How Many Stolen Bases Did Babe Ruth Have in His Career?

In his major league baseball career that stretched over 22 seasons from 1914-1935 Babe Ruth had 123 stolen bases (SB).

To go along with his 123 SB's the Babe was caught stealing 117 times officially but the American League did not track stolen bases in 1918 and 1919 when the Babe stole 6 and 7 bases respectively. So he was probably caught stealing a few more times over those two seasons.

Officially Babe Ruth's stolen base percentage is just 51% which is a low number. But studying the data from the era Ruth played in reveals that SB percentages were low for almost every player. Much lower than modern players so the stat was likely kept in a different way and caught stealing was counted differently.

For example in 1927 in the American League when Babe Ruth played for the New York Yankees there were 788 total SB and 511 caught stealing (CS). So the entire league had a stolen base success rate of just 60.6%.

In 2010 in the American League there were 1505 stolen bases and only 540 CS. A success rate of 73.6% which is almost 22% higher than in 1927. And 1927 was a high year as the success rate for a SB in that era was usually well under 60%.

Babe Ruth's longtime New York Yankees teammate Lou Gehrig stole just 100 bases in 102 attempts for a career stolen base percentage of just 49.5%

The most stolen bases Babe Ruth ever recorded in a season is 17 which he did twice in 1921 and in 1923. The success rate for SB's in the American League in 1921 was 55.6% and in 1923 it was 55.3%.

So in his career Babe Ruth was a below average base stealer but not too much below the SB averages of his era.

For more see Babe Ruth and Double Plays

Source:http://www.baseball-reference.com/