is due to park factors, as Fenway had a 104 factor in 1953 while Yankee Stadium was decidedly a pitcher's park with a 94 PF. However, Williams does beat Babe in wRC+, and I do think the park factors give Ruth a little more credit than he deserves, because even though the multi-year PF in which Baseball-Reference uses to compute OPS+ is 94 for 1929, the one-year PF was 99, so basically neutral. For that reason, and the fact that Williams was greatly ahead of Ruth in OBP, the more important component of OPS, I'll say that Ted wins this round. Ruth leads 7-4.

Age 35 Season: Babe Ruth (1930) - .359/.493/.732; 211 OPS+, 205 wRC+; 49 HRs, 136 walks

1954 Ted Williams in 1930 environment - .386/.544/.715; 25 HRs, 117 walks

1930 Babe Ruth in 1954 environment: - .321/.465/.649; 57 HRs, 143 walks

Ted Williams (1954) - .345/.513/.635; 201 OPS+, 207 wRC+; 29 HRs, 136 walks

Babe came back with a vengeance in 1930, and at a time when nearly all players are on the downslope of their career, he was as good as he'd ever been, getting a 1.225 OPS and leading baseball in OBP, SLG, OPS+, walks, and coming in second behind Hack Wilson of the NL's Chicago Cubs with 49 home runs. He had returned from a slightly subpar season in '29 to his typical self, with an eighth season of above a .700 slugging percentage and his sixth of a .490 OBP. This year would also be his last season with an OPS above 1.200, the seventh time in his illustrious tenure in baseball. The SLG and OPS marks are MLB records (Babe owns a lot of records), among the many in Ruth's name. He again accrued a ton of total bases, with 379 (amazingly, he also had 21 sacrifice bunts, which is crazy that Babe Ruth would be asked to bunt), and for the first time in his career, he had at least twice the amount of walks as strikeouts, a sign that he had become more patient and was more selective in the pitches he chose to swing at. He also got 10.3 bWAR and 10.5 fWAR, so it wasn't like he helpless on defense. Just like his age 34 season, he comes in at first in OPS+ and second in wRC+ among all AL hitters, and this time, among all in the National League as well. And just like his age 34 season, we have Ted Williams at second in OPS+ and first in wRC+. The Kid's return from war was nothing short of amazing, primarily because in the two years before he left for Korea, Williams had his worst years since his '39 and '40 seasons. He came back at age 35 and posted his first 200 OPS+ and wRC+ season since 1947, no small feat. His .513 On Base Percentage came during a time when the league-wide OBP was only .331, so he dominated the leaderboards on that (for comparison, in 1930, offense was exploding in both the AL and NL, with the average OBP in the American a very high mark of .351). In fact, if you adjust for year, Ted's .513 OBP is fifth all-time, and his .500 wOBA is 14th. He comes in at the 99.9th percentile for the former and 99.7th for the latter category. What may be most impressive, however, is Ted's walks. On the surface, he had 136, which is really good, but hardly the best of his career. However, he accomplished those 136 free passes in only 526 plate appearances, a BB% of 25.9%. It was the highest of his career, and his BB%+ mark of 268 was also a personal best. It ranks sixth all-time in AL history, so if you-pro-rate his walks total out to the standard 650 plate appearances, he would have set a career high with 167. He was more patient than he had ever been and when he swung, he rarely missed, as for the fifth time in his career, he had at least 100 more walks than strikeouts (something Babe never did once). When it comes to comparing the two, like their age 34 seasons, it's extremely close, but I have to give the very, very slight edge to Williams. He does have a lower OPS+ than Ruth, but his wRC+ is a couple points higher (and both adjust for park factors), and I think that's because Williams's OBP relative to Ruth's was so much higher, and as Tom Tango shows here in his blog, on-base percentage is more influential when it comes to predicting offensive performance than slugging percentage. Even after adjusting for the park factors (in which Ruth played in a pitcher's park and Williams a hitter's), Ted still has a higher OBP than Ruth. For those reasons, I have to say that Williams narrowly beats out Babe. Ruth leads 7-5.

Age 36 Season: Babe Ruth (1931) - .373/.495/.700; 218 OPS+, 209 wRC+; 46 HRs, 128 walks

1955 Ted Williams in 1931 environment - .384/.508/.730; 17 HRs, 69 walks

1931 Babe Ruth in 1955 environment: - .346/.483/.674; 76 HRs, 141 walks

Ted Williams (1955) - .356/.496/.703; 209 OPS+, 207 wRC+; 28 HRs, 91 walks

Babe continued his dominating performance from the year prior with another great campaign. He led all of baseball in home runs with 46, the final time he would do so and made it a record eleven instances of leading the MLB, something not likely to ever be broken. He had a .700 SLG for the ninth time and a 215 OPS+ or greater for a record eighth time. All of those are marks that no one is going to approach, and yes, even though he wasn't competing against all the best players, as black ballplayers were barred from the majors, it's still pretty amazing what Babe was able to accomplish. Maybe the most amazing accomplishment Ruth set was this was the sixth year in a row that he led the majors in OPS+ (in their entire careers, Barry Bonds and Ted Williams only accomplished it seven times each). To do any of those things once in a career is awesome, and Ruth was doing it seemingly every season. At this point, there really isn't enough praise you can heap upon the Babe for his performance on the field, and once again, he got more than 10 WAR, finishing with 10.5 bWAR and 10.7 fWAR. It was the ninth season in which he surpassed that mark, another record he holds that Mike Trout may be able to get close to, but probably won't eclipse. He also surpassed 600 career home runs this season, and Rogers Hornsby (second place at the time) had less than half of Babe's total; Ruth was that good and that far ahead. Other notable accomplishments include 374 total bases and the lowest strikeout percentage of his career up to that point, a very impressive (for him at least) 7.7%. He also walked more than anyone in the league and had a BB/K ratio of 2.51, the best of his career. Ruth is #1 in both OPS+ and wRC+ among age 36 hitters in AL history (Barry Bonds's age 36 season was 2001, so we all know that he holds the record among all hitters AL and NL). Settling just behind Babe in the silver medalist position is one Ted Williams, no surprise there. He basically repeated his 1954 season in 1955, achieving a slightly higher OPS+ but the same wRC+. He traded in a slightly lower OBP for a much greater SLG, and given the fact that his OPS was a flat 1.200, it was probably worth it. He actually had his second-lowest strikeout percentage relative to the league (after 1941), striking out only 5.8% of the time compared to the league-wide rate of 11.2%, about half as often. Even though his walk rate declined, it was still a very good 2.18x the league-average rate, and his SLG+ was 185, again only trailing his 1941 season. His OPS+ increased by eight points to 209, which was the fourth-highest of his career as of '56 and the sixth time he had exceeded 200 up to that point in time (the only other hitter who can claim such a feat besides Ruth and Bonds). The very unfortunate part of this season for Ted was that it was cut short by injury, as he only had 416 plate appearances and only participated in 98 games. If we pro-rate his stats to 650 PAs, we get totals of 44 home runs, 142 walks, and 10.8 bWAR, figures which would have easily won him a third MVP. Alas, he did miss those games and the MVP went to Yogi Berra (Mickey Mantle should have won it), while Williams had to settle for fourth. As mentioned above, he comes in second overall to the Bambino in OPS+ and wRC+ among 35 YOs. Consequently, even though it's another extremely close race, I have to give this one to Babe. Ruth leads 8-5.

Age 37 Season: Babe Ruth (1932) - .341/.489/.661; 201 OPS+, 194 wRC+; 41 HRs, 130 walks

1956 Ted Williams in 1932 environment - .367/.486/.621; 17 HRs, 89 walks

1932 Babe Ruth in 1956 environment: - .321/.482/.644; 60 HRs, 137 walks

Ted Williams (1956) - .345/.479/.605; 172 OPS+, 174 wRC+; 24 HRs, 102 walks

1932 was Babe Ruth's last great season, and the last year in which he would accomplish numerous offensive feats. While this season of his is most famous for the "called shot," Babe also hit over 40 home runs and slugged .661, while walking a league-leading 130 times and getting a 201 OPS+. It was the final season in which he had an OPS above 1.100, over 40 homers, and an OPS+ of at least 200. No one should be surprised to find out that he holds the record for most seasons with those parameters met as well. Ruth's numbers at this point in his career are just amazing, especially his 652 career home runs, which more than doubled Hornsby's 296 by 1932. I said it before, but Babe was just on a whole other level of hitting than anyone else at this point in his career, like Wilt's scoring or Sugar Ray Robinson's boxing. By the time this year had concluded, the Bambino had a career slash line of .349/.478/.706, good for a 211 OPS+. If you just count his numbers from the time he became a full-time hitter in 1919, it looks like .354/.487/.726, a 214 OPS+. To put that into some perspective, Babe averaged a 214 OPS+ over 14 years, a figure that has been eclipsed only 10 times since 1933 among players with 400 plate appearances in a season. Barry Bonds and Ted Williams account for eight of those, each of them getting four apiece. Babe himself garnered eight of them, and no one will ever come close to dominating his contemporaries when it comes to hitting home runs. Babe also had his famous, aforementioned "called shot" during this World Series, which the Yankees won in a four game sweep over the Chicago Cubs, so overall, it was another fantastic year in a career full of them. It was also his last great campaign, as he accrued 8.5 bWAR and 8.7 fWAR, the final season in which he surpassed seven. Finally, Babe had a wRC+ of 194, which ranks first among all 37 YOs in AL history and third overall, with Bonds's 267 in 2002 and Hank Aaron's 198 in 1971. Coming in at #2 in AL history and #4 among all 37 year-old hitters is Mr. Ted Williams, with his 174 wRC+ in 1956. He slumped a little compared to his previous two seasons, "only" getting a 1.084 OPS after his 1.148 and 1.200 marks the previous two years. However, he was still awesome, with his .479 OBP leading both leagues, and combined with his .605 SLG, it was the 8th time in his career that he had an OBP of at least .470 and a SLG of a .600 or greater. He did a very good job at avoiding strikeouts, with a 155 K%+ mark, and also hit a ton of doubles as a % of his PAs, with his mark of a 160 2B%+ being the third highest of his career. However, if we're talking about his being an overall hitter, 1956 was actually one of his weakest years of his career. Among all season in which Ted had at least 400 plate appearances (and I'm also including his missing five years to military service, as we approximated his totals), The Kid's '56 season ranks a measly 16th out of 20 seasons in OPS+ and wRC+. Now, considering that his OPS+ was 172 and his wRC+ was 174, it's pretty incredible. Compared to his own standards and to Ruth, it was subpar, but his OPS+ is still in the 98th percentile in AL history. However, in a head-to-head for age 37 seasons, the Babe wins. Ruth leads 9-5.

Age 38 Season: Babe Ruth (1933) - .301/.442/.582; 176 OPS+, 170 wRC+; 34 HRs, 114 walks

1957 Ted Williams in 1933 environment - .415/.552/.746; 24 HRs, 100 walks

1933 Babe Ruth in 1957 environment: - .281/.420/.570; 55 HRs, 102 walks

Ted Williams (1957) - .388/.526/.731; 233 OPS+, 235 wRC+; 38 HRs, 119 walks

Babe's 38 year-old season was one of the best ever in AL history. He ranked in at least the 97th percentile in the following, year-adjusted categories: home run percentage, BB%, OBP, SLG, OPS, wOBA, and wRC+. That is a fantastic year by every single objective metric, but when you're talking about comparing it to Ruth's own years, 1933 was actually one of his weakest seasons as a full-time position player. For starters, in all those categories mentioned above, it was his worst year for them since his infamous 1925 season. Of course, when one of your worst years sees you hitting 34 homers and having an OPS above 1.000, it demonstrates just how dominant and amazing your career was as a whole, and that's certainly true for Ruth. Even though this was the year his career slugging percentage fell below .700, he still ended it with a mark of .699, so basically the same. He was patient enough at the plate to lead both leagues in walks, accumulating 114 on the year while also eclipsing 100 RBI (a very important stat during his time). He ended the year with 686 career home runs, a triple slash of .346/.476/.699, and 5,566, more than anyone in MLB history after Ty Cobb. He had accrued 1,938 walks and 1,243 strikeouts, far more than anyone previously. It's pretty amazing to ponder the volume stats he could have achieved if he started as a hitter at say, age 20 instead of 24. However, that's all speculation, and what Babe actually accomplished is just extraordinary. Among all 38 YOs in American League history, Babe's 170 wRC+ is good for fourth, coming in behind Ty Cobb, Bob Johnson (of all people), and Ted Williams, who in 1957, may have had a season even better than his 1941 (you know, that year he hit .406). To say that Teddy had a bounce-back year from his relatively subpar 1956 is selling him grotesquely short. On the surface, by using traditional, volume stats, ones unadjusted for the offensive environment, it was a really good, but hardly legendary season, even among his own standards. 38 homers, that's really good, but others have hit far more. Same for his 307 total bases, 119 walks, 96 runs scored, and 87 RBI. Without the proper context, it seems like 1957 was a good year, but nothing special. Well, let's dive into the context, and once we have, we'll be able to fully appreciate what he accomplished in a season in which he turned 39 (B-Ref considers it his age 38 season because he didn't turn 39 until late August). For starters, he accomplished those really good volume stats when he only accrued 547 plate appearances. If you pro-rate that to 650 PAs, his numbers become 45 homers and 141 walks while only striking out 51 times, while his bWAR and fWAR go from 9.7 to 11.3 wins, which is all-time stuff. Secondly, the 1957 AL environment was, shall we say, not hitter-friendly. The total batting stats among American League hitters worked out to a measly slash line of .255/.326/.382, only a paltry .708 OPS. The prior year, AL hitters were a lot better on the whole, as the league-wide OPS was .735 in '56. Williams had a 1.257 OPS in a year which resembled the 2014 AL, when everyone complained that offense was nonexistent. With that context out of the way, we can see why his slash line was a nigh-unbelievable .388/.526/.731. In fact, among all 8,736 AL hitters who've had at least 400 PAs in a season, adjusted for the yearly offensive environment, Ted ranks 10th in batting average, 2nd in OBP, 6th in SLG, 5th in OPS, 2nd in wOBA, 2nd in wRC+, and 7th in oWAR/PA. Ted ranks in the 100th in percentile in OBP, OPS, wOBA, and wRC+, while coming in at the 99.9th percentile in BA, SLG, and oWAR/PA. His wRC+ of 235 is second in AL history behind only the Babe's 236 in 1920, even better than his own 229 mark in his famous 1941 campaign. It was also the highest wOBA, with his .540 (again, I adjusted wOBA and wRC+ slightly from FanGraphs methodology) good for an aforementioned second all-time in AL history. It was just amazing what Ted accomplished in '57, and the most impressive part might have been that he actually outperformed a similar age-38 Barry Bonds in 2003 (only Williams did it without the help of PEDs). Now, by the raw slash line, Barry in '03 was better than Ted in '57, but the average NL OPS in 2003 was .749, much higher than the .708 figure put up by AL hitters in 1957. That's the reason why both Ted's 233 OPS+ and 235 wRC+ are better than Bonds's 231 and 232 (though admittedly, is extremely marginal). Nevertheless, Ted can lay claim to the best hitting season of any 38 YO. Consequently, even though Ruth was great, Ted destroys Babe in this round, pulling within 3. Ruth leads 9-6.

Age 39 Season: Babe Ruth (1934) - .288/.448/.537; 160 OPS+, 160 wRC+; 22 HRs, 104 walks

1958 Ted Williams in 1934 environment - .360/.499/.608; 17 HRs, 107 walks

1934 Babe Ruth in 1958 environment: - .262/.411/.515; 33 HRs, 86 walks

Ted Williams (1958) - .328/.458/.584; 179 OPS+, 183 wRC+; 26 HRs, 98 walks

I won't spend too much time discussing the age 39 seasons of Babe or Ted. Both of their seasons were subpar for their standards, and each turned 40 during the year. However, both were still highly productive, with Babe hitting the 700th long bomb of his career and Ted winning his record 12th OBP crown. Babe did fall below the 1.000 OPS mark for only the second time since he became a full-time position player all the way back in 1919, and his .537 slugging percentage was actually lower than his 1925 season. However, offense was a lower in 1934 than it was in 1925, and Ruth's OBP of .448 was elite, so his OPS+ and wRC+ are a lot higher than they were in '25. The Babe also blew past the 2,000 walk milestone, the first to do so and still one of only four ever to accomplish it (Joe Morgan, my second-favorite player of all-time after Williams, is fifth with 1,865). It was Ruth's last full season, and he ended it with a slash line of .343/.475/.692, good for a 207 OPS+. He also fares very well among his fellow 39 year-olds, with his 160 wRC+ coming in at No. 2 in AL history behind Ted. For Williams, it was his sixth and last time of leading the AL in batting average, but more importantly, he led both leagues in OBP and OPS (Mickey Mantle would take the OPS+ crown, as he played in a more pitcher-friendly park than did The Kid). He didn't eclipse any major milestones, but that is pretty much entirely due to his nearly five years missed to serving in the military. What he did accomplish was the highest wRC+ of any 39 year-old hitter in American League history, 23 points higher than the Bambino. Adjusted for year, with 1958 being an even worse year for hitters than the previous one, he would have likely superseded a 1.100 OPS in Ruth's 1934 environment. Williams beats Ruth head-to-head in this age group, but overall, Ruth wins 9-7.

The last year of Ruth's career was 1935, and he only played in 29 games. Williams played very poorly in 1959, but only had 331 plate appearances. He bounced back with a monster final season in 1960, but accumulated 390 PAs, just 10 short of my threshold of 400. He ended his career with 521 HRs and over 2,000 walks, and had he not missed all that time to two wars, would have eclipsed Bonds's 2,558 free passes. So with all that we discussed, we're left with the question of who was better. Granted, by looking at the volume stats, it's not really a discussion: Babe was way more prolific, and even by some rate metrics such as SLG, Ruth kinda wipes the floor with Ted. But if we go deeper, I think there's definitely an argument to be made for The Splendid Splinter over the Sultan of Swat. Ted's OBP+ and wOBA+ were higher, and higher during an era where the league-wide OBP was a lot lower than Ruth's. Overall offense was also substantially higher during Ruth's tenure than Ted's, with the average AL OPS from 1919-1934 being .746 compared to the .713 mark from 1939-1958. However, OPS+ says that while Ted was awesome at 191, Ruth was just on another level at 206. However, again, this is unfair to Ted, as Ruth got to play the entirety of his prime, and Ted missed three full seasons smack dab in his mid-20s, when players like Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and Mike Trout had their best seasons. That's why Ted should get some credit, and why when we include his approximate totals for his lost years, he comes in at an OPS of 194, closer. Also, I think there's a high likelihood that had Ted not missed those three seasons, his years immediately after the war would have been better, as he wouldn't have been rusty coming back (of course, he did has a 215 OPS+ in '46, so not quite sure how much rust he did have that season). Finally, though Ted did play in Fenway, the park factors are a little too tough on him in my opinion, as he still had a 1.082 OPS on the road, and his career splits weren't nearly as pronounced as right-handed hitters of his time like Bobby Doerr or Jimmie Foxx. The PFs of old don't differentiate between left and right hitters, so again, I think his park-adjusted figures like OPS+ and wRC+ may be a little lower than they should be. However, if someone is adamant that Ruth was better, it's hard to disagree with them. For my taste, I'll take Williams as the better, though it's super close. If I were to make a Mount Rushmore of hitters, Williams and Ruth would both be on it, with Hornsby and Bonds joining them from the NL. In fact, that may be something I'll look into later on. And similar to my DiMaggio vs. Williams article, I've ranked their seasons below from best to worst according to my view. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed.

Babe Ruth - 1920

Ted Williams - 1957

Ted Williams - 1941

Babe Ruth - 1923

Babe Ruth - 1921

Babe Ruth - 1926

Ted Williams - 1946

Babe Ruth - 1927

Mod. Ted Williams - 1943

Ted Williams - 1942

Mod. Ted Williams - 1945

Babe Ruth - 1924

Babe Ruth - 1919

Mod. Ted Williams - 1944

Babe Ruth - 1931

Ted Williams - 1955

Ted Williams - 1954

Ted Williams - 1947

Babe Ruth - 1930

Babe Ruth - 1928

Mod. Ted Williams - 1953

Babe Ruth - 1932

Ted Williams - 1949

Ted Williams - 1948

Babe Ruth - 1929

Ted Williams - 1958

Mod. Ted Williams - 1952

Babe Ruth - 1922

Ted Williams - 1956

Ted Williams - 1951

Ted Williams - 1950

Babe Ruth - 1933

Ted Williams - 1940

Ted Williams - 1939

Babe Ruth - 1934

Babe Ruth - 1925