I chose not to respond to Jerome Holtzman`s cantankerous essay on Babe Ruth`s called shot (June 26, ”Did the Babe really point?”) but after reading the letters that tendentious piece of writing generated, I feel I must address it.
First, it is very clear that no one is aware of the photographic evidence supporting the called shot. A Chicago printer named Matt Kandle attended the 1932 World Series at Wrigley, and filmed Ruth at bat with a then-new 16mm camera. The footage clearly shows Babe Ruth pointing to center field before clobbering a home run off of Charlie Root. Kandle`s grandson, who inherited the film, was never aware of the controversy surrounding the called shot until recently.
Village Voice writer Don Bell traveled to Kandle`s home and viewed the footage, then studied it frame by frame. Enlarged stills were made of the frames that capture this moment in baseball history.
Mr. Holtzman put words in my mouth when he stated that I called the footage ”real grainy, hard to tell.” I never said that.
The Matt Kandle footage is incontrovertible. Babe Ruth called his shot at Wrigley Field. And Mr. Holtzman: John Goodman and his troupe are going home-with the called shot in the can.
