Who is better, Ruth or Henderson?
Babe Ruth leads with a GOAT score of 94.6 against 89.1 for Rickey Henderson — a gap of 5.5 points on GOAT Rank's weighted model.
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Ruth vs Henderson
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Quick answer
GOAT Rank currently ranks Babe Ruth above Rickey Henderson: 94.6 vs 89.1. Babe Ruth leads on Dominance, Honours, Peak. Rickey Henderson leads on Longevity.
How the GOAT Score is calculated →GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
RuthWinner
94.6Ruth wins: Dominance, Peak, Honours, Statistics
Henderson
89.1Henderson wins: Longevity
Candidates
Locked to BaseballShareable URL · /compare/babe-ruth-vs-rickey-henderson
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. Rickey Henderson
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 Henderson — 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.
| Metric | RuthRetired | HendersonRetired |
|---|---|---|
| Home runs | 714 | — |
| World Series titles | 7 | 2 |
| Career OPS | 1.164 | — |
| Batting average | 0.342 | — |
| RBIs | 2,214 | — |
| Pitching ERA | 2.28 | — |
| Stolen bases | — | 1,406 |
| Runs scored | — | 2,295 |
| MVP awards | — | 1 |
| All-Star selections | — | 10 |
| Leadoff home runs | — | 81 |
| Dominance w25% | 100 | 86 |
| Peak w20% | 99 | 90 |
| Longevity w20% | 82 | 94 |
| Honours w20% | 94 | 84 |
| Statistics w15% | 97 | 93 |
Fan vote — data vs the people
GOAT Rank · the data
Ruth94.6
Henderson89.1
FAQ
Where does Henderson beat Ruth?
Henderson scores higher on longevity. Ruth leads on peak, dominance, honours, statistics.
How is the Ruth vs Henderson score calculated?
Both are scored on peak, dominance, honours, statistics, longevity within their sport. Ruth: 94.6, Henderson: 89.1.
What do you think?
0 commentsMake your case for Ruth vs Henderson. 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.