Hanley Ramirez Hits Three Homers as Red Sox Take Over 1st Place in A.L. East
Hanley Ramirez doesn’t put the kind of numbers that he used to back in his hey day with the Marlins, but he’s on track to have one of his better seasons in recent years. Ramirez, who is the Red Sox first baseman this season after spending most of his career at shortstop, had a career night in the Red Sox game with the National League West leading San Francisco Giants at Fenway Park on July 20th. Ramirez hit three home runs, each of them a two run shot as the Red Sox beat the Giants 11-7 to sweep a two game set San Francisco. It was the first three homer game of Ramirez’ career. He’s hitting .285 with 11 homers and 54 RBIs this season.
The victory, plus a Baltimore loss against the Yankees, put the Red Sox in first place in the American League East. It’s tight at the top there, with Boston (53-39) leading Baltimore (53-40) by a half game and Toronto (54-42) by one game. The Yankees are six back at 48-46, but they are starting to make some noise, too. Their win over the Orioles was their fourth in a row.
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I am going to change the subject slightly. As ESPN ranks the greatest player of all-time, we again hear the argument that Babe Ruth may not be the greatest player because he played during segregation. Although this is undeniably true, I believe it is off-set by the expansion of baseball. That is, with twice as many teams now, the Bambino would only be facing what would be, on average, number 1 and 2 starting pitchers. Without insane statistical analysis and much conjecture, it seems like these two factors come close to cancelling out each other.
Ruth would certainly be at or near the top of my list no matter what era he played in. Besides all his home runs, RBIs, and a .342 lifetime batting average, he also is the career leader in the modern stats of Wins Above Replacement (WARS) and in OPS. He also played the first five or six years in the Dead Ball Era, so he would have had more than 714 home runs. He was also a great pitcher early in his career before being made into a outfielder, with a record of 94-46 and a 2.28 ERA. He was 23-12 with a league leading 1.75 ERA in 1916, and he pitched nine shutouts that season. A great all around ball player. I had an uncle who saw Ruth play several times when the Yankees played at Comiskey Park in Chicago, and he said Ruth would crush the ball when he hit it. Really crush it, as it would be flat on one side as it spun out of the park.
I wonder if the aerodynamics of a flattened side cost him some tatters lol. Maybe that would be more likely in Wrigley or Candlestick (way later).
Baltimore seemed so much stronger towards the beginning of the season, too… but good for Ramirez.