How to Play Baseball Like Babe Ruth

Babe Ruth is arguably the best baseball player who ever lived. And for all of those people who talk about how he played in a colorless league or how the game has "progressed," they should be challenged to name another ball player who was prolific as a pitcher and a hitter. It's a very short list and it just comes down to the Babe. Here are some tips on how to play like the "Sultan of Swat."

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

1. Eat hot dogs until you can't stuff another down your throat. There are many a story about the Babe and his appetite. But one of the most common are the amount of hot dogs he was able to put away before and after games. The usual number is six.
2. Learn to pitch like the Babe. Babe Ruth was not only an amazing hitter, but also a pitcher. He won close to 100 games as a pitcher for the Red Sox early in his career. His E.R.A. was 2.28. Those are two stats that people would kill for in today's game. Ruth was said to have a blistering fastball, effective change-up and deceptive curve ball. So go out to the back stop and develop those pitches.
3. Work on your batting stance. Babe Ruth had a unique stance in baseball history. He was a left-handed hitter, and he seemed to run at the ball and simultaneously swing. No matter how hard people tried they could never quite emulate it. It's hard to hit a slider diving away from you or a curve ball running in on your hands when you are moving forward in the batter's box. But somehow Ruth did it to the tune of a career .342 batting average and 714 home runs.
4. Have fun playing the game. No one had more fun on the field than Ruth. He was friendly, relaxed and just a big kid at heart. He was kind to the kids, respectful to the older fans and his spirit was contagious. Even if he never accomplished the amazing statistics he did, he would've been memorable just as an ambassador to the game. In fact Ruth traveled with other ball players to Japan in 1934 and it's that trip that's said to have inspired the wave of baseball players there.
5. Call your own shot. There is a memorable story of the Yankees playing the Cubs in the World Series. It was the early 1930s and Ruth was in the twilight of his career. At a crucial point in the game, when Ruth came up to bat and the Chicago fans were taunting him, he simply sat back and let the first two fastballs whiz by him for strikes. This was unlike the Babe. But he was ever confident. He then pointed to the center field bleachers as if to say, "I'm going to hit a home run there." On the next pitch, Babe Ruth hit a shot exactly where he pointed. The crowd was stunned and the story has become legend.

Tips & Warnings

• Though they finally won the World Series in 2004, the Red Sox long associated the sale of Ruth to the Yankees as the "curse of the Bambino." Because at that moment the Red Sox went from the most successful team in the league to frustrated bystanders as the Yankees went on to win championship after championship for the next 80 plus years. The hatred between Red Sox and Yankee fans was fueled by that trade.