Question

DISCUSSION POST: Read Babe Ruth and Comparative Advantage [PDF] and post to the Chapter 3 Discussion about this material. Then pick another person who excelled in more than one activity. Clease try to avoid picking those who fit neatly into this category. The most obvious are sports figures like Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders who played two sports at the highest level (and also Michael Jordan who also tried this, with little success in his second sport). Avoid these people and other similar prominent figures--try to be a little imaginative about your selection. Make sure to explain how your person embodies the economic concepts that you are trying to understand. Consider the person's decisions about specialization and how that choice affected them. The posting should include a link to a description of this person and their accomplishments.

The article:

Babe Ruth—Absolute Advantage and Comparative Advantage
Although we remember Babe Ruth as one of the greatest power hitters in the history of baseball, Ruth started his career as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. In his first year, 1914, he played in only a few games. The next year, he joined the team’s regular rotation of starting pitchers. By 1916 he had become a dominant pitcher: he led the American League in both earned run average and shutouts and finished third in both strikeouts and wins. Noted baseball writer Robert Creamer called Ruth the best pitcher that year—and at time the American League included Walter (Big Train) Johnson, a player many experts believe to have been the greatest pitcher of all time.
Ruth continued to pitch successfully for the Red Sox in the years that followed; he led the team to World Series wins in 1915, 1916 and 1918. In the 1918 World Series Ruth extended his string of consecutive scoreless innings pitched to twenty-nine, a record that would stand for over forty years. The latter year was the last time that Boston won the World Series until 2004; a streak that became infamously known as the curse of the “Bambino,” (one of Ruth’s nicknames). But he was also beginning to exhibit his strengths as a hitter. It may not sound all that impressive these days, but Ruth hit 11 home runs in 1918; for comparison, none of his teammates hit more than one that year—and remember, the Red Sox won the World Series that year. It’s also useful to note that this was during the period known as the “dead ball era.” So while, Ruth was an impressive pitcher, his talents as a hitter were even more incredible. Despite this, the Red Sox sold Ruth’s contract to the New York Yankees just prior to the start of the 1920 season.
Of course, it’s Ruth’s career with the Yankees that has made him an immortal, and it’s no exaggeration that Yankee Stadium was truly the “House that Ruth built.” Fans showed up to see Ruth hit, not pitch and this strategy worked extraordinarily well for the Yankees; the New York team won 7 American League pennants and 4 Worlds Series championships between 1920 and 1932. Ruth’s exploits are now legend—hiting over 50 home runs twice and then 60 in 1927, and this number was not bettered until 1961. His career home run total of 714 stood for over 50 years.
From an economics standpoint, the question is what Ruth’s comparative advantage was. He clearly had an absolute advantage over his Red Sox teammates in both hitting and pitching, the same probably may well have been the case had he pitched regularly for the Yankees—but he never really had a chance to prove this, because he was used almost exclusively as a hitter.
So, why did Ruth—or the Yankees—choose to specialize? It comes down to their evaluation of his abilities and his comparative advantage as a hitter. But baseball fans are left with an interesting question: would the Yankees have been a better team with Ruth as a starting pitcher than as an outfielder?

Answer 1

Absolute advantage:

Ruth an absolute advantage over the competition,Ruth was the best pittcher in the league year(1974),and also best hitter with good batting average.

compartive advantage :

Ruth had compartive advantage as hitter during the period,if the record of the third or fourth best pitcher had mediocre so could specilize in hitting on compartive,the Sox and soon after,the Yankees.the Yankees record between 1920 to 1924 on win ratio .646 but the same period of time Ruth win ratio was .777,like that Ruth had compartive advantage.