I wonder if there is some analogy here to the Abner Doubleday legend. The assertion that he invented baseball was disputed by Henry Chadwick even before it was made public, questioned in print by William Henry Irwin as early as 1909, and essentially disproved by Robert Henderson and others leading up to the 1939 "centennial".
I would think anyone on this board and any more-than-casual baseball fan knows that Abner Doubleday did not invent baseball. But for the casual or non-baseball fan, I think many still consider Abner Doubleday as the inventor of baseball. They certainly know his name more than they do Cartwright or any of the other members of the Knickerbockers who some feel have more (or at least equal) claim to being baseball's "inventor" (Adams, Tucker, Wadsworth, and Wheaton).
I think even if we somehow disproved that Babe called his shot, the legend will continue to be accepted. Especially because it is true that he actually did hit a home run and did make some kind of gesture before doing so, whereas Doubleday had no connection to baseball at all.
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