Polk was president from 1845-1849. Abner Doubleday is credited with creating the game of baseball in 1839 and Alexander Cartwright is credited with creating the modern rules in 1845 and forming one of the earliest teams in 1849 - the New York Knickerbockers. Polk was around for this.
Harding was president from 1921 until his death in 1923. Harding was reported to have played baseball and to have owned a minor league team.
Babe Ruth won his only MVP award in 1923. In fact Ruth only received MVP votes in three of his 22 seasons.
Barry Bonds won 7 MVPs.
Nine players won 3 MVPs - Berra, Campanella, DiMaggio, Foxx, Mantle, Musial, Pujols, A. Rodriguez and Schmidt.
Ruth never led the league in hits. I guess leading the league in walks 11 times and averaging 133 walks per 162 games played (I know he only played 154 per season but that's how baseball-reference.com reports it) can impact how many hits he got.
Ruth never led the league in doubles. Add the walks and homers to cause this to be true. He had 506 career doubles.
He did lead the league a few times. Here is a breakdown.
runs - 7
homers - 12
RBIs - 5
walks - 11
average - 1
OBP - 10
SLG - 13
Maybe Ruth wasn't that good. He was only a two-time all-star. Glenn Beckert was a four-time all-star.
In that case, Steve Swisher (senior) was half as good as Ruth. Did Swisher get a Kellogg's card?
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