Controversial MLB All-Star says 'Babe Ruth never existed'
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
It’s been a long time since Babe Ruth became a baseball legend.
So long, in fact, that one of today’s brightest MLB stars thinks the Sultan of Swat is more mythical than legendary.
It’s a premise so out of left field that the player, Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Chicago Cubs , began his explanation with “this is gonna be crazy.”
Forgetting the Great Bambino
Appearing on Kristin Cavallari’s podcast “Let’s Be Honest” alongside fellow Cub Carson Kelly , PCA was asked for an unpopular opinion, and he obliged.
“‘Babe Ruth never existed’ is one that I like,” he said.
“I heard some pitcher with the Mariners…I think he did some podcast on Zoom when he was going down the rabbit hole with somebody about how Babe Ruth never existed,” Crow-Armstrong said. “I was like, lowkey, that’s awesome.”
Brandon Contes of Awful Announcing was kind enough to dig up PCA’s reference.
“The podcast Crow-Armstrong is referring to was a 2024 interview with Mariners pitcher Tayler Saucedo , in which he alleged that there aren’t many videos of Ruth playing baseball, so he must not be real,” Contes wrote.
Crow-Armstrong didn’t go directly to the lack of video as proof.
Instead, he’s extrapolating based on what he’s seen in his time in baseball and expanding it 100 years back, he explained.
“We always talk about how the game is evolving,” he said. “People might as well have been underhanding the ball to that guy, and he’s regarded, still, as one of the best players ever. Might as well dive further into it, and maybe he never existed.”
PCA wasn’t met with agreement, with Kelly laughing and noting “that’s crazy.”
When comparisons to moon landing conspiracies were raised, the topic quickly shifted.
At least in this case, Ruth isn’t around to let PCA hear his rebuttal.
In the offseason, PCA made headlines for his trashing of Dodgers fans — he’s a Los Angeles native — and Dodgers fans let him hear it when he played in LA earlier this year.
Crow-Armstrong somewhat walked back those comments when speaking with Maddie Lee of the Los Angeles Times ,
“If we’re going to be immature and childish about it,” he said, “I’d say they started it, they just gave me an opportunity to kind of run with it.”
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I think there is a "tongue in cheek" element to this, but I wish PCA would keep his mouth shut. Baseball fans already think he is a jerk. For example, earlier this season in response to a female White Sox fan heckling him he told her to suck his dick.
This refers to the modern day disrespecting of the OG players. The truth is no one today really knows how easy or hard it was to hit old time pitchers. There was no video, no radar timing pitches, and no objective information translatable to the present. One thing we do know is that in 1921 Babe Ruth hit 59 home runs, which was more than every team in the American League combined.
PCA would have gotten his ass kicked, repeatedly, playing the way he does. Even playing against someone as recent as Bob Gibson would have resulted in him eating fastballs.
It's real easy to shit on those who came before. Let's see what he would have hit with no padding, no helmet, no modern training techniques, no video to study pitchers, travel and sleep in train cars rather than private jets, no modern medicine, make so little he would have had to work, rather than train in the offseason to eat, hit against scuffed balls etc..
A guy in 1920 was struck by lightening, revived and pitched until the end of the game.
PCA plays in an environment where his every whim is catered to, whole teams of professionals work to optimize his performance in every way etc. The question is what would Babe Ruth due given all the advantages PCA had? The only way to measure a player's greatness is how he performed relative to his peers, PCA isn't fit to be mentioned in that conversation.
Barring injuries Pete Crow Armstrong will make double digit all star teams in his career. He had a big second half slump last year but changed his hitting approach and has been pretty consistent this year. He is generally considered to be one of the best defensive players in the game.
Why not just be happy? Stirring up shit is kids stuff.