Babe Ruth's Called Shot - Legacy and Cultural References

Legacy and Cultural References

Shortly after the called shot, the Chicago-based Curtiss Candy Company, makers of the Baby Ruth candy bar, installed a large advertising sign on the rooftop on one of the apartment buildings on Sheffield Avenue. The sign, which read "Baby Ruth", was just across the street from where Ruth's home run had landed. Until the 1970s, when the aging sign was taken down, Cubs fans at Wrigley Field had to endure this not-so-subtle reminder of the "called shot".

In an early scene in the 1984 film, The Natural, a Ruth-like player called "the Whammer" points his bat menacingly toward and past Roy Hobbs, declaring his own "called shot." However, Hobbs strikes the Whammer out on three pitches.

Major league slugger Jim Thome uses a similar bat-pointing gesture as part of his normal preparation for an at-bat.

In 1993 film, "The Sandlot" The characters are fans of Ruth and reference his called shot by imitating it.

In 2000, a novel titled Babe & Me was published by author Dan Gutman. A young boy travels back in time to prove the shot was called.

In the 1989 film Major League, the climax of the movie depicts Indians catcher Jake Taylor pointing towards the outfield, clearly making a reference to Ruth's called shot. Fittingly, Jake was playing against the New York Yankees. The pitcher then throws a pitch high and inside, referencing Root's suggestion that he would have thrown at Ruth if he had really called his shot. Jake repeats the called shot, but instead of going for a home run, bunts the next pitch for a modified squeeze play, allowing the winning run to come in from second base.

In George Carlin's 2001 book Napalm and Silly Putty, he "reveals" that, "Contrary to popular belief, Babe Ruth did not call his famous home run shot. He was actually giving the finger to a hot dog vendor who had cheated him out of twelve cents."

In the mid-2000s Bud Light made a commercial of the called shot, showing that the reason Ruth pointed towards center field was because he had spotted a vender selling Bud Light there.

In the video game Team Fortress 2, the baseball fanatic Scout, in one of his taunts, points at the sky in the distance and then whacks an opponent with his baseball bat, hitting the player in the direction he pointed.

In the 2006 computer animated film Everyone's Hero, the shot is instead played by protagonist Yankee Irving using Ruth's famed bat. Yankee hits a home run on Ruth's suggestion. According to the film, the story takes place during the 1932 World Series.

In the Simpsons episode Homer at the Bat, Homer Simpson, when up for bat at a softball game, points to the stands. When he hits the ball and it goes to the opposite side of where he pointed, he points to that side and pretends that's where he meant to hit it.