DAILY DIRT: How in the world was Babe Ruth not a unanimous selection for the Baseball Hall of Fame?

As you’ll read in a moment, 11 voters left Babe Ruth off their hall of fame ballot back in the day. Was it because of Babe’s indiscretions off the field? If so, how did Ty Cobb get more votes? Has anyone read of Cobb’s checkered background? This really baffles me … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 291 of The Daily Dirt.

1. I recently came across what I feel are these three medal worthy sports-related trivia notes:

Gold medal: I think many fans would be shocked to know that Babe Ruth was not a unanimous selection to the Baseball Hall of Fame. A year after his retirement, Ruth was one of the five initial inductees into the new hall, and despite his amazing career numbers (especially at that time), 11 of the 226 voters left the Bambino off their ballots altogether. Ruth wound up second to Ty Cobb in voting. But at least he finished ahead of Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson and Honus Wagner.

Silver medal: I also doubt that many know that future NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady was drafted by the Montreal Expos as a catcher out of high school in 1995. He opted, of course, to attend Michigan on a football scholarship and the rest, as they say, is history.

Bronze medal: Boxing legend Muhammad Ali earned more from the auctioning of the gloves he used to knock out Sonny Liston in 1964 for the heavyweight championship than he did the fight itself. Ali was paid $630,000 for the KO of Liston, but 50 years after that bout the gloves he used sold for $836,000.

2. Don’t complain the next time it costs you $5 for a couple of hot dogs or a burger and soft drink at the concession stand of a local athletic event. Here’s what fans are paying this weekend at the PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla.:

• Tickets: $195, plus assorted taxes.
• Beer: $18-$19 a can.
• Cocktails: $19.
• Glass of wine: $13.
• Water: $8 a bottle.Food items: $8 to $16. 
• It should be noted, no concessions item at the Masters costs more than $6.

3. There are rich people, and then there are RICH people — like Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, whose net worth was roughly $21.9 billion when he died and his estate has only grown since his death in 2018. That’s BILLION. Allen used a small portion of that vast fortune to operate his super yacht “Octopus,” which has 41 cabins, a crew of 57, a glass-bottom pool, a recording studio (once used by Mick Jagger) and two submarines.

The cost? A cool $200 million. Oh, and it costs about $384,000 a week to operate, or around $20 million per year.

And he owned the Seattle Seahawks.

Steve Thought O’ The Day — Outside of family members and friends, Steve’s three most favorite things in life are probably the MLB package offered by DirecTV (he’s been a subscriber since 2001), office-supply stores and guys you can hire to mow your lawn.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. He might have a spare billion under his mattress.