The New York Yankees won the first two games of the 1932 World Series at Yankee Stadium and were at Wrigley Field for Game 3. A war of words had developed between Babe Ruth and the Chicago Cubs. One of the key players in the Chicago Cubs’ 1932 pennant campaign was Babe Ruth’s friend and former teammate Mark Koenig. Acquired late in the season when Chicago’s starting shortstop was injured, Koenig hit . 353 in 33 crucial games. However, the Chicago Cubs voted to give Koenig only half of his World Series money. When Babe Ruth found out, he was outraged.
He called the Cubs stingy. They called him “beer belly” and said he was washed up. Chicago Cubs fans got into the act and verbally attacked Babe Ruth and his wife as they arrived at the Chicago train station. He needed a police escort to get to his hotel. Once Game 3 started, the 37-year-old slugger was booed relentlessly. He was booed when he homered in the first inning and laughed when he made an error in the fourth. When he stepped up to the plate in the fifth with the score tied 4-4, insults flew everywhere.
As Babe prepared to face pup Charlie Root, Chicago fans howled in disgust. Someone even threw a lemon into the field. In the Chicago Cubs dugout, players were yelling at him and clutching their throats, as if to say he choked on the fly ball that missed in the fourth.
The Baby was fed up. He turned to Chicago catcher Gabby Hartnett and told her that if Root threw a pitch over the plate, she would hit the ball out. Sure enough, Root zipped one up, but Ruth just looked at it. Strike one. The fans roared, but Babe calmly held up a finger as if to say, “It only takes one.” After two balls in a row, Babe Ruth watched the fourth pitch go by, and when the umpire called strike two, the screams from the fans were deafening. Babe held up a couple of fingers to indicate there were only two strikes. With the insults from the Chicago Cubs growing increasingly rude and vicious, Babe Ruth turned to the pitcher and said, “I’m going to knock the next pitch down your…throat,” and with that, Ruth raised his hand and He pointed out into the garden.
Charlie Root fired again, and Ruth took a wild swing, sending the ball over the center-field wall. As Ruth trotted around the bases, he laughed and said to himself, “You’re one lucky bum.” When he passed first baseman Charlie Grimm, Ruth joked, “Go get the ball and I’ll autograph it for you.” When he came to the plate, even the Cubs fans were cheering him on.
To this day, Ruth’s blowout is the most controversial hit in baseball history. Years later, when Babe was asked if he actually pointed to a spot in center field before hitting his home run, Babe Ruth said, “I didn’t exactly point to a spot. All I wanted to do was give that thing a chance.” . out of the park, anywhere.