Walk-Off (WO)

What is a Walk-Off in baseball?

A walk-off (aka WO) is any event that ends the game by giving the home team the lead in the bottom of the final inning of the game. (This can be the 9th inning, any extra inning, or any other regularly-scheduled final inning.) The term “walk-off” comes from the fact that the teams walk off the field immediately afterward.

Typically, WOs are hits. The walk-off home run is the most famous kind of walk-off, but any hit can be a walk-off if it drives a runner home. Technically, a WO isn’t official until the winning run crosses home plate.

How are Walk-Offs used?

WOs are fairly uncommon, so they aren’t typically used to evaluate player performance. However, the rarity of walk-offs makes them exciting when they do happen. Walk-off home runs are especially rare, and therefore especially celebrated.

Walk-Off Examples

There have been thirteen major league postseason series that have ended in a walk-off home run, including two World Series. The subject of the most famous walk-off home run in the history of Major League Baseball is one that creates a great deal of argument:

• Bobby Thomson‘s “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” which gave the New York Giant a National League pennant-winning victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers.
• The home run hit by Bill Mazeroski of the Pittsburgh Pirates, winning the 1960 World Series, breaking the tie in Game 7, against the New York Yankees.
• The one hit by Carlton Fisk of the Boston Red Sox off the left-field foul pole in the 12th inning to win Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, featured for many years in video slow-motion on NBC’s Saturday afternoon Game of the Week broadcasts.
• Kirk Gibson‘s hobbled pinch hit 2-strike 2-out 2-run home run with his Los Angeles Dodgers trailing by one run and facing the Oakland A’s Cy Young Award-winning closer Dennis Eckersley to win Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.
• Joe Carter‘s three-run blast over the left field fence in Game 6 of the 1993 World Series gave the Toronto Blue Jays an 8-6 win, a 4-2 series victory and their second straight World Series championship.
• Aaron Boone of the Yankees hit an 11th-inning blast to left field off of Tim Wakefield of the Red Sox in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS to win the American League pennant for the Yankees.

Interesting Walk-Off Stats

Jim Thome holds the MLB record with 13 career WO homers. Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Jimmie Foxx, Stan Musial, and Frank Robinson shared the record at 12 before Thome surpassed them. Mantle also hit one in the postseason, and Thome hit none. Musial also hit one in an All-Star Game. David Ortiz hit 11 career walk-off homers in the regular season and is the only player to hit two in a single postseason.

During a one-year stretch from 2002 to 2003, Alex Gonzalez hit five walk-off home runs for the Cubs. The record for a one-year stretch is unknown.

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