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Eyewitness Claims Babe Never Called Famous Home Run
BY DOUG RIJTTER
The legend of baseball great Babe Ruth
isn't based entirely on fact. The story
behind his "called home run" in the
1932 World Scries, for instance, has been
embellished over the years.
That's thp. iirtrv according to Bill HofT.
who may well be Brunswick County's only
eyewitness to the homer 50 years ago at
Chicago's Wriglcy Field. He remembers it
differently.
Hoff was seated along the third base line,
some 90 feet from the Babe, when Ruth al
legedly pointed to an area in the outfield
bleachcrs and delivered the most famous of
his 714 career dingers.
Hoff, a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan, says
the whole story is a sham. The "Bambino"
never pointed to the scats, but rather to the
home plate umpire.
"I saw that game and they'll never con
vince me any different," Hoff said recently
at his Shallotle Point home.
The Babe was actually telling the umpire
how many strikes he had left With two
strikes against him, Hoff said Ruth held up
one finger toward the umpire to let him
know he had one swing to go.
Hoff remembers the game like it was yes
terday, which is pretty amazing considering
he's 93 years old.
Bom Jan. 25, 1899, in rural South
Dakota, Hoff remembers a iot of things most
folks his age have long since forgotten. He
has the memory of a college coed cramming
for a psychology final.
"I can remember things way back when
as far as that goes," Hoff says, rather unim
pressed with his sharp mind. "Occasionally
I'll forget a name or something. But I gel
along pretty good."
His son. Bob, says he has a photographic
memory. Until eye surgery a few years ago.
Bob said his father had read five or six
books a week for more than 40 years and re
mcmbcrcd everything about them.
The senior Hoff loves talking about base
ball. He went to a lot of games at Wriglcy
Field and old Comiskey Park when he lived
in Illinois, just 90 minutes outside Chicago.
He recalls one of his more humorous mo
ments at the ball yard ? the time he hap
pened to Pin into the first commissioner of
professional bascoall, Kencsaw Mountain
Landis.
Hoff and some buddies had choice scats
at a White Sox game, down front near the
commissioner and his diamcnd-clad lady
friend.
"When we got up to leave one of the guys
said something and 1 turned around and
bumped into Landis and knocked his hat
off," he said, breaking into a laugh.
STAff PHOTO BY OOOC IUTTE*
BILL HOFF picks crabs at his Shallotte Point home. The 93-year-old does his share of household chores to stay active.
Hoff, who describes himself as a country
boy, has lived with his son and daughter-in
law at Shallotte Point for about six yetfi.
"I like it," he says of the quiet, waterfront
community. "We don't have six-foot snow
banks here like we do in Illinois."
Hoff lived in the Hoosier State for more
than 40 years. As a younger man, he was a
farmer and plumber and worked in a ship
yard several years before retiring from
DuPont in 1964.
"1 still work for DuPont," Hoff says with
0 ffrin "I od a rhwl from ihem pvcrv
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month to remind me."
Boiii ami laiscu in Roscoc, S.D., Iloff re
ceived an eighth-grade education in a one
room schoolhouse. All eight grades met in
the same room, with a total enrollment of
about 15 students.
Hoff. whose parents came to the United
States from Germany, was a plumber during
the Great Depression. Like everything else,
he still has vivid memories of those lean
years.
"Unless you went through it you can't re
alize what it was," he said. "I knew people
worth a million who for a short time didn't
have enough money to buy a hamburger."
Hoff said the small mid western towns
suffered a lot, and he remembers making
pipes where some of the wealthy farmers
could stash their money. "I know one thing,
1 wouldn't want to go through it again."
HofFs memory isn't the only thing that has
held up over the years. He's a spry 93 with
two granddaughters, five great-grandchildren
and a face with hardly a wrinkle on it
He doesn't have any secrets to staying
young. "I help out with the chores when I
can," Hoff says. "I just do little things to
stay active."
He also fishes occasionally, and enjoys
competing in the annual Shallotte Point
VFD Flounder Tournament.
"I've never got skunked," he says proud
ly, "I've always caught at least one fish."
At 89, Ballard's Can-Do Man For Church
BY ERIC CARLSON
T ? Thomas Lafayette (T.L.) Ballard is a man with a
mission. On any day of the writ you can spot
JL this spry old gentleman stopped by roadsides
throughout Brunswick County picking up aluminum
cans and loading them onto a specially made trailer he
tows behind his car.
Or you might sec him tidying up around county ball
fields, tossing more finds into his jangling satchel.
When friends and relatives come to visit, they often
bring bags or boxes full of cans to add to his collection.
He doesn't do it out of any particular fondness for
cans or a haired of litter, although he is disturbed about,
how much people seem to throw away.
At nearly 90 years old, the man everyone knows/Sim
ply as "Mister Ballard" spends much of his time collect
ing discarded aluminum to help purchase a new van for
his church.
Ballard is a member of Jennies Branch Baptist
Church, where he also teaches Sunday school. He joined
shortly after moving to nearby Brick Landing in 1946.
He is a native of Chalybeate Springs, which he describes
as "just a piace in the roau now" near Fuquay-Varina.
He brought his family here on the advice of a doctor
who fell that living near the water would be good for his
son's asthma.
Roaming the highways comes natural to Ballard.
Before retiring, he spent 32 years as a traveling sales
man for Rmwn Rrvorrc arurt r>i*nn Hardware Co. He re
members loading his samples onto the same liule trailer
he uses today and visiting hardware stores throughout
eastern North Carolina.
Nowadays his travels rarely take him beyond
Whiteville, where he sells his cans to a recycling center.
He takes the time to smash each can flat with a sledge
hammer so he can collect an additional penny per
pound. And no one ever asks if he qualifies for the extra
penny added for senior citizen recyclers.
Ballard estimates that he's picked up about 7,000 cans
this year, enough to add S100 to the church van fund.
"He's really been an inspiration to all of us," said
Heimar. Absher, pastor of Jennies Branch Baptist
Church. "I wish we had several more who were as en
thusiastic as he is."
The church is about $4,000 short of its goal of
$16,000 for the van fund, Absher said. He hopes to be
able to purchase a late-model 15 -passenger van by the
end of this summer
The van will be used to transport the church choir,
Sunday school students, senior citizens and other church
groups to spccial events and activities.
STAFf PHOTO BY ElUC CARLSON
T.L. BALLARD, 89, of Brick landing prepares for another day of gathering aluminum cans to raise
money for his church.
GoodWa
You deserve it!
Call Coastal!
Coasiai Water Systems, Inc.
1-800-252-0223 Ask for Buck
(Nights Call 919-452-9312)
In Brunswick County C
Call 754-4399
?M
R
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Adrianna Edge Sidelinger
Certified Public Accountant
is pleased to announce
the opening of her
office at
Brunswick Square Village
521 1 South Main Street, Unit 507
Shallotte, NC
St
(919)754-5488
SPECIAL OF THE WEEK
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Apple & Cherry Pie
$029
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(Save $1.50)
July2-8
I Also coconut cream and chocolate
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ARE YOU A BUSY PERSON?
?Special orders taken by phone
?Call ahead for quick pick-up
Perfect for coffee breaks, lunches and
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10% discount for senior citizens
Main St.. Shallotte Plaza
Shallotte (across from Sizzling Sirloin)
sizrfin onne
Main St
MICKIES
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THe GXrujcrbrecul House
?Four Rooms Full of Interesting Crafts.
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?Summer Hours 9 to 9 Mon - Sat
1 to 7 Sundays
Holden Beach Road, 1/2 mile east of Bus. Hwy. 1 7
and the new Wal-Matt, Shallotte ? (919)754-8979
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DR. EDWARD F. ECKERT, JR.
and _
DR. BRIAN C. HARSHA fA?A
of *2^5/
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and Maxillofacial Surgery
Associates, P.A.
announce the summer hours of the
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