Baseball · 1932 · Chicago, USA
The Called Shot
Amid heavy heckling from the Chicago Cubs' dugout, Babe Ruth gestures toward the outfield before hitting a home run to that exact spot, a moment debated for nearly a century over what he actually meant.
Yankees swept Cubs 4-0
Result
5th
Inning
Charlie Root
Pitcher
Game 3 of the 1932 World Series at Wrigley Field was an unusually hostile one even by rivalry standards. The Cubs had spent the series taunting Babe Ruth and the Yankees over a contract dispute involving a former Yankee, and the crowd and Chicago dugout rode Ruth hard through his first two at-bats.
In the fifth inning, with the count at two strikes, Ruth appeared to gesture toward the outfield, either at the Cubs' bench, the pitcher, or in the direction of centre field, accounts from those present differed immediately and have never fully agreed since. On the next pitch from Charlie Root, Ruth hit a home run that landed near the flagpole in deep centre field, one of the longest ever hit at Wrigley to that point.
Newspapers ran with the story that Ruth had called his shot, pointing to exactly where the ball would land, and Ruth himself gave conflicting answers about it for the rest of his life, sometimes confirming the legend, sometimes waving it off. Root always denied it happened as described. Nearly a century on, the called shot remains one of baseball's most enduring, unresolved myths.
Watch the Moment
