Babe Ruth’s call-in shot in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series remains one of the most famous home runs in baseball history. What is much less well known, however, is that Ruth’s explosion likely never would have happened, except for a remarkable chain of events that began with three shots fired by a lover. abandoned and an injured Chicago Cub whose replacement propelled them to the World Series.
On the morning of July 6, 1932, 24-year-old Chicago Cubs shortstop Billy Jurges responded to the door of Room 509 of the Carlos Hotel, a Ruthian blast from Wrigley Field. Entra Violet Popovich, a 21-year-old woman with brown hair who had fallen in love with Jurges. However, the couple’s year-long relationship had deteriorated and ended a few weeks earlier after an argument in New York City.
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With the Cubs just three games away from first place this July morning, Jurges said his current mistress is baseball, not Popovich. “I’m not going out on dates anymore,” he told his old flame. “We have a chance to win the pennant. I have to rest.
The breakup was just another emotional blow to Popovich. His father had abused his mother and abandoned the family following their divorce. Popovich moved in and out of foster care throughout her childhood and was whipped at the age of 15 for staying out late after going to the movies with a boy. The aspiring actress married at 18. Divorce followed six months later. “All she wanted was a stable guy in her life and a strong relationship,” says Jack Bales, author of The Chicago Cub Shot for love, a book about the cabaret singer and the ball player. “She just wanted a normal life with someone who loved her.”
With that prospect shattered, the spurned Popovich pulled a small .25 caliber pistol from her purse. Three shots rang out as Jurges battled Popovich for the pistol. A ball hit the right side of the shortstop; another brushed his finger. The third blow hit Popovich’s left hand. Fortunately, none of the injuries were fatal and the two men were taken to hospital together.
A police search of Popovich’s hotel room revealed empty liquor bottles and a note she scribbled to her brother: “To me, life without Billy is not worth living, but why should I leave this earth alone? I’ll take Billy with me. Blaming the rating on “too much gin,” Popovich insisted she never intended to shoot the Cubs shortstop, only herself. More comfortable in sports pages than on the police blotter, Jurges refused to press charges against his former girlfriend, who was released.
The shortstop and the shooter on stage
Seemingly bulletproof, Jurges returned to the Cubs roster 16 days after the shootout, though his game turned out lackluster. Meanwhile, Popovich also made an unexpected comeback.
“After her court appearance, she told reporters she was going to lay low and stay with her mother,” Bales said. “It didn’t last long. As the Cubs returned home on July 24, thousands of yellow leaflets littered the sidewalks outside Wrigley Field touting the State-Congress Theater’s new burlesque show, “The Bare Cub Follies,” headlined by Violet Valli, the stage name of Popovich.
That night, a curious crowd rushed into the theater and watched “The Girl Who Shot for Love” take the stage to sing a love ballad. Audiences expected her to throw off her clothes or spread gossip, but she revealed neither body nor soul and left the stage to applause. Audiences quickly lost interest in Popovich, and the show ended well ahead of its scheduled 22-week run.
Billy Jurges replaced in Chicago Cubs lineup
Cubs shortstop Billy Jurges, featured on a 1933 baseball card.
Transcendental Graphics / Getty Images
Mired in second place as the schedule turned in August, the underachieving Cubs replaced manager Rogers Hornsby with Charlie Grimm and signed former New York Yankees shortstop Mark Koenig to spell the Jurges in trouble.
Chicago flourished under Grimm, whose last name belied his playful demeanor, and Koenig provided a much needed spark. The Cubs new shortstop produced .353 in 33 games, and his three-run homer on August 20 kicked off a 14-game winning streak that propelled the Cubs to the National League pennant. “We wouldn’t be in first place without Mark,” Grimm said of Jurges’ replacement.
Despite Koenig’s pivotal role in sending Chicago to the World Series, his teammates voted to give him only a half share of the bonuses. “We thought there was no right,” Jurges remembers. “He won the pennant for us, but he hasn’t played so many ball games.”
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Cubs World Series opponents, the New York Yankees, have defended their former teammate and piqued the Cubs for their stingy ways. No one was as loud as Ruth, 37, who proved to be as prodigious at the heckling as the homering. “Ruth didn’t hesitate to mix it up,” explains Ed Sherman, author of Babe Ruth’s Called Blow. “He had a great personality and could talk about trash with the best of them.”
As the World Series opened in New York with Koenig on shortstop and Jurges on the bench, Ruth ridiculed the Cubs as “claws”, “tightwads” and “nickel nurses” . After losing the first two games, the Cubs and their fans no longer found Ruth’s ribs a laughing matter. Five thousand mocking fans greeted Ruth as her train pulled into the Windy City, and a woman even spat at him and his wife as they entered the hotel. “I heard words that even I had never heard before,” Ruth joked.
Babe Ruth responds to taunts with the legendary Homer
Lou Gehrig greeted Babe Ruth at home after the Bambino’s called home homerun.
Bettmann Archives / Getty Images
Ruth echoed her sharp comments during batting practice ahead of Game 3 at Wrigley Field. “I would play for half my salary if I could knock in this slum all my life,” he bellowed, throwing home run after home run in the stands.
With Koenig out due to a wrist injury suffered in New York, Jurges came back on shortstop and quickly made a mistake in the game’s opening game. Two hitters later, Ruth hit a home run to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead. Jurges returned the favor in the fourth inning, however, with a sinking left-field liner that Ruth failed to circle with an artless catch that drew boos and screams from Cubs fans. Jurges eventually scored to even the score, finally giving the Cubs some momentum in the series.
When Ruth rose to home plate in the fifth inning, fans allegedly threw lemons at her while the Cubs players launched an insulting shootout. Ruth heard them all: “Big belly! “Big-pop!” “Ball head! The most colorful taunts questioned Ruth’s parentage, her intelligence, her ability to touch her toes and even her race.
Throughout her fight, Ruth bit the Cubs cover and shrugged in the direction of pitcher Charlie Root. Whether Ruth physically indicated he was predicting an upcoming home run remains one of baseball’s great mysteries, but what is certain is that the pissed-off hitter played Root’s 2-2 golf course on the wall of the Wrigley Field’s central field for a home run measuring nearly 500 feet.
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“Unbelievable!” exclaimed Democratic presidential candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt, who rejected the opening pitch of the game. Laughing with laughter as he rounded third base, Ruth continued to joke about Chicago’s stingy manners. The final homer of Ruth’s World Series career put the Yankees in the lead for good in Game 3, and the demoralized Cubs lost the series the next day.
“What still diminishes in the controversy over whether it was a called-up shot is that it was an incredible moment in which a player was challenged, and Ruth responded emphatically like him. only could, ”Sherman said. It was a historic moment that perhaps wouldn’t have happened without a femme fatale, a replacement shortstop, and a close decision that sparked an epic war of words.
