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When Theo Epstein began the Cubs rebuild during the winter of 2011, one of his highest priorities was to attempt to acquire what he called “pillar” players. These would be players that Epstein believed would help him change the culture of the “lovable losers” through the way they played the game of baseball and conducted themselves off the field. Obviously, these players would have great baseball skill but Epstein emphasized that his pillar players must also have outstanding character as well. In a perfect world, Epstein believed he needed to have at least four pillar players before the Cubs could contend for a World Series championship and as he looked at the Cubs 2011 roster he had a grand total of zero.
Fast forward three years.
By July of 2014, Epstein believed he had accomplished his goal of acquiring four pillar players. He traded for Anthony Rizzo in 2012, drafted Kris Bryant in 2013, and acquired Kyle Schwarber and Addison Russell in 2014 via the draft and a trade respectively.
Of the three pillars, Schwarber’s story has to be the most interesting due to the fact he was the only one compared to arguably the greatest baseball player in history, Babe Ruth.
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Patrick Mooney, Cubs beat writer for CSN, wrote a great article yesterday discussing the discovery of Kyle Schwarber by renowned baseball scout Tom Zielinski, who tragically passed away this past winter.
Zielinski was the Cubs top Midwest scout since 2001 and he is the man that is credited with finding Kyle Schwarber during his time as Indiana University. Zielinski was attending the Purdue-IU game where Schwarber was a junior for the Hoosiers and on May 4, 2014, Zielinski made a bold comparison in his scouting report on Schwarber that is still legendary in the Cubs front office today.
“Squint your eyes and imagine a grainy film of Babe Ruth hitting a ball in the stands at Yankee Stadium. I swear I saw that reenacted today as the ball flew out over the 2nd fence in RF.”
Theo Epstein trusted Zielinski so when he read the report on Schwarber, Epstein had to see him live and in person. Nine days later, Epstein traveled to Louisville, Kentucky to see if Zielinski’s words on Schwarber held any truth.
Not only did Schwarber deliver, he hit one of the longest home runs in Louisville’s Jim Patterson stadium’s history as his Hoosiers went on to defeat the Louisville Cardinals 7-2.
Here’s the bomb Theo saw live and in person.
It was shots like this that led Zielinski to say,
“I felt like I was watching Babe Ruth saunter to the plate, call his shot and then he went on to hit a home run. And then as he trotted around the bases, I felt like I was watching Babe Ruth’s trot.”
Look, I’m not jumping on board with the Schwarber/Ruth comparison because the guy hasn’t even played a full MLB season yet. However, the similarities are pretty hard to ignore:
Ruth was 6’2″, Schwarber is 6’0.
Ruth weighed 216 lbs, Schwarber is 235.
Ruth debuted at the age of 19, Schwarber was 22.
Through two seasons, Ruth played in 47 games, Schwarber played in 71.
Both of their first seasons were abbreviated.
Both have a huge left handed bat and let’s be honest, they kind of look the same as well.
The Schwarber/Ruth comparison is pretty easy to see for the reasons mentioned above but there are also statistics that link the two players.
Among those with 40 or more at-bats, Schwarber and Ruth are tied for fourth on the all-time postseason list with a .744 slugging percentage. Those slugging percentages are elevated from the fact Schwarber already has five postseason home runs compared to Ruth’s 15 (although Ruth made 10 postseason appearances compared to Schwarber’s two). It’s also ironic that both men allegedly called their shot before they stepped to the plate and took one out at Wrigley.
Yes, I said allegedly.
Schwarber has a long way to go to fulfill the comparison between he and Ruth but so far, he’s off to a great start. Cubs fans would not be lucky enough to have Schwarber on their team if it wasn’t for Stan Zielinski so when the team gets their championship rings tonight at Wrigley, Zielinski should be remembered as a part of the championship process.
The final comparison (and the only one I’m really concerned about) between Ruth and Schwarber is the number of rings:
Ruth – 7
Schwarber – 1
Although I’m hoping Schwarber’s number will be changing again this November.
