It’s one of the most debated moments in baseball and Wrigley Field history – Babe Ruth’s “called shot” home run off Charlie Root in the 1932 World Series. Now you can own a piece of national past time history as the bat Ruth used for that legendary homer is now up for auction. What do you get the New York Yankees, or even Chicago Cubs, or general baseball fan that has everything?
Well, if you’re looking to gift something like this, then you are obviously a 1%er. The current bid, with five days to go at Robert Edward Auction, is $60,000. It opened at $25,000 and could easily go for over $250,000.
During game three of the ’32 World Series, Ruth supposedly “called his shot” by pointing to the Wrigley Field center field bleachers prior to sending a Ruthian blast to that exact spot.
Many historians suggest Ruth was actually pointing at Cubs pitcher Charlie Root instead. However, numerous eyewitnesses, including many players, support the story that Babe Ruth was indeed declaring exactly where the ball was going, moments before he sent it there.
The Sultan of Swat himself never confirmed or denied the called shot mythology. It terms of some Bambino provenance, the larger than life superstar gave the bat to former Yankees groundskeeper Isador DeAngelis; who gifted the bat to his grandson Steve DeAngelis.
Another Babe Ruth item is currently up for auction, until May 6th. Chicago White Sox founding patriarch Charles Comiskey passed up the opportunity to sign Ruth for $16,000 (about $400,000 in today’s money) in 1914, and the letter verifying this offer is currently available for bidding.
In 2014, the Cubs ran a promotion giving away a bobble head commemorating the Babe’s called shot. It was news-worthy because a professional team was handing out a bobble commemorating something accomplished against them. The Yankees swept Cubs 4-0 in that World Series by the way.
That was also the season that saw Cubs are honoring 100 years of Wrigley Field by bestowing each home stand with a different decade “theme.”
On the same day that the Babe Ruth “called shot” was honored with a bobblehead, his 97-year-old daughter Julia Ruth Stevens delivered deliver a ceremonial first pitch.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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