The Answer to Babe Ruth
So your starter is gassed and the opponent has none other than Babe Ruth coming up to hit. The game is close and you can NOT afford to let the Great Bambino hurt you. What can you do? Is there anyone you can call upon in your bullpen who can reign in baseballs most prolific hitter? Only one man can stand up to the greatest hitter of all time. Mariano Rivera? Christy Mathewson? Walter Johnson? Nope. toss those bums aside. Who you need is Hub.
Who?
Hub Pruett is not in the Hall of Fame. His career record was 29-48, he never pitched for a winner and with the exception of one man, he could barely get anyone out. But that one exception was life changing. Babe Ruth had the hardest time figuring out Hub.
In 1922, Ruth went 2-13 against Pruett. One of those hits was a homer (because no one can be perfect against the Babe) the other hit was a single. Of the 11 outs, one was a weak groundout to the pitcher...the other 10 were all strikeouts.
Now, power hitters are prone to the strikeout, but when you strikeout 10 out of 13 times against somebody, that's an entirely different level. Throw in the 3 walks (one intentional) if you want, but striking out 10 out of 16 times isn't much of an improvement.
Now, power hitters are prone to the strikeout, but when you strikeout 10 out of 13 times against somebody, that's an entirely different level. Throw in the 3 walks (one intentional) if you want, but striking out 10 out of 16 times isn't much of an improvement.
The following season featured another homer from Ruth and only a few more strikeouts, but the legend was already formed. Despite being a sup par reliever (and remember, back then a reliever was just someone who wasn't good enough to be a starter) Hub found himself finding work just for the fact that he could be a secret weapon to use against Ruth.
Hub's card isn't horrible. A nice control that balances out the 16+ on base allowing. A very underwhelming strikeout chart (suggesting that more than a few of those 10 Ks were on Ruth rolling a 1 on his own chart). The price tag is a bit steep for a reliever though.
No matter where Hub ended up, it wasn't long before teams realized that the potential to neutralize Ruth wasn't worth the fact that he was useless against every other hitter and he found himself out of a job. But there was usually someone else willing to take a chance with Ruth's kryptonite. And while Hub knew he wasn't longed for baseball, he didn't waste the opportunity to cash in. He used his baseball career to pay for medical school and became a doctor. Later, when both men were well beyond baseball, Pruett went to visit a dying Ruth and finally meet him proper for the first time and thank him for making his medical school payments possible.
