September 25, 2024
By Evan Lepler
In 1919, a mere 105 years ago, an iconic larger-than-life Boston athlete was stunningly sold to New York, shifting the sporting landscape’s balance of power in the northeast. It reshaped a rivalry, launched a dynasty, and created a so-called curse that plagued a franchise for eight-plus decades.
There are certainly many, many differences between Babe Ruth, Jeff Babbitt, and the bizarre circumstances that transpired more than a century apart, but there are also plenty of clear parallels with the contract dispute that ended each athlete’s time in his first professional city and led him to glory, or Glory, elsewhere.
Nearly six months ago, it was big breaking news in the frisbee universe when Babbitt and the Empire—who, just like Ruth’s Red Sox, by the way, had won three championships in the previous four years—could not come to terms on a new deal. This created the mighty rare situation where the previous season’s MVP was suddenly a free agent, eager and willing to explore his options elsewhere.
Predictably, the former UMass star returned to his Massachusetts roots and signed with Boston less than a week later, a move that immediately transformed the championship race. By the time the playoffs rolled around in late July, Babbitt caught the storybook buzzer-beating score that eliminated the Empire, adding another legendary moment to an incredible career that, at age 30, and even after enduring several scary head injuries, shows few signs of slowing down.
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The 2024 UFA MVP Award was not an obvious choice.
Personally, I vacillated back and forth between a pair of dominant big men, changing my mind a bunch as I considered different data, dynamics, and historical context. But in the end, while several spectacular seasons are worthy of the honor, I kept coming back to Babbitt.
It’s less about numbers and more about impact. The Boston Glory’s team culture was already moving in the right direction before Babbitt bid New York adieu, but by all accounts, his arrival significantly furthered Boston’s journey toward becoming a true title contender.
“Jeff is obviously a phenomenal player on the field,” said Boston’s Rocco Linehan this past June. “But what he brings off the field also pushes all of us to be better.”
As his Glory teammates understood quite quickly after he arrived, Babbitt’s presence on a team is constant. Since 2016, he’s played in more UFA games than anyone else, and he’s missed only two regular season games—both in 2018—since he first signed with the Empire after concluding his collegiate career.
Throughout the years, he’s gradually become more focused, sophisticated, and savvy, figuring out how to pile up victories, one after another. Since 2019, he’s played in 73 games across five seasons, losing only seven times.
In several ways, it feels like Babbitt has solved frisbee.
It’s actually quite simple.
Almost always, he doesn’t give the other team the disc. And if the other team does get the disc, he usually takes it back.
Then he scores.
Rinse, repeat.
Simple stuff, right?
Obviously, if it were that easy to execute on those principles all the time, everyone would play that way. It’s Babbitt’s brutal combination of head, heart, hustle, and freakish athleticism, all of which rank in the upper echelon of the sport, that elevate him above his peers.
Statistically, he finished the 2024 season—including the playoffs—with the seventh most goals and the second most blocks in the league, all while completing 98.1 percent of his throws. He also played more minutes than anyone else, in which he only tossed three throwaways compared to 261 completions.
His production is steady, his efficiency is elite, his dedication is unmatched, and his flare for the dramatic, lifting his team in big moments, turns him into an absolute monster. Whether he’s easily getting open for an important reset, owning the front cone in the fourth quarter, or skying the crowd for a score or a block at the buzzer, he’s carved a niche to which all can aspire but few can attain.
“He just a winner,” said Elliott Chartock, Babbitt’s teammate with the Empire for three seasons, shortly after New York’s season came to an end in Boston this past July.
Narratively, that postseason victory was clearly a massive moment in evaluating Babbitt’s case for MVP. Not only did he get the better of his old team in the regular season, snapping New York’s home-winning streak at 31 straight, but he also willed Boston to an unbelievable comeback win in the playoffs, catching the game-winning goal with four seconds left to earn what had to be one of the most satisfying handshake lines of all time.
“A lot of hugs with former teammates,” said Babbitt, after the emotional postgame interactions. “Weird seeing some of the guys that I played with for so long look unhappy after a game that I’m a winner in, because usually it was with them.”
But he wasn’t with them anymore. He chose to leave, betting on himself as a professional athlete in a way that very few ultimate players had before.
His new team, like his old team, did not win the championship in 2024. Babe Ruth did not win the World Series in his first year with the Yankees either. But the baseball legend did bring undeniable swagger, determination, and production to New York, shattering the single-season home run records in each of his first two seasons in the Bronx.
Ruth won the pennant in years two and three with New York, but it wasn’t until his fourth season with the Yankees, in 1923, that the franchise claimed its first championship. Time will tell whether Babbitt can ever reach similar heights in Boston, but it certainly was an auspicious opening campaign with the Glory, going 10-4 and knocking out the two-time reigning champs along the way.
Although he is actually not the first to ever win back-to-back UFA MVPs for different teams—Jonathan “Goose” Helton took the honor playing for Indianapolis in the league’s inaugural 2012 season, then also earned the award in 2013 with Chicago—Babbitt has set himself apart in the modern era of the league. His focus, leadership, commitment, and determination have lifted him to a new tier of individual excellence.
Along with Helton, Beau Kittredge, and Ben Jagt, Babbitt has become the fourth in UFA history to win multiple MVPs, a distinction that should only rise in stature as time goes by. Furthermore, while the 2024 season did not deliver an all-time great team, Babbitt’s presence, storyline, and success narrowly stood out above all the rest, cementing his status as one of the league’s all-time great players.
Jeff Babbitt is now a three-time UFA champion, a two-time MVP, and he’s still got a bunch of unfinished business heading into 2025.
