Met and chatted with with Ben Chapmans son over the weekend...........

[jbbama]

Bens great grandson plays on my sons soccer team, over the weekend i met Bens son who had come to watch his grandson play. We chatted about several things, from him meeting the Babe when he was a child, to how his father really liked Lou Gehrig. We also spoke about memorabilia (didn't have much) said "shoes and bats were just that" we didn't keep them. He did have a scrapbook and said he would email some old photos he had. We also talked about player salaries and some of todays players, the most interesing topic was about the 1932 Wold Series "called shot" by the Babe. Mr Chapman said his father was "in the hole" not on deck but the Babe and the pitcher were cussing at each other, the Babe was pointing at the pitcher, not where he was going to hit the ball. Sure it makes for a great iconic moment, but appears it never happend. That account is good enough for me. Our conversation was light and friendly and thats how i wanted to keep it. If you know a little about Chapman he was purportedly hot-tempered and aggresive to say the least, his son was very nice and i enjoyed chatting with him, i found him very interesting. Thanks for letting me share........

[ullmandds]

Great story...that's the icing on the cake for me, too...to prove that even the Babe...wasn't that cocky!!!!

[barrysloate]

Great story. I never believed Babe did call his shot, but given that so much has been written and told about the event, was this little gem ever documented? Because that is among the most important anecdotal evidence (sounds like an oxymoron) I've ever heard.

[abrahamrudy]

I choose to believe in the called shot nonetheless. Why would the Babe point at Charlie Root? Who points at pitchers? He was signaling "I'm going to smack this one right back at you."

[MacDice]

Always love hearing old baseball stories from the family members. You should ask him if he would be interested in doing a formal interview and recorded it. The stories that were to told to him by has dad should be documented if nothing more than for the future generation of his family. Once he passes away a lot of those stories also die.

Please post the pictures when you get them.

[barrysloate]

I always felt if Root believed that Ruth was predicting he would hit a home run on the next pitch, the pitcher would have thrown him a high and tight fastball, a little chin music. In that circumstance, why give him a pitch to hit? Plus, I always believed that story was a little too good to be true. Great piece of baseball folklore, but maybe it never happened that way. We'll never know for sure.

[tedzan]

It is my understanding that Charley Root was a proud and "cockY' guy. If Babe Ruth did indeed point to where he was going to hit
the next pitch, Charlie Root would have dared him to do it by giving him his best pitch.

For example, take the other nite at Arlington, Texas. After Pujols hit 2 HR's, wouldn't you think that the Rangers would either WALK
him....or give him nothing sweet to hit ?

That's BASEBALL for you.


TED Z

[barrysloate]

Hi Ted- I thought of that too, that he may have felt Ruth couldn't hit his best pitch and challenged him. The Called Shot is one of baseball's most enduring myths, and we will probably never know for sure what happened at that moment.