The Psychological Phenom: Babe Ruth

Does this man look like the best athlete of his generation? (source)

Physically, Babe Ruth was not the most impressive athlete. To put it lightly, he had a bulky frame and would be considered over-weight by today's standards. Click this link to watch him run and you'll see what I mean. So how could this man be the greatest baseball player of all time? The greatest athlete of his generation? 

Luckily for us, Hugh Fullerton wondered the same question in 1921 and decided to commit Babe to a litany of tests. The results of the study, conducted by Albert Johanson, M.A., and Joseph Holmes, M.A., of the research laboratory of Columbia University's psychological department, were released in Popular Science Monthly (Issue 99, 1921) under the name, "Why Babe Ruth is the Greatest Home-Run Hitter."

Wasn't his lifestyle that led to his success (source)

The scientists knew before they started that Babe Ruth must have some special mental abilities, I mean, you must have some secret if you can react and swing accurately threw a baseball traveling 90 mph. However, nobody could have expected just how spectacular Babe Ruth's mental capacities were. 


The scientists discovered that the secret to Babe Ruth's batting abilities, reduced to non-scientific terms, is that his eyes and ears function more rapidly than those of other players; that his brain records sensations more quickly and transmits its orders to the muscles much faster than does the average man's. The tests proved that the coordination of his eye, brain, nerve system, and muscles was practically perfect and far better than the average person. 


For instance, Babe Ruth's eyes and ears were about 12% and 11% faster than the average person's, respectively. His nerves were steadier than those of 499 out of 500 people.
He rated one and a half times above the human average in attention and quickness of perception.
Finally, in intelligence, as demonstrated by the quickness and accuracy of understanding, he was approximately 10% above normal.


The Columbia University researchers were shocked. Not only did Babe Ruth have above average hand-eye coordination, but his brain was freakishly efficient at processing data and sending orders to the rest of his body. Ruth would have been phenomenal at nearly anything that he committed himself to because his brain functioned so abnormally well.

Babe in front of thousands of his fans (source)

That he choose to entertain hundreds of thousands of people and dominate America's pastime is a testament to his intelligence, skill, and abilities. Of all of the potential career paths in which he would have excelled, I can't think of any as fun, prestigious, and rewarding as that of a professional baseball player in the 1920s. Babe Ruth was an extraordinary baseball player, as well as a remarkable man, and thanks to this research, we now know why.


To see the full study, click on this link.