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| | Tuesday, December 14 Ruth is Player of the Decade for 1920-29 | |||||
Perhaps no individual will ever be able to touch the legends of Babe Ruth in terms of accomplishments both on and off the field. Clearly, no one was able to touch him in the voting for the Player of the '20s.
Ruth registered the largest victory in all nine of ESPN.com's Player of the Decade polls. Ruth was named on 82.1 percent of the 32,956 ballots cast.
The voting was conducted on ESPN.com in conjunction with the Players Choice Awards in Las Vegas on Nov. 5. ESPN.com users picked winners for the first nine decades of the century, and the players themselves will select the player of the '90s. The winner of that honor will be announced as part of the Players Choice Awards show, which will be televised on ESPN (8:30 p.m. ET).
Lou GehrigGehrig played his first major league game in 1923, but it wasn't until June 1, 1925, that he began his amazing streak of 2,130 consecutive games played. In 1927, Gehrig's teammate Babe Ruth set a major league record with 60 home runs, but it was Gehrig who set an MLB record with 175 RBI. Lefty Grove Robert Moses "Lefty" Grove didn't reach the majors until 1925, but upon joining the Philadelphia Athletics he led the American League in strikeouts his first seven seasons. Grove topped the AL with a 2.51 ERA in 1926, then posted an amazing 64-27 record from 1927 through 1929. He would arguably be the top pitcher in the 1930s, too. Rogers Hornsby Probably the greatest right-handed hitter of all time, "The Rajah" batted .382 in the 1920s, easily the best in the major leagues. Beginning in 1920, Hornsby led the National League in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage in six straight seasons, something no other player has even approached. Babe Ruth Ruth was not only a great baseball player; in the 1920s, he was also probably the most famous man in America. Ruth always swung as hard as he could, and he set major league home-run records in 1919 (29), 1920 (54), 1921 (59) and of course 1927 (60). He hit 467 home runs in the 1920s, nearly twice as many as the No. 2 man (Rogers Hornsby), and he also topped all players that decade in RBI (1,328) and runs scored (1,365). | ALSO SEE Baseball's Players Choice Awards Player of 1900-09: Honus Wagner Player of 1910-19: Ty Cobb Player of the '30s: Jimmie Foxx Player of the '40s: Ted Williams Player of the '50s: Mickey Mantle Player of the '60s: Willie Mays Player of the '70s: Pete Rose Player of the '80s: Mike Schmidt  | |||||
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