Ruth Didn't Point Homer Off Root!-Root Claimed

[whitehse]

Originally Posted by mr2686

There's film documentation that he "gestured". Was it pointing towards center field or pointing towards Root? That's a mystery that will never be answered, but for me the romance of baseball suggests that he pointed to the stands in center field.

I had the opportunity to work for the Cubs in the early '80's and there were still many old timers around the park that were there and told me their version of the called shot. My understanding was that the Yankees were upset that the Cubs had only voted former Yankee Mark Koenig a partial World Series share and the Yanks thought that was bush league. There was a good deal of bad blood between the teams and when Ruth came to the plate at Wrigley that fall day the Cubs, who were in the dugout were riding him pretty rough. Ruth yelled back to the dugout that it only took one pitch for him to change the game with a swing.

Ruth let the first Root pitch go by and raised his finger towards the Cubs dugout and said "Thats one". The next pitch came and Ruth let that one go by as well while raising his hand with two fingers out. "Thats two" Ruth would shout, pointing nowhere in particular. The next pitch came in and Ruth crushed it over the temporary bleachers built onto Sheffield Avenue and into one of the trees that had contained some boys watching the game for free.

There is some film of Ruth rounding the bases and all the while he was running he was jawing with the Cubs dugout and gesturing to them. I had heard this same exact story from so many old timers I now believe their version to be true and not the generally accepted press version everyone has read about.