“It’s not bragging if you can back it up.” ~ Muhammad Ali
October 1, 1932, 90 years ago today in the fifth inning of Game 3 of the 1932 World Series between the New York Yankees and the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois, George Herman “Babe” Ruth a hit a towering home run. Not an unusual feat, as he hit 714 of them in his career. What made this one special? Well, he may have called “his shot”. He may have deliberately let two pitches go by for called strikes before pointing to center field and then parking the next pitch approximately where he pointed.
(Babe Ruth. Found on the internet. Assuming Public Domain.)
Let’s set the stage. First off, in that era, “bench jockeying” was prevalent, today it would be referred to as “trash talking”, but it was probably worse then. There was no political correctness, so the language was crude and uncensored. This was the World Series, and the Cubs were down. Babe was one of, if not (arguably) the best player of the time, so he was taking a steady stream of abuse. Ruth was no saint himself in many regards, so he was giving it back at a regular pace. Ruth said that the Cub fans had heckled, and two women had spit at his wife Claire at the train station when they arrived in Chicago, and he was streamed about it.
Babe had already hit one home run. Earle Combs was on base when Ruth came to bat in the fifth inning with the scored tied at 4 against Charlie Root. Factually, Babe let two pitches go by that were called strikes, he then hit the next pitch some 440 feet plus into the centerfield stands near the flagpole and trotted around the bases on his spindly legs. Lou Gehrig was on deck and hit the very first pitch to him into the stands for a home run and Root was removed from the game.
Now, the lore comes into play. It seems after the first pitch, the Cubs got on Ruth and he either pointed to them or signaled strike one, again after the second called strike he gestured at the dugout and then apparently pointed two fingers at the flagpole, thus “calling his shot”, and then proceeded to hit it approximately where he allegedly pointed. It has been said these interactions were just Ruth pointing at the dugout and the last time pointing and yelling at Root on the mound. Since the technology of the day wasn’t what we have now, there is no foolproof way of knowing.
(Babe Ruth on October 1, 1932, in the 5th Inning of Game Three of the World Series at Wrigley Field, Chicago, Illinois. Found on the internet. Assuming Public Domain.)
Enter Joe Williams, a sports editor for the Scripps-Howard Newspapers who wrote a headline in the late edition of that day’s paper saying, “Ruth Calls Shot As He Puts Home Run No. 2 In Side Pocket”. A colourful headline for sure and this is how the legend was born. Williams wrote that he signaled the strikes and pointed to where he subsequently hit the home run. Readers believed it. Some other writers followed a couple days later with their own, but similar versions of the at-bat.
Charlie Root the pitcher and Gabby Hartnett his catcher both said they were just jawing back and forth, and he didn’t gesture to the centerfield flagpole. Root said if he had, he would have knocked him on his butt with a brushback pitch, which would have been a common response to something like that. Bill Dickey, the Yankee Hall of Fame catcher said in an interview it was Ruth yelling at Root and using some colourful language to get his point across, not pointing at the stands. Lou Gehrig, who was on deck, said Ruth absolutely called it. Many others have weighed in over the years including the Cubs public-address announcer Pat Pieper who in those days sat along the wall on the third base line who said, ‘Ruth pointed to centerfield, then hit the home run, you bet your life Babe called it’.
CLICK HERE to see the plate appearance taken from a fan’s 16mm recording.
CLICK HERE to listen to Gehrig in a radio interview from October 6th on “The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour.”
The Yankees ended up sweeping the Cubs thus taking the Series. It was the last of 15 home runs that Ruth hit in a World Series game.
As the years went on, the at-bat was dramatized in the classic 1948 film, “The Babe Ruth Story” with William Bendix portraying Ruth. It has been included in several books on Ruth, as well in the 1992 movie, “The Babe” with John Goodman in the title role. By the way, that movie depicted Goodman as Ruth hitting the ball over the ivy-covered centerfield wall, the problem with that is the ivy wasn’t planted for another five years after the event.
So, what did the Babe have to say about it? Well, Ruth knew a good story and played along with the whole thing. He did a voice-over of the 16mm film embellishing the moment. He did tell Root, when confronted by the pitcher afterwards that “it sure made a hell of a story”.
But can we ever be sure? Chances are, it was complete fiction. But George Herman “Babe” Ruth was larger than life, the hero of all sports heroes. If anyone could have done it, it would have been the Babe. Either way, 90 years later the story is still around. Look for yourself and let me know what you think. As for me, I’m a baseball romantic, Ruth definitely called his shot.
~ Coach Mike
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Trash talk has always been a part of Baseball, but I’m trying to imagine The Babe doing a now popular bat-flip !
Love this 🤗 I believe this event was also in The Lou Gehrig Story 👍. Thanks for sharing‼️ Loved listening to Lou’s radio interview 😉