{"id":116331,"date":"2017-10-03T11:00:16","date_gmt":"2017-10-03T15:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=116331"},"modified":"2017-10-03T12:11:01","modified_gmt":"2017-10-03T16:11:01","slug":"the-called-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/10\/03\/the-called-shot\/","title":{"rendered":"The Called Shot"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

A detail from Robert Thom\u2019s painting depicting Babe Ruth\u2019s \u201cCalled Shot.\u201d Courtesy the National Baseball Hall of Fame.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wrigley Field is beloved not just because it\u2019s a beautiful place to see a baseball game, which it is, not because of its harmonious dimensions, which it has, not because of its context, its perfect neighborhood of stoops and taverns where men quote Bartman and Banks, nor because of its ivy, bare in spring, green in summer, but because of all the things that\u2019ve happened there\u2014all of the images and afternoons. Wrigley Field\u2019s pitching ace Grover Cleveland Alexander, ruined by World War I, stashing whiskey bottles in the clubhouse. It\u2019s the catcher Gabby Hartnett, hitting the dinger in near darkness, that basically put the Cubs in the 1938 World Series\u2014\u201cthe Homer in the Gloaming.\u201d It\u2019s the slugger Dave Kingman, known as King Kong and as Ding Dong, proposing that Chicago trade the reporter Mike Royko to New York for the reporter Red Smith. It\u2019s the famous rant of manager Lee Elia, in which he described the stadium as a \u201cplayground for the cocksuckers.\u201d It\u2019s the play-by-play genius Harry Caray leaning out the broadcast booth to sing \u201cTake Me Out to the Ball Game.\u201d It\u2019s me standing with Bill Buckner in the Summer of 1977. It\u2019s the bleacher bums genuflecting before great the right fielder Andre Dawson, the Hawk. It\u2019s Omar Moreno climbing the ivy to get at the hecklers, who drive him off with a delicious shower of frosty malt.<\/p>\n

But the most iconic event in Wrigley Field did not star the Cubs\u2014it starred the New York Yankees, with the home team serving merely as foil.<\/p>\n

Backstory:\u00a0In July 1932, as the Cubs were cruising, their shortstop was shot in a hotel room by a jilted lover. It\u2019s enough to say that the ballplayer was Billy Jurges and the perp was a showgirl who\u2019d later perform under the stage name Violet \u201cWhat I Did For Love\u201d Valli. Jurges was shot in room 509 of Hotel Carlos, a few blocks from the ballpark. He\u2019d be back on the field before the end of the season. In the meantime, the Cubs needed a solid substitute infielder if they were going to make a pennant run.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Management signed Mark Koenig, who\u2019d been released by the Detroit Tigers at the end of 1931. He started the summer with the San Francisco Mission Reds of the Pacific Coast League before the Cubs called him up. Koenig\u2014he grew up in California, son of a bricklayer\u2014was with the Yankees from 1925 to 1930. He\u2019d played shortstop for the 1927 Yankees, which many consider the greatest team ever. There\u2019s a fraternity in that, in being a member of something perfect. Depending on what you read, Ruth loved Koenig, or did not like him at all, which is not the point. If you\u2019re on the team, you\u2019ll always be on the team\u2014that\u2019s the point.<\/p>\n

In Chicago, Koenig, a switch-hitter who could play any position in the infield, was trying to prove he still belonged in the majors. He was only twenty-seven, with several solid seasons behind him. He appeared in just\u00a0thirty-three games with the Cubs that summer but hit .353 and made memorable plays in the clutch. Yet, when it came time to apportion the World Series share\u2014teams that made it to the championship got a bonus, which was split among the players; considering the low salaries of the time, it was a significant boon\u2014the Cubs voted to give Koenig only a partial share.<\/p>\n

Ruth heard about it and was incensed. Those greedy bastards,\u00a0they wouldn\u2019t even be here if not for Koenig<\/em>. Ruth carried that anger into the World Series, stood at the edge of the Chicago dugout and, waving his bat, denounced the Cubs by name. The Cubs heckled the Babe right back. He was a rich target\u00a0in 1932, a thirty-seven-year-old fat man with just a few seasons left.<\/p>\n

In game 3, the moment ripened to a crisis. The Yankees were up two games to none in the series. Charlie Root was pitching for Chicago. A right-hander from Middletown, Ohio, Root was a classic sort of Cub, never great but good enough to go forever. He was with the team from 1926 to 1941. Ruth spoke to him as if he were a kid, but he was thirty-three in that World Series. They called him Chinsky for his willingness to throw inside and hurt people.<\/p>\n

The wind blew out, the train rattled past. The score was knotted at four when Ruth came up in the fifth. He\u2019d homered to center in the first and flied out to right in the second, but that ball carried clear to the warning track. If the wind had been more generous, it would\u2019ve gone out, too. In other words, though out of shape and old, Babe Ruth was having one of the best games of his life.<\/p>\n

As he stepped into the box, the heckling built to a roar. Many arts have progressed in this country, but profanity is not one of them. The curses coming from the Chicago dugout were of a richness and variety that would put modern players to shame. Root\u2019s first pitch cut the heart of the plate. Strike one. The fans and players on the bench let Babe have it. And here comes the next pitch, hitting the same sweet spot. Strike two. This moment resonates because it\u2019s baseball caught in a raindrop. Power versus power, will versus will. Part of you roots for the Babe even if you\u2019re a Cubs fan. Because you crave the historic. And because deep down you know that Ruth was right: cheapskating Koenig meant giving up the blessing. Ruth probably didn\u2019t care that much, at least not as much as writers later made it seem. He was just one of those players who had to whip himself into a righteous fury to reach peak performance.<\/p>\n

Ruth stepped out of the box after strike one, then stepped out again after strike two. Tired of being heckled, he pointed two fingers, which is where the controversy begins. In the legend, he was pointing to the center-field seats,\u00a0four-hundred-plus feet away, calling his shot in the way of Minnesota Fats saying, \u201cEight ball, corner pocket.\u201d Root\u2019s third pitch was a curve\u2014the deuce. Off the edge of plate, down, but Ruth swung anyway, sending it into deep afternoon. It landed exactly where he\u2019d pointed, that\u2019s what they said, beside the flagpole in back of the bleachers\u2014490 feet from home. Lou Gehrig followed with another home run. The Yankees won 7 to 5 and went on to sweep the Series.<\/p>\n

Ruth\u2019s \u201cCalled Shot\u201d is among the most famous plays in baseball history. Drawings show the penultimate moment: Babe, Bambino, the Sultan of Swat, arm outstretched, two fingers raised like the Pope giving a benediction. There\u2019s a statue, movies. But it was disputed from the start. Did Ruth really call his shot, or did it just look that way?<\/p>\n

Grantland Rice and Westbrook Pegler, among the most famous sportswriters of the day, had been watching from the press box behind home. Both claimed to have seen Ruth point to center, calling his shot. Franklin Roosevelt, then candidate for president, was at the game\u2014he threw out the first pitch\u2014and he saw it, too. Ditto Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak. Among the last living witnesses is retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, who, then a twelve-year-old Cubs fan, was at the game with his father. The Cubs pitcher \u201cGuy Bush was razzing Ruth,\u201d Stevens told the writer Ed Sherman. \u201cHe and Ruth were in some kind of discussion back and forth. I heard years later it was over the Cubs being tightfisted and not giving a full share to Mark Koenig. I do remember Bush came out of the dugout and engaged in a colloquy with him \u2026 My interpretation was that he was responding to what Bush was saying. He definitely pointed toward center field. My interpretation always was, \u2018I\u2019m going to knock you to the moon.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

But the journalist Red Smith, covering the series for a\u00a0Saint Louis newspaper, made no mention of the called shot, though he did write about the abuse being showered on the Babe, how the fans pelted the slugger with lemons. \u201cBut at the plate, he clowned,\u201d Smith reported, \u201csignaling balls and strikes in mock gestures until he found a pitch that he liked.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is perhaps the only picture taken of the key moment is grainy and open to interpretation. Ruth does seem to be pointing to center, but players on the field said that it only looked that way, that he was in fact pointing at the Cubs dugout.<\/p>\n

Woody English, a Cubs third baseman, insisted there was no called shot. \u201cThat day, Ruth and Gehrig each had homered,\u201d English said later. \u201cRuth got up again, and it was funny. He had two strikes on him \u2026 The guys are yelling at him from the dugout, and he holds up two fingers. He said, \u2018That\u2019s only two strikes.\u2019 But the press box was way back on top of Wrigley Field and to the people in the press, it looked like he pointed to center field. But he was looking right into our dugout and holding two fingers up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRuth did not point at the fence before he swung,\u201d Charlie Root insisted. \u201cIf he had made a gesture like that, well, anybody who knows me knows that Ruth would have ended up on his ass. The legend didn\u2019t start until later. I fed him a changeup curve. It wasn\u2019t a foot off the ground and it was three or four inches outside, certainly not a good pitch to hit. But that was the one he smacked. He told me the next day that if I\u2019d thrown him a fastball he would have struck out. \u2018I was guessing with you,\u2019 he said \u2026 I should have wasted that next pitch, and I thought Ruth figured I would, too. So I decided to try to cross him and came with it. The ball was gone as soon as Ruth swung. It never occurred to me then that the people in the stands would think he had been pointing at the bleachers \u2026 Maybe I had a smug grin on my face after the second strike,\u201d Root added later. \u201cBabe stepped out of the box, pointed his finger in my direction and yelled, \u2018You still need one more, kid.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Ruth was asked about it after the game. Half in uniform, face red with sweat, grinning.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou called the shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hell I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

It came up again on a radio show a few years later.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you call the shot?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, kid. Only a damned fool would have done a thing like that. If I\u2019d have done that, Root would have stuck the ball right in my ear. I never knew anybody could tell you ahead of time where he was going to hit a baseball. When I get to be that kind of fool, they\u2019ll put me in the booby hatch.\u201d<\/p>\n

And yet the story would not die. It became part of baseball lore. Efforts to correct it have failed. It\u2019s fascinating because here you see the historical process in action. The story was too good to fix. It\u2019s what the game needed. Babe Ruth pointing at hecklers, saying, \u201cIt takes three to strike me out\u201d\u2014that\u2019s small. Babe Ruth pointing at the center-field bleachers, making a promise and then delivering on it is Achilles at Troy. Over time, Ruth himself came to accept the legend, possibly even believe it. He wrote about it as established fact in his autobiography and retold the story at banquets. In 1947, when Allied Artists was making a movie of The Babe Ruth Story<\/em>, the slugger was played by William Bendix, who\u2019d been a Yankee batboy in the twenties. The director, Roy Del Ruth, invited Charlie Root to the set to watch the filming of the famous scene. Root, who was\u00a0fifty\u00a0years old and living on a ranch in Hollister, California, considered, then rejected the invitation. Considered because it would\u2019ve been interesting to see how a movie is made, rejected because, as he said, \u201cI will not be party to a falsehood.\u201d In the end, the past is no more real than the future.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rich Cohen is the author of\u00a0<\/em>The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0published today.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Wrigley Field is beloved not just because it\u2019s a beautiful place to see a baseball game, which it is, not because of its harmonious dimensions, which it has, not because of its context, its perfect neighborhood of stoops and taverns where men quote Bartman and Banks, nor because of its ivy, bare in spring, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1263,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30632],"tags":[30881,375,30884,30887,938,30886,30890,30888,30885,30892,30889,30882,30883,30891,1116,25412,1118],"class_list":["post-116331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball","tag-babe-ruth","tag-baseball","tag-billy-jurges","tag-charlie-root","tag-chicago","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-grantland-rice","tag-lou-gehrig","tag-mark-koenig","tag-red-smith","tag-the-babe","tag-the-cubs","tag-the-yankees","tag-westbrook-pegler","tag-world-series","tag-wrigley-field","tag-yankees"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Called Shot by Rich Cohen<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Debunking the legend of Babe Ruth\u2019s \u201cCalled Shot\u201d in the 1932 Chicago World Series.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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