Babe Ruth's "Called Shot" Legend

The 2007 Silver Anniversary

of Baseball's Most Celebrated Moment

Did the Babe really predict his most famous home run?
You may never know ... until you have seen this film!

The Babe at the plate


A legend was born when New York Yankee Babe Ruth faced Chicago Cubs pitcher Charlie Root at Wrigley Field on October 1, 1932, in the fifth inning of the third game of the World Series. 

Ruth is said to have successfully predicted - in words and gestures to the outfield - that on the next pitch he would hit a home run. Newspaper reports and eyewitness accounts of the day differ radically and no photographic proof has ever surfaced in the intervening 75 years. Yet the legend of Ruth's "Called Shot" has been widely known and hotly debated across five generations. 

Root dismissed the legend to his death. Ruth, over his lifetime, offered several different accounts of his own fantastic feat - each one a little more dramatic than the last. 

Send your e-mail to: thecalledshot@insightbb.com  

Points of interest
An index to Babe Ruth's "Called Shot" Legend

What you'll find on this home (run) page ...

NEW! And The Crowd Goes Wild by Joe Garner
(See The Called Shot Bookstore)
Frame from exclusive "Called Shot" Film
Meet The Filmmaker
The Called Shot Bookshelf 
The Called Shot Bookstore
The Called Shot On CD-ROM
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Baseball On The Web
Baseball Letters
Baseball Links
This Index
License "The Called Shot"
Your Thoughts?
Send your e-mail to: thecalledshot@insightbb.com  

Ruth's Called Shot Legend Comes To Light ...


Matt Kandle, Sr.
Chicago printer, inventor, 
artist and amateur filmmaker
For years, nobody thought there was any photographic evidence of the Called Shot. But there was. Matt Miller Kandle, Sr., a Chicago printer, inventor, artist and amateur filmmaker took a Kodak 16mm camera to Wrigley Field on Oct. 1, 1932 and captured the legendary Called Shot, as well as Ruth's first inning homer, on safety film. 
Matt's home movies were never shown publicly and only rarely projected at family gatherings. Matt Kandle's great-grandson, Kirk M. Kandle of Louisville, Kentucky, never doubted the fact of Babe Ruth's Called Shot until a 1975 newspaper article alerted him to the longstanding debate by declaring there was "more myth than fact to the legend." 
Kandle's rare footage was televised for the first time on the Fox Television news magazine program "Front Page," on February 4, 1994. 
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Send your e-mail to: thecalledshot@insightbb.com  

 

The Called Shot Bookshelf

There is a set of three select still prints reproduced from the original footage: one of Ruth pointing, one of Ruth hitting the ball, and one of Ruth rounding first base. The three frames have been printed in the following publications: 
  • The Courier-Journal, Louisville Kentucky, October 12, 1980
  • The Sporting News, October 18, 1982
  • The Sporting News Selects Baseball's Greatest Games (Book), 1986
  • Sweet Seasons, a book by Howard Siner, 1988
  • The Village Voice, Sept. 6, 1988
  • The Babe: A Life in Pictures (Book), 1988
  • Baseball, Ken Burns documentary for public television, 1994
  • Baseball Letters: A Fan's Correspondence with His Heroes, 1996, by Seth Swirsky
  • Chicago Days: 150 Defining Moments in the Life of a Great City, 1997, Chicago Tribune
  • Baseball On The Web, an all-new book by Rob Edelman (February, 1998) that features the best 500 baseball web sites -- including  the one you're reading right now!
  • And The Crowd Goes Wild, 1999, by Joe Garner, with Bob Costas, Hank Aaron and Wayne Grstzky. Includes two audio CDs with actual broadcasts from the spine tingling moments in sports. The Called Shot is the first in the book and on the CDs. 
  • ESPN Sports Century, December, 1999. ESPN counts down the top 50 North American athletes and names Babe Ruth second only to Michael Jordan. Question: If Ruth is number two, why are Jordan's feats on the basketball court often described as "RUTHIAN"?
  • Plus many others. Contact Kirk Kandle for more.

  • Publishers and filmmakers can license "The Called Shot." Find out how

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Send your e-mail to: thecalledshot@insightbb.com  

 From The Called Shot Bookstore:


Easy Online Purchasing! In association with Amazon.com, you can buy several books containing images from Matt Kandle's original 16mm home movie footage . (Some may be out of print.)
Must Have!
And The Crowd Goes Wild

by Joe Garner

And The Crowd Goes Wild recounts 47 of the most memorable moments in sports and spotlights the photographs that tell the stories. Accompanying the book, two digitally mastered CDs contain over two hours of audio, including the actual calls of the announcers who were just as excited, surprised and awestruck as the fans. 

Babe Ruth's Called Shot is the first great moment in the book. On page three you will find still shots from Matt Kandle's home movie. On the first CD, listen carefully as announcer Tom Manning shouts "The ball is going, going, high into the center field stands ... and it's a home run!"

Order Yours Now from Amazon.com

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Easy Online Purchasing! In association with Amazon.com, you can buy several books containing images from Matt Kandle's original 16mm home movie footage . (Some may be out of print.)
Wrigleyville, by Peter Golenbock
Wrigleyville  -- It's a Magical History Tour of the Chicago Cubs. Worth the cover price just  to read Golenbock's attempt to put down the most legendary homer in the game's history by draging out all the old Cubs who claim to have been within 500 miles of Wrigley on Oct. 1, 1932. In batting practice on that fateful day, Ruth and Gehrig sailed a bushel of balls into the stands and Ruth said "I'd play for half my salary if I could play in this dump!" Evidently the Cubs never got over it.

Not a proud moment for the Cubbies. You'll find the Called Shot buried on page 234.

Order Yours Now from Amazon.com

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Easy Online Purchasing! In association with Amazon.com, you can buy several books containing images from Matt Kandle's original 16mm home movie footage .
Baseball Letters by Seth Swirsky
This is a unique scrapbook containing many of baseball's greatest moments--in the words of the players who lived them. For every fan who's ever wondered how Mickey Mantle came to wear the number seven or who Cal Ripken, Jr.'s childhood idols were, Seth Swirsky has the answers. 90 photos including a glimpse of "The Called Shot." 

Order Yours Now from Amazon.com
To find out more about the book and the author, Seth Swirsky go to The Official Baseball-Letters Home Page

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"Baseball On The Web"

It's loaded with 500 
top baseball
Web sites...

Including this one! (See page 78). This is a must-have reference for wired baseball fans. 

"The Called Shot" Web page is proud to be selected among the 500 Web sites in Baseball On The Web by Rob Edelman. It's a great resource for anyone interested in baseball. 

Order Your Copy Online  from Amazon.com.
(Currently out of print.)

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Rob Edelman is the author of the acclaimed Great Baseball Films (Citadel Press, 1994), a member of SABR (the Society for American Baseball Research), and a well-known baseball journalist and lecturer whose work has appeared in Total Baseball, The Total Baseball Catalog, and dozens of anthologies, newspapers, and magazines.

See Matt Kandle's 16mm film ...
Only on Voyager's CD Rom "Baseball's Greatest Hits"
(No longer available. Out of Print.)


Grab Some Crackerjacks and Check Out Baseball's Greatest Hits. (SORRY, OUT OF PRINT!)

It's the next best thing to being there. Watch historic video clips, like Hank Aaron's 715th home run. Listen in as seventy five Hall of Famers including Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, and Jackie Robinson talk baseball. 

The only way to see the amazing home movie film clip of Ruth's Called Shot is on Voyager's CD Rom Baseball's Greatest Hits.

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This updated version brings you right up to Joe Carter's heart-stopping home run that clinched the 1993 World Series for the Toronto Blue Jays. Current stats on major players are here, along with over six hours of archival audio, color photographs, and rediscovered audio clips such as Babe Ruth's legendary call of his own shot in 1932. 

CD Gets Great Reviews:
"One of a handful of new computer programs that I think finally deliver on the computer industry's much-ballyhooed promise to produce 'multimedia' programs ... especially well done." 
                        --The Wall Street Journal

"More than just a collection of statistics, this imaginative CD-ROM brings baseball history
 alive."
                             --MacUser (4 1/2 mice)

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Now it's YOUR CALL ...

What do you think? Call it the way you see it!
Did the Babe predict his homer? What's your opinion? 

E-mail your comments to us and we'll post them here on the Called Shot Page
Did the Babe call his homer? What's your opinion? 
Send your e-mail to: thecalledshot@insightbb.com


Find out what others are saying ...
Click here to Go to Called Shot Comments and . 

Paul Nickson makes some important points!
              Read his take on the Called Shot.
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Links to Babe Ruth 
and Baseball sites on the Web

John Skilton's Baseball Links -- Welcome to the World Wide Web's most comprehensive collection of links to baseball related resources. There are currently almost 4,000 unique links indexed in categories. If you can't find what you're looking for, it probably doesn't exist. 

101 Baseball Links -- Plenty of sites to keep you busy during the off season! 

Total Baseball -- A great resource for current scores, stats, history, records and baseball chat. 

CMG Worldwide -- These guys own and license a lot of cool Babe Ruth stuff. One thing they don't have is "The Called Shot." 

Louisville Slugger Museum -- where you can still buy a bat like the one Ruth used. 

Baseball On The Web -- A series of live links from www.mispress.com/baseball, with every site mentioned in Rob Edelman's new book "Baseball On The Web." 

The Babe Ruth Museum -- If you love the Babe, Baseball, Home Runs, the New York Yankees, the Boston Red Sox, the Baltimore Orioles, Cal Ripken, Memorabilia, Games, Trivia, or Sports History, you're going to feel right at home here. 

The Courier-Journal Review -- Ric Manning, the Gizmo Editor compared Voyager's "Baseball's Greatest Hits" CD-ROM (NOW OUT OF PRINT) with Microsoft's "Complete Baseball. One thing Bill Gates doesn't have on his CD is "The Called Shot" film footage. 

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Publishers and Filmmakers --
You can license "The Called Shot" 16mm and still photos.

The rare film footage of the most legendary single event in the history of sports is available for limited use. For more information, contact: 

Kyle Anne Citrynell
Seiller Waterman LLC
2200 Meidinger Tower, 462 South Fourth Street
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
(502) 584-7400 Fax: (502) 583-2100

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This site last updated 1/3/2006 -- Copyright, 1999-2006, Kirk M. Kandle
Produced by Kirk Kandle using Netscape Composer
A little about the author