Pitchers are not baseball players. If they could hit and/or field well enough to play every day, they would. If a MLB team had an intra squad game between the pitchers and the baseball players, the players would win almost every time. That would be true even if you spotted the pitchers the backup catcher. The few times pitchers field balls in games, they often throw it down the right field line.
Designated Hitter (DH): a full time DH is rarely a young player. The classic example is the all time best DH and Hall of Famer David Ortiz. He was a golfer: all Ortiz wanted to do was swing the clubs. He made no effort to run. When he played the field, it was only first base. And that was probably when required by rule: regular season inter league games and World Series.
I like Shohei Ohtani. I like what he does during baseball games. It's impressive. But I do not like the absurd characterizations that have been common since Ohtani first joined Major League Baseball (MLB).
Why did 1930 Brooklyn Dodgers draw million fans - the only year before 1941? Dodgers v Yankees this weekend in Yankee Stadium. Saturday, July 18, 2026
Two examples during that three game series:
Jack Curry was a reporter for the New York Times for 20 years. Since 2010 Curry has worked on the Yankees network (YES) pre and post game shows. For game one he gushed about Ohtani being a two way player and did not even mention Babe Ruth.
Bob Costas, I think. It was during last night's third game, which was on NBC. Costas supposedly only did the pre game show. The verbal babbling was so bad that I turned off the sound for much of the game. But when I turned it back on someone who sounded like Costas was doing the two way player thing about Ohtani.
"Two way player" is a football term. I do not know when or why it was appropriated for baseball and specifically for Ohtani. The last two way player in the National Football League (NFL):
AI Overview
Chuck Bednarik is recognized as the last full-time, true two-way starter in NFL history, playing as a center on offense and a linebacker on defense for the Philadelphia Eagles until his retirement in 1962. [1, 2]
Since then, no one has sustained a full-time, two-way starting role, though a few notable players have seen action on both sides of the ball for brief periods: [1, 2, 3]
Deion Sanders: While primarily a Hall of Fame cornerback, he started in eight games at wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys in 1996. [1] ...
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Sanders also played MLB, making him WAY more of a versatile athlete than Ohtani.
OK, you get the idea. No one would consider a guy who was both a punter and a place kicker a two way player. They would not even be considered players.
Babe Ruth died a quarter of a century before the misguided Designated Hitter (DH) rule was implemented in the old American League in 1973. Ruth began as a starting pitcher with the Red Sox. If he pitched, he also batted. If he didn't pitch, he didn't bat because in his early seasons 1914-1917 Ruth only pitched. Ruth started to also play the outfield in 1918. Games & Innings:
1918:
OF 59 505
Pitching 20 166
1919:
OF 111 924
Pitching 17 133
Ironically, the most innings pitched in a season by Ohtani: 166 in 2022, the only season he qualified with at least 162 Innings to lead in average stats like ERA; Ohtani led AL in SO9.
Ruth was traded to the Yankees before the 1920 season when he broke his own season Home Run record of 29 set in 1919: Ruth hit 54 HR.
Designated Hitter (DH) rule, first adopted by the American League in 1973, became a universal Major League Baseball (MLB) rule for both leagues in 2022.
Gee, right in the middle of Ohtani's career 2018-2026. In other words, it wasn't easy enough for Ohtani to be a "two way player", MLB made it easier.
Ruth v Ohtani:
Ohtani:
85 innings pitched in 2026.
614 innings pitched career. The Babe pitched twice that: 1,221 - including 323 and 326.
8 innings in outfield in his CAREER.
Qualified with at least 162 innings in one season.
2025 WS game 7: losing pitcher until teammate took him off the hook with 9th inning HR.
20 innings pitched in playoffs, all in 2025. One good game: 10 SO. The rest: lousy.
| Rk | Date | Team | Opp | Result | Series | Inngs | Dec | DR | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | IBB | SO | HBP | WP | BF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2025-10-04 | LAD | @ | PHI | W, 5-3 | NLDS G1 | GS-6 | W(1-0) | 10 | 6.0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 23 |
| 2 | 2025-10-17 | LAD | MIL | W, 5-1 | NLCS G4 | GS-7 | W(2-0) | 12 | 6.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 22 | |
| 3 | 2025-10-28 | LAD | TOR | L, 2-6 | WS G4 | GS-7 | L(2-1) | 10 | 6.0 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 25 | |
| 4 | 2025-11-01 | LAD | @ | TOR | W, 5-4 (11) | WS G7 | GS-3 | 3 | 2.1 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 13 | |
| 3-1 | W-L:2-1 | 20.1 | 16 | 10 | 10 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 28 | 1 | 1 | 83 |
Ruth pitched 31 innings in two WS, including record 29 consecutive scoreless innings - Whitey Ford finally broke that record.
| Rk | Date | Team | Opp | Result | Series | Inngs | Dec | DR | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | SO | HBP | WP | BF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1916-10-09 | BOS | BRO | W, 2-1 (14) | WS G2 | CG | W(1-0) | 5 | 14.0 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 48 | |
| Rk | Date | Team | Opp | Result | Series | Inngs | Dec | DR | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | SO | HBP | WP | BF | |
| 2 | 1918-09-05 | BOS | @ | CHC | W, 1-0 | WS G1 | SHO | W(1-0) | 4 | 9.0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 35 |
| 3 | 1918-09-09 | BOS | CHC | W, 3-2 | WS G4 | GS-9 | W(2-0) | 3 | 8.0 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 33 | |
| 3-0 | W-L:3-0 | 31.0 | 19 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 116 |
Batting in "playoffs": PA and OPS
Ohtani 160 .940
Ruth 167 1.214 (all World Series)
Batting regular season: OPS+ career & high
Ohtani 160 187
Ruth 206 255
WAR season high:
Ohtani 2024 9.0
Ruth 1923 14.1 (9 seasons higher than 10.1)
If this was a fight, it would have been stopped.
