Don’t know what you are getting at about the Babe there, he’s only the greatest baseball player that ever lived. He was top ten southpaw of his time. He wanted to pitch but they made him play the field because he was the exception to the rule, a pitcher that actually could hit.
He was not an exception to the rule back then. He was just an exceptionally good hitter while most pitchers were just competent hitters in those days.
I can remember the days when pitchers were not automatic outs and even remember starting pitchers being used a pinch hitters on their off days. There have been and still are pitchers in the NL that can hit. Hang a curve on some of them and they will take you downtown.