FDR, the Babe and the Shot Heard Round the World
1932 World Series, Cubs vs. Yankees
Originally published October 4, 2023.
From Wednesday, April 27, 1932, when the Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-4, until dropping a Fourth-of-July doubleheader in Pittsburgh to the same Pirates, the Cubs had occupied first place for over 50 days. The twin-bill loss to the Pirates marked a four-game losing streak, dropping the Cubs into second place, 2.5 games behind Pittsburgh.
Monday was a day off. Tuesday morning, July 6th, Cub shortstop, Bill Jurges was shot by Violet Popovich Valli, his disgruntled showgirl companion. That afternoon the Cubs beat the Phillies with Jurges out of the lineup. Even though they remained in contention, the Cubs were mired in second place through early August, falling behind the Pirates by as many as 6 games.
There was angst among the players when team president, William Veeck Sr., accompanied the team on a long eastern road trip that began in Boston on July 26th and ended in St. Louis on Sunday, August 14, with series against the Giants and Dodgers in New York and the Philadelphia Phillies at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.
Veeck was known to be upset with manager Rogers Hornsby and his publicly expressed doubts about the Cubs having the talent needed to win the pennant. After their rookie pitching ace, Lon Warneke, lost the last game of a series with the Brooklyn Dodgers, the team moved on to Philadelphia where Veeck announced the firing of Hornsby on August 2nd. First baseman Charlie Jolly Cholly Grimm replaced Hornsby as player manager.
After a few fits and starts, the Cubs went on a tear under Grimm’s leadership. On Thursday, August 11th, they reclaimed first place by once again beating the Pirates. They were to remain on top for the duration of the season, clinching the National League pennant on Tuesday, September 20th, with a 5-2 victory over, fittingly, the Pittsburgh Pirates.
On Thursday, September 22nd, the City of Chicago held a victory parade for the National League Champions that followed a six-mile route from Wrigley Field to City Hall.
The 1932 World Series opened on Wednesday, September 28th, at Yankee Stadium. Overcast skies and rain in the forecast seemed to be a bad omen for the Cubs.
It was feared that the threatening weather would at least hold down the crowd if it did not wash out the first game altogether.
Tomorrow morning the ticket booths at the Stadium will be opened, and there will be available approximately 35,000 unreserved seats. The bleachers will take 20,000 of this total. The others are in the upper deck grandstand to be dispensed for the sum of $3.30 ($70.85 in 2023, https://www.usinflationcalculator.com). The number of unsold reserved seats is not known, but the condition must be alarming to the officials. Today there was some talk of abandoning the rule about selling only sets of three tickets and dispensing seats for single games. This might be done tomorrow for the first time in recent world series history….
Tonight the clouds were hanging so low and there were so many of them that if the game is played tomorrow the conditions may be such that many prospective purchasers of unreserved seats will stay at home and turn on the radio.
As it was, the game was played before 41,000 fans, “a crowd which didn’t begin to fill the stadium,” and the Yankees battered Cubs’ pitchers Guy Bush, Burleigh Grimes and Bob Smith for 12 runs in a 12-6 victory. According to Tribune Cubs beat reporter, Irving Vaughn, the pitching performance “was almost a series record breaker for its lack of quality.”
After the Yanks took care of Cubs’ rookie ace, Lon Warneke, in game two by a score of 5-2, the script was written for Babe Ruth to take center stage as the leading man in the third act of the Series at Wrigley Field. Ruth had been goading the Cubs for their stinginess in voting only a half-share of World Series money to Mark Koening who replaced the wounded Bill Jurges at shortstop for the end-of-season run and was a major contributor to the Chicagoans taking the pennant. Cub players stiffed entirely their fired manager, Rogers Hornsby.
Ruth was also widely quoted for saying that he did not want to stay in the Windy City any longer than was necessary. He predicted that the Yankees’ train would be pulling out of La Salle Street Station for the return trip to New York immediately after winning the fourth game on Sunday. In other words, the Bambino predicted a sweep.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt had accepted the Democrat nomination for president on July 3, 1932, at the Democrat Convention held at the Chicago Stadium. His visit coincided with the Cubs dropping out of first place. Now, he was back in the city to attend World Series game three in Chicago, having arrived at Union Station the night before from Milwaukee.
City Cheers Gov. Roosevelt
A huge crowd estimated “from 100,000 at a minimum up to twice and three times that many,” greeted Roosevelt and lined the streets as his famous white Buick convertible carried him from Union Station to his headquarters at the Congress Hotel.
The city’s loop seemed transformed for the time and old timers saw it taking on the dressing of the days of Blaine and Cleveland, with kerosene torches lighting the way, horns blasting and bands playing, and thousands of citizens shouting and shoving and trying to march in it all….
Antique shops all over the city had been raided for the ancient flambeaus, and not a few of these kerosene flares, which might have been the same which lighted the way of Cleveland and Blaine, were held high on new wooden sticks as the holders fought with thousands of others to maintain a semblance of order in their march.
Smoke Blinds Celebrites
Sadly enough, the flames of these relics were nearly lost in the dazzling brilliance of red stick flares (communist demonstrators, ed.), of which there must have been thousands along the line of the parade. The acrid fumes from the flares hung low over the streets at times, and the celebrities in the parade cars were choked and blinded momentarily when the celebrants afoot shoved their red lights too close to the cars.
At about 1:15 p.m. the next day, Roosevelt arrived in the same white Buick convertible at Wrigley Field. Entering the field through a gate to the right field side of the center field scoreboard, the presidential limousine followed the bleachers and right field stands to the spot next to the Yankee dugout where the presidential candidate’s box was located.
A buzz arose from the crowd, starting in the center field area and spreading around the stands toward home plate. Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt had arrived at 1:15 p.m. He was helped to a front row box just to the first base side of the screen behind home plate, close to the Yankee dugout. When field announcer Pat Pieper introduced the governor and asked the crowd to give him their attention as he prepared to throw out the first pitch from his box, the crowd stood and most gave Roosevelt a standing ovation with a few scattered boos to add spice to the mix. Photographers and reporters crowded around the governor—the photographers snapping countless pictures and the reporters trying to snag a catchy quote.
Retterer, R.C.. 1932 Chicago: Bombs, Beer Wars and Cubs Baseball (p. 345). Kindle Edition.
FDR Points to Right Field Bleachers
Roosevelt met and shook hands with Yankee manager, Joe McCarthy and Cub manager Charley Grimm. Roosevelt seemed to gesticulate toward home run territory in right-center field, indicating that that was where Ruth and Gerhig should aim their home run shots.
Unfortunately, there was such a traffic jam of fans trying to squeeze through the turnstiles that many missed Roosevelt throwing out the first pitch. Even more unfortunate was the fact that many fans had still not made it to their seats to witness Babe Ruth’s first at bat. Ruth hit his 14th World Series home run in the first inning, extending his own record. His blast drove in Earle Combs and Joe Sewell, and the Yanks led 3-0 before many fans had taken their seats.
The Cubs settled down as the fans settled in and came back to tie New York, scoring one run in the bottom of the fourth to make the score 4 to 4 as the Yanks came to bat in the top of the fifth. From Edward Burns account in the Chicago Sunday Tribune of October 2nd:
When Babe came up in the fifth the Cubs were feeling pretty pert. They had come from three runs behind to tie the score. It looked like one of those old August rough houses was in the offing. Yes, the Cubs were very peppery when Mr. Ruth went to bat with the score tied in the fifth.
The Cub bench jockeys came out of the dugout to shout at Ruth. And Ruth shouted right back. Root got a strike past Babe, and did those Cub bench jockeys holler and hiss! After a couple of wide ones, Root whizzed another strike past the great man. More hollering and hissing and no small amount of personal abuse.
There It Goes!
Ruth held up two fingers, indicating the two strikes in umpire fashion. Then he made a remark about spotting the Cubs those two strikes. Well, it seems that Charley Root threw another good one. Mr. Ruth smacked the ball right on the nose and it traveled ever so fast. You know that big flag pole just to the right of scoreboard beyond center field? Well that’s 436 feet from home plate. Ruth’s drive went past the flag pole and hit the box office at Waveland and Sheffield avenues.
Ruth resumed his oratory the minute he threw down his bat. He bellowed every foot of the way around the bases, accompanying derisive roarings with wild and eloquent gesticulations. George Herman Ruth always enjoys a homer under any circumstances, but it is doubtful if he ever socked one that gave him the satisfaction that accompanied that second one yesterday….
That second homer of the day was his 15th in world series play and brought his new world record to 32 world series runs batted in and 37 runs scored. But that wasn’t what tickled the Babe. His thoughts were on his personal feud with the Cubs, inspired, you know, by what Babe considers a niggardly splitting of the Cubs’ World Series shares.
There was no mention in any Tribune story or column of Ruth pointing to center field and calling his home run. The account of Ruth’s third at-bat in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle read:
Ruth came to bat for the third time apparently more concerned with three or four Chicago bench warmers who were riding him from the corner of the home dugout than with Root was throwing him. He kept shouting at his tormentors until the count was two-and-two, when he suddenly decided to belt one.
It was a terrific home run—a line drive that seemed to rise as it passed over the screen in center field just to the right of the green score board. The Babe jogged around the bases shouting at the Chicago bench and waving his hands in derision.
Dead Pan Looey Gehrig shook hands with Ruth as the Babe crossed the plate. Then Gehrig stepped up and hit the first ball pitched into the bleachers outside the park for his second home run of the game and his third of the series.
Likewise, The New York Times made no mention of Ruth pointing to the bleachers or otherwise calling his home run. In reference to left field bleacher fans taunting Ruth after a failed shoe-string catch attempt and throwing a few lemons his way, The Times writer observed:
But it seems decidedly unhealthy for any one to taunt the great man Ruth too much and very soon the crowd was to learn its lesson. A single lemon rolled out to the plate as Ruth came up in the fifth and in no mistaken motions the Babe notified the crowd that the nature of his retaliation would be a wallop right out the confines of the park.
Root pitched two balls and two strikes, while Ruth signaled with his fingers after each pitch to let the spectators know exactly how the situation stood. Then the mightiest blow of all.
It was a tremendous smash that bore straight down the centre of the field in an enormous arc, came down alongside the corner formed by the scoreboard and the end of the right-field bleachers.
How the called shot myth got started. From my book:
None of the accounts of the game in the Chicago Tribune, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the New York Daily News or The Pittsburgh Press, among others, written by reporters who were present in Wrigley Field that day, mentioned anything about Ruth calling his home run.
The myth got started when Joe Williams, a reporter for the New York World-Telegram, wrote an account of the game in which he said that during Ruth's third plate appearance, when he hit his second home run, Ruth "even went so far as to call his shot.”
The story appeared in the late edition of that day's paper. The incident got a lot of attention because the World-Telegram was a Scripps-Howard newspaper and widely circulated. It did not hurt that an editor slapped a sensational headline on the story: “Ruth Calls Shot As He Puts Homer No. 2 In Side Pocket.”
Both Ruth and Joe Williams at various times admitted that the called shot was a myth, an obvious falsehood, Williams later said. “It was just as easy to believe Ruth had actually called the shot as not," Williams wrote, "and it made a wonderful story, so the press box went along with it.”
Retterer, R.C.. 1932 Chicago: Bombs, Beer Wars and Cubs Baseball (p. 376). Kindle Edition.
Thus, if anyone called the shot heard round the world that day in 1932 at Wrigley Field, it is more likely that it was FDR, rather than GHR, George Herman Ruth, a.k.a. as the Babe.
This chronicle by R.C.Retterer makes me wish I lived in 1932 rather than 2023. Well done Mr.Retterer.
Scott Randle