Recalling Babe's shot

[MORTARDUDE]

Recalling Babe's shot
Called or not, his home run cursed the Cubs
By FRANK CLINES
It is one of the greatest moments in baseball history, enshrined in books, movies and paintings.

Except it never happened. Or perhaps only part of it happened.

With the New York Yankees playing at Wrigley Field today for the first time in almost 65 years, the talk is turning again to what might be the most chronicled, and controversial, incident in the 89-year history of the ballpark.

Babe Ruth's "called shot" home run.

Here are the facts: On Oct. 1, 1932, in Game 3 of the World Series, Ruth hit a homer off Charlie Root of the Chicago Cubs in the fifth inning to give the Yankees a 5-4 lead. Lou Gehrig followed with a homer - he and Ruth both had two that day - the Yankees won, 7-5, and the next day they completed a sweep of the Cubs.

The dispute lingers
After that, all is in dispute.

Did Ruth tell Root, or the Cubs' bench, that he would hit the homer? Did he, in fact, point to the spot in the center-field bleachers where the shot would go?

The accounts from 1932 are inconclusive. Only a couple of newspaper stories about the game made reference to "gestures" that Ruth made during the at-bat, and no photos were published showing anything unusual.

The tale grew by word of mouth, though, and years later in his ghost-written autobiography, Ruth embraced it wholeheartedly, describing how he took two strikes from Root, pointed to the bleachers and blasted the ball there.

Ruth certainly had incentive to humiliate the Cubs. The Yankees were angry because a former teammate, shortstop Mark Koenig, had helped the Cubs win the National League pennant but was voted only a half-share of the team's World Series purse. The bad blood had grown through the first two games at Yankee Stadium, and when Ruth went to the plate in the fifth inning the Cubs in the dugout gave him a full volley.

Everyone agrees that Ruth fired back verbally, but was that all that happened?

Until recent years, the only pieces of evidence were the accounts of those who were there, ranging from, "Yes, he called it and I saw it," to, "No way, if he had pointed to the bleachers Root would have decked him."

In the late 1980s, though, there emerged a new clue: a home movie taken that day by a spectator at Wrigley Field.

Matt Kandle, a Chicago printer, shot the 16mm film from the lower deck, a little on the third-base side. The film was stored with his descendants and finally brought to light by his great-grandson, Kirk Kandle of Louisville, Ky.

In October 1988, The Milwaukee Journal published a story by free-lance writer Don Bell, who viewed the film and concluded that Ruth made two sweeping gestures during the at-bat and then pointed, twice, before he hit the homer. Bell described the pointing as being "like a marksman aiming a pistol."

Bell concluded that "there's no doubt Ruth called his shot four times."

Alas, without knowing what Ruth was saying, it's not that simple.

What's the point
In 1993, a Fox show called "Front Page" devoted a segment to the film and ran it several times. A tape of the show, watched this week, shows that Ruth does indeed make two big gestures with his left arm, but they appear to be directed toward the Cubs' dugout.

Was he predicting a homer or just adding emphasis to some salty language?

As for the pointing, those gestures were partially obscured by the catcher. Several observers brought in by the Fox show found it impossible to determine what Ruth was doing: waving dismissively at Root, indicating that he still had one strike left or calling his shot.

Only one thing is clear: Unlike William Bendix in "The Babe Ruth Story," the real Babe did not point majestically at the bleachers. Whether he called the shot with words, though, remains a mystery.

Not that it matters much. Ruth accomplished his goal - shutting up the Cubs - and perhaps more than that.

Could it be that he personally delivered a National League version of the "Curse of the Bambino" that day in 1932?

Six years later, the Yankees swept the Cubs again in the World Series. The Wrigley Field highlight was on Oct. 6, 1938, in Game 2, when Dizzy Dean, no longer a dominant pitcher because of injuries, took a 3-2 lead into the eighth inning but then gave up two-run homers to Frank Crosetti and Joe DiMaggio.

The Cubs have played in only one World Series since then, in 1945. The Boston Red Sox, famously "cursed" for having sold Ruth to the Yankees in 1920, at least have played in four World Series since '45. And the Cubs haven't won a World Series since 1908, a full decade before the Red Sox last won it.

Forget about calling his shot. Let's examine that film again for Ruth's hex sign.