Charlie Root Marquee

In the third game of the 1932 World Series, at Wrigley Field, Babe Ruth gestured toward something before hitting a home run off him, and the argument about whether he was pointing at center field has never stopped. Root said for the next thirty-eight years that if Ruth had done any such thing the next pitch would have gone in his ear.

He won 201 games for Chicago, more than any pitcher in the franchise's history, and 201 in all — his one season with the St. Louis Browns produced none. Seventeen seasons gave him 201 wins against 160, a 3.59 earned run average, 3,197 innings and 177 complete games. He went 26-15 in 1927 to lead the National League in wins.

He pitched for the Cubs in four World Series and they lost all four. He was still working out of their bullpen at forty-two. Six writers' ballots between 1945 and 1960 never gave him more than six votes.