Extraordinary Babe Ruth
" Don't tell me about Babe Ruth; I've seen what he did to people. I've seen them, fans,driving miles in open wagons through the prairies...I've seen them kids, men, women, worshippers all, hoping to get his name on a torn, dirty piece of paper...He never let them down; not once. He was the greatest crowd pleaser of them all!
Waite Hoyt, teammate and Hall of Fame
The Called Shot, 1932
No he didn't.....Yes he did!
"Aw, everybody knows that game, the day I hit the homer off ole Charlie Root there in Wrigley Field, the day October first, the third game of that thirty-two World Series. But right now I want to settle all arguments. I didn't exctly point to any spot, like the flagpole. Anyway, I didn't mean to, I just sorta waved at the whole fence, but that was foolish enough. All I wanted to do was give that thing ride...outta the park...anywhere!" Babe Ruth
Source: My Greatest Day In Baseball (John P. Carmichael)
Another example of a called shot...
Whats Important...
In my opinion on wether he really pointed or not, is that after all these years it is still provoking discussion! It will continue to for decades! I saw ball players come up to my Mom, who were at that game and every one of them said he actually did it. and do not let anyone tell her different. Now I was not there, so I have to use deductive reasoning. I figure if you have a bat and ball in your hands, and use it everyday from the age of six, and as a career, that you can do just about anything with that bat and ball that you want. We have so many examples of my grandfather doing it all the time, even in Japan. So in my heart and mind he did it!
Linda Ruth
and they go on....
"I'd play for half my salary if I could hit in this dump (Wrigley Field) all the time." Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth & Lou Gehrig
Cutting up for fans in 1927 at Shibe Park in Pennsylvania
1927 at Notre Dame/ Southern California football game.
Here are Ma and Pa Gehrig, with their son Lou. My grandfather loved to talk German with them. Ma Gehrig took pleasure in cooking Babe's favorite German food. Sour Beef and Potatoes.
My mom, at tens yrs old, would spend summers at their farm and had a crush on Lou and loved to watch him shave every morning!
Ma Gehrig would love to fuss over my mom being she never had a little girl.
Pa Gehrig was an Epileptic, not an alcoholic and their dog knew when a seizure was coming and would stand over him until Pa came out of the seizures.
The cause of fight between Lou and Babe was that Ma Gehrig said that Claire should dress my Mom in better clothes like she did with her daughter Julia. Claire started on Babe so in the Clubhouse one day Babe asked Lou to have his mom be quiet. Lou took it defensively. They reamained teamates but just could not socialize anymore.
Babe was a late night guy anyway and Lou was a in bed by ten guy. Complete opposites.
They were to make up on Lou Gehrig Day.
1931
Lou made $60,000 barnstorming with my grandfather one winter.
Lou Gehrig Day at Yankee Stadium
July 4th, 1939
Over Lou's two sick years, Babe visited his friend often.
My grandfather could never get over Lou going before him. Lou lead such a clean life. Ate right and in bed by 10 pm.
Lou died on June 2, 1941
