The Called Shot: Babe Ruth, the Chicago Cubs, and the Unforgettable Major League Baseball Season of 1932

Written by:
Thomas Wolf
Narrated by:
Barry Abrams

Unabridged Audiobook

Ratings
Book
1
Narrator
1
Release Date
May 2020
Duration
10 hours 59 minutes
Summary
In the summer of 1932, at the beginning of the turbulent decade that would remake America, baseball fans were treated to one of the most thrilling seasons in the history of the sport. As the nation drifted deeper into the Great Depression and reeled from social unrest, baseball was a diversion for a troubled country-and yet the world of baseball was marked by the same edginess that pervaded the national scene.

On-the-field fights were as common as double plays. Amid the National League pennant race, Cubs' shortstop Billy Jurges was shot by showgirl Violet Popovich in a Chicago hotel room. When the regular season ended, the Cubs and Yankees clashed in what would be Babe Ruth's last appearance in the fall classic. After the Cubs lost the first two games in New York, the series resumed in Chicago at Wrigley Field, with Democratic presidential candidate Franklin Roosevelt cheering for the visiting Yankees from the box seats behind the Yankees' dugout.

In the top of the fifth inning the game took a historic turn. As Ruth was jeered mercilessly by Cubs players and fans, he gestured toward the outfield and then blasted a long home run. Ruth's homer set off one of baseball's longest-running and most intense debates: did Ruth, in fact, call his famous home run?
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Crompton B.

While I had known about the "Called Shot" in the 1932 World Series, lacked the context that this very thoroughly researched book brought to the signature moment of not only Babe Ruth's career, but in baseball as well. The narrator demonstrated a true sense of the game and against the backdrop of Depression-Era America, the story of not only Ruth, the Yankees, the Cubs, Rogers Hornsby all came alive. Any baseball fan would appreciate adding this to their store of knowledge and especially those who enjoyed The Glory of Their Times and Baseball's Greatest Players by Lawrence S. Ritter and Tom Meany...

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