Comments on: Mark Ellis Missed By ‘That Much’

By: vonhayes

vonhayes — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 20:21:46 +0000

According to the list, this:

NLCS Game 7; Carlos Beltran, NYM; STL, Adam Wainwright; down 1-3; *ENDED GAME*:Strikeout Looking

is the worst series ending at-bat of all-time. Bases loaded, three pitches, struck out looking. Hmph.

But as we've already sort of mentioned this week, Beltran is one of the all-time great post season performers. Funny how all of this works.

By: kingturtle

kingturtle — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 19:10:24 +0000

It was Tommy Byrne of the Yankees, in the bottom of the 9th inning of Game Seven of the 1957 World Series. The Braves were winning 5-0 and Lew Burdette was pitching a 4-hitter. Berra led off with a pop-out; McDougald singled; Kubek flew out; Coleman singled, Mc Dougald to 2nd. Then came pitcher Tommy Byrne.

The only left-hannded hitter left on the bench was Harry Simpson, who was 1 for 12 in the Series. Byrne was left-handed, and had had 3 HRs that season. He also had a lifetime average of .238. Stengel let him hit. Byrne SINGLED to load the bases.

Skowron then grounded to third. End of game. End of series.

By: kingturtle

kingturtle — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 19:04:04 +0000

Only once in the history of the post season did a pitcher bat in the bottom of the ninth inning of a deciding game.

Can you guess it? I'll answer it in the next post.

By: kingturtle

kingturtle — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 18:50:03 +0000

Ok, another interesting thing. There were 39 deciding games at Yankee Stadium (the most of any park, no surprise). The park to host the 2nd most deciding games is Network Associates (big surprise) with 35. Dodger Stadium only hosted 14. Busch Stadium isn't even among the top ten parks.

By: kingturtle

kingturtle — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 18:37:46 +0000

Very interesting. Johnny Bench is on the list twice. He twice hit bottom-of-the-ninth Home Runs (1972-10-11 and 1976-10-12), but they weren't game ending; they were each game-tying, and they each lead to game-winning (and NLCS-winning) rallies.

These dingers make the list because he was each time the last batter while his team was *behind*.

By: kingturtle

kingturtle — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 18:32:23 +0000

It is a testament to major league baseball players and their never-die abilities. In deciding post-season games, when down in the 9th inning, the batters went down 1-2-3 only ~40% of the time (roughly 44 times) but got at least one runner on ~60% of the time (roughly 67 times). I think that's amazing.