New York Yankees relief pitcher Adam Ottavino explains his controversial and viral “striking out Babe Ruth ever time” comment.
New York Yankees relief pitcher Adam Ottavino would “strike Babe Ruth out every time.” Of course, this is all speculation. It’s simply the newest Yankee employee’s opinion.
The righty arm who recently signed a three-year, $27 million deal made this controversial comment on a recent MLB.com podcast.
“I would strike Babe Ruth out every time,’’ Ottavino claimed, adding that he meant no disrespect to the greatest Yankee of all-timme. “It was just a different game’’ back then.
After little time that allowed the ballsy comment to go viral, Ottavino backpedaled quicker than Darrelle Revis in his prime prior to his break on the opposing team’s No. 1 wideout.
After those comments aired, “I was surprised that it went so viral,’’ said Ottavino. “I probably used a bad example of the point I was trying to make about the evolution of pitching in baseball history.
“Babe Ruth is a name I probably shouldn’t have used in that example.’
It’s obvious that the New York native wasn’t ill-intentioned in his comments. But in this unforgiving world of social media coupled with ridiculous outrage culture, he was lambasted for such baseball sacrilege.
“I meant no disrespect,’’ Ottavino said. As to the dominance of one era of pitchers over another era’s hitters, “It’s nothing that can be proven, anyway, so I found it a little funny.’
Ottavino, 33, is, indeed, a strikeout machine. Over 77.2 innings pitched with the Colorado Rockies a season ago, the righty fanned 112 batters, marking a career high.
Other samplings (seasons) haven’t produced such a rich strikeout rate, but his career 10.1 K/9 rate is nothing to sneeze at.
Adam Ottavino enters his first year with the New York Yankees while also accounting as the first Bomber to ever sport the No. 0.
