Did Yankees’ Babe Ruth Really Call His Shot

Did Yankees’ Babe Ruth Really Call His Shot originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

The “Called Shot.” It’s a story that’s been told so many times that even those not born until decades later have an opinion about it. Heck, the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, even has a plaque regarding the fabled tale. 

First, a little backstory. Babe Ruth spent the 1920s terrorizing pitchers around Major League Baseball in a way that nobody before ever had, or has since. His reign continued into the early 1930s. However, when the Yankees reached the 1932 World Series against the Chicago Cubs, the National League champions spent more time heckling The Babe than they did trying to actually stop him from beating them. 

This behavior went both ways as Yankees’ Manager Joe McCarthy held a grudge after the Cubs fired him following the 1930 season. In addition, former Bomber Mark Koenig was now playing for Chicago and was being heckled by Ruth and his old Bronx teammates. 

In Game Three, this all came to a head when Ruth blasted a home run to straightaway centerfield off pitcher Charlie Root. Now, normally, a Ruth home run wouldn’t cause much debate; he hit them pretty frequently after all. But this time was different. 

Ruth supposedly put up his fingers throughout his fifth-inning at-bat to make a gesture of some sort. Finally, with two strikes against him, Ruth vaguely pointed his finger and then hit Root’s curveball out of the park for his second homer of the game. 

All these years later, the debate rages on: Did Ruth actually point to center field? Was he pointing at Root? At the Cubs’ dugout? Was he maybe just being a showman?

Whatever the case may be, baseball fans continue to argue about whether or not The Babe really “called his shot.” For the sake of preserving baseball’s mythology, let’s go ahead and say he did. 

“Curveball, center pocket!”

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 13, 2025, where it first appeared.