Babe Ruth's "Called Shot". During the 1932 World Series did New York Yankee Babe Ruth really point toward the center field stands to indicate where he would hit the next pitch, and then hit the ball directly to that spot, or is this one of the myths surrounding Ruth's career? Whether or not he called the shot, Ruth hit one of baseball's most famous home runs when he blasted the ball into the center field seats, leading his team to victory over the Chicago Cubs. . Ruth's "Called Shot" Babe Ruth compiled more than his share of World Series triumphs. A participant in ten World Series, he was part of seven championship teams. He established 11 career World Series records, including his total of 15 home runs. But none of his home runs added as much to baseball lore as the 1932 "called shot." Facing a hostile crowd at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois, in game three of the 1932 World Series against the Chicago Cubs, Ruth--as the story goes--took the count to 3-2, pointed his bat to the center field bleachers, and told the jeering members of the Cubs that he would hit the next pitch right where he was pointing. And he did it. Contributing to the legend of the called shot is the question whether it actually occurred. The game was not captured on film, and accounts of the game aren't decisive. Ruth himself offered a couple of versions. Several members of the Yankees swear they saw it; several of the Cubs say it was another invention of the enthusiastic sportswriters who exaggerated Ruth's feats for a good story. The Yankees had built a dynasty in the 1920s, advancing to the World Series six times and winning three titles. The Yankees swept the series in both 1927 and 1928 but didn't advance to the championship again until 1932, when they met the Chicago Cubs. By then Ruth was on the downhill stretch of his career, but he was still a formidable hitter. The 1932 series was an especially riotous meeting. "It was a tough series," Ruth said later, according to the book Moments to Remember." Both clubs were riding each other, doing everything to get at each other's throats." The Yankees were managed by Joe McCarthy, who had guided the Cubs to the National League pennant in 1929 but was fired the next year for finishing in second place. He undoubtedly wanted to exact revenge from the Cubs. The Cubs' shortstop was Mark Koeing, an ex-Yankee who had been obtained by Chicago late in the season. Koeing, a .350 hitter and fine defensive player, was a key to the team's pennant drive, but his teammates voted to award him only a half share of the playoff bonuses they were to receive. The Yankees accused the Cubs of shortchanging their former teammate, and Ruth was especially vocal about the injustice. And then there was Ruth. A legend in his own time, he drew considerable attention wherever he played. People cheered him and jeered him, and sometimes Ruth played the crowd almost as well as he played the game--smiling, waving, and yelling back. The rowdy crowds in Chicago took great delight in hounding Ruth and watching his antics. New York Times reporter John Drebinger tactfully described the mood of game three: "It was a warm day, clear and sunny, though rather windy. There was a gay, holiday spirit in the air that never forsook the gathering, for Chicago puts a great deal more fervor in its baseball than does New York.... They roared their approval of every good play made by the Cubs. They playfully tossed bright yellow lemons at Babe Ruth and booed him thoroughly as the great man carried on a pantomime act while standing at the plate." The game on October 1, 1932, was a wild affair. A crowd of 51,000 jammed Wrigley Field, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, then governor of New York and a presidential candidate. Temporary wooden bleachers were set up in the outfield to handle the overflow crowd, and Ruth and teammate Lou Gehrig had stoked up early arrivals by blasting a series of impressive drives into the bleachers during batting practice. The Yankees, who came into the game with a 2-0 lead in the series, struck quickly and forcefully. In the first inning an error and a walk put two runners on base as Ruth came to the plate. Ruth hit a 2-0 pitch deep into the bleachers in right center to give the Yankees a three-run lead. The Cubs battled back with a run in the bottom of the first, two more in the third, and one more in the fourth. In that inning Ruth attempted a shoestring catch on a looping liner by Billy Jurges; he was unable to make the catch. Jurges reached second and then scored to tie the game, 4-4. The fans yelled at Ruth for his misplay, and Ruth tipped his cap to the crowd. When Ruth, the second New York batter in the fifth inning, came to the plate, Wrigley Field was roaring. "They called me 'big belly' and 'baboon,'" Ruth recalled, according to the book Great Moments in American Sports by Jerry Brondfield. The New York Times said of the Chicago fans, "It seems decidedly unhealthy for anyone to taunt the great man Ruth too much, and very soon the crowd was to learn its lesson." During the at bat, Ruth mouthed off to the Chicago players in the dugout as they and the crowd continued to taunt him. The count went full, three balls and two strikes. Ruth had yet to swing and was upset that the umpire ruled two of the pitches as strikes. Accounts of what happened next vary, but it's unquestioned that Ruth made at least one obvious hand gesture, his right arm pointing with two fingers straight ahead. He may have been counting the number of strikes, pointing at pitcher Charlie Root, or, in the most popular version of the story, pointing to the center field bleachers to show where he would place the next delivery. In any event, he creamed the next pitch deep. "The Babe, casting aside his buffoonery, smashed one of the longest home runs ever seen at Wrigley Field," the New York Times said. "It was a tremendous smash that tore straight down the centre of the field in an enormous arc, came down alongside the flagpole and disappeared behind the corner formed by the scoreboard and the end of the right-field bleachers." Joe Sewell, third baseman for the Yankees that day, said years later that Ruth definitely called the shot. "With his bat in this left hand he pointed with those two fingers, just like the picture in Cooperstown," he told interviewers for the Moments to Remember videotape. "I got a mental picture of the ball going out of the ballpark." Billy Herman, who played second base for the Cubs, disagreed. "This particular time at bat he took the first strike and then he took the second strike right down the middle. He holds up his two fingers as if to say 'that's only two strikes.'" The Yankees won game three and game four to sweep the Cubs for the championship. By the end of the series, Ruth had added to his all-time records for World Series play, including most home runs (15), most runs batted in (33), most World Series (10), most championships (7), and most times batting .300 or better in a World Series (6). Ruth spent another season with the Yankees and part of the 1935 season with the Boston Braves before retiring. He never played in another World Series, and his fifth-inning shot in Game three of the 1932 World Series was the last home run he hit in championship play. It was certainly one to go out with. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
