It is widely known among baseball enthusiasts that Babe Ruth actually performed quite well as a pitcher before leaving the Boston Red Sox for the New York Yankees. He was also of course a famously successful hitter

Why do you believe the Yankees chose not to use him as a pitcher? Explain using economic reasoning. Hint: pitchers typically only play every third or fourth game whereas other players in other positions play in nearly every game. Baseball has a season of 162 games.

The economic reasoning probably had something to do with opportunity cost. Even though the Yankees may have won most of the games when Babe Ruth was pitching he would no doubt be able to contribute to more wins as a hitter since he would be playing in more games as an outfielder or any other non-pitching position. The opportunity cost of having him as a pitcher was simply too high in terms of the number of games that would be lost when he wasn't playing.