Hank Greenberg 1938 World Series Game 5 Home Run

Lore & Background

Detroit in the late 1930s was a city of steel mills and river fog, and the Tigers were its blue-collar cathedral. By 1938 the club had not yet claimed a World Series title, and the weight of that absence pressed on every fan who filled the stands at the old Briggs Stadium. Hank Greenberg, a lanky lefty from the Bronx with a swing that seemed to generate its own weather, was the franchise's talisman. His presence in the lineup was a promise that Detroit would not simply participate in October; it would win.

The 'Called Shot' story has as many tellings as there are generations of Tigers fans, and the precise words Greenberg is said to have spoken to catcher Ernie Lombardi vary from account to account. What is undisputed is the home run itself: a towering drive over the outfield fence at Comiskey Park that silenced a hostile crowd and sent the Detroit contingent into a frenzy. In the mythology of the game, it sits beside Babe Ruth's 1932 called shot as one of baseball's two great 'point-and-hit' moments, a ritual of confidence that transcends the sport.

For the Tigers, that single swing in October 1938 is the anchor of their identity. It is the moment that proves the franchise was never a footnote, that Detroit belonged in the championship conversation, and that one player's certainty could bend the arc of an entire series.

In Their Own Story

The October air at Comiskey Park tasted of coal smoke and cold beer. Greenberg walked to the plate with the kind of quiet that makes a crowd lean forward in their seats, as if the noise were happening to someone else. He tapped the inside of his helmet, set his feet, and the whole ballpark held its breath. The pitcher wound up. Greenberg's bat came around like a pendulum finding its arc, and for one suspended instant the ball hung in the amber light above the outfield wall. Then the fence swallowed it. The Detroit section of the stands erupted into a sound like a river breaking its banks, and somewhere in the dugout a man who had just pointed at a gap in the field allowed himself, for the first time all day, to smile.

Reader's Guide

Late October, 1938. Comiskey Park, Chicago. The Detroit Tigers face the Chicago Cubs in Game 5 of the World Series, and the series is tight enough that one swing can tilt the whole thing.

Greenberg, the Tigers' left-handed first baseman, steps into the box. The most enduring version of the story has him pointing toward the gap in right field—telling his catcher, Ernie Lombardi, exactly where the ball is going to land. The Cubs' pitcher delivers. Greenberg's bat meets the ball with a sound that carries to the upper deck, and the drive rises, slow and impossibly high, tracking straight to the spot he indicated. Over the fence. A home run that cracks the game open.

The Detroit fans in the stands go from stunned silence to a roar that shakes the press box. The Cubs' clubhouse goes quiet. The Tigers take the game, and the series, and Greenberg's name is sealed in the franchise's forever.

The quote that made it immortal, as retold for decades: Greenberg pointed to the gap and said, in effect, 'I'm going to hit it there.' And he did.

Did You Know?

• The 'Called Shot' is routinely paired with Babe Ruth's 1932 World Series home run as baseball's two legendary point-and-hit moments, though the Ruth story is more debated among historians.
• The 1938 Tigers' pitching staff was anchored by Schoolboy Rowe, whose dominance in the regular season set the stage for the October run.
• Hank Greenberg was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1956, cementing his status as one of the game's all-time greats.
• The exact words Greenberg is reported to have spoken before the at-bat vary by teller and era, but the home run to the gap in right field is an undisputed, documented fact of the 1938 World Series.