Babe Ruth Voted Baseball’s Player of Century

Babe Ruth towered over baseball when he played. He is still casting his shadow--in the voting for player of the century.

Ruth, an American hero when he led the New York Yankees to greatness in the 1920s and ‘30, was the overwhelming choice as the top baseball player in voting by a six-member panel of experts assembled by the Associated Press.

Ruth received five of six first-place votes, getting 59 of a possible 60 points. Willie Mays was second with 53 points, getting one first, four seconds and one fourth.

Ruth played his last game in 1935 and none of the panelists ever saw his feats. Mays, according to nearly all, was the greatest player they ever saw.

Hank Aaron was third in the voting with 38 points, followed by Ted Williams, 33; Ty Cobb, 26; Joe DiMaggio 24; Walter Johnson, 22; Lou Gehrig, 16; Jackie Robinson, 15, and Honus Wagner, 11.

The AP panel included Hall of Famer Joe Morgan; former commissioner Bowie Kuhn; retired baseball writers Jerome Holtzman and Leonard Koppett; Gene Orza, the No. 2 official of the players’ association; and Seymour Siwoff, the president of the Elias Sports Bureau.

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Mario Andretti and A.J. Foyt tied for the title of driver of the century as voted by a six-member panel of experts assembled by the AP.

Both received two first-place votes and a total of 47 points from the panelists. Their closest challenger in the voting was Juan Manuel Fangio, an Argentine who won an unmatched five championships in the early days of Formula One. Fangio finished with 42 points, one more than Richard Petty and three more than Dale Earnhardt.

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Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and U.S. Open tennis champions Andre Agassi and Serena Williams were among the finalists announced by the U.S. Olympic Committee for its 1999 SportsMan and SportsWoman of the Year awards.

Armstrong, Agassi and sprinter Maurice Greene are the men’s finalists. Joining Williams are swimmer Jenny Thompson and soccer player Michelle Akers.

Boxing

Oscar De La Hoya and Felix Trinidad could fight a rematch June 17, if rival promoters can come up with an agreement in talks next week in New York.

Promoter Bob Arum said he plans to sit down with Don King and HBO executives on Monday to try to set up a rematch of the Sept. 18 fight won by Trinidad.

The opportunity arose after Trinidad’s fight with 154-pound champion David Reid fell apart because of Reid’s contractual commitments with HBO.

“I think the odds are good we make the fight,” Arum said. “I think Trinidad has learned a lesson about his marketability.”

Winter Sports

Hermann Maier, who has won five of his six World Cup races this year, had a bruised spine and slight concussion after a crash during practice at Val d’Isere, France. The Austrian star still intends to race in today’s downhill and Sunday’s giant slalom.

Tara Lipinski and Alexi Urmanov were the leaders after the technical portion of the World Professional Figure Skating Championship at Washington. . . . Johann Muehlegg, a German competing for Spain, stunned the favored Scandinavians in a men’s 15-kilometer freestyle race at Sappada, Italy, to give Spain its first victory in World Cup cross-country skiing. . . . Frode Andersen of Norway used his speed on skis to overcome a poor shooting performance and win the World Cup Biathlon competition at Pokljuka, Slovenia.

Miscellany

The son of Wisconsin football Coach Barry Alvarez will spend 10 days in jail after pleading no contest to microwaving a fraternity brother’s parrot at Madison, Wis. Chad Alvarez, 23, was charged with theft of a domestic animal and intentional mistreatment of an animal resulting in death. Alvarez will serve five years on probation. If he completes probation without further infractions, the felony charges will be reduced to misdemeanors.

Marshall football Coach Bob Pruett said he would remain with the school and not accept a job to become coach at Houston. . . . Penn State’s LaVar Arrington won the Butkus Award as college football’s top linebacker. . . . Northern Colorado quarterback Corte McGuffey won the Harlon Hill Trophy as the Division II player of the year.

Swedish swimmers broke short-course world records, Therese Alshammar in the women’s 100-meter freestyle and Anna-Karin Kammerling in the women’s 50-meter butterfly, in the European championships at Oeiras, Portugal. Alshammar swam 52.80 seconds, beating the record of 53.01 set by China’s Le Jingyi in 1993. Kammerling recorded 25.64, bettering the 26.05 set by Jenny Thompson last year.