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REMEMBERED TODAY FOR A HOME RUN THAT sparked the longest-running controversy in baseball history, the 1932 World Series was, after 1927 and 1928, the third in a line of one-sided World Series demolitions for the Yankees of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. "You hate to say it, but we were over-matched, strictly overmatched," Chicago Cubs second baseman Billy Herman said. "And we were a damn good ball club." Ruth, at age 37, was no longer the player he had once been-his 41 home runs and 137 RBI ranked only second and fourth, respectively, in the American League-and he missed the latter part of the season with what was believed to be appendicitis. But he still knew how put on a show and entertain a crowd. In the 1932 Series he cemented his already considerable legend by smashing the most-talked about hit in baseball history.

Both Series teams featured new managers: Joe McCarthy was in his second season as head of the Yankees, while Charlie Grimm had replaced the abrasive Rogers Hornsby as manager of the Chicago Cubs on August 4. With the club in second place when he took over, Grimm guided the Cubs to a 37-18 record the rest of the way, winning the pennant by four games. The Cubs were also aided by another late-season change, the recall of shortstop Mark Koenig from the Pacific Coast League, as he batted .353 down the stretch and played solid defense to help the Cubs secure the pennant. Despite his dazzling play, the Chicago players voted him only a half share of the Series proceeds. Koenig had previously been the Yankee shortstop for five seasons, and when the Series started, his old friends on the Yankees wasted no time in hurling insults at the Cub players for their stinginess. "Hey Mark," Ruth bellowed, "Who are those cheapskates you're with?" The two teams shot vulgar hoots and catcalls back and forth through- out the Series, with Ruth the main target of the Cubs' wrath. "Once all that yelling starts back and forth, it's hard to stop it," Herman remembered. "And of course, the longer it goes on, the nastier it gets. What were jokes in the first game became personal insults by the third game."

The Yankees won the first two games easily behind Charles "Red" Ruffing and Lefty Gomez. The Wrigley Field fans were more raucous than ever for Game 3, and even threw lemons at Ruth as he shagged flies in pre-game practice. He answered the jeers with a three-run homer in the first inning. The Cubs came back, though, scoring the fling run when Ruth made a comical and ill-timed attempt at a diving catch, which only increased the catcalls. With the score now 4-4, Ruth came to bat in the top of the fifth with fans heckling and the Cubs players calling him, among other names, "nigger." The first pitch from Charlie Root was a called strike. Ruth turned to the Cubs dugout and held up one finger, as if to sig¬nify that it was only one strike. After two balls, there was another called strike. The Cubs were hollering even louder now, espe¬cially idle pitcher Guy Bush, who ran several feet out from the dugout to heckle Ruth. Ruth then made some kind of gesture toward the pitcher's mound or toward center field, and according to Cubs catcher Charles 'Gabby" Hartnett, he said "it only takes one to hit it." Gehrig, in the on-deck circle, later claimed that he heard Ruth boast, "I'm going to knock the next pitch right down tour goddamned throat." But whatever he said, Ruth blasted the next pitch deep into the center field bleachers for his second home run of the game. He rounded the bases laughing and making more gestures toward the now silent Chicago dugout.