Babe Ruth's Called Shot: The Myth and Mystery of Baseball's Greatest Home Run

by Ed Sherman author of the Powerboater's Guide to Electrical Systems

Overview

Game 3 of the 1932 World Series between the Cubs and Yankees stood locked at 4-4. Above the almost deafening noise of the 50,000-strong crowd, Babe Ruth could hear the barbs pouring at him from the Cubs’ dugout. He took the first pitch for a strike. Cubs’ pitcher Charlie Root threw two balls, and Ruth watched a fastball cut the corner to set the count at 2 and 2. On the on-deck circle, Lou Gehrig heard Ruth call out to Root: “I’m going to knock the next one down your goddamn throat.” Ruth took a deep breath, raised his arm, and held out two fingers toward centerfield. Root wound up and threw a change-up curve, low and away. The ball compressed on impact with Ruth’s bat and began its long journey into history, whizzing past the centerfield flag pole (estimates put its distance at nearly 500 feet). Ruth practically sprinted around the bases, flashing four fingers at the Cubs: The series was going to be over in four games. In that moment, the legend of the Called Shot was born, but the debate over what Ruth had actually done on October 1, 1932, had just begun.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780762787876
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	11/01/2015
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Ed Sherman is co-author of The Great Book of Chicago Sports Lists (Running Press, 2008) and for 27 years was a sports writer for the Chicago Tribune, after which he joined Crain’s Chicago Business, where he now writes a daily sports business blog. He won the Excellence in Sports Journalism Award from the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University, and his work has appeared in Chicago magazine, ESPN.com, and The Sporting News. He lives in Highland Park, Ill., with his wife and two sons.

Table of Contents

Roster at Wrigley Field xiv

Introduction: Supreme Witness xix

1 Transition 3

2 Depression 19

3 Motion Pictures 32

4 One Last Pennant 41

5 Setting the Stage 58

6 Game Three 75

Sidebar: "Loudmouth" 91

7 Landis 93

8 Witnesses 99

9 Pitcher 114

10 Slugger 123

Sidebar: "A Blankety-Blank Fool" 136

11 View from the Press Box 140

12 Hollywood Strikes Out 158

13 Video Footage 168

14 Watching the Kandle 178

Sidebar: The Warp Film 186

15 Modern Viewpoints 189

Sidebar: Mickey Says Yes, Reggie Says No 205

16 What Does It Mean? 207

Appendix A The Called Shot in Pop Culture 214

Appendix B Game Three Play by Play 217

Appendix C 1932 World Series Recap 221

Appendix D Babe Ruth's Milestone Homers 224

Appendix E Babe Ruth's Salaries 226

Acknowledgments 228

Sources 231

Index 234

Editorial Reviews

"Highly entertaining and fascinating ... If you know a baseball fan, it's a perfect gift. ... You'll have to read about it yourself."
—Chicago Tribune

"A fun and accessible history of the Called Shot story."
—Library Journal

"Nothing makes for better reading than terrific reporting, and few singular moments in sports history have been debated, discussed, and researched with the fervor of Babe Ruth's Called Shot. It took place more than 80 years ago, but it is argued about as if it happened last week. Ed Sherman brings it into sharp focus in a uniquely entertaining and greatly detailed way."
—John Feinstein, author of the bestselling A Good Walk Spoiled and Open

“Sherman cuts through the hype and hyperbole to deliver the true history of the event, revealing not just what happened but how and why a single at bat became the stuff of legend.”
—Glenn Stout, bestselling author of Yankees Century and The Cubs and series editor of Best American Sports Writing

"Babe Ruth remains the singular colossus of American sport, and his home run in the fifth inning of Game Three of the 1932 World Series remains the most indelible moment of his career. Ed Sherman takes us back to that afternoon on the North Side, which for so long has remained shrouded in mystery, with this detail-rich biography of the most mythologized at-bat in the annals of the national pastime. Finally we have the definitive account of the so-called Called Shot.
—Jeremy Schaap, six-time Emmy Award winner and author of the New York Times bestselling Cinderella Man

From the Publisher

02/15/2014
Sherman (shermanreport.com) explores the facts and myths surrounding one of the oldest and most hotly debated mysteries in American sports—baseball legend Babe Ruth's arguable "called" home run during Game Five of the 1932 World Series against the Chicago Cubs. Eyewitnesses such as players, sportswriters, and game attendees, as well as current sports analysts and owners of grainy, inconclusive video footage, all chime in with varied, often contradictory accounts of what occurred that day at Wrigley Field and what the Bambino's series of hand gestures really meant. Nearly everyone agrees that the Babe, just before smacking a long homer that helped the Yankees win the game and eventually the series, raised one and then two fingers, but whether he was indicating the number of strikes in the at-bat, pointing at hecklers in the Cubs' dugout, or letting everyone know where he intended to land the next pitch, remains a mystery. VERDICT Sherman's research doesn't uncover any definitive answers, but the book succeeds as a fun and accessible history of the "called shot" story, which most Ruth and golden age Yankees fans will enjoy.—DK

Library Journal