Shri
Mr. Glass
Yeah you make people cry. Rarely with laughter.
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Cricket and Baseball, Introductory question: Who is cricket's "Babe Ruth"?
- Thread starter Ike
- Start date
Ike
Cricket Web Staff Member
First, my apologies to Second Spitter for misreading your earlier post.
I agree that OPS is thought by many to be the best baseball hitting stat, although many in the Sabre community would put Runs Created, Wins Above Replacent, or park-adjusted WAR ahead of it. Ruth does very well in those categories generally, but I don't think you can equate Bradman's BA vs all other cricketers to Ruth BA or OPS vs all other baseball players (if that's what you're suggesting--please correct me if I'm wrong). Ruth was never considered the best 'pure hitter' in baseball (most would choose Ty Cobb or Ted Williams for that). He was the premier power hitter, the first to hit 'home runs' on a regular basis, and making them a key component (and fan favorite) in baseball.
Perhaps there's no way to compare Ruth to any cricketer, or Bradman to any baseball player for that matter, because with Ruth I'm asking not about someone as good, but someone as famous, well-liked, and well-known as Ruth. But baseball is predominantly an American game (not ignoring it's great popularity in Japan, parts of Latin America, and a few other countries), while cricket has a major following in quite a few countries, as Adders pointed out. So ideas like 'most popular' all time, or 'most liked' or 'most respected' (though I doubt that one would apply to Ruth, or to Grace either, for that matter), are going to vary tremendously from country to country.
If this is anywhere near accurate, then perhaps cricket has no Babe Ruth, just as baseball has no Don Bradman nor W. G. Grace.
I agree that OPS is thought by many to be the best baseball hitting stat, although many in the Sabre community would put Runs Created, Wins Above Replacent, or park-adjusted WAR ahead of it. Ruth does very well in those categories generally, but I don't think you can equate Bradman's BA vs all other cricketers to Ruth BA or OPS vs all other baseball players (if that's what you're suggesting--please correct me if I'm wrong). Ruth was never considered the best 'pure hitter' in baseball (most would choose Ty Cobb or Ted Williams for that). He was the premier power hitter, the first to hit 'home runs' on a regular basis, and making them a key component (and fan favorite) in baseball.
Perhaps there's no way to compare Ruth to any cricketer, or Bradman to any baseball player for that matter, because with Ruth I'm asking not about someone as good, but someone as famous, well-liked, and well-known as Ruth. But baseball is predominantly an American game (not ignoring it's great popularity in Japan, parts of Latin America, and a few other countries), while cricket has a major following in quite a few countries, as Adders pointed out. So ideas like 'most popular' all time, or 'most liked' or 'most respected' (though I doubt that one would apply to Ruth, or to Grace either, for that matter), are going to vary tremendously from country to country.
If this is anywhere near accurate, then perhaps cricket has no Babe Ruth, just as baseball has no Don Bradman nor W. G. Grace.
Second Spitter
State Vice-Captain
RC and OPS+ are in essence the same thing. The difference being the former incorporates AB*. AB is an analogous to S/R in cricket, however it is not incorporated in a batsman's average.
*The alternative formula for RC= OBP*TB = OBP*SLG*AB
OPS+ has the added benefit of normalizing for park factors.
WAR incorporates non-pure hitting elements (SAC, HBP, SB etc) which makes it less reliable to compare to cricket batting average which is a purely hitting statistic (e.g. leg-byes do not get credited to the batsman)
*The alternative formula for RC= OBP*TB = OBP*SLG*AB
OPS+ has the added benefit of normalizing for park factors.
WAR incorporates non-pure hitting elements (SAC, HBP, SB etc) which makes it less reliable to compare to cricket batting average which is a purely hitting statistic (e.g. leg-byes do not get credited to the batsman)
Hooksey
Banned
Bradman retired about 65 years ago and has been dead for about 15.
It will be interesting to see if Tendulkar is as well remembered as what the Don was, and still is, in decades to come.