The best shortened-season performances including Jerry Rice in 1987

The NBA and NHL will be lucky to get in a full playoff if they even return. Major League Baseball certainly won’t play a full 162-game schedule. And who knows about the NFL? But while coronavirus is wreaking havoc on the calendars of every sports …

Babe Ruth

(Library of Congress)

Ruth was still with the Red Sox and only in his second season as a full-time hitter when the Spanish Flu pandemic cut the season to around 140 games for most teams. Ruth’s bat exploded for 29 home runs over 130 games, breaking the previous all-time record of 27 set by the Cubs’ Ned Williamson in 1884. The second highest home run total in 1919 was the 12 hit by Philadelphia’s Gavvy Cravath.