I seem to recall once there was this pitcher who was a pretty good hitter.....I think his name was Ruth or something like that.
Oh, come on. What kind of a name is "Babe" for a ballplayer? And his last name is a girl's name? Puh-leeze. Like he's ever gonna amount to anything. I say trade him...yeah, to the Yankees, that's the place for him. He'll probably never pitch again.
I think the selling point of this deal is so many hitters in their early 30’s with knee problems or just poor defensive skills. So they can market the guys and carry them on the payrolls for another five years.
Walter Johnson, of the Babe's Hall of Fame class wasn't too bad of a hitter either. His lifetime batting average was .235 and he was occasionally used as a pinch hitter.
Players were expected to be multidimensional in those days. You look at the equipment they used, especially the gloves, and it was remarkable they were even able to do what they did.
When I hear these blowhard announcers bleat about how much better the players are today, I feel like puking.
Even Hank Aaron, as great as he was, wouldn't have come close to breaking Ruth's home run record if he had spent the first 30% of his career as a pitcher in the deadball era. As for jackasses like Barry Bonds who followed Aaron, they aren't fit to shine Hammerin' Hank's shoes.
There was another one named Drysdale. That was back before I gave up MLB because of Curt Flood.