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Book about Cubs’ Root notes ties to Middletown

The pitcher known for 1929 World Series team was discovered during a game at Armco.

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By John Bombatch, Staff Writer 11:32 PM Saturday, April 4, 2009

It’s spring 1929 at the Chicago Cubs’ training camp on California’s Catalina Island, and Middletown-born pitcher Charlie Root is doing all he can to mask the pain he’s feeling in his throwing arm. One night his daughter saw her dad crying from the pain. It was the first time she’d ever seen him break down like that.

In the book “Root for the Cubs: Charlie Root & the 1929 Chicago Cubs,” author Roger Snell tells about Root and how his family helped him regain his big league pitching form as the Cubs battled their way to the 1929 World Series.

“I really hope people catch on and realize that this is more than a baseball book,” Snell said. “It’s a love story between a ballplayer and his family.”

Root is still atop the Cubs record book with 201 wins, 67 years after he threw his last pitch.

But the story of how Babe Ruth called his infamous called shot home run in the 1932 World Series against Root also lives on.

On Root’s deathbed, the pain of being known more for a lie than for his career went with him.

“Isn’t it funny?” he told his daughter mere moments before slipping into a coma and eventually dying from leukemia in 1970. “I gave my whole life to baseball, and I’ll be remembered for something that never happened.”

Della Root Arnold, now 90 years old and living in Loma Linda, Calif., has fought for her dad ever since her family first heard about the called shot story.

“After the World Series that year, Dad took the whole family to vacation in the South Pacific,” Della Root, the daughter of Charlie Root, said. “We left on Oct. 27th of that year and returned in January. But the story that Babe Ruth had called that home run didn’t hit the papers until three or four days after the game.

“Not one reporter who was at the game had said anything about Ruth calling out that he was going to hit a home run. But there was a drawing in Esquire magazine that several people mistook to be a photograph that showed Ruth pointing out to center field before he hit the home run.”

Snell’s account of Root, his family and the ’29 Cubs also has several references to Middletown. Root Arnold tells about her days visiting her grandparents in Middletown, and how Charlie Root was discovered by the barnstorming St. Louis Browns during a game at Armco. It also tells how Root’s father was against him leaving the steel mill to turn pro. There’s even an entire section from when Root returned after the 1932 series and the city of Middletown proclaimed Charlie Root Day.

“Dad had a good time that day in Middletown,” Root Arnold said. “I remember he met with 250 or so of his fans and friends right there on the steps of The Middletown Journal. It was a moment none of us will ever forget.”

Snell and Root’s cousin Judge Robert Gorman of Cincinnati and David Martin spent a hot summer’s day in 2002 in Middletown to research the book. They found what’s believed to be Root’s childhood home and birthplace on Flemming Road, found the site of Joe Day’s grocery store, where Root first worked as a kid, found the location of the sandlot field where Root first pitched and even found the cemetery where Root’s parents are now buried.

“After researching this book and meeting Della, as far as I’m concerned, it was a real treat to meet her. This book is her chance to finally tell her story,” Snell said.

“And I noticed there wasn’t a marker telling the world that Charlie Root was from Middletown. The city should be very proud of him,” he said.

The book will be released Monday, April 6 — Opening Day— and can be ordered at most bookstores or through Amazon.com and rootforthecubs.com.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2851

or jbombatch@coxohio.com.

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