What the hell has Hoover got to do with it? Anyway, I had a better year than he did.

Oft-cited but likely apocryphal variation on Ruth's defense of his Hoover-exceeding salary demands (structurally similar, albeit in bolder, considerably more streamlined fashion, to the contemporaneously reported Ruth quote of January 7, 1930—see above); as quoted in Babe Ruth: The Big Moments of the Big Fellow (1947) by Tom Meany, p. 139, and reproduced shortly thereafter in several book reviews, most notably an informal review by New York Times columnist Arthur Daley, who would go on to resurrect the quote, with slightly altered wordings, in at least four subsequent columns, including one in August 1948 and in April 1951.

Unsourced variants: Hey, I had a better year than he did. Why not, I had a better year than he did. I know, but I had a better year than Hoover.