Old-time radio clips on baseball, Lou Gehrig and my book about Gehrig's battle with ALS, "Last Ride of the Iron Horse." The book, published by Sunbury Press, is on Audible, Kindle and paperback. (See link below.)
Current project: a biography of legendary Pittsburgh Steelers announcer Myron Cope -- creator of the Terrible Towel, co-namer of the Immaculate Reception, and the funniest, most popular sports broadcaster Pittsburgh ever saw. Book coming in the fall of 2024.
I also wrote "Baseball's Greatest What If," a biography of 1940s Brooklyn Dodger great Pete Reiser, whose HOF-bound career was cut short by his habit of running into unpadded outfield walls. Also published by Sunbury Press and available at link below.
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Thanks for sharing this wonderful broadcast. I loved your book on Gehrig, by the way.
Thank you!
Fabulous! Thanks!
This man was at the forefront of baseball early history. He played against some of the most well known hitters and pitchers of all time and lasted longer than most of his contemporaries. No wonder his baseball card is so valuable.
This comment three days after the passing of Willie Mays. None of the three announcers in this audio mentioned it, but Willie was on deck to bat after Thomson. Almost 73 years later Willie was the last surviving player who played in that game.
Gone too fast from a horrible illness of which ALS has no known cure as yet. RIP Mr. Lou
Lifetime BA was in the neighborhood of Ty Cobbs. His baseball card is priced maybe around $100,000.
Love these old soundtracks.
Ruth’s last year as a Yankee was 1934, he is 39 years old. The next year 1935 Ruth is washed up hitting.188 in Boston.
He was basically a feral baseball player. I like it.
babe ruth was hype fraud & myth Seedy, narcissitic & arrogant Fat , lazy & stuck out more than anyone Just like the usa - thats why he is our "hero"
Just bought the book after reading Donald Honig’s “When the Grass Was Real,” which included an extremely thorough interview of Reiser. Wish I could have seen him play in his all-too-early prime!
Spoke with Gabby Hartnett’s granddaughter and she said Gabby’s story was that Ruth pointed to the outfield and said “all it takes is one.” What that meant could have meant many things. One pitch? One swing? He did not say I’m going to hit the ball in the stands and point where.
I grew up listening to Card's games on the radio, called by Harry Caray with Gabby Street. Harry was the best.
One of the 12 year old kids in the stands that day grew up and became a Supreme Court Justice. He name was John Paul Stevens. He said that Ruth called his shot. Many people at that game said he called his shot. The catcher claimed he was pointing to the Cubs dugout with two fingers stating that it was only two strikes. A photo shows him holding out two fingers, so that makes sense. But he could have done both.
Thank you, very much.
I'll tell you what you can do with a Guy like that. Make sure he's on your Team. ⚾️ 🎫
I don't know about anybody else, but those balcony seats look scary as hell.
Hodges' call is just hysterics. Barber's is perfect. Succinct. "......Its a Homerun! And the New York Giants win the National League pennant, and the Polo Grounds goes wild." Then he goes silent. He lets you hear the crowd. Invites you to bathe in their roar. Lets his audience react without him INSISTING his reaction upon his listeners, as Hodges did with his obnoxious screaming. This was a shocking moment, that happened so suddenly. It is best to give your call, and then let your listeners PROCESS what happened for themselves. I get it, it was a once in a lifetime moment, and even a professional is allowed to get caught up in its emotion. Ive always thought that even under the extraordinary circumstances, Hodges went WAY too far. Gordon McClendon's call was emotional as well, without sounding like a hyena.
Well red is calling for the Dodgers and russ is a giants broadcaster. So you'd naturally have more enthusiasm if your team won. I'd concede barber wouldn't be screaming if dodgers had hit the winning HR. Not his style
Giants never would have caught the Dodgers on the last day of the season, and won the National League pennant in '51 if they hadn't cheated by stealing signs, and the Dodgers collapsed.
Our new video on the "Called Shot" kzread.infoXSqgnTgZvIA
An eye witness account.
Babe and Lou had their personal differences, complicated by their wives according to what I’ve read. It was really nice to hear an always classy Lou backing up the Babe on this historic feat. Detractors and haters always try to diminish Ruth’s accomplishments looking through today’s very narrow lenses. Ruth and Gehrig (and their peers) have a primary place in baseball history.
awesome
I have the same birthday as Lou Gehrig. 🤓 ⚾️
Lou was a real New Yorker. And so physically fit that he was considered for the role of Tarzan. Sadly a deadly virus tookhol and begin a sharp decline when he had just had an outstanding year. It become Lou Gehrig’s disease, although they don’t call its that anymore. By the time he died he had wasted away to nothing.
If you said it , i Believe it.
Hodges all day long.
Every homer I ever hit I knew where it was going before I hit it. And 2 of them I even called...just not to center field.
I have had many an argument on this .... the fool Metropolitan Fan I know actually denied it AS HE HATES THE YANKEES ....I told him he needed to face the fact IT HAPPENED & IT IS NOW CONFIRMED .... Lou Gehrig would have no reason to fabricate a story easily revealed back in the day ! God bless The Babe ..... God is surely a fan. GBjj
Man I love this video.
Irrefutable Proof.
Its a great story and a classic legend. There are many versions of exactly what happened EG 1 Babe points to flagpole 2 Babe gestures it takes only 1 pitch to (hit it out?) 3 Babe is gesturing to the Cubs bench A any rate, Babe almost certainly gestured sonething right before he smacked a Ruthian shot to the CF flagpole. Its an amazing story
I like that guitar rag piece at the end of the video. What’s the name of it, and who played it?
Great video. Would have loved to be in Cincy with the fans seeing their club win for the first time in a while.
Truth
I kind of feel bad for Red Barber. Seeing the Bums up by 13 1/2 games in August, and watching it slowly dissipate to the point that they had to come back and beat the Phillies in extras on the last day of the regular season just to force a playoff had to be excruciating. Then to have the 3rd game practically in their pocket only to have things unravel in the 9th. Red kept his cool and made a professional call, but you know he had to be dying inside.
You see the catcher and the umpire looking at Ruth as he crossed home plate, they are like, "can you believe this guy?!"
So it’s settled then. Babe Ruth DID call his shot. Lou Gehrig was an honest man and if he says it happened then it damn well happened
He was truly a amazing player. In the World Series Pittsburgh versus Detroit he clearly outshone Ty Cobb
Amazingly cool
Consider also how far back Owen's was from the plate. Another foot closer, and he would have caught it cleanly.
Babe said he called it, Lou said he called it. Babe Ruth called the shot.
100,000 fans all wearing dress suits
If Lou said it, it's true!
It's amazing to me that Red Barber was so critical of Russ Hodges' call of the The Shot Heard 'Round the World, saying it was "unprofessional" of Russ to go so wild over it. But to me it's the greatest baseball call of all time. Hodges captured perfectly all the frenzied emotion, impossibility, and sheer craziness of the moment, and of a pennant race that had already had so many dramatic moments attached to it. Barber's call on the other hand is kind of bland, which is understandable because he was the Dodgers announcer, but he also prided himself on being impartial so his Dodgers association shouldn't have had anything to do with his call. It just wasn't very exciting. And although we don't hear it here, apparently he was concerned that Dodger fans might start jumping out of high-rise windows or something, so he immediately started talking about the Korean War and how many sacrifices their fellow Americans were making over there, to try to put things in perspective. Talk about unintentionally piling on! But in no way should he have been so dismissive of Hodges. Maybe it was just jealousy that grew over the years, since it was a Brooklyn fan, of all people, who recorded Russ's call and sent him the tape, and that recording became probably the single most famous baseball call ever, played millions of times throughout the decades.
Who could blame Hodges. The Giants season was a disaster until they somehow reeled off 16 in a row, and 37 of the last 44. I'd have been a bit over the top, too!
Red Faber is my 2nd cousin 3x removed!
HENRICH seized the moment - and headed to first - keeping the Yankee drive alive - - then came JOE DIMAGGIO and CHARLIE KELLER -then JOE GORDON drove in 2 more goodnight Brooklyn !
Ruth...Gehrig...DiMaggio...Mantle.....THE MOUNT RUSHMORE OF BASEBALL!!!
this was great. always interested in lou gehrig information. thanks.
By the looks of this picture, Thompson looks like he has incredibly long fingers!