Short answers, pulled from the story.
Whether Ruth pointed to center field before hitting his home run in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series on the 1st of October, 1932, remains disputed. Film of the at-bat confirms a pointing gesture, but eyewitness accounts disagree on whether Ruth was pointing at center field, at pitcher Charlie Root, or at the Cubs dugout. Ruth himself initially denied specifically pointing to center field, though his later accounts grew more dramatic.
Ruth hit the ball to the deepest part of center field at Wrigley Field, near the flagpole. The ground distance to the center-field corner was 440 feet, with estimates of the total distance reaching as high as 490 feet. A strong carrying wind aided the ball that day.
Joe Williams, a sports editor for the Scripps-Howard newspapers, published a headline in the New York World-Telegram on the day of the game reading "RUTH CALLS SHOT AS HE PUTS HOME RUN NO. 2 IN SIDE POCKET." The wide circulation of the Scripps-Howard chain gave the story broad reach. Williams himself later came to doubt his own reporting.
Root vehemently denied that Ruth pointed to center field, saying that if Ruth had made such a gesture he would have thrown a brushback pitch. Root refused to play himself in the 1948 film The Babe Ruth Story because of its depiction of the called shot. On a film set in 1942, Ruth reportedly told Root directly, "I know I didn't, but it made a hell of a story, didn't it?"
Two 16-mm home movies of the at-bat are known. Matt Miller Kandle, Sr.'s film surfaced in the 1970s and was broadcast on the Fox program Front Page in February 1994. A second film, shot by inventor Harold Warp, was sold to ESPN and aired in 2000 as part of SportsCentury. Neither film has been considered conclusive about the direction of Ruth's gesture.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, then a presidential candidate, attended Game 3 and reportedly laughed as Ruth rounded the bases. John Paul Stevens, who later became an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, attended the game as a 12-year-old with his father. Commissioner of Baseball Kenesaw Mountain Landis also attended.
The jersey Ruth wore during Game 3 of the 1932 World Series sold for $24.12 million through Heritage Auctions on the 25th of August, 2024, making it the most expensive sports collectible in history at that time. It surpassed the previous record of $12.6 million paid for a 1952 Topps baseball card featuring Mickey Mantle in 2022.