|
OUT OF LEFT FIELD |
 |
|
MOST OF YOU MISSED  Chase Utley legs it around the bases on his way to another home run. |
The World Series Depends
On How You Would See It
of TheColumnists.com
Back in 1964 the Philadelphia Phillies collapsed late in the season, blowing a six-and-a-half game lead with 12 games to play. Larry Merchant, then a columnist for The Philadelphia Daily News, refused to accept that the supposedly Series-bound Phillies would not be in the World Series against the New York Yankees. So, he created a day-by-day World Series between the Phillies and Yankees in conjunction with the actual Series won by the St. Louis Cardinals over the Yankees.
Somehow, out of the mists emanating from Yankee Stadium last week, my television set presented action that bore no resemblance to what I guess most of the rest of the world was witnessing.
The pictures on my TV set began to blur and scramble as if it were rejecting what it was getting from Yankee Stadium. It seemed to stabilize in the seventh inning of the sixth game when the Yankees, needing one victory to clinch, led 7-3 as the Phillies batted. With two out and two men on base, up stepped Chase Utley, who already had hit six homers in the Series.
It occurred to me that if Utley hit his seventh Series home run here, he not only would reduce the Yankee margin to 7-6, he would emerge as the greatest World Series home run hitter of all time, breaking the tie, six each, with Reggie (Mr. October) Jackson. Well, Utley lit up my screen by hitting a home run. This Series having stretched into November, that made him (good-bye Reggie) Mr. November.
I could hardly believe my eyes at that, nor when Ryan Howard followed with his second homer of the game, making the score, 7-7. There was such a surreal feeling about the whole thing, I almost called a friend to see if I was hallucinating. But I was intrigued enough to not want to mess with the karma of the moment.
Well, the die was cast. Yankee manager Joe Girardi brought in ace reliever Mariano Rivera in the eighth inning. He had trouble negotiating two innings and the Phillies pulled out a sixth-game victory in the ninth. The Series was tied, 3-3, in my living room. I would quote Casey Stengel’s immortal line, “You could look it up” but none of the papers seemed to have any of this the next day.
It was during the crucial seventh game that the story broke about how the Yankee$ had reacted to losing the first game of the Series against the near unhittable Phillies’ ace, Cliff Lee. The Yankee$ tried to buy him. Why not? They had bought some of the key guys in their lineup, and there were rumors the previous winter that they considered buying every player in the league.
My TV set provided shock after shock in Game Seven. First, Philly manager Charley Manuel, recalling the games won in Series past on two days rest by Bob Gibson (Cardinals, 1964) and Mickey Lolich (Detroit, 1968) , started Lee, the man the Yankee$ were not able to buy in the middle of the Series. C.C. Sabathia, their big strong guy, also started on two days rest and pitched a terrific game for seven innings.
Like Gibson and Lolich, Lee pitched a complete seventh game. Rivera, not his usual intimidating self because he was being asked to pitch two innings for the second straight night, mishandled a few ninth-inning bunts. (Fielding bunts is the only weakness Rivera might have). Then came another home run by Mr. November-Chase Utley, that is.
While Brad Lidge and Ryan Madson watched from the bullpen, Lee then set the Yankee$ down in order in the last inning. The final out: a strikeout of Derek Jeter.
At that point, my TV set conked out. I couldn’t see any of the Phillies’ celebration. And the next day I quickly found out from the queer looks I was getting that I had better not talk about the World Series I saw.
And, oh, yes, Larry Merchant's fantasy
1964 World Series ended with Johnny Callison at bat in the seventh
game with a chance to climax a winning Phillies rally. Merchant
allowed the readers to write their own ending.
* * * *
Before the TV vapors
took hold, I noted the many times we were shown former New York
City mayor Rudy Giuliani watching from a front-row Yankee Stadium
seat. It reminded me of a satirical revue seen in Philadelphia
during last year’s election campaign. Joe Biden had said
Giuliani “knows three words--a noun, a verb and 9-11.”
A skit suggested that Giuliani would open a post-election chain
of 9-11 convenience stores.
* * * *
My own special
numbers trivia questions:
#
Baseball commissioner Bud Selig decreed a few years ago that
Jackie Robinson’s uniform No. 42 be retired by all teams
after the current wearer had retired. There now remains only
one player still wearing No. 42. Who is it?
# The Phillies have retired the numbers of their Hall of Famers, Richie Ashburn (1), Jim Bunning (14) Mike Schmidt (20), Steve Carlton (32) and Robin Roberts (36). Why have they not similarly rewarded Hall of Famer Chuck Klein?
The answers: Mariano Rivera is the last remaining No. 42. And Chuck Klein wore seven numbers, (1, 3, 8, 26, 29, 32, 36), none solely associated with him.
©2009 by Stan Isaacs. The Stan Isaacs caricature is ©2001 by Jim Hummel. The illustration is courtesy of Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. This column first posted Nov. 9, 2009.
TO ACCESS STAN ISAACS' ARCHIVE OF COLUMNS
ON THIS SITE, CLICK HERE: ISAACS
ARCHIVE
You can comment
on this column online. Please address your message to either
"The Editors" or Stan Isaacs. To send an email, click
here and don't forget to mention Stan's name: talkback@thecolumnists.com
|
|
|
Archives |
|
|