S1E4 Did Babe Ruth Call His Shot? with Guest Randy Sklar

Jennifer:

Hello, and welcome to the Unofficial Official Story. I'm Jennifer, the fearless investigator.

Koji:

What's up? I'm Koji, the so-called Chief of this show.

Dwayne:

And hello listeners. I'm Dwayne, the class clown.

Jennifer:

This is a podcast where we tell you the official story. We're going to take a look at the paranormal, conspiracies, unexplained phenomena, cryptids and even true crime.

Koji:

In this episode, we're asking the question, "Did Babe Ruth really call a shot?"

Dwayne:

And by the end, we'll tell you what really, maybe happened.

Jennifer:

But first we have a guest. Randy Sklar.

Koji:

Randy is a comedian, writer, director, and actor. And has appeared numerous television shows, including my favorite show, ESPN's Cheap Seat, which aired for 77 episodes. In addition, he co-hosts one of my favorite podcasts of all time, Dumb People Town with his twin brother, Jason, and Daniel Van Kirk.

Dwayne:

Randy Sklar, so good to have you here with us, man. How are you doing?

Randy Sklar:

I'm good, man. It's so good to see you. Every time I see you, you just put a huge you smile on my face. That's just... You have that. That is your superpower. You make people happy around you, Dwayne. Everything we've ever done with you, I've enjoyed. When you were like, "Let's go do this." And I sort of dug a little deeper in the subject matter, of which I knew. I was like, "Let's do this for sure."

Koji:

I just want to say Randy, that your podcast, the Dumb People Town is one of my favorite podcasts of all time.

Randy Sklar:

Thank you.

Koji:

And I think it's super, super hilarious.

Randy Sklar:

I take a deep side because I love it so much. And some people are like, "Well, do you ever run out of stories?" And I'm like, "Dude, read the newspaper." There is just stupid behavior and we try and decide, is the world getting dumber or are we just seeing more of it now? Or I think dumber is getting louder and prouder. Like, it's never... it used to be when people were dumb, they'd shut up about it. They'd be really quiet because they don't like knowing that or not having the information.

Randy Sklar:

But now people are proud to be, "I don't know,".

Dwayne:

Say it loud. I'm dumb. And I'm proud.

Randy Sklar:

That's right. Say it loud. I'm... And then they wouldn't make it rhyme.

Dwayne:

Right, right. They would whisper it because they're dumb.

Randy Sklar:

"Say it loud. I'm dumb. And I'm happy." Is what they would say because dumb people are happy, man.

Randy Sklar:

They're just happy. Smart people are like, worried about shit. That's the thing.

Koji:

And not that our audiences are dumb, but when you say dumb, people are happy. Ignorance is bliss and ignorance doesn't necessarily mean dumb. It just means, I'm just doing my thing. I block out the rest of the world and not everyone wants you to take that away from it.

Randy Sklar:

By the way. I there's a little bit of envy I have in that. I'm like, I wish I didn't worry about too much stuff. Do you see people just having a good time? Like I'm going to ride a jet ski this weekend. I'm not going to worry about voting rights or anything like that. And you're like, you're very dude, why does he get to do that? You know? And it's on, on some level. It's amazing. Yeah.

Koji:

Did you always want to be in comedy and how did you also get into sports?

Randy Sklar:

So, I mean he grew up in the Midwest, grew up in St. Louis, Missouri and huge sports fan. Went to the university of Michigan, even got even bigger because you just can't go to that school and not be a huge sports fan. So I played sports growing up and loved it. Got into comedy, Jay and I were like huge comedy nerds. Jay, my twin brother, like in the early eighties. We watched so much standup. we had like cable TV before a lot of people had it in our neighborhood and we were watching Rodney Dangerfield's Young Comedian Special with Seinfeld and Sam Kinison and Robert Townson. And I mean, it was like, we memorized their everybody's act and we would...

Koji:

Nice.

Randy Sklar:

People weren't watching that. So you go out and you start doing other people's bits and like little crowds of people and like crushing it because it's like other people's material.

Randy Sklar:

You're not supposed to do that. But like we realized, oh yeah. And we already had a lot of attention on us because we were twins. So we're like, what do we do with that attention? Well, one thing we could do is make of people laugh and we loved it. And so we got in on it very, very early and I mean, it just was something we absolutely loved and we kind of never even said, "well, should I go on stage? And then you go on stage or should we both go?"? We never even discussed it. We're like, we love comedy. Let's go on stage. And when we were like 14 years old, we got up on stage.

Koji:

Oh that's dope.

Randy Sklar:

We weren't great. But it, there was the beginnings of what would ultimately...would take another 25 years to really figure out.

Randy Sklar:

And then I would say, we're still learning. We're still learning how to do that stuff. But always have like a love of sports in a way that was like different than the way people think about sports. Applying the comedy lens to that. And when we got in the early two thousands, we got an opportunity to do a show on an ESPN classic called Cheap Seats, which was like mystery science theater. But for the old weird sporting events that they had because ESPN didn't always have the NBA, major league baseball, the NHL. They didn't always have those things. So, but they still to fill 24 hours. So they would have shows like. Super Dogs, Super Jocks, which would be like Olympic level athletes and their dogs going through the exact same obstacle course. You're like...

Jennifer:

Right.

Randy Sklar:

This is like a four year old's birthday party. Only less fun. Or like beard and mustache championships where a guy would have like his beard in the shape of a check mark. And we were like, and he also had a check mark and the single column on his tax return because no woman or man would never want to live with that. But the idea is we watch these games and watch these things and made jokes over it. And I think we were unafraid to make as high level comedy as we could. And we were unafraid to go as specific with sports references as we could. It was a blast to do. And that was like the ultimate coming together of all the things we love. It was comedy, but then it was also this passion of ours too.

Koji:

So when you grant your wish, you could meet your comedian of all time. Maybe you've met them already. But if the choice is to meet one of them, who do you meet?

Randy Sklar:

Wow, that is a great question. I mean, we've... First of all, we've met a ton of comedians that we just absolutely loved. I mean, growing up, we were the biggest Seinfeld fans ever, ever, ever, ever. And we're performing in New York. This is like five years after the show went off the air. So early two thousands. We're back shooting Cheap Seats in New York. It was so funny because we moved out to Los Angeles and then we got this show in New York. We move out to LA, get this show in New York. And so we go back for a month and we start shooting like one week out of every month, we're back there. And so we're in at Gotham Comedy Club and who shows up, but Seinfeld. And he wants... He's going to go in front of us.

Randy Sklar:

And we're like, that's of course it's fine. We're in the back stage. We're like, "Dude, we're the biggest fan ever,". I mean, this is again, we watched Seinfeld set on the young comedian special when we were 12, 13 years old. Watching it, learned the whole thing, memorized it. And we do it in front of our parents friends, like when they were playing bridge in the basemen. They'd be like, "what's going on with school?", And we'd be like, "what's the deal with the shower radio?". You know what I mean? Like in Seinfeld's voice, what's the dance on a slick surface next to a glass door. You're like doing all of his bits. So here he is right here. And after doing really one of the greatest TV shows of all time, because he stayed true to himself. Didn't care and it wound up being like a huge hit with everybody, which to me was like fascinating and interesting that like...

Randy Sklar:

And a huge lesson of like stay true to yourself. And doesn't matter if you're specific. If you are specific, that's a great thing. And your specificity is your superpower, is your strength. And the thing that will hopefully differentiate what you're doing and make it special. That's what he did. That's what he did. And that's who did this show. So he comes back and he goes up and he gets up on stage and the crowd does not know his coming. Just drops in. Okay? It's not an unannounced. Does not know he is there. I'll never forget this. It was like five and a half minute standing ovation stood up and like gave a standing ovation, which was amazing. It was just like, thank you for your show. Thank you for all of your creativity. Thank you for making our lives. We... Every single person in the room was like, we would couldn't wait until Thursday until your show came up. We couldn't wait to see the thing that you...

Randy Sklar:

[crosstalk 00:07:25]... And the new thing we'd talk about. The marbled rye. The Bobca. The...

Dwayne:

It's my favorite. It's my favorite show. My favorite show. Absolutely.

Koji:

The only person who I think would get a bigger round of applause in New York is the Bambino, Babe Ruth.

Jennifer:

All right guys, what do you think? Should we get into this?

Koji:

Yep.

Dwayne:

Word.

Randy Sklar:

Let's do it.

Jennifer:

All right. So one of the things we all watched to give us some background on this subject was the actual footage of the incident, which is on YouTube. And so we highly recommend you guys watch it. We're going to put a link in the show notes. All right, here are the facts.

Koji:

October 1st, 1932. That's when this took place. Wrigley Field Chicago, which Randy believes is one of the best stadiums, where I would disagree. I feel like it's the Los Angeles Dodgers, but I'm not going to argue.

Koji:

So this took place in game three of the 1932 world series. And the moment that we're talking about is obviously Babe Ruth calling a shot or did he call a shot? But the score is tied four-four. It's the fifth inning and Chicago patriarch, Charlie Root was on the mound. Babe Ruth. AKA The Great Bambino, the Salton SWAT, the Titan of Terror. There's a lot more, but I'm not going to get into it.

Jennifer:

No. What are the other nicknames?

Dwayne:

He was the home run king. He was the Great Bambino. Was he the Bronx Bomber?

Koji:

He was the Bronx bomber. Yeah.

Jennifer:

Oh.

Dwayne:

There go the Bronx bomber. I mean, he was just, he was a larger life dude. Like at a time when like people didn't work out at all, he was just a big guide. I mean, it's amazing. You watch his swing. His swing is literally all about the torque he gets from... He just, he twists his body and then uncoils it. And as a big dude, he just swung that bat and he had great bat speed. Just incredible bat speed, which is why he just hit it up.

Randy Sklar:

He looks like he could have even been like a tremendous golfer, at least off the tee. Just how he... His flexibility when he swung. It looks like he goes around twice almost. You know what I mean?

Koji:

Yeah.

Randy Sklar:

That's how that's how much force he generated. And they.

Koji:

Followed through all the way.

Randy Sklar:

And you know, the crazy thing is, in researching this, it's great that like technology has robbed us of these kind of fables. Right? Because now we would know there would be 16 cameras and we would know exactly what happened.

Koji:

Yeah. We'd know the launch angle. We'd be able to do a 360 shot of his, like what he's actually pointing at.

Dwayne:

Right.

Koji:

That to me is this whole thing, and we'll get into it, comes down to what he's pointing at. And I have my theories and what not. But like, it's fascinating. I mean, apparently it was just a crazy series where the Cubs fans and it's Chicago. Chicago, the second city. New York number one.

Dwayne:

Right, right.

Koji:

Chicago didn't like that. And they hated the Yankee. Everyone hated the Yankee.

Randy Sklar:

Can I just say right here, I want to throw in. I like Chicago too.

Koji:

Me too.

Randy Sklar:

I feel like Chicago, New York is a very similar vibe, even though they're far away from each other. So they're not like real rivals in the sense that San Fran and LA are, but like San Fran people are fixated about LA and LA people don't really think about San Fran that much. You know what I mean?

Koji:

That's right. That's right.

Randy Sklar:

And I think like New York people, we all like Chicago. It's like, "oh, Chicago's great,".

Koji:

Yeah.

Randy Sklar:

But I do want to say if I'm going to rib at them a little bit, Al Capone is from New York. So your biggest gangster ever...

Koji:

Is a New Yorker.

Randy Sklar:

Is a new Yorker.

Koji:

That's a good point. I mean, that is true. You couldn't even get that. It's like a New York transplant.

Koji:

I will say, I do love Chicago's pizza. They just, and you could tell again. The drought, the Yankees won so many times in the twenties. They were dominated in the thirties, along with the Cardinals. And so for them, it was just like, yep. Another trip who else was in that? Lou Gehrig was on that team. Lou Gehrig. This is before he had Lou Gehrig's Disease. He was so good. He had a disease named after him. You know what I mean? It's like Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth. I mean, you're just literally talking about these iconic all time great, literally some of the best players of all time on the same team.

Randy Sklar:

Takes the first pitch for a strike. Then the Chicago bench and the fans shout insults that Ruth?

Koji:

I don't know if you guys... We've been without a lot of fans in sports. The NBA, the whole season took place in the bubble in the last year. And like during this pandemic. So now I don't know if you've been watching the NBA playoffs, but like people and it's just the world we live in right now. But people are... fans are out of control. Like there was a fan that ran on the court the other day and just tried to touch the backboard. I'm like, "what are you doing?".

Randy Sklar:

The guy who spit on Trey Young at the Knick's game. The guy who dumped his popcorn on Russell Westbrook and the guy went and Russell Westbrook, understandably got mad, it's just popcorn. Who cares? It's not even like a drink that's going to make you wet.

Koji:

It depends on a butter. But go ahead.

Randy Sklar:

That's a good point. That's a great point. I mean, and I love a good butter popcorn. I love it.

Koji:

Right now. We must say here, you can see like the gesture wasn't captured because there's one camera like there wasn't 20 cameras like now.

Jennifer:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Randy Sklar:

Yeah.

Koji:

But that first pitch was clearly a ball. It was...

Randy Sklar:

Yeah. Oh my gosh. [crosstalk 00:11:58].

Koji:

It was ridiculously high. And so outside, I think Chicago, the bench and the fans, they yelled some insults. Maybe they figured like the ref is...like it's not your day or that gave them some kind of juice so... He makes a gesture then because he is really upset with the umpire. And you, you can tell when a baseball player is mad. The guy at bat. When he is mad with the umpire, he turns away from him. That's the trick.

Randy Sklar:

Yeah.

Koji:

You turn away and you say something that...

Randy Sklar:

That's right.

Koji:

You know, he can hear, but technically you're not saying it to him, right? He was definitely not happy with that first call. I mean, the catcher wasn't even trying to frame the pitch. I'm like, where is that pitch? That's an unbelievable call.

Dwayne:

Yeah. A catcher went like this to catch it.

Randy Sklar:

That ball was higher than Woody Harrelson at Burning Man.

Koji:

That is high ball.

Jennifer:

Right.

Dwayne:

That was a good one. That was a good one.

Randy Sklar:

Thank you. Thank you.

Koji:

And so he made a gesture at that pitch and it's unclear if it was toward the pitcher or toward the bench or center field.

Randy Sklar:

Yeah. He kind of motioned with his hand. Yeah.

Jennifer:

Wait. What happened on the second pitch again? I mean, I know was a strike, but remind me in the video on the second pitch. Did he swing?

Randy Sklar:

No, he did not swing.

Koji:

No. He took it first strike.

Randy Sklar:

He took two strikes. He took it for a strike and I think there was some debate as to whether or not Charlie Root quick pitched him. Meaning he threw it before Babe Ruth was ready. So Babe Ruth is like mad about that first pitch. He gesturing like, are you kidding me? What are you talking about? Like that? And he's... Usually it takes a guy a second to kind of collect himself before he gets back up. And then before he can sort of get ready, he throws another strike right there. And I think that really upset Ruth.

Jennifer:

Well, that's why he kept making all those gestures. I mean, you guys know better than me. I was like, what do all those things mean? But I could see that he was doing stuff with his hands and fingers and stuff. So on the third pitch, Root through a curve ball. Right? And then that's when Babe Ruth hits it 440 feet. They said dead center. So Ruth is going around. He's going around the diamond waving, supposedly doing his... The nose? Is this the move?

Randy Sklar:

Thumbing his nose. And then he did this thing where twice as he's running to third base, he like pushed like with his hands forward, just like pushed out forward. Which was like, get off me. I mean, it was a straight baller move. I mean what he did, right? First of all, hitting a curve ball that far is harder to do. Like a curve ball usually pull to the... Since he left handed hitter, he would've pulled it to right field because it's coming slower and you're a faster swing. And then you get out in front of it and you can usually hit it. But to just... That just shows you how great Babe Ruth was. He waited on it, kept his hands back and then drove it to dead center field 440 feet. Now you got to remember, this is the time when guys didn't hit the ball 440 feet. That just wasn't happening.

Dwayne:

In fact... and the baseball field, the stadiums were bigger then. People don't realize that in my research, he hit a lot of triples that probably today would it be home runs?

Koji:

I would also though mention that there's no African American players though, too. So that lessens the number of home runs anyway.

Dwayne:

It all works. He allegedly played with a lot of, he would play with black players like unofficially, right?

Jennifer:

The Yankees of course go on to win this game seven to five. And so that sweeps the Cubs at four games here in this series, that's kind of how that game ended.

Koji:

And the story Ruth calling his first shot appeared in the Scripts Howard Newspaper, which I'd never heard of before this moment. And I had the headline 'Ruth calls a shot at, as he puts home run number two in side pocket', and many believed the story because Ruth had promised a sick child, Johnny Sylvester, that he would hit a home run for him and then fulfilled that promise soon after. I also thought that was a myth. I didn't realize I actually did happen. I didn't realize that there was actually...

Dwayne:

And speaking of Seinfeld, they had an episode where Kramer promised a kid that a Yankee would hit a home run and it was inside the [inaudible 00:15:37] and the kid didn't want it to count.

Koji:

That's right. That's so funny.

Dwayne:

Hilarious. Hall of fame baseman, Lou Garrick, allegedly said after the game, "what do you think of the nerve of that big monkey calling the shot and getting away with it?". Chicago goes, Charlie Root said, "If he had made that gesture, I would've knocked him down with the next pitch,". Which is a big thing in baseball. It's like, it's very much, you do something wrong. The next time you're at bat, you get the ball thrown at you.

Koji:

Funny story. My son plays a little league and travel ball. And in the... there was a bad play in little league that this guy hurt, potentially hurt one of my son's teammates. And I told my son, because he's a catcher. I told him he should have thrown. He should have had the pitch throw at the next batter.

Dwayne:

Yeah.

Koji:

My friends were like, you asked your nine year old kid to tell the pitcher to throw... I was like, yeah.

Dwayne:

Unwritten rules of baseball. Yeah. We were talking with Ryan Dempster who pitched for the Cubs. Ironically, he's a really funny guy and a smart guy. And he was talking about the way he would've dealt with guys stealing signs. Cause that was a big deal. The last couple years is that the Astros apparently in 2017 were stealing signs and they won the world's series that year against the Dodgers, against Koji's Dodgers. And it's like the Dodgers... By the way, to this day, fans hate the Astros for what they did. Hate them. They're bitter because they're like, it takes away from the game.

Jennifer:

Yeah.

Dwayne:

And what Ryan Dempster said is "man, if anybody was stealing signs, the next pitch is going right in their ribs. The next pitch that I throw would go right into their rib,". He's a pitcher too. So yeah, I believe what Charlie Root said. Like it is, his name is Root. It has the roots. The root is deep in baseball that like, when guys do something to show you up, like if a guy takes a... like flips the bat and does like... Looks at you around there. Next time you come up, you throw it his head.

Randy Sklar:

Because of the quarantine they put on Korean baseball.

Dwayne:

Those are the best, bad flips I've ever seen the best.

Randy Sklar:

And it's okay. It's encouraged to flip the bat. And why wouldn't you? You just did the hardest thing in all of sports, which to hit a moving baseball, hit out of the park and you have to like not celebrate? So...

Dwayne:

That was kind of an interesting thing. You know?

Randy Sklar:

Dwayne, do you know why it's so hard because it's the hardest thing is that it is a round ball and you're hitting it with a round bat. That is just the hardest thing because you have to. Again, I'm sorry to drop this name, but when I shot a little thing with like the TBS Playoff Crew, I was sitting and watching playoff baseball with Pedro Martinez, who is like a hall of fame pitcher, Gary Sheffield, who is your boy, I'm sure. He loved Gary Sheffield and Jimmy Rawlins. And Jimmy Rawlins said, "Mike Schmidt," who is a famous third baseman, who played for the Phillies. And he's a hall of famer. He was giving Jimmy Rawlins, who was a great hitter, like some hitting tips. And he said, "Okay, Jimmy. Do you have a laptop computer?" And Jimmy's like, "yeah,". He said, "Okay, open it up. See that screen right there. That's your strike zone. Don't go and hit anything. That's outside of that little square. Put that square down by you. And that is it.". If it's out of that area. If the ump calls it a strike, whatever who cares.

Randy Sklar:

But that's where you're looking to hit the ball. If it goes in that area, that's where you hit it. And it taught him how to become a disciplined hitter. So Pedro, who's listening then says, Okay, see that, see the computer that he's talking about, go one inch below that computer. Okay? So it looks like it's the computer. You're looking at it from here and it's hard to tell. I want to throw the ball one inch below that. So you think you're going to hit it. But when you swing the bat, you just get like the top half of it in ground out. He's like, that's all I wanted to do was to make you think it was right in that little area. That is your spot. And then just have it one little bit off, which is why it's so hard to hit a baseball. Which is why, if Babe Ruth really did make this call, then he was going to go hit this ball out of there and then did it on the very next pitch.

Randy Sklar:

He's either really lucky or he really was the best there ever was to be able to do that.

Dwayne:

Absolutely. And I think if I'm and Jennifer has to go a second, but if I'm reading between the lines and I don't want to be controversial, but I believe Randy, you just said baseball was harder than cricket. I'm I'm just saying, that's what I heard.

Randy Sklar:

Cricket? I don't understand at all. Cricket, you can hit it behind you. Cricket, they have tee in the middle of it. Cricket, you don't want to score too many runs because then the other team can't get up. And so you got to like cap off what you're doing. And it's just...

Dwayne:

It's like rugby. It's like baseball before they said let's make it make sense.

Koji:

Let's figure it out right now. Let's actually make some rules here. Yeah. No, but I's amazing sport, but yeah, it's cricket. It's a flat bat against a round ball. So this is even harder.

Jennifer:

So what happened was at first Ruth said that he was pointing at the Chicago bench, but then he changed the story a couple times is how the story goes, right? So this is in Babe Ruth's voice "while he was making up his mind to pitch to me, I stepped back again and pointed my finger at those bleachers, which only caused the mob to howl that much more at me. Root threw me a fast ball. If I had let it go, it would've been called a strike, but this was it. I swung from the ground with everything I had. And as I hit the ball, every muscle in my system, ever scent I had, told me that I had never hit a better one that as long as I lived, the nothing would ever feel as good as this," That's his quote. I didn't quite go into a Babe Ruth voice, but maybe we'll do that later.

Koji:

That's good. It's a powerful quote. He said it was a fastball. We were saying it was a curve ball. He said it was a fastball. I mean he swung with everything he had and then he put it out there.

Dwayne:

There are a bunch of eyewitnesses there that actually saw the game. And so here are some of the quotes. I'll do the first one. "Don't let anybody tell you differently. Babe definitely pointed,". And that was the Cubs Public Address Announcer, Pat Piper.

Randy Sklar:

"My dad took me to the world series and we were sitting behind the third base, not too far back. Ruth did point to the center field scoreboard and he did hit the ball out of the park after he pointed with his back. So it really happened. Just someone you can trust," stated former Associate Justice, John Paul Stevens.

Koji:

He's only a Supreme Court Justice.

Dwayne:

That's unbelievable.

Randy Sklar:

Jennifer?

Jennifer:

Washington Post columnist, Shirley Povich interviewed hall of fame, catcher, Bill Dickey. And he says, "Ruth was just mad about that quick pitch,", which Randy had mentioned had happened. So Dick was explaining that "Ruth was actually pointing at Root, not at the center field stands. And he called him a couple of names and said, don't do that to me anymore. You blankedy blank."

Koji:

What did he say, when he called him blankedy blank. That's a weird thing to call somebody.

Dwayne:

Sure. He couldn't even come up with that in the moment.

Koji:

Right. And then allegedly there was a conversation between Ruth and Root, which was on a Hollywood movie set in 1947. And I think maybe you and I, Dwayne could do a real quick Root and Ruth.

Koji:

So you never pointed out to center field before you hit that ball off me, did you?

Dwayne:

I know I didn't, but it made a hell of a story, didn't it?

Jennifer:

Now that we have the facts, we're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, we'll tell you what we think may have actually, really happened.

Koji:

As we did in the last episode, we'll shout out a few more podcasts that we love and we hope you'll check them out as well. The first one is Four Guys and an Adrian. The show features four teenagers from London who talk about life and share funny stories. But aren't afraid of talking about serious issues, such as rape culture, the environment, and more. Check out their podcast, wherever you normally get your podcasts from.

Koji:

Allow it, Brav. You know, I'm mean isn't it?

Jennifer:

All right. Now that we've discussed the facts, lets workshop our ideas.

Koji:

I'm going to go way out to the left field. Sorry for the baseball reference. It wasn't about the game. It wasn't about the pitcher. Wasn't about the fans. He saw a UFO in the center field.

Dwayne:

Wow.

Koji:

And he said there is a UFO out there. But see, Charlie didn't care. Cause the pitcher was looking at... And he thought, oh my God, this guy's pointing at me. I'm going to quick pitch because he has a finger off, his hand off his bat.

Jennifer:

Oh.

Koji:

And then Ruth being the superhero..., I mean, he's basically like a superhero. He tried to hit the UFO with his ball and knock it down.

Dwayne:

Ah, very nice.

Randy Sklar:

Yeah. I can see that. And it would make sense that the umpire got that first pitch wrong because he was looking at the UFO.

Koji:

Exactly. And the reason why none of the fans saw it, was there... You know how, when people get abducted, there's kind of missing time.

Dwayne:

Right? They had their memories erased. Okay. I like this.

Randy Sklar:

I mean, we might as well not talk to you guys, because I think we've already figured out the theory here.

Koji:

Before a couple weeks ago, I would not have believed that. But now that we know what we know about UFOs, I mean, can you deny it? I don't know if you can.

Randy Sklar:

Exactly. Dwayne, why don't you tell us your theory?

Dwayne:

It's something that shouldn't be debated because the important thing is, he hit a home run, right? In the World Series. And he pointed at something. But since we're doing this, here's what I think happened. He's an outfielder, right? And being in the outfield, it's not a lot of action, especially the pictures on his game. So he's Babe Ruth. He was not only a Sultan. He was sultry. And I think he a little... He had worked out some stuff with some women out there. Little flirtation going on. And so when he got those first two pitches called strikes, he's like, "you know what? This umpire, he's not messing with me. This guy's... He's a D-bag. You know what? We're going to beat them, anyway." At that point, the game was tied. The Yankees were up two game. So he figured, they're trying to get more games out of this. Kind of resolve himself to like game is done.

Dwayne:

And so people from the bench were hollering at him. The Cubs. He pointed at them and he said, "I'm taking two of your chicks home with me tonight,".

Randy Sklar:

Two are good. I like that.

Dwayne:

He had worked it out. And then he pointed at the two girls like, "listen, this is... What I'm almost done here,". So he didn't want to take that third pitch because then you hear it from your team. So he just, whatever he pitches, I'm going to swing. Could have been in a dirt and he would've struck out. Right? Cause he was like, okay, let's get this over with. I got these two waiting for me,".

Randy Sklar:

That's right.

Dwayne:

And it just so happened. He... Boom. Hit it out the home run. And so when he was like doing this, you know what I mean? He was like, oh man, I can't wait. I'm going to... These two girls. I'm grabbing them. I'm...

Randy Sklar:

Yeah, this is it.

Dwayne:

Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. Get away. Get away from me because those two are mine.

Koji:

Jennifer, what is your theory?

Jennifer:

Okay, mine's just more of a somber, I guess, serious theory. So FDR was at the game, right? And he was going to be elected president the very next month after this. So I think what happened was that Babe Ruth and FDR were buddies and FDR was like, "I need something to give the American people hope," because he was trying to come into his presidency with a little bit less of a load than say Biden had to deal with, okay? In November. And so he asked favors to do that for him. So he did call the shot.

Dwayne:

But, but it was to lift the spirits of a nation.

Jennifer:

Yes. For our favorite pastime, right?

Koji:

All right, Randy, what do you think?

Randy Sklar:

So my theory has more to do with the kid in the hospital bed than anything else. So I think Babe Ruth, there are like 714 kids who tell the story that he hit a home run for them. Oka?

Jennifer:

Aww.

Randy Sklar:

There are, I would say another 750 or so kids that he visited at the hospital who went on to die because they're like... They had polio or whatever. They're like he was supposed to hit a home run for me and it didn't happen. So what he did was he told a lot of kids, he was going to hit a home run for them. A lot. All the time. He's like telling all these kids all the time, "I'm going to hit a home run for you," and he was pointing and I don't even know if he was pointing out there. He was going to call his shot. Because it's more about, I think he was pointing at the dugout. But it was now because there wasn't a good angle. He could claim. Yes. I was pointing out there.

Koji:

Even afterwards, I believe in the story that he was on the movie set. And he was like, "Yeah, I didn't, are you joking? That was total bullshit,". But I really do believe that he... there are just hospitals in New York and wherever littered with kids who he promised he'd hit a home run to. And then just didn't because he drank too much or ate too much steak the night before.

Dwayne:

Right, right.

Randy Sklar:

He couldn't pull it off. But like, so when he did it and he actually hit the home run, he's like, yeah. I told there's a kid in the hospital. He was so excited.

Randy Sklar:

He was like, this hardly ever happens. like I've told so many kids that I would hit home runs for them. This is a kid. This is who it is. I told him I hit a home run and he's probably better. And then you're like, well, have you gone back to see him? And Babe's like, no, I just told him I hit the home run. And then the only I don't have to go back and see them right. I don't have to go back and see these kids. Right?

Randy Sklar:

So he's cashing in big time on them because there were so many other times where it just didn't work out. Like there... And the problem is that there's no Twitter back then. There's no TikTok of people just making like TikTok sounds of 'Babe Ruth promised me this'. And 'he promised me that,'. They didn't do it for me.

Randy Sklar:

Like none of that. So kids don't have the mouthpiece. He has the mouth piece. And he's like, so normally yes, of course, Charlie Root's going to be like, he didn't call a shot against me because it makes him look like a bad pitcher, that he can't handle this guy. And the catcher's like, not going to say that, but everybody else is like, yeah, he called a shot. And there was a kid sick kid in the hospital.

Randy Sklar:

And like, again, Babe Ruth is like, this is the story. And to piggyback on what Jennifer was saying, that the idea that you need, especially in the time of the depression, you need a hero. You need someone you can look to, especially in sports, which can take your mind off of everything, which is what we've been doing in the pandemic. I thought the fact that sports carried all the way through was a nice thing to take our minds off in. I mean, as an LA sports fan Koji, I'm sure that last year was a fantastic year for you. It was you guys and Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay had the Buccaneers who won. They had the Lightning who won the Stanley Cup and the Rays made it to the World Series. LA had the Lakers and the Dodger's.

Dwayne:

I'm waiting for you to connect the UFOs here.

Randy Sklar:

So again, what had happened was, he did hit the ball so high and so far. At that moment, there was a US Naval, or an Air Force plane flying over. And they just saw something screaming in the thing. They couldn't identify it. Came on the radar and whatever. They themselves thought that that was in fact UFO. They thought the ball itself was UFO. They couldn't identify because it was going so high, so fast, so far. And what it did was it opened up and it started the whole idea of, "Hey, maybe we should be exploring UFOs,". And that is literally the beginning of how Area 51 and Roswell, all that stuff got started just from a Babe Ruth home run. So really again, it's like chance. It's like he did something good for this kid who was sick, but it was totally by chance. And he did something good for the study of UFOs. But again, totally by the chance.

Koji:

We're at the point of the show where we have to decide and come up with the official story. And this is not something we should take lightly. I mean, this is going to be the official record from this point on. So which of the stories do we want to...do we want to pick? I'm pushing the UFO story still, but...

Dwayne:

I like a hybrid of Jennifer's and Randy's.

Koji:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Dwayne:

Like, because he could have also promised a Roosevelt a home run. He could have just been promising people home runs all over the place. [crosstalk 00:30:03] right?

Koji:

He's like Oprah with home runs. You get a home run. You get a home run. You get a home run. Everybody look under your seats of Wrigley Field. Everybody gets a home run.

Dwayne:

And so maybe he kind of quasi called this shot because it's the president after all, you know what I mean?

Koji:

I mean, sure.

Dwayne:

And so he kind of like didn't point to center field, but he made it just ambiguous enough.

Jennifer:

Yeah.

Dwayne:

To say he did later. And then he told, like you said, Roosevelt, that was for you, Johnny Sylvester. That was for you.

Koji:

It's like the Key & Peele sketch when he is like, you did that. You called your wife, you called her a bitch.

Jennifer:

Right, right.

Koji:

He's not saying... You said that to her face. I said...Shit. Said that to her face. And so like, that's it, you called your shot. You called... You pointed out there directly to center field.

Randy Sklar:

In my younger years, when I first started doing comedy, I thought I was like, if I get super famous and I'll just only date girls named Lisa, right? Cause there's a... Everywhere you go, you're going to find a hot Lisa, right? And so then, you can be on like the Tonight Show, be like, I want to say what's up to my boo Lisa. And it could be a lot.

Randy Sklar:

[crosstalk 00:31:16]

Randy Sklar:

And they're like, he's talking to me.

Jennifer:

Oh, you sweat.

Randy Sklar:

I mean, it's like only flying Southwest. It's like, you want the miles build it up after a while. And there are perks. I gotcha.

Koji:

Right, right, right.

Dwayne:

And I can go with the whole idea that it's, that they were pointing for kids and for Roosevelt. So...

Koji:

Yeah.

Dwayne:

Does that sound like a good theory for you?

Koji:

Sounds good to me.

Randy Sklar:

He kind of quasi called the shot for Roosevelt and the kids.

Koji:

But he did it a lot before and it didn't work out. So this is just the one we're talking about.

Jennifer:

And that is the official story.

Jennifer:

Another podcast we're listening to is Two For One Special, a podcast where two brothers go outside the box when it comes down to talking about video games and anime. Not only will they have you thinking, but you can also enjoy some funny moments and some slow ones. Be sure to check them out for weekly episodes anywhere you normally get your podcast from.

Jennifer:

We're going to do something different this episode. This month, we're going to run through a bunch of sports related conspiracies and give our hot takes on them. Are you guys ready?

Koji:

So the first one is Michael Jordan's first retirement was allegedly a secret suspension from gambling. And this is also tied to the story that his father was killed because of the gambling debts. So Randy, since you're our guest, why don't you tell us your hot take on that.

Randy Sklar:

Oh, absolutely. He was... He gambled so much and the league could not stop him from gambling. Like he would gamble on anything. Like he gambled as to whether or not they were going to suspend him or not. He was like, I guys are going to suspend. So he had to leave and go play baseball. I mean, he made it all about his father and how he was going to go do the sport. But like, it's literally like Tim Tebo playing on the Jaguars today. You say to yourself, I mean, whose dream were we fulfilling here? And so I definitely think he absolutely owed a ton of money. And that's why he played as late as he did. He would've retired much earlier. Like he wouldn't have had any of those on the wizards, if he didn't need that extra money.

Koji:

Dwayne, This is for you.

Koji:

The NBA rigged the 1985 draft for the New York Knick to get Patrick Ewing and allegedly David Stern, who was the commissioner of the MBA at the time. Had a frozen envelope and he picked it. What do you think? What's your hot take?

Dwayne:

I didn't know that the envelope was frozen, but that's a great way to rig it because... You know what I mean? No one else can see that it's a cold envelope. I'd say this is true. What I don't understand is why people think that things are fair. History tells us things are not fair.

Randy Sklar:

If you don't believe that David stern could do that, think about the Chris Paul trade when he was supposed to come from New Orleans to the Lakers, Koji and David stern, put the kibosh on it. And instead he goes, the Clippers then turns that franchise around.

Koji:

Right, Jennifer. So, so this one's for you. Cal Ripkin Jr. was a short stop for the Baltimore Orioles. And he's known for playing in a bunch of consecutive games, but allegedly he was going to miss a game because Kevin Costner hooked up with his wife and he was distraught or he got a fist fight with Costner, not sure. And the day he couldn't play, there was an electrical problem at the stadium, keeping his streak alive. Do you buy that? What's your hot take?

Jennifer:

First of all, I never heard of this story before today. So it was super fun to know about this. And hot take is: yeah. Heck yeah. Kevin Costner is hot. He was hot. He's still hot. Cause he was in a baseball movie. Wasn't he? Yeah. Field of Dreams.

Dwayne:

He danced with her wolves. But anyway...

Koji:

For me, I'm going to talk about Delante or West when he allegedly hooked up with LeBron James's mother, when they were playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers and think before LeBron James came to the Lakers, I would say, hell yes. But my hot take is that he did not, for the sake of LeBron James and his sanity and don't want Delante West to have hooked up with his mom.

Randy Sklar:

Delante West has a lot of problems and issues and mental stuff, which is like, by the way, like the biggest story of sports this week is that Naomi Osaka left the French Open because.

Koji:

Right.

Randy Sklar:

She didn't want to talk to the media afterwards because she said it really affects her mental state. And it is... I don't think we put enough sort of importance on the mental issues and the mental things of what these people go through. And it's like, we don't really hear about it. And you're like, well, no one had a problem in the seventies. Yeah. People just would go off and kill themselves. So like they did have problems about it. They're talking about it now. And it is a big deal and we should focus on it. And I'm all for Naomi.

Dwayne:

The microscope wasn't as magnified in the seventies.

Jennifer:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Dwayne:

You know, like you didn't know what people did.

Koji:

Jordan would've not. When you think about the stuff that Jordan was into, speaking of the conspiracy theory of that, Jordan would not have been able to... he would've have to have been so much more covert about everything he did. I don't know if he could have survived today's microscope the way a player like LeBron. So when you start thinking about Jordan versus LeBron, you got to talk and take into consideration all the stuff he's under in terms of pressure and microscope now versus what Jordan had.

Dwayne:

A great point. The other thing about Delante West though, I'm okay with saying he did not hook up with LeBron's mom, but instead of looking at that, like that's such a bad thing. Doesn't LeBron's mom deserve to be happy?

Koji:

She does. You know the story about how she punched out a valet. She punched a valet in the face because he didn't bring her car fast enough. And he said, she said, you know who I am. And I think he said no. And she said, I'm Delante Wests boo. And that's what happened. And then boom, right close.

Jennifer:

Tell us your favorite sports related conspiracy and what you think really maybe happened.

Dwayne:

You know, another podcast you should listen to is Chills. Listen to this trailer and be sure to subscribe any way you listen to podcasts.

Nina :

Hello everyone. I'm Nina Cardona.

Preston:

And I'm Preston PS. We're the host of Chills, a weekly podcast where we discuss the paranormal true crime conspiracies and our own personal paranormal stories.

Nina :

We also encourage our listeners to write in their personal paranormal or true crime stories. You can find us on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. We are also on Instagram at ChillsPodcastNP. N-P as in Nina and Preston. We hope you join us every Monday for a new episode.

Dwayne:

Thank you. Thank you so much, Randy. Thank you for coming on the show. So what are your shows and how can people follow you?

Randy Sklar:

I'm on Twitter and Instagram and TikTok with my brother at sklarbrothers. S-K-L-A-R-B-R-O-T-H-E-R-S. Fully spelled out. We do a lot. Put a lot of great content on our Instagram and a lot on our TikTok. Shorter versions of it, but super fun, good stuff. We do a podcast, sports podcast every week called View From The Cheap Seats, which is great. We have athletes and comedians on who know about sports and we delve deep into what is the biggest thing of the day. It's the NBA playoffs right now? It's the NHL playoffs. What ever it's baseball. We'll talk to like big time experts and then other folks as well.

Randy Sklar:

And then we do Dumb People Town, which you were talking about as well, which is a huge podcast that we do about the dumb-ification of America. Be it subtle, be it overt. And we just talk about how is the world getting dumber and why is it getting dumber? And we have good people on and do that. And Dwayne's going to do that coming up too. So that is it. You can listen to those wherever you get podcasts. Our website, supersklars.com. We're going to start going out in the fall, doing dates again, live. But just follow us on all that stuff. So that's it. Thank you so much for letting me be a part of this. It was so much fun.

Dwayne:

Thank you.

Jennifer:

We're so lucky to have you. So honored.

Koji:

Thank you, Randy. Really appreciate it. All right.

Randy Sklar:

Thanks guys.

Dwayne:

Yeah, you are awesome, man. And I'll see you soon.

Jennifer:

Thank you all so much for listening. There are hundreds of thousands of podcasts out there and we're honored that you've chosen ours to listen to.

Koji:

Please check out our website, unofficialofficialstory.com for our show notes, or to hear our past episodes.

Dwayne:

Be sure to come back next month, where we'll be answering the question were Betty and Bonnie hill really abducted by aliens?

Koji:

Nope.

Jennifer:

Hmm.

Dwayne:

I got to do more research.

Koji:

Bye everybody.

Jennifer:

Bye.