Babe Ruth's Called Shot, Roger Maris hit #61, and groundskeeper shenanigans - This DiSH for Oct. 1
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EPISODE SUMMARY
I was saddened to learn of the death of Pete Rose who died yesterday at the age of 83. He was one of my earliest childhood heroes. I disliked Gene Garber for striking out Pete in his chase of Joe Dimaggio's 56-game hitting streak. As a five year old I tried to play like him. RIP Pete Rose.
In 1932, Babe Ruth called his shot .... or maybe he didn't.
In 1961, Roger Maris hit homer #61 in the final game of the year.
In 1962, a little creative groundskeeping helped the San Francisco Giants slow down Maury Wills and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
And in 1975, it was the 'Thrilla in Manilla'
Mentioned in this episode:
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Transcript
Hey, before I get started today, just a quick note.
Steve White:This podcast originates out of western North Carolina, an area that was recently ravaged by Hurricane Helene.
Steve White:There are so many across this portion of the state that lost everything, and many are still without power or access to clean water.
Steve White:Consider a donation to the western North Carolina Red Cross or another local charity that's doing work to bring some normalcy back to life for so many who have been disrupted.
Steve White:Thanks.
Steve White:So now onto todays episode of this day in sports history.
Steve White:A member of the sports History Network, its October 1 and on this day the babe called his shot.
Steve White: It was game three of the: Steve White:This game was played at Wrigley Field and the Yankees had won the first two two games in the series.
Steve White:In the fifth inning of a four four game, Ruth stepped to the plate against Cubs starter Charlie Root.
Steve White:Now, Ruth had already hit a three run homer off root in the first inning, but the Cubs bench and the fans packed into Wrigley that day were giving the greatest ball player in the game and the highest paid athlete in the world a really hard time.
Steve White:The first pitch was a called strike that Ruth thought was well out of the strike zone.
Steve White:Root delivered another strike.
Steve White:The yelling from the Cubs dugout and the fans only got louder.
Steve White:But the count, two balls and two strikes.
Steve White:What happened next will live on in baseball lore forever and still prompts the question, did he or didn't he?
Steve White:In film footage shot that day, the babe stepped out of the box and appeared to .2 fingers toward center field.
Steve White:Root delivered the pitch and the Sultan of Swat belted a solo homer in the exact location that he had just pointed.
Steve White:Ruth trotted around the bases triumphantly taunting Root as he rounded first, and then he yelled at the Cubs dugout and the fans behind it as he approached third.
Steve White:He said afterwards he did indeed call his shot, but there remained doubters as to his true intent of the point.
Steve White:The Cubs catcher that day was Gabby Hartman, and he said it wasnt a called shot that instead he pointed two fingers toward the Cubs bench and said thats only two strikes.
Steve White:Whether you buy into the idea that he did or he didnt, it is part of the fabric of the game that made Ruth such an interesting character.
Steve White:The Yankees won the game seven five and then closed out the series with a 13 six win.
Steve White:The following day.
Steve White:The 32 World Series would be the last in which the Babe would appear.
Steve White: On this day in: Steve White:It was another famous home run that garnered a lot of attention, and of course, it was a New York Yankee doing the hitting.
Steve White:It was the final game of the regular season and coming into this one, Roger Maris had equaled Babe Ruth's record of 60 home runs in a season.
Steve White:Maris Chase had not been a popular one with Yankees fans or even the commissioner's office.
Steve White:If somebody was to break the babe's record, well, Yankee fans wanted it to be Mickey Mantle.
Steve White:Commissioner Ford Frick had decreed back in June that unless a player broke Ruth's record in 154 games that Ruth's record would stand as the record for a 154 game schedule and there would be a notation added to anybody who beat it after playing more games.
Steve White:The so called asterisk.
Steve White:At the 154 game mark, Maris had 59 home runs.
Steve White:He hit hash 60 September 26 in game 159.
Steve White:This game was actually game 163 of the Yankees season.
Steve White:The Yankees had tied a game earlier in the season and while the stats from an official tie game count, it resulted in a makeup game later in the year.
Steve White:Maris did not hit a home run in that tie game.
Steve White:So in essence he did do it.
Steve White:In 162 games.
Steve White:The Yankees were playing the Boston Red Sox on this day to close out the regular season.
Steve White:In the fourth inning, Maris came up to the plate with one out and none on.
Steve White:And he sent a Bill Stafford pitch deep into the right field seats for home run hash 61 of the year.
Steve White: ix years after Maris death in: Steve White:There is something to home field advantage, but I'm not exactly talking about a supportive crowd cheering for their team or the comfortability of sleeping in your own bed and making the short trip to your home ballpark.
Steve White:With this one, I'm talking about another advantage, the groundskeeper.
Steve White:There are a lot of stories of groundskeepers doing their part to help out the home team.
Steve White:There's the story of Bill Veeck instructing his groundskeepers to move the fences.
Steve White:Back when the New York Yankees came to town, the Chicago White Sox groundskeeper put a little mound in the baselines to keep bunted balls for their speedsters, Nelly Fox and Louis Aporicio to keep the ball in fair territory.
Steve White:The Los Angeles Dodgers in the sixties had a speedy team and their groundskeeper was known to use a heavy asphalt roller on the outfield grass with the hopes that a typical single may turn into a gap, double or triple.
Steve White: Well, on this day in: Steve White:The Giants and the Dodgers were locked in a tight pennant chase in the final days of the season.
Steve White:This was the first of a three game series between the two, and the Giants were hosting.
Steve White:San Francisco manager Alvin Dark was looking for a way to slow down the speedy Maury Wills, who had stolen more than 104 bases during the 62 season, breaking Ty Cobb's record for stolen bases in a season.
Steve White:Dark went to Schwab and asked if he could help out, and Schwab said he had a few ideas and tricks he'd been thinking about, and so he got to work.
Steve White:First, Schwab changed the dirt next to first base, the place where Wills would take a lead off first as his preamble for swiping second, Schwab removed the hard dirt there and replaced it with a spongy, soft mix of peat and sand, and then doused it with a healthy dose of water to make sure it was nice and soft.
Steve White:When the Dodgers came to town, they took batting practice, and Dodgers manager Leo Durocher noticed something strange in the infield, and he began to dig up the area around first base that Schwab had worked on.
Steve White:Dodger first baseman Ron Fairley built a small sand castle out of the mixture, while home plate umpire for game one, Tom Gorman, saw what was going on, and he understood immediately the intent he found.
Steve White:Schwab scolded him and then told him that if the infield was not fixed, he would call the game a forfeit and give the win to the Dodgers.
Steve White:Schwab went back to work with other members of the crew and removed most of the soft dirt mixture.
Steve White:Well, actually, they did a really good job of making it look like that's what they were doing.
Steve White:In fact, they only made it softer than before.
Steve White:But for whatever reason, Gorman and the umpiring crew were satisfied, and Schwab ordered his guys to water the infield, which they did a lot.
Steve White:In fact, they over watered the field, soaked it down to the dismay of Durocher and the rest of the Dodgers, and it worked like a champ.
Steve White:The Giants rolled to an eleven two win, and the Dodgers did not steal a single base.
Steve White:The Dodgers were apoplectic after this game.
Steve White:A protest was sent into the National League office, with the threat of soil samples being taken before game two of their series.
Steve White:In the early morning hours prior to game two, Schwab and his crew went to work removing the evidence.
Steve White:They added a little extra water the next day, so much so that the Umps paused the action and ordered sand to be placed down on top of the base paths.
Steve White:Well, that turned things back to a swampy mess and had the desired effect that the Giants had always wanted.
Steve White:San Francisco went on to win the pennant, and they faced the Yankees in the World Series.
Steve White: And on this day in: Steve White: inning their first meeting in: Steve White:By unanimous decision, Ali refused to accept he'd been beaten in that one, and he battled hard for a second fight.
Steve White: The second meeting, in: Steve White:The purse for fight number two was minuscule by the standards of the day, but at least that one put Alis NAbF heavyweight title on the line.
Steve White:Ali won the second fight with a narrow unanimous decision.
Steve White: ight held in Zaire in October: Steve White:But with Alis surprise, went against the seemingly unbeatable foreman to add the WBA and the WBC heavyweight title to Alis trophy.
Steve White:Case opened it up for fight number three between Ali and Frasier, held on this day in the Philippines.
Steve White:And it got the name Thrilla in Manila, after Alis boast it'll be a killa, a chilla, a thrilla when I get the gorilla in Manila.
Steve White:There was a lot of pre fight buildup for this one, and it would go down as one of the best fights of the year and one of the all time great heavyweight bouts of.
Steve White:Ali came out dancing and moving light as a feather, floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee.
Steve White:Through the first four rounds, Ali looked five years younger than his actual 33 year old self.
Steve White:He showed his confidence by standing between rounds, leaning up against the ropes instead of taking a seat and resting.
Steve White:That came back to hurt him a little later in the fight.
Steve White:Frazier stormed back in the fifth, 6th and the 7th.
Steve White:Ali then took a seat on his stool between rounds six and seven, and Ali's trainer, Angelo Dundee, lamented the loss of those rounds later.
Steve White:Ali was a talker during fights as much as he was before one.
Steve White:When he came out for the 7th round, Ali called Frazier old Joe and said, I thought you were washed up.
Steve White:Frazier first responded with his mouth, shouting back, somebody told you all wrong, pretty boy.
Steve White:And then did more talking with his fists.
Steve White:Now, one thing that limited Ali in this fight was his tendency to grab a fighter's neck and pull them close in a clinche.
Steve White:In their second meeting, Ali had used that maneuver on Frazier 133 times.
Steve White:The referee for this fight, Carlos Padilla, made it clear early on that Ali would not be able to get away with clinches in this one.
Steve White:By the 11th round, Frazier was ahead on the cards and looked primed to take the title back.
Steve White:But Ali began an assault in the 12th that continued for the following two rounds.
Steve White:In the 13th, Ali landed a solid left and followed that up with a huge right hand.
Steve White:That caused the lights in Joe's eyes to dim a good bed.
Steve White:And by the end of the 13th, momentum had swung back to Ali.
Steve White:In the 14th, the champ landed several combinations and at one point connected on nine consecutive right hands to a half blind Frazier.
Steve White:When the bell rang, ending the 14th, Padilla had to guide Frazier back to his corner.
Steve White:At that point, Frazier's trainer, Eddie Futch, told his fighter, sit down, son.
Steve White:It's all over.
Steve White:No one will ever forget what you did here today.
Steve White:Frazier protested, but Futch was already cutting off his gloves.
Steve White:The fight was over.
Steve White:Ali had won.
Steve White:After the fight, there was a great deal of respect shared back and forth between the two men.
Steve White:Ali told Frazier's then 14 year old kid, Marvus, who would step into the ring in a few years, that your father is a great man and a great fighter.
Steve White:Never forget that.
Steve White:Frazier returned the compliment, saying, ive seen walls tumble under shots that I gave him.
Steve White:Hes a great champ.
Steve White:And time now for todays got nothing to do with sports.
Steve White:Fun fact.
Steve White: While filming the: Steve White:Well, to produce tears out of the young Cooper, the director of the movie, threatened to kill Cooper's real life dog.
Steve White:That worked.
Steve White:But yeesh, dude, thats all ive got for you today.
Steve White:This and every episode of this day in sports history is researched, written, voiced and produced by me, Steve White.
Steve White:Enjoy the rest of your day.
Steve White:Consider a donation to the western North Carolina Red Cross or another charity of your choosing.
Steve White:And I will be back tomorrow with another edition of this day in sports history.
