Stuff You Didn't Know
Ruth's Called Shot
On the subject of the "called shot," some people have cited
obscure incidents where a player predicted in the clubhouse he would do
something,
then went out and did it. I could recite literally dozens of
these instances, but there is a huge difference between saying something
half-jokingly to your teammates (and having it remembered only if
you deliver), and going out on a limb in front of your opponents and
spectators.
As for the Ruth
incident, other posters have quoted one eyewitness or another, as if
the testimony shifted the burden of proof. But there seem
to be as many versions of the event as there were witnesses.
Here's a sampling of quotes I've collected, most made decades after the
fact:
"Ruth pointed toward
the center field fence, but he was pointing at the pitcher. Someone
asked him, 'Babe, did you call that home run?' Babe
answered, 'No, but I called Root everything I could think of.'" --
Ben Chapman, Yankees' teammate.
Ruth's finger "just
happened to be pointing to center field" when he indicated he had one
strike remaining. -- Frank Crosetti, Yankees' teammate.
"I really didn't notice
it, but I seem to recall that the story originated in New York several
days after the game." -- Chicago American
writer James Gallagher.
"I had a good friend
who was at the game, and he swore to me later that Ruth pointed to the
bleachers. 'Forget it,' I'd tell him, 'I don't
want to hear about it.' .(Cubs' pitchers Guy) Bush and Bob Smith .
tyrated (sic) Ruth because he had two strikes. They said 'What
are you going to do
now?' Then Ruth pointed his finger at the Cubs bench and
said 'I've got the big one left.'" -- Burleigh Grimes, a Cubs' pitcher
on the bench.
"Bush, leading the
tirade from our bench, turned a blast on the Babe . Babe pointed
straight away and turned toward our dugout - no doubt
for Bush's benefit . I hesitate to spoil a good story (but) the
Babe actually was pointing to the mound. As he pointed, I heard
Ruth growl (to B
ush), 'You'll be out there tomorrow, so we'll see what you can do
with me.' -- Cubs' first baseman-manager Charlie Grimm.
"If he'd pointed to the
bleachers, I'd be the first to say so." -- Cubs' catcher Gabby Hartnett.
"Ruth did point,
sure. He definitely raised his right arm . He indicated (where
he'd already) hit a home run. But as far as pointing to
center, no he didn't . You know darn well a guy with two strikes
isn't going to say he's going to hit a home run on the next pitch." -
Cubs' shortstop
Mark Koenig.
"I'm not going to say
he didn't do it. Maybe I didn't see it. Maybe I was looking the
other way." -- Yankees' manager Joe McCarthy.
"I thought Ruth raised
his finger to indicate the number of strikes, and did not make a
pointing gesture." -- Chicago Herald Examiner writer
Edgar Munzel.
"Of course I didn't see
him point. Nobody else saw him point, because he didn't . Charlie
would've thrown it right at his head. I knew
that and so did all of the ballplayers." -- Dorothy Root, widow of
the pitcher and spectator at the game.
OK, so we're agreed
that Ruth didn't really call his shot? Well, Munzel adds that
sports editor Davis Walsh shouted "Hey, he hit it exactly
where he had pointed!" Photographic evidence shows that
Hartnett's back was turned when Ruth made his gesture. And
Gallagher's claim that the story was concocted several days later is
belied by the next morning's New York newspapers:
"Very soon the crowd
was to learn its lesson. A single lemon rolled to the plate as
Ruth came up in the fifth and in no mistaken motions, the
Babe notified the crowd that the nature of his retaliation would
be a wallop right out of the confines of the park." -- John Drebinger,
New York TIMES.
"He pointed to the spot
where he expected to send his rapier home." -- Paul Gallico, New York
DAILY NEWS.
"RUTH CALLS SHOT AS HE
POINTS HOMER NO. 2 IN THE SIDE POCKET" -- New York WORLD-TELEGRAM.
And, then there are
these versions:
"Ruth pointed with his
bat in his right hand, to right field, not center field. But he
definitely called his shot." -- Yankees' teammate
Lefty Gomez.
"When Babe got back to
the bench, (the Yankees' Herb) Pennock said, 'Suppose you would have
missed. You would have looked like an awful bum.' Ruth .
laughed. 'I never thought of that,' he said." -- Yankees' trainer
Doc Painter.
"Don't let anyone ever
tell you that Babe didn't point. In our hotel room that night
Babe told me what a sucker he had been to point.
'Look how many ways they could have gotten me out,' he said." --
Yankees' coach Cy Perkins.
"Don't let anybody tell
you differently. Babe definitely pointed." -- Cubs' broadcaster
Pat Pieper.
"Yes, he pointed to the
fence, and I have a mental picture of the ball going out of the park in
center field, through a tree loaded with small
boys seeing the game. I had just (made an out and returned)
to the bench, got a drink of water . Our old coach, Jimmy Burke, was
fussing at Babe for
taking the strikes, and I sat down by Jimmy . Ruth, after two
strikes, got out of the batter's box, dried his hands off, got back in
the box with his
bat in his left hand, and two fingers of his right hand pointed in
the direction of center field, looking at the Cubs' bench all the
time. Then,
on the next pitch, he hit a low ball, like a golf ball, that rose
all the way to the tree . Regardless of what anyone says or writes,
that is the way
I saw it all happen . I will always remember that Series, and that
one special game." -- Yankees' teammate Joe Sewell.
But we no longer have
to rely solely on the eyewitness accounts. Two home movie films of the
event have surfaced in recent decades, one taken
by Matt Kandle, the other by Harold Warp. Of course, there
is no sound to accompany the grainy images, but Ruth clearly makes a
cocking and pointing gesture of some sort just before hitting the
mammoth home run. From the body language, one can easily imagine
Ruth engaging in some trash-talk exchange with Root and his teammates,
driving home his point with his finger -- something along the lines of,
"Just throw the damn ball in there
and let's see what happens."
Did Ruth point to the
outfield wall and announce "I'm going to hit the next pitch over that
fence"? Probably not. But he did make a brazen
gesture toward his opponents, and followed it up with a long,
game-winning home run. That's about as close to a called shot as
any of us will ever
see.
Three-Pitch Innings
One of my pet research
collections, three-pitch half-innings, came up on SABR-L last week and,
judging from the private responses, it is a
topic of interest. So, here is my collection of 36, with the
warnings that it is in no way meant to convey an all-inclusive list,
and that many of
these have not been thoroughly checked:
06/05/1894 Duke Esper, Washington (NL) vs. Cleveland
05/22/1895 George Hodson, Philadelphia (NL) vs. Chicago
(Wilmot doubles but overruns second and is tagged out, next two batters
retired on first
pitch)
08/07/1899 Vic Willis, Boston (NL) vs. Washington in the 2nd
08/22/1903 Addie Joss, Cleveland (AL) vs. Philadelphia in
the 2nd
10/08/1908 Mordecai Brown, Chicago (NL) vs. New York in the
9th
04/14/1910 Jumbo Vaughn, New York (AL) vs. Boston in the
10th (Vaughn also had two four-pitch innings in that same game)
06/27/1911 Walter Johnson, Washington (AL) vs. New York (1st
game)
10/09/1912 Christy Mathewson, New York (NL) vs. Boston (AL)
in the 11th (World Series Game #2)
10/16/1912 Christy Mathewson, New York (NL) vs. Boston (AL)
in the 5th (World Series Game #8)
05/26/1913 Walter Johnson, Washington (AL) vs. Philadelphia
in the 6th
08/19/1915 Fritz Coumbe, Cleveland (AL) vs. Washington in
the 6th
08/29/1915 Walter Johnson, Washington (AL) vs. St. Louis
06/01/1917 Walter Johnson, Washington (AL) vs. St. Louis in
the 2nd
06/27/1917 Ed Klepfer, Cleveland (AL) vs. St. Louis in the
1st
09/21/1917 Molly Craft, Washington (AL) vs. Detroit in the
6th
06/03/1919 Hooks Dauss, Detroit (AL) vs. Chicago in the 6th
09/21/1919 Slim Sallee, Cincinnati (NL) vs. Brooklyn in the
9th
05/01/1920 Joe Oeschger, Boston (NL) vs. Brooklyn in the 7th
08/11/1923 Sam Jones, New York (AL) vs. Detroit in the 6th
(2nd game)
10/14/1929 Rube Walberg, Philadelphia (AL) vs. Chicago (NL)
in the 7th (World Series Game #5)
10/06/1941 Ernie Bonham, New York (AL) vs. Brooklyn (NL) in
the 7th (World Series Game #5; he had thrown only four pitches in the
previous inning)
05/11/1969 Sonny Siebert, Boston (AL) vs. California in the
2nd
05/25/1969 Joe Niekro, Chicago (NL) vs. San Diego in the 8th
(2nd game)
06/25/1972 Burt Hooton, Chicago (NL) vs. Pittsburgh in the
4th
08/20/1979 Jerry Terrell, Kansas City (AL) vs. New York in
the 9th (in his first professional inning pitched)
07/21/1987 Jimmy Key, Toronto (AL) vs. Texas in the 2nd
05/15/1989 Floyd Bannister, Kansas City (AL) vs. Minnesota
in the 2nd
04/09/1990 Tony Fossas, Milwaukee (AL) vs. Chicago in the 6th
07/26/1992 Bruce Hurst, San Diego (NL) vs. New York in the
8th
08/12/1992 Scott Sanderson, New York (AL) vs. Detroit
09/11/1995 Jack McDowell, New York (AL) vs. Cleveland in the
9th
05/11/1996 Al Leiter, Florida (NL) vs. Colorado in the 8th
(during his no-hitter)
06/09/1998 Brad Radke, Minnesota (AL) vs. Chicago (NL)
04/14/2000 Randy Johnson, Arizona (NL) vs. San Francisco (NL)
04/20/2000 Randy Johnson, Arizona (NL) vs. Colorado (NL) in
the 7th
06/28/2000 Jay Witasick, Kansas City (AL) vs. Cleveland
10/21/2001 Mariano Rivera, New York (AL) vs. Seattle in the
9th (ALCS Game #4)
06/08/2002 Kazuhisa Ishii, Los Angeles (NL) vs. Baltimore
(AL) in the 6th
04/19/2003 Mike DeJean, Milwaukee (NL) vs Houtson in the
10th inning
05/28/2003 Jeff D'Amico, Pittsburgh (NL) vs Chicago (NL) in the
3rd inning
06/15/2003 Mariano Rivera, New York (AL) vs St. Louis (NL) in the
9th
06/26/2003 Wayne Franklin, Milawukee (NL vs Chicago (NL) in the
6th
09/21/2003 Travis Harper, Tampa Bay (AL) vs New York (AL) in the
7th inning
09/27/2003 John Parrish, Baltimore (AL) vs New York (AL) in the
6th inning
Six of the 1910-19
incidents are listed in the 1920 edition of SPALDING's OFFICIAL BASE
BALL RECORD, while two others are from the book WALTER JOHNSON,
BASEBALL's BIG TRAIN. Other contributors include, alphabetically,
Cliff Blau, Mike Bojanowski, Jim Charlton, Gil Craker, Ed Ho, Jeff
James, Scott Longert, Peter Morris, Tom Ruane, Eric Sallee, Stew
Thornley, Dixie Tourangeau, and Wayne Townsend.
If anyone knows of any
other three-pitch innings in the majors, I would appreciate information
about them. Thanks.
Rose & DiMaggio
John Pastier asked,
"Does anyone know what Rose's BA and OBA were during his big streak? I
recall (incorrectly?) that DiMaggio hit a bit under
.400 during his streak. (Less than what Williams hot that year
over the full season.) And would anyone know who holds the longest
string of games during which his aggregate BA was .500 or better?"
Pete Rose was
70-for-182 (.385) with a .424 OBP with a during his 44-game
streak. Joe DiMaggio was 66-for-174 (.379/.435) through 44 games
but wound up 91-for-223 (.408) with a .463 OBP for his 56-game
streak. Ted Williams out-hit DiMaggio(.412) during that period
and most other periods. And David Stephan, a former SABR member, has
done research which would answer just such a question as John's last
one. Stephan's documented such things as 50-hit months, players
who averaged .500 over 100 at bats, and players who averaged .450 over
200 at bats; he calls them streaks, booms, rampages, etc. As I
recall either Ty Cobb or Rogers Hornsby maintained a BA of .500 over a
spell of close to 300 at bats, something like 145-for-289.
Stephan informs me that this research was presented during the
1993 SABR Convention, and should be available through the SABR
Library. He didn't have his data readily-available, but recalled
that Ty Cobb had the longest stretch of at bats maintaining a .500
batting average (85-for-169), but that Rogers Hornsby, from June
28-August 28, 1924, averaged .489 over a stretch of just over 300 at
bats. George Sisler had a 58-for-101 streak, also.
Mantles's Speed
Steve Reiss wrote,
"According to lore, Mantle ran from home to first in 3.0 (lefty) and
3.1 (righty). Is this humanly possible or realistic. An
olympic runner might not be able to do the first thirty yards in
three seconds."
During the 1950s,
reporter Lou Miller regularly clocked major leaguers on their sprints
from home plate to first base. In 1956 he
reported Mickey Mantle as the quickest down the line, requiring
just 3.3 seconds from the left side of the plate (Mickey had been timed
at 3.1 four
years earlier). The fastest from the right side?
Mantle again, at 3.4. Other fast times: Bill White (3.4), Willie Mays
(3.5), and Richie Ashburn
(3.5). Ernie Banks, Hank Bauer, Ken Boyer, Don Larsen, and Billy
Martin -- none remembered for their foot speed -- all checked in at
3.6, faster than
the likes of Jackie Robinson (3.7) and Hank Aaron (3.8).
And, veteran catcher Yogi Berra (3.8) beat out 21-year-old flychaser Al
Kaline (3.9),
according to Miller.
Mantle's Final Years
Regarding Mickey
Mantle's retirement, although it didn't become official until the
spring of 1969, it was announced in a New York DAILY NEWS
exclusive on November 17, 1968. "I just can't hit any more,"
Mantle explained, also describing his frustration at such things as not
being able
to go from first to third like he used to, although his legs felt
better than they had in years. The article pointed to Mantle's
paltry .245 and
.237 batting averages of the past two seasons, dropping his career
mark from .305 to .298. Mantle later said that losing his .300
lifetime average was
his biggest disappointment in baseball.
Others have pointed out
that Mantle's career averages were better than the American League
averages (.236 and .230) in those years, and that
Mantle scored well in more-important measures. Mantle
finished second in the league in walks, and in the top five in OBP,
both years. He played 144
games both years, his most since 1961, and did adequately at first
base.
In fact, he was
probably still the best hitter on a team that finished with an 83-79
record. The Blunderers' Row batted .214 as a team in
1968, with only one player out of 34 batting higher than .245 (Roy
White, .267). Mantle led the team in homers, walks, and OBP.
Using league norms,
SABR member Neil Munro has devised a program to "translate" the
statistics of one era to another. I don't think the program
adjusts for the DH, but I used it to convert Mantle's 1967-68
numbers to what he might have done under the 1997-98 AL
environment. Following, if I
calculated correctly, are Mantle's translated numbers
AB R H 2B 3B HR
RBI BB AVG
1997 440 84
128 26 0 33 73 122 .291
1998 435 84
127 23 1 29 79 120 .292
It's hard to imagine
Mantle feeling any pressure to quit at age 37 after seasons like
that. But, because the 1967-68 offense was so depressed,
and neither Mantle nor the press made any allowance for it, it was
time for the Commerce Comet to fade into the night.