The DARK TRUTH About the 1932 World Series

Most people know one thing about the 1932 World Series. The Called Shot. Babe Ruth pointing to center field at Wrigley Field and depositing a baseball exactly where he said he would. The most debated moment in baseball history. But the Called Shot was not the story of that Series. It was just the climax. The moment when all the poison that had been building for months erupted in one swing. The real story is so much darker. This documentary tells the truth about the most hostile, venomous fall classic ever played. It begins with betrayal. Joe McCarthy managed the Cubs to the 1929 pennant, then was publicly humiliated and fired. He took the Yankees job and spent two years building a monster, waiting for his chance at revenge. The 1932 Yankees went 107-47 with Ruth, Gehrig, Lazzeri, and Dickey. In his pre-Series meeting, McCarthy told his players one thing: kill the Cubs. The film chronicles how the Cubs replaced McCarthy with Rogers Hornsby, a gambling-addicted manager who borrowed money from his own players to cover racetrack debts. How Commissioner Landis launched an investigation into gambling on the Cubs. How shortstop Billy Jurges was shot by a showgirl named Violet Popovich Valli in a hotel room, missed weeks during the pennant race, and the woman who shot him signed a nightclub contract billed as Violet, What I Did for Love, Valli. How Hornsby was fired in August and replaced by Charlie Grimm, who led the Cubs to the pennant. This documentary examines the two votes that ignited a war. How the Cubs gave Hornsby zero World Series share despite managing four months of the season. How they gave Mark Koenig, a former Yankee who hit .353 in 33 games and was one of the primary reasons the Cubs won the pennant, only a half share. Roughly $2,500 during the Great Depression, when unemployment was 25 percent and families stood in breadlines. Two players voted against giving Koenig a full share. One was Billy Jurges, the man whose injury created the need for Koenig in the first place. Learn how the Yankees went ballistic. Ruth calling the Cubs cheapskates and penny-pinchers in every newspaper. The entire roster unified in contempt for how their former teammate was treated. McCarthy carrying the scars of his own firing. Every ingredient for the most bitter World Series in history. The film chronicles the racial slurs screamed from the Cubs dugout. Guy Bush leading the charge, targeting Ruth with epithets aimed at his broad features, a common and despicable tactic of the era. How Cubs fans spat on Ruth's wife Claire at the team hotel. How Ruth absorbed the insults about his weight and his age but drew the line at his wife. How by Game Three, the atmosphere at Wrigley Field was not baseball. It was war. Discover Game Three on October 1, 1932. Nearly 50,000 fans at Wrigley. Ruth and Gehrig launching balls into the stands during batting practice. Lemons and vegetables pelted at Ruth in left field. Ruth hitting a three-run homer in the first inning and yelling at the Cubs dugout. This documentary examines the Called Shot in the fifth inning, with the game tied 4-4. Root's first pitch, a called strike. Ruth holding up one finger. Two balls, then another called strike. Ruth holding up two fingers. Then the gesture. Some witnesses say he pointed to center field. Woody English, standing feet away at third base, said Ruth was looking at the dugout the entire time. Charlie Root maintained until the day he passed that Ruth never pointed, and if he had, the next pitch would have been in his ear. Even Ruth himself seemed to waver over the years. Whatever the gesture meant, Ruth swung at the next pitch and launched it over the center field wall, past the flagpole, an estimated 440 feet. He slowed between second and third, looked directly at the Cubs dugout, looked at Guy Bush, and laughed right in their faces. Then Gehrig stepped up and hit the very next pitch into the right field stands. Back-to-back home runs. Root was pulled after throwing exactly one pitch after Ruth's blast. The film chronicles Ruth calling Bush by the wrong name after Game Three, calling him Joe instead of Guy, not because he did not know his name but because he wanted Bush to know he did not matter enough to remember. How Bush started Game Four and hit Ruth with a pitch in the first inning before being pulled without recording three outs. How the Yankees won 13-6 to complete the sweep. When you strip away the legend, what you find at the core is something deeply unpleasant. Racial slurs screamed in front of 50,000 people. A woman spat on for being married to the wrong player. A gambling-addicted manager denied every penny he earned. A former teammate cheated out of money during the Great Depression. And one man standing at the plate answering all of it with the most famous swing in baseball history. The 1932 World Series was not a celebration. It was a reckoning.