On a July day in 1914, George Herman “Babe” Ruth Jr. took the mound for the Boston Red Sox to pitch seven innings in a 4–3 win over the Cleveland Indians. No one knew it yet, but the 19-year-old left-hander would become the greatest hitter in the history of baseball.
Before Ruth began his torrent through the majors as the game’s greatest hitter, he spent the three seasons following his debut predominantly as the Red Sox’s ace pitcher. He pitched 866.5 innings in those three seasons (1915–17) and finished with a 65–33 record, 2.06 ERA, and 410 strikeouts. It was after the 1917 season, in which he would post his career-high 24 wins, that he would begin his transition into being a two-way player, and then, ultimately, into the hitter known as the “Sultan of Swat.”…