Babe Ruth's "Called Shot"

[jerrys]

I don't believe the story of Ruth pointing to the outfield beachers in a World Series game indicating he intended to hit a home run was ever discussed on Net54. Fable or fact?

Several years ago I wrote about the event and put the story on my website.

Two audio embedding codes were used for different OCs.

http://home.roadrunner.com/~jspillman/babe-cs.htm

[ChiefBenderForever]

Great story and one that Lou Gehrig backed up when he said " can you believe the nerve of that big monkey calling his own home run like that !"

[Kawika]

Root said that Ruth hadn't pointed to the bleachers. "If he pointed to the bleachers, I would have put one in his ear and knocked him on his ass."

[egbeachley]

About 5 years ago a video surfaced of the event.

[steve B]

I thought it was longer ago than that, or was there another one found?

I made a special point of watching the show on TV that showed the film. It was pretty bad film, taken fron under a grandstand roof, so you got underexposed and overexposed images at the same time. It was hard to tell it was even Ruth, but whoever it was waved an arm (or bat) and appeared to point somewhere. But it wasn't clear if he pointed toward the outfield or the dugout, or waved for a hot dog.

On the whole, it was nearly as bad a bit of tv as Al Capones vault.

Steve B

[whitehse]

I worked at Wrigley in the 80's and was able to talk to a few old timers that were there for the game. These were guys that worked at the stadium as grounds crew and an electrician and even George Brace and to a man, they said he never called his shot.

Apparently the Cubs traded for Mark Koenig that year but only voted him a half share of the world series bonus. Since he was a favorite of many of the Yankees, they were giving the Cubs alot grief in the series. When Ruth came to bat the Cubs bench was giving him the business and after the 1st pitch that he let go by he held up a finger and said "thats one!". The next pitch went by and looked towards the Cubs dugout and said "thats two". The next pitch he would hot into the right field bleachers for the infamous home run.

Like I said, each man I talked to said that Ruth never called his shot. I think Ruth even called himself a lucky SOB for that home run!

[bmarlowe1]

It's well established (at least by serious historians) that he did not call his shot. One good source is the very well researched book "Root for the Cubs" by Roger Snell. And yes, if he did - the next pitch would have been thrown at him.

[vintagesportscollector]

As is usually the case the story was highly embellished after the fact. Who knows if he called his shot, but it has been clearly described, in many accounts, that Ruth was having a quarrel and words with the cubs players and bench before and throughout the game. Below is a detailed account of the game from a Chicago newspaper the following day. Notice the description of Ruth's at bat in the Fith inning - no mention of a called shot, but an exchange with the Cub's dugout. The Called Shot twist probably came about days or weeks later.