Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Quotes 219. The quote today is by Babe Ruth. A
very famous old-time baseball player. In his day, he was probably the most famous
baseball player that existed in his time. So let's look at his quote. Here's the
quote "Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game. " All right.
so we got a baseball analogy and in life we hear about a lot of baseball
analogies. We often compare things to baseball. Baseball is still probably
maybe the number one sport in America. Some people might argue that it's
American football too. But we do have a lot of analogies and we get a lot of
other phrases sometimes in our everyday English from baseball. But let's
continue here. The ballplayer George Herman Ruth, that was his real name.
Nicknamed Babe Ruth even that's kind of a funny story. I mean because if you look
at old photos his face did look a little bit like a baby's face. So that's why he
ended up getting the nickname of Babe Ruth. Was probably or you could say
arguably the greatest ballplayer that ever lived.
Of course arguably, a lot of people have their favorite ball players and and Babe
Ruth was a long time ago, but if you factor in a number of things you really
get impressed with his statistics. Of course he did strike out a lot like all
homerun hitters, like all home run hitters. So homerun hitters are famous for
striking out and this might be one of the reasons. We say here
they often swing for the fences. Yeah. So it means sometimes like they're trying
to hit a home run. They're trying ,you have to put your full energy into the
swing to try to you know hit a home run. So and when you try to hit a home run
You're , you're you tend to be a little bit more likely to strike out. Because
your defenses are down a little bit more. Okay. Swing for the fences surprisingly
he is not even in the top 100 who struck out and he is
still third in home runs and walks. Okay so a couple of things to look at here
yeah a lot if you ever look at the list of the people who are most famous for
striking out there's a lot of homerun hitters right you know right in the near
the top of the list. I actually expected him to be in the top 100 but I don't
know what his number is but he's beyond the top 100 I don't know if he's still
made the top 200 but he's I was kind of surprised to find out that he's not in
the top 100. And of course he walked a lot you know because a lot of pitchers
were afraid to pitch to him because he was such a good hitter. He had a great
batting average as well. Not all homerun hitters have a great batting average as
well. Plus he played in the early days of baseball. A lot of people don't realize
that they say nowadays in our modern times the ball is more live. So it
bounces more. So it has more spring when you hit it. So it's actually easier to
hit a home run today than it was like about a hundred years ago. And in his day
when he led for especially at the beginning of his career when he led in
homeruns like he'd hit like 40 or 50 home runs in a year and number two was
like 18 home runs. You know he was like half so he was far far ahead of them. I
think it wasn't until there was another Yankee ball player called Lou Gehrig
came along they gave him any competition. That was I think Lou Gehrig actually
beat him out in a few years but still you know Babe Ruth had a long career.
Okay good. However if you factor in he was a full-time
pitcher with a very impressive pitching record for eight years. This is another
thing I don't know of any other cases of anybody who had such a long you know, a
significant pitching career like eight years of pitching and then started to
become like a real home run hitter. You know, of course he had a few home runs as
a pitcher but with a pitcher you know because of you don't want to destroy
your arm you only pitch every three four or five days so you don't get to play
every day. So, so you're very limited on how often you get to bat and home
runs that you could hit and his his pitching record was really good he had twice
as many wins as he had losses. So he was actually an excellent pitcher as well.
It's surprising that they even changed him to a hitter because you know
sometimes they think of your pitching is being more important than hitting. And
and remember he also is connected to what the Boston Red Sox think as you
know they they think that they would jinxed. Because he originally started with
the Boston Red Sox that's where was a pitcher. Then they,
they I think they sold him or traded him to the Yankees and they felt like ever
since that they were jinxed and that's where the Yankees made him the hitter
And that's where he turned into the you know one of the greatest homerun hitters
that ever existed. Okay. Let's go on. However if you factor that Babe Ruth was .... All right.
Both Hank Aaron and Bobby Bonds had thousands of at bats more than Babe Ruth
Yeah. So Babe Ruth is now number three, but I remember when I was a kid he was
still number one. Finally Hank Aaron broke his record but
I think Hank Aaron had really almost three or four thousand at bats more than
Babe Ruth. So that's a lot more at-bats and again remember I told you about the
live ball and the ball that is more dead. You know, in Babe Ruth's time and then not Bobby
Bonds. Bobby Bonds was closer so I think he only had a couple well almost 2000
more at bats then than Babe Ruth . Yeah. his statistics were closer but Bobby Bonds
of course you know, he had the controversy of taking you know the drug
enhancers. It was a little odd with Bobby Bonds career. I remember as he got older
he started to get better you know, usually when people hit the peak of
their career that peak for, for a while and then they tend to go down. He
started to go up higher which was a little odd there. So you do wonder about
him. If he really you know, I think they do say that he was taking those drugs. So
that would of course gave him a huge advantage. That thing did not exist in
Babe Ruth's day. But anyway getting back to the quote.
The quote is very important here. With this quote by Babe Ruth is letting you know
don't let the fear of failing stop you from pursuing your dreams or even
participating in what you love. That's basically what he's saying. Yeah. Don't
never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game. So you got to
realize that as long as you're in there and as long as you're competing , you
got to have a lot of failures. You're not going to win every time. And you're going to
have bad days. You just have to put up with that you probably...
There is a lot of failure in life. It is how we learn and often we cannot hit
those home runs or reach high points in life. Yeah a lot of times we even use
that you know to say that you did really well or that you hit a home run. Meaning
you did just about as good as you possibly could do in something. Without
having quite a few failures in between. Anyway I hope you got it. I hope you
enjoyed it. Thank you for your time. Bye- bye.