How Many Times Did Babe Ruth Strikeout?

Babe Ruth struck out 1,330 times in his amazing major league baseball career. A high total of strikeouts for his era as the Babe lead the league 5 times in strikeouts but a number which only ranks Babe Ruth 95th today in all-time strikeouts.

In his career Babe Ruth had 8,399 official at bats. So he struck out 15.8% of the time per at bat. For comparison purposes the career leader in strikeouts is Reggie Jackson who struck out 2,597 times. Reggie had 9,864 at bats in his career so his strikeout average is 26.3%. That is a 67% higher strikeout rate than Babe Ruth.

Strikeouts are a much bigger part of baseball today than they were during Babe Ruth's time. In 1927 the average hitter in the American League struck out 8.1% of the time per at bat. In 2010 in the American League the average hitter struck out 19.6% of the time per at bat. So players today strikeout 142% more often than they did in 1927.

Babe Ruth lead the league in strikeouts in 1927 with 89 in 540 at bats. So his strikeout ratio in 1927 was 16.5%. That was the year the Babe hit 60 home runs.

The highest number of strikeouts Babe Ruth ever had in a season was 93 in 1923 with the New York Yankees. For his entire 22 year major league baseball career Babe Ruth averaged 61 strikeouts per season. He also averaged 86 strikeouts per 162 games played.

Babe Ruth is considered the first player in baseball history who swung hard at every pitch and tried to hit as many home runs as possible. From that standpoint he might be considered the father of the strikeout but the modern day players have surpassed him in strikeout supremacy in spades.

For more see Babe Ruth and the World Series

Sources:

Baseball Reference