Who is better, Ruth or Palmer?
Babe Ruth leads with a GOAT score of 94.6 against 90.1 for Jim Palmer — a gap of 4.5 points on GOAT Rank's weighted model.
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Ruth vs Palmer
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Quick answer
GOAT Rank currently ranks Babe Ruth above Jim Palmer: 94.6 vs 90.1. Babe Ruth leads on Dominance, Peak, Honours. Jim Palmer leads on Longevity.
How the GOAT Score is calculated →GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
RuthWinner
94.6Ruth wins: Dominance, Peak, Honours, Statistics
Palmer
90.1Palmer wins: Longevity
Candidates
Locked to BaseballShareable URL · /compare/babe-ruth-vs-jim-palmer
Time range
Showing full careers. Pick a window to recalculate the selected period.
Category radar
Verdict
Weighted GOAT score
🇺🇸 Babe Ruth
94.6
Ruth leads in 4 of 5 weighted categories.
1. Babe Ruth
2. Jim Palmer
Category breakdown
Season form · Form index per season
Career timeline · Form index per season
Cumulative output season by season — the shape of each career against the other.
GOAT pace tracker
Through age 23 · Form index per season
1. 🇺🇸 Babe Ruth11 home runs
1 season by age 23 · 11 per season
Setting the pace at age 23
No verified birth date for Palmer — shown in the pro-debut view instead.
Every career is cut at the season the athlete turned 23, so a rookie today is measured against exactly what a legend had banked by the same birthday.
Fan vote — data vs the people
GOAT Rank · the data
Ruth94.6
Palmer90.1
FAQ
Where does Palmer beat Ruth?
Palmer scores higher on longevity. Ruth leads on peak, dominance, honours, statistics.
How is the Ruth vs Palmer score calculated?
Both are scored on peak, dominance, honours, statistics, longevity within their sport. Ruth: 94.6, Palmer: 90.1.
What do you think?
0 commentsMake your case for Ruth vs Palmer. The scoring is published in full — if you can point at the pillar or the weight you disagree with, we read it. Read the methodology paper.