Did Babe Ruth really call his shot? The slugger changed his story several times.
During Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, the Yankees and Cubs battled to a 4-4 tie in the fifth inning. Yankees star Babe Ruth approached the plate, pointed toward center field, and hit a homerun.
“The ball is going, going, going, high into the center-field stands,” the announcer called, “and it is a home run!”
The Yankees went on to win the game and the championship.
“Everybody agreed that the high point of the whole works was Babe’s homer in the fifth inning of the third game out in Chicago,” Babe’s teammate Lou Gehrig said.
But did Babe Ruth call his shot?
The 1932 World Series
The New York Yankees were a dominant force in baseball in 1932. They’d just won 107 games during the season, losing just 47. They won the American League pennant for the seventh time and headed for a showdown with the National League champion, the Chicago Cubs.
That year’s World Series – the 29th in baseball history – would make history. Thirteen future Hall of Famers competed. It was the first World Series where both teams had numbers on their uniforms, a relatively new idea in 1932. And it was Babe Ruth’s final World Series.
Going into Game 3, the Yankees were on top. They’d won the first two games, with a dominant 12-6 victory in Game 1.
But Game 3 brought the series to Wrigley Field, leaving behind the Yankee Stadium advantage of the first two games. And Cubs fans targeted Yankees star Babe Ruth, throwing lemons at the outfielder and hurling insults when he was at bat.
The Bambino silenced the haters during his first at bat, when he slugged a home run into the outfield. But it was Babe Ruth’s second home run that would make history.
The 5th Inning Homer from Babe Ruth
At the top of the 5th inning, the Yankees had 4 runs, with a 3-run homer from Babe Ruth. But they’d also given up 4 runs to the Cubs.
With the score tied, the leadoff hitter for the Yankees grounded out. Babe Ruth followed, to jeers from the Cubs bench.
The Cubs were “callin’ me big belly and balloon-head,” Ruth later said.
The count reached 2 balls and 2 strikes. Then Cubs pitcher Charlie Root threw a curve ball at the plate.
Babe Ruth swung, hitting a line drive to center field. The ball traveled an astonishing 490 feet.
As Ruth rounded the bases, he waved at the Cubs dugout.
Root threw one more pitch to Lou Gehrig, who hit a solo homerun. Then Root left the mound.
The Yankees went on to win the game 7-5, and take the series in four with a 13-6 victory in the next game.
“RUTH CALLS SHOT”
“Ruth Calls Shot As He Puts Home Run No. 2 In Side Pocket” declared the headline of a New York newspaper the next day.
But sportswriter Joe Williams was one of the only to mention the “called shot” in his reporting.
“In the fifth, with the Cubs riding him unmercifully from the bench, Ruth pointed to center and punched a screaming liner to a spot where no ball had been hit before,” Williams declared.
The story of the called shot soon spread, with other papers picking up on the angle.
The pitcher, Charlie Root, who had a front-row view, said, “Ruth did not point at the fence before he swung.” If he had, Root declared, the pitcher would have beaned the Babe with the next pitch.
“Don’t let anybody tell you differently,” said Cubs announcer Pat Pieper. “Babe definitely pointed.”
So what really happened?
Babe Ruth on the Called Shot
Did Babe Ruth claim the called shot?
At first, Ruth said he was pointing at the Cubs bench before the infamous home run. As they jeered, the Babe was telling them that he had one more strike.
But once reporters picked up the story, Babe changed his tune.
“It’s in the papers, isn’t it?’’ he quipped.
Soon, Babe was leaning into the story of the called shot. “Well, I looked out at center field and I pointed. I said, ‘I’m gonna hit the next pitched ball right past the flagpole!’ Well, the good Lord must have been with me.”
But Ruth said something very different to a reporter in 1933. “Now, kid, you know damn well I wasn’t pointing anywhere,” Ruth said. “If I had done that, Root would have stuck the ball in my ear. I never knew anybody who could tell you ahead of time where he was going to hit a baseball.”
The slugger had changed his tune by 1948, when he wrote his autobiography.
“While he was making up his mind to pitch to me I stepped back again and pointed my finger at those bleachers, which only caused the mob to howl that much more at me,” Ruth wrote. And then he connected with the next pitch. “I didn’t have to look. But I did. That ball just went on and on and on and hit far up in the center-field bleachers in exactly the spot I had pointed to.”
Fact or Fiction: Babe Ruth’s Called Shot
From his perspective on deck, Lou Gehrig had a front-row seat to Babe’s home run.
Gehrig recalled the heckles targeting Babe. “So what does he do? He stands up there and tells the world that he’s going to sock that next one. And not only that, but he tells the world right where he’s going to sock it, into the center-field stands.”
According to Gehrig, “A few seconds later, the ball was just where he pointed, in the center-field stands. He called his shot and then made it. I ask you: What can you do with a guy like that?”
Bill Dickey, another teammate, had a different perspective. “All of us players could see it was a helluva good story. So we just made an agreement not to bother straightening out the facts.”
So what was the truth? Every Cubs player agreed that Babe Ruth never called his shot. And yet decades later, most baseball fans believe in the called shot.
Pitcher Root met up with slugger Ruth on the set of The Pride of the Yankees in 1942.
“You never pointed out to center field before you hit that ball off me, did you?” Root asked.
Ruth answered, “I know I didn’t but it made a hell of a story, didn’t it?”
Discover more strange sports stories by checking out Bruce Wilson’s Strange But True Sports History, available in ebook, paperback, and audiobook.