Happy 100th to Baseball’s Sultan of Swat

Today, on the 100th anniversary of his birth, it’s Babe Ruth Day for Morning Briefing.

And what better place to begin than with Ruth’s greatest surviving records, his slugging averages?

No other word fits. Babe Ruth’s slugging averages are awesome. Generations later, they defy belief, as they did in 1920 and ’21. They are today the best remaining measure of how thoroughly he dominated his sport.

His season and all-time home run records have fallen, but no one has ever approached his 1920 and ’21 seasons, when his slugging averages were .847 and .846.

In fact, only Ruth has ever posted a one-season slugging average (computed by using total bases instead of hits) of more than .800. His 1927 slugging average, .772, is the third-highest in major league history. Of the 11 highest numbers ever recorded, seven are Ruth’s.

Only Lou Gehrig (.765, 1927), Rogers Hornsby (.756, 1925), Jimmie Foxx (.749, 1932) and Ted Williams (.735, 1941) are with Ruth in the top 10.

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Trivia time: Where was Ruth on Jan. 6, 1920, when he learned he’d been sold by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees?

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Ruthian numbers: Baseball historians credit Ruth with the greatest consecutive seasons ever, his 1920 and ’21 seasons, when he was 25 and 26.

In only 142 games in 1920, he hit 54 home runs, drove in 137 runs and batted .376. In 1921, in 152 games, he hit 59 homers, drove in 171 runs and batted .378.

And how about his six-year stretch from 1926 through 1931, when he averaged 50 home runs per season? He also averaged 154 RBIs and batted .354 in the span.

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Babe’s pay: In the 1920s and ‘30s, Ruth’s paychecks were as eye-popping as his stats.

In 1919, his last season with the Boston Red Sox, he was one of the game’s highest-paid players at $10,000 per year. In 1920 and ‘21, he made $20,000 with the Yankees.

When New York signed him for $52,000 in 1922, the next highest-paid Yankee was Frank (Home Run) Baker, at $16,000. He made $70,000 in 1927, ’28 and ’29 before hitting his peak, $80,000, for 1930 and ’31.

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Comparison: In 1935, pitcher Dizzy Dean, coming off a 30-7 season, got a raise to $19,500.

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Babe bits: Ruth’s lifetime batting average, .342, is 11th on the all-time list. Also:

--His all-time RBI total, 2,211, is second only to Hank Aaron’s 2,297.

--He was walked 2,056 times, an all-time record.

--When he hit his 700th home run in 1934, only two other players had hit more than 300.

--Only 11 players have hit 50 homers in a season. Ruth did it four times.

--He has the three highest home run percentages ever: 11.8 home runs per 100 at-bats (1920), 11.1 (1927) and 10.9 (1921).

When Roger Maris hit 61 home runs in 1961, his home run percentage was 10.3.

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Scholarly Pursuits: Hofstra University, which in recent years has played host to conferences for eight Presidents, has issued a call for papers for its Babe Ruth Conference, April 27-29.

Official name: “Baseball and the Sultan of Swat.”

Historians, Ruth teammates, film producers, authors and even poets will gather for Ruth presentations, including one by a Japanese historian whose paper is titled “Babe Ruth’s Impact on Japanese Culture.”

One paper, called “The Curse of the Bambino,” addresses how the Boston Red Sox were generations in recovering from the 1920 deal that sent Ruth from Boston to the Yankees.

Another, by author Robert Peterson, purports to show Ruth wouldn’t have hit anything near 714 home runs if baseball in his day hadn’t been segregated, if he’d faced the best of the Negro leagues’ pitchers.

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Trivia answer: A courier found him on the 18th tee at Griffith Park Golf Course in Los Angeles.

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Quotebook: Ruth, in the Yankee locker room on Sept. 30, 1927, after hitting his record 60th home run: “Sixty! Count ‘em, 60! Let’s see some S.O.B. match that!”