Let's Re-Visit The Great Debate

[jingram058]

I pulled an old book from the shelf, entitled, "The World Series - A Complete Pictorial History", by John Devaney and Burt Goldblatt. For 1932, the caption is "The Babe Calls His Last Shot".

Zack Taylor: I saw the Babe call his shot

Zack Taylor was a catcher with Chicago, Brooklyn and Boston. At an Oldtimers' Game in St. Petersburg, Fla., three weeks before his death, he said: "They say the Babe didn't really call that home run but don't you believe it because I was sitting on the Cub bench and I saw it happen. Charley Root always denied it but what happened was this: Charley had a habit of turning around to touch the rosin bag after he'd thrown a strike, and he had his back turned to the Babe and he didn't see Babe point to the fence. There was a lot more bench jockeying in those days, you know, than there is today. I don't know why...maybe because the dugouts are farther apart. The Cubs were saying awful things to Babe. He'd called us cheapskates because we hadn't cut in Koenig and that was embarrassing to me because I roomed with Mark. Our bench was yelling just awful things, I don't even want to talk about them...about Babe's personal life. Anyway, he turned to us. He put up two fingers. Two strikes. Then he put up one finger, saying I got one left. And then he pointed to direct centerfield. He hit that pitch right into what must have been a 60-mile-an-hour wind coming off that lake and I don't know how he did it."

So, is this just an embellished memory, or did Zack Taylor really see what he says? Does it really even matter? Hitting a home run in a situation like that is crazy.

The attached grainy still photo is from Wikipedia. It shows Root with his back turned, and Ruth pointing, all as Zack Taylor said. The ball went some 440 feet, against a stiff wind off the lake.