5-4, 1 Out, Bottom of the 9th

Baseball is a sport that is filled with the ebb and flow of potential. In each inning, the number of baserunners is balanced against the number of outs, and as the bases fill up, the potential for runs builds. If a strikeout is recorded, or a double play turned, the run potential is turned down a few notches. The informed fan starts thinking about each runner: How fast are they? Could they score from second on a single? From first on a double? We wonder which outfielder has the best arm to make a play at home plate. All of this up and down, possibilities being turned over and around with each pitch, yet nothing has really happened. Often a pitcher in a bases loaded situation calls upon skill and luck and a rally is washed away with no damage done on the scoreboard.

When I watch hockey or soccer, that's what I miss. I can't seem to get excited about the time spent pushing back and forth in the neutral territory between goals, scrambling to get control of the puck or the ball. Then, snap, with no change in strategy, one second later, there's a point on the board. Then the game resets to neutral. I just can't see where things came together for the scoring team, or fell apart for the one that was scored upon. In baseball, there's time for my heart to start pounding.

The real pressure situations in baseball, where the tension is ratcheted up with every pitch, occur in the bottom of the 9th in a close game, and then in the bottom of every tied inning in an extra inning game. Often, each batter comes up with the potential to lengthen the game (by tying it with a home run), or to win it (with runners scoring ahead of him). The best part of these situations is that they always occur at home, so there are no quiet rallies in the bottom of the 9th or later - the crowd is always on the edge of their seat. Victory will be assured right away, falling behind only means a tougher turn at the plate when they try to mount a comeback. When successful, there is a sense of elation, of turning a difficult, against the odds situation, into a victory. The home team is free to walk off the field and back into the clubhouse.

Baseball has a term for these things. They are 'walkoff wins'. Before I continue talking about the thrill of a walkoff, I will note the lone exception. With the bases loaded, and the score tied, there is always a possibility that the pitcher will be unable to find the strike zone. This level of pitching ineptness results in a walk that forces in the winning run. All the runners trot to the next base, and the game is over. There is no play to be made, and mobbing and backslapping the batter who took the walk seems... odd. This is the dreaded Walkoff Walk. A quick overview of the oddly aniclimactic play (and the internet's weird ritual surrounding it), is certainly worth a read. There was a walkoff walk in Tampa Bay earlier this month.

That's the exception, most every other  time it happens, the walkoff is a jubilant moment. There are, of course, degrees of jubilation. The walkoff single with nobody out and the bases loaded? That's just hastening the inevitable. Everybody is happy, but bases loaded and nobody out, there's an expectation of scoring a run, and when one run will win the ball game... well, lets just reflect on the disappointment that you might feel if your team came out of that situation without scoring. Yeah, I'd be a bit frustrated too.

From that point of view, I can assume that the better walkoff, in terms of excitement, is the come from behind sort. Down a run or two, runners on base. In those situations, the announcers love to remind us, the clueless fan, where the winning run is. 'The Rockies bring the winning run to the plate,' they say. or 'The winning run is on second for the Yankees.' I'm pretty good at counting bases and such, myself, but if it make them feel better, let them spell it out.

In the 1993 World series, the winning run was on first base when Joe Carter came to the plate. History remembers this walkoff with more intensity than any other. I can't blame history here. It is an immensely satisfying result. Why? In childhood dreams, we often find ourselves imaging the last at bat of the World Series with our selves at the plate. Carter got to live out the fantasy. Taking a 2 out, 2 strike pitch over the outfield wall. He did three things with one swing of the bat every kid dreams of doing. He brought his team from behind to ahead, he won the game, and he ended the World Series. Carter's walkoff had the biggest impact of any in baseball history.

To be exicting, a walkoff hit doesn't need to happen in the World Series. Often, the more unlikely the hero, the more jubilant the celebration. On May 26th, 2013, the Toronto Blue Jays started the bottom of the 9th down by 3 runs. The Orioles closer, Jim Johnson, was trying to protect a large lead and save the game, which would have been the third win in a row for his team.

Interestingly enough, the Blue Jays had loaded the bases in both the 7th and 8th innings, and had only scratched out one run. The 9th inning went like this: Double, Single, Single (Run Scored), Flyout, Walk, Fielder's choice( 1 runner out, run scores) . That's 2 outs, and 2 runs in. Runners still on first and third. The Jays are down to their last out.

The next man up is Munenori Kawasaki. I've written about Kawasaki before at this site, and may well write about him again. He is a character, and a wonderful person by all accounts, but he is merely a replacement for the injured Jose Reyes. The word 'antics' comes up following his name often, certainly much more often than the word 'heroics'. Jim Johnson surely knew he was facing a slap hitting, backup infielder. Mune's batting average was .217. Most Jays fans were probably hoping he could work a walk. Instead, on Jim Johnson's 37 pitch of the inning, he did this:


That is a walkoff which is only multiplied by the enthusiasm of the player who got the hit. From behind to victorious on one swing, it put a charge into the Rogers Centre crowd.

To add one last note to Kawa-walk-off-a-saki's story, you should probably go watch his unforgettable post game interview.

And you thought I was done.

Nope, because, even though you get a lot of credit for magic with 20 year old World Series moments, and come from behind doubles, that's not the topper of all walkoffs.
The ultimate walkoff is, in my humble opinion, the come-from-behind-inside-the-park-walkoff-home-run. That's a lot of hyphens, I know, but that's how it sounds in my head.

In the only ballpark that this makes any sense in whatsoever, AT&T Park in San Fransisco. Angel Pagan has a man on second, and his team is down by one.... it's the last of the 9th. And there's a deep, deep alley in right centre field.



Or, if you'd prefer the radio call, click here. Never underestimate the decision of Tim Flannery, the third base coach, who would have been second guessed for a week if Pagan had been thrown out.

Now that's baseball. And it is Magic. It is the wonder of childhood, it is the thrill of victory, it is the sense of awe at snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

If you have any doubts, take a look at the faces of these men in the pictures below, no these boys in the pictures below, and tell me they don't feel the magic.

Kawasaki pic from @james_in_to

Jumpin' Joe Carter

Exuberant Angel

Now pinch hitting for number 13....

After the end of the regular season, in all major sports, come the playoffs. In the playoffs, we are often given the impression that there is more pressure to perform. Certainly, the eyes of baseball fan everywhere focus more closely on the teams that graduated from the regular season into the exclusive playoff level. Every few days, another team is weeded out, forced to make plans for next year, and there are more baseball watching eyeballs focused on fewer and fewer teams.

Players must know this. They must see the crowds arriving earlier to their seats, filling in every last row in the stadium. More reporters hang around the clubhouse, more cameras and microphones shadow them in their daily routine. Friends and family who may have been indifferent to their occupation, suddenly want tickets. All those kids from AAA teams who were suited up in big league colours for the last month, eager and bright eyed? Those kids are gone, watching at home. Only the real big leaguers remain. They playoffs aren't any more complicated when the umpire shouts 'Play ball!' every night, but the feeling has to be different. There is something at stake every night. There is an awareness of all these little changes, turning up the pressure one more notch.

People remember what you do in October. That's the way of the baseball world. Dave Winfield waited 11 years to shake the label 'Mr. May'. Bill Buckner only exists in the casual fan's mind for one fateful October moment. Joe Carter hit 396 home runs in the regular season. You can only find one picture of him running the bases in your memory bank. Fisk waving one fair in game six, 1975. Bucky effing Dent. October remembers.

Maybe I know why he's having trouble.

This story has a great, and a goat. Both of them know what October can do to you. Alex Rodriguez has seen baseball in October 11 different years. He knows how it feels to be the great, in 2009 he hit 6 home runs in the post-season. He batted .365/.500/.808 for the month of October, and he got his World Series ring. He is 37 years old, and very well paid. This year, in October, he has not been great. He has been beyond bad. Joe Girardi has batted him third four times. His best efforts have resulted in a line of .125/.222/.125 so far. There is to be no twist in his fate. A-Rod is our goat.

Which means Raul Ibanez is our somewhat unlikely great. He's been to the post-season 5 times himself. In fact, he was in the opposite dugout in 2009 when A-Rod had his big coming out party in New York. He has no ring with the World Series logo on it. Yet.

Bottom of the 9th, 7-7, nobody out

That title, up there, it's almost always the game situation that provides us with a magic moment. I often have to look up the game summary or box score to figure out exactly what the title will be. Today, I did not. Brett Lawrie makes remembering the magic easy to do.

I often hold off on showing you the play, or the link to build a little tension, but I'm just going to give it to you right off the top, because that's what Brett Lawrie did. With nobody out, and the count full, Brett Lawrie swung the bat, and won the game.

MLB.com would like you to Click here so you can watch it happen in full motion video and sound.

Boom goes the dynamite, indeed. Everybody jump around! Did he just do that? Yes! Now we all go home!

For those of you not students of the game, I must tell you something important here. There are no clutch hitters. No major league baseball hitter has shown any real ability to get better at hitting when his team is behind, or he is the tying or winning run. Great hitters are great all the time. Bad hitters are bad all the time. With random variations thrown in. There are no clutch hitters, but there are clutch hits.

The walkoff homer in the bottom of the ninth, that's the kind of clutch hit that narratives are written about. Ask Joe Carter. Brett Lawrie already knows quite a lot about clutch hits. His 71st big league hit was a walkoff home run. You have to be in the right place at the right time to get a walkoff hit. It must be the 9th inning or later. Your team must be tied or behind. There must be enough runners on for your team to take the lead, given certain outcomes of your at bat.

Lastly, you must do the right thing.

Brett Lawrie did exactly the right thing on May 1st,2012. If you are Lawrie fan, you know he's tried this move out before. It was September 5th, 2011, and in the bottom of the 11th inning, in a 1-1 count, Lawrie hit a solo home run to walk off the Boston Red Sox. It looked, in part, like this.



MLB.com says this is old enough that I can show it to you right here. Isn't that convenient?

A quick trip to my calculator shows me that 2.8% of all the hits Lawrie has made in the major leagues have been walkoff home runs. That's crazy. And makes him seem magical. Right place, right time, right thing. 2.8% of the time.

If you don't agree with me, I'd like to direct your attention to another MLB player with exceptional talent. He has been around a little longer that Brett, and has had time to amass 2,406 hits against major league pitchers. He's got quite the reputation for being able to get hits whenever he needs them. He's led the league 7 times in the hits category. His name is Ichiro Suzuki. Now here's the funny part, this link is to an article about Ichiro's first walkoff hit (hit, not homer, mind you). In the text of the article, we are told that it's the 1953rd hit of Ichiro's career. So, there's one walkoff for him, 2 for Brett.

It turns out, Ichiro thought that getting a walkoff hit was really cool. The next night, he was in the right place at the right time, and for the second night in a row, he did the right thing. He homered off Mariano Rivera and won the game, bringing his career walkoff hit percentage to 0.001%. So, Brett and Ichiro Suzuki now are tied in game winning hits. However, Lawrie has a 2-1 lead in walkoff home runs.

I don't know what will happen tomorrow, but I know what happened to end the game on May 2, 2012, and it was magical to me.