Nine Hometown Heroes
Posted by Steve Lombardi on October 23, 2009
Via Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Post-Season Batting Event Finder - All the "final" Plate Appearances in "Sudden Death" post-season games where the score was tied and the batter won the game...
Car# G# Date Series G Batter Tm Opp Pitcher Score Result Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit RBI Play Desc. +-----+---+-------------+------+-+-----------------+---+----+-----------------+-----------+------+---+---+---+---+---+---+-------------------------+ 1 1 1912-10-16 WS 8 Larry Gardner BOS NYG Christy Mathewso tied 2-2 Out b10 123 1 - 1 *ENDED GAME*:Flyball: RF/Sacrifice Fly; Yerkes Scores/unER 2 1 1924-10-10 WS 7 Earl McNeely WSH NYG Jack Bentley tied 3-3 2B b12 12- 1 - 1 *ENDED GAME*:Double to LF (Ground Ball); Ruel Scores/unER; 3 1 1960-10-13 WS 7 Bill Mazeroski PIT NYY Ralph Terry tied 9-9 HR b 9 --- 0 - 1 *ENDED GAME*:Home Run (Deep LF) 4 1 1976-10-14 ALCS 5 Chris Chambliss NYY KCR Mark Littell tied 6-6 HR b 9 --- 0 - 1 *ENDED GAME*:Home Run (CF-RF) 5 1 1991-10-27 WS 7 Gene Larkin MIN ATL Alejandro Pena tied 0-0 1B b10 123 1 0-0 1 1 *ENDED GAME*:Single (Fly Ball to Deep LF-CF); Gladden Scores; 6 1 1997-10-26 WS 7 Edgar Renteria FLA CLE Charles Nagy tied 2-2 1B b11 123 2 0-1 2 1 *ENDED GAME*:Single to CF (Ground Ball thru SS-2B); Counsell Scores/unER; 7 1 2001-10-14 NLDS 5 Tony Womack ARI STL Steve Kline tied 1-1 1B b 9 -2- 2 2-2 7 1 *ENDED GAME*:Single to LF; Bautista Scores 8 1 2001-11-04 WS 7 Luis Gonzalez ARI NYY Mariano Rivera tied 2-2 1B b 9 123 1 0-1 2 1 *ENDED GAME*:Single to CF (Fly Ball to Deep SS-2B); Bell Scores; 9 1 2003-10-16 ALCS 7 Aaron Boone NYY BOS Tim Wakefield tied 5-5 HR b11 --- 0 0-0 1 1 *ENDED GAME*:Home Run (Fly Ball)
Just nine times...but, oh, what a feeling it must have been for these nine men!
Edit/Add-On, 10/25/09, 11:37 am ET: alkeiper has a good point. Here are some more heroes to end a post-season "Sudden Death" game where their team was losing and the batter won the game...
Car# G# Date Series G Batter Tm Opp Pitcher Score Result Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit RBI Play Desc. +-----+---+-------------+------+-+-----------------+---+----+-----------------+-----------+------+---+---+---+---+---+---+-------------------------+ 1 1 1992-10-14 NLCS 7 Francisco Cabrera ATL PIT Stan Belinda down 1-2 1B b 9 123 2 2-1 4 2 *ENDED GAME*:Single to LF (LD to Short LF); Justice & Bream Score 2 1 1995-10-08 ALDS 5 Edgar Martinez SEA NYY Jack McDowell down 4-5 2B b11 1-3 0 0-1 2 2 *ENDED GAME*:Double to LF (Line Drive); Cora Scores; Griffey Scores
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:22 pm
I recall seeing Luis Gonzalez on ESPN's the "Hot Seat" segment once. He was asked about his series clinching hit in the 2001 World Series. He was asked if it felt as good as it looked, to which he replied something along the lines of "Even better." When asked if he could possibly ever match anything like that again in his career, he thought about it and answered no. That struck me as probably being a bit humbling, to know that you had already hit your career high note and to know that you will never come close to that again.
October 24th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
oh boy do i remember that Chambliss home run...i was ten years old, had been a baseball fan for over a year, had been captured and enchanted by the '75 World Series, had followed the Reds through the 1976 season best I could - but that wasn't very much because I lived in Rochester, NY and we got only Mets games and Yankee games on cable tv. I had to wait for the Reds to play in Shea to see them, so I saw about 10 Reds games. And I loved each one. Outside of the handful of Reds-Mets games, I became a Dave Kingman fan. I felt bad for him that he finished 2nd in HRs behind Mike Schmidt in 1975, only to see it happen to him again in 1976. I was also fascinating how Kingman's HRs came in big bunches between long droughts. When he hit a home run after a long drought, I knew he'd hit a bunch, sometimes a few in the same game. Outside of Kingman the Mets bored be tremendously.
For some reason my family visited my grandmother in Westchester in April of 1976, and her wealthy new husband got us tickets to the first night game at the "new" Yankee stadium. The first five home games were played in the daytime. I think they were having trouble with their diamond vision board. It was the first baseball game I'd ever been to. At that point I was still nine years old. I was a Reds fan, and when my dad took me to the souvenir stand to buy a cap, I chose an A's cap because I liked the colors, much to my dad's chagrin. Anyway, Catfish Hunter pitched a great game against the Royals, but lost 3-2. Roy White hit a triple in the first, and the got pegged off third when Munson hit a grounder to the pitcher. In Lou Piniella's first at bat, the scoreboard said his batting average was .520 (it's true, he was 13 for 25 in his first 7 games of the season) and 35,000 people were howling "LOOOOUUUUU". He struck out, but no one cared - they kept LOOOUing at him. They all still loved him, and I was starting to love him too. I mean, he was a .500 hitter and everyone loved him even when he struck out. What's not to love? Chambliss hit a home run in the 4th; it was the first home run I'd ever seen in person. The cheers of the crowd were electrifying. When Piniella came up in the 6th, I joined in on the LOOOUing and he hit a home run, the place went crazy, and I was from that moment on forever a Yankee fan and a Lou Piniella fan. It also helped that the souvenir program was chock full of Yankee history (I still have it - it has my handwriting all over it, making notes, comments and stat updates). On the drive home my cousin helped me memorize all the Yankee and Royal starters. I already had the Reds and Red Sox memorized. This would be my third and fourth teams to know by heart.
So I followed the Yankees all season and got to watch them on TV often. I was very excited to see the Reds in the playoffs, because I could watch them again. And the Yankees were in the playoffs too, against the Royals of all teams. What could be better than a Reds/Yankess World Series?
Game Five of the Royals/Yankees series was a humdinger. The Royals took the lead in the first, and again in the 2nd inning. But by the 7th inning, the Yankees were up 6-3. I was dancing on the couch. And had my heart ripped out when George Brett hit a no-out three run homerun in the top of the 8th inning to tie it up. I remember going into the kitchen between some of the commercial breaks. I forget why. Maybe I wasn't allowed to eat in the livingroom. And I was in the kitchen for a few minutes after the Royals batted in the 9th. I can still hear my dad from the livingroom cheering and calling me back into the room. I had missed Chambliss' home run. I had to watch the replays instead. Chambliss was the guy who hit the first homerun I'd ever seen, and here he was winning the pennant. I didn't think the game could end so quickly. I've spent the rest of my life trying my best never to miss an at bat. Anything can happen when you're not watching.
October 24th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Why stop with a tie game? Edgar Martinez and Francisco Cabrera both logged series clinching hits in sudden death games, and did so with their teams trailing. Cabrera's single in the 1992 NLCS came down one with the bases loaded, two outs in the bottom of the ninth. The ultimate do or die situation.
October 25th, 2009 at 10:44 am
I've spent the rest of my life trying my best never to miss an at bat. Anything can happen when you're not watching.
Amen to that!
October 25th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
Great post Kingturtle. I wish I could remember so many details of my first game (and I'm younger than you).
I love watching the replays of the Chambliss homer, with the crowd swallowing up the field and Chambliss fighting people off just to reach home.
October 26th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
well, i gave you my take from a 10-year-old's perspective. But imagine what it meant to adult Yankee fans. From 1921 to 1964 the Yanks never went more than three consecutive years without a pennant - then they went 11 consecutive years. From 1926 to 1964 the Yanks didn't once place in the lower division of their standings or have a sub-.500 record, then from 1965 to 1975 the Yanks had 5 sub-.500 seasons and 8 times finished in the lower division. CBS bought the team in 1965. Mantle got old fast. There was no new franchise player. Joe Pepitone, Horace Clarke and Roy White weren't DiMaggio. Eventually Bobby Murcer came along, was touted as the next franchise Yankee, but didn't pan out. Roy White had been with the team since 1965, Munson since 1969. In 1972 they got Sparky Lyle. In 1973, Steinbrenner bought the majority share of the team; they got Nettles. 1974 they added Piniella, Tidrow and Chambliss. 1975 they added Catfish Hunter and Billy Martin. 1976 they added Randolph, Rivers, Gamble, Figueroa, and Dock Ellis. This was a wonderfully orchestrated rebuilding that took a number of years. And it didn't end. In 1977 they added Dent, Reggie Jacskon, Mike Torrez, Don Gullett and Guidry.
1976 was a very different America than 1964. Think about Vietnam, Watergate, R-rated movies.