Babe Ruth retired from professional baseball in 1935, but even 90 years later, he stands as a titan of the game. Everyone knows who he is or at least understands when someone makes a reference to him. He was the dominant player in a glamorous era and still retains an aura.
The Sultan of Swat, one of his many nicknames, had immense power as a hitter and transformed baseball with his home run power, putting an end to the Dead Ball era and ushering in a much more exciting brand of baseball.
Ruth helped
the New York Yankees win World Series in 1915, 1916, 1918, 1923, 1927, 1927 and 1932, as the Depression took hold of America.
In his final World Series appearance, against the Chicago Cubs, the teams were engaged in what we now call trash talking and so were the Chicago fans. New York led the Series 2-0 when Ruth came up to the plate in the top of the fifth and stepped (further) into legend.
Either he pointed at the Cubs’ dugout or he pointed to where he was going to hit the ball. Either way, he hit it to center field, which became the most famous home run in baseball history.
At the end of this video, we get a brief cameo from former Duke basketball and baseball All-American Bill Werber, who was a Yankee at the time. His opinion?
“Ruth was not a showboat…I’m sure he didn’t call his shot.”
You can decide for yourself. It remains an unforgettable piece of baseball history.
By the way, Werber was Ruth’s oldest surviving Yankee teammate, dying at 100 in 2009. Ruth himself died in 1948 of cancer. He was just 53. His shadow still looms over the game like no one else’s.
By the way, if you think Ruth was an overweight, slow player he certainly became that. But he wasn’t always that.
