Christopher Thigpen

Morehouse College

By

Christopher Thigpen – 11^th grader Norwalk High School

This May, President Barack Obama will deliver the commencement speech at Morehouse College. How inspiring to have the first African American president delivering this very important message to hundreds of African American males who will go on in their pursuit to change the world for the better. Morehouse has been preparing young men to change the world for decades. Morehouse has traditionally graduated more black men than any other school, anywhere. As a young black male I have dreamed of one day experiencing the “Morehouse Mystique” of being a part of a brotherhood that is like no other. I know that Morehouse will be a place that will not ignore, stereotype or make me feel inferior. It will be a place that promotes respect, brotherhood and pride. Words cannot express the thrill and excitement that I feel as I walk the grounds of Morehouse. Will I be able to change the world just as many have done before me? I am so grateful for the opportunity that the Carver Center has given me. I am spiritually disciplined and I am more determined than ever before to gain admission to Morehouse College.

The Augusta Institute was re-named Morehouse College in honor of Henry L. Morehouse when it relocated to Atlanta, Georgia in 1879 from Augusta, GA. He donated the most money at the time so the school bares his name. There are many prominent graduates of Morehouse. Possibly the most famous is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the country through one of its most transforming civic movements; David Satcher brought attention to the issues of health care disparity and access. Maynard Jackson caught the attention of the world when he focused  on diversity and equal access as the first African American mayor of Atlanta; Donn Clendenon was named a World Series MVP; and Spike Lee continues to make films that challenge how blacks are viewed in life.  I was surprised to hear that Dr. King’s father and brother also graduated from Morehouse. Morehouse has an auditorium that was named in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. There are many paintings/portraits on display in the auditorium and the flags that are hanging in the halls show the diversity of its students.

The painting that caught my attention was one that had the top in black and white and the bottom in color. I learned that the top of the painting represents the individuals who inspired Martin Luther King Jr. and the bottom the represents the many people who Martin Luther King Jr. inspired. I have read that Dr. King’s “non-violence movement” was inspired by Mahatma Ghandi and this inspiration is captured here with prominently displayed quotes in the lobby of the auditorium and two sculptures. One is of Ghandi and the other is of his wife Kasturba. The sculpture was unique because Ghandi has his eyes closed and Kasturba had her eyes open which represents that she was his ears. The other had Ghandi’s ears open and his wife’s ears were covered. This represent that he was her ears as well. The campus also has the Ray Charles Musical Hall which was made possible by a generous donation from the famous singer.

Admission to Morehouse requires a 2.8 GPA. There are approximately 2,500 students and the tuition is $40,000/year. Not even the tuition can dampen my hopes of being a Morehouse Tiger in the very near future.

First, I’ll double check my calendar…

Yep, the day looks to be Friday, July 5, 1963, vs the Pirates. And yes, the Mets lost, 3-1, thanks to a 2-run HR by Clemente off Tracy Stallard in the 8th inning, which would be their 8th straight loss. They would go on to lose 15 straight before halting the streak, and lose 111 that year (3rd worse Mets total ever).

Below, Casey and likely Ernie White chatting with what appears to be the new Miss Rheingold for 1964 (or at least a candidate)! Solly Hemus is at home plate hitting fungoes.

Duke Snider comes to the the plate in the bottom of the 2nd inning, with Frank Thomas on deck. Don Cardwell pitching, Jim Pagliaroni the catcher, Bob Bailey at third, Johnny Logan at short. Snider would strike out.

Bottom of the 5th inning. “Duke Snider, an All-Star Game outfielder currently batting .221, tapped the ball down to the Pirate first baseman, Donn Clendenon, and Clendenon decided upon a foot race. Snider won it. Clendenon stabbed the bag with his long left leg, but the Duke beat him by a foot.”, as the Mets fans rejoice. Tim Harkness then doubled him in for the early lead, but it would be Mets’ only run of the afternoon.

Three more months at the old Polo Grounds, and it was over. Duke would go on to the Giants, the Mets would go on to Queens, and the Polo Grounds would fade into memory, but hardly forgotten.

In an effort to make the hard copy of the daily newspaper more interesting for readers who have so many other options, the Chicago Tribune sports section often lists an interesting fact for each team in its presentation of the Major League Baseball Standings.

In the Aug. 25 edition, the Tribune sports editors list players who had a team’s last season with 20 home runs and 40 stolen bases.

The name that catches your eye is with the Chicago White Sox. In 1966, Tommie Agee had 22 home runs and 46 stolen bases for the White Sox. No player has ever accomplished that feat since for the Chicago’s South Side team.

While Agee was a good player for the White Sox – he won rookie of the year in that same ’66 season – he had his greatest seasons with the New York Mets.

He was the centerfielder on the great 1969 team, one that history often views as a “lucky” team but one that really was quite spectacular for the second half of the year and then even better when it got to the postseason.

That team had dominant pitchers like few others have ever had. Tom Seaver was the best but you also had Jerry Koosman, Gary Gentry, Don Cardwell and a fairly hard throwing young pup by the name of Nolan Ryan.

The rest of the team was solid, but Agee had a spectacular impact. He was a brilliant base runner, a solid leadoff hitter with power and one of the best fielders ever at his position – particularly that season.

Today’s baseball metrics bear that out. We didn’t have benefit of Wins Against Replacement (WAR) in the summer of ’69 like we do today, but anyone who watched Agee that summer knows that it was in his glove where opposing rallies got buried. If Agee could see a fly ball, he could catch it.

During that magical summer for Mets fans, Agee hit .271 with 26 homers and 76 RBI. He also stole 12 bases and scored 97 runs. He slugged .464 and had an OPS (on-base plus slugging) of .806. Any way you slice it he was a fantastic offensive force that season.  The modern stats say he had a WAR of 5.1 that season. To tell you how good that number is, Ricky Henderson had a WAR of 5.0 in 1989, the season he stole a record 126 bases.

Those same modern stats will also tell you that he was worth an eye-opening 11 runs saved more than the average player in centerfield. What you really need to know about Agee if you didn’t get to see him play that summer is that he was a sparkplug in every way a player can be.

He ignited the offense with leadoff home runs, clutch extra-base hits and daring base running. In the field he was both smooth and spectacular.

Sadly, Agee died in 2001 at the age of 58.

Agee’s Mets were a sensational team. Chicago likes to look at the ’69 Cubs as the team that should have won the whole thing. However, while they may have slowed down in August and September as manager Leo Durocher failed to relieve the pressure, they were caught and passed by a much better team. Ernie Banks and Billy Williams wore down; the Mets gained new life with each day.

By the end of the season there was no comparison.

The Mets were supposed to get trounced by Hank Aaron, Rico Carty and the Atlanta Braves, but they simply looked past the Braves’ all-star credentials and eliminated them in three straight games in the first ever National League Championship Series.

Then came the big test against the Baltimore Orioles. For those of us who came of age in the 1960s and others who started watching baseball even before that, those Orioles were a spectacular team. They won three straight pennants and one World Series. The pitching staff included Dave McNally and Jim Palmer and they had Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson and Boog Powell bashing baseballs all over the lot.

The Mets beat them in five games and it was no fluke. Led by Seaver, Agee, Cleon Jones, Ed Charles and Donn Clendenon, the Mets were the better team in that World Series.

They beat one of the five best teams of the last 50 years and that means that the 1969 Mets were in that group that is headlined by the 1975-76 Cincinnati Reds.

Agee may have been one of the most underrated and under-appreciated players of his generation. His numbers were solid; his play was sensational.

Thanks, Chicago Tribune, for bringing Agee’s memory back to life.

Mets fans, what are your favorite Tommy Agee memories?  Send Steve your thoughts at — @ProFootballBoy.

Fellow Mets fans will know why I have this card (hint:  It ain’t because of Willie).

Donn Clendenon was a 1st baseman who came up with the Pirates and finished a distant second to Ken Hubbs in the 1962 Rookie Of The Year voting.  He was taken by the Expos in the 1968 Expansion Draft, and before the 1969 season the Expos traded him and Jesus Alou to the Astros for Rusty Staub, but Donn threatened to retire rather than report to the Astros, so the trade was re-worked.  Instead, Clendenon was traded to the Mets in June, and he became a key part of that 1969 “Miracle Mets” team.  He batted .357 and hit three homers in the 1969 World Series and was named series MVP.  Interestingly enough, he didn’t play at all in the 3 game sweep over the Braves in the NLCS;  Ed Kranepool played first in all three games.

Donn played with the Mets until 1971, played with the Cardinals in 1972, and that was the end of his big league career.

1970 Topps Tommie Agee

Tommie Agee was inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame in 2002. He hit one of the longest home runs in Shea Stadium history, which was commemorated with a marker halfway up section 48 of the left field upper deck.

In the 1969 playoffs, Agee hit two home runs against the Braves in the LCS and led off Game 3 of the World Series with another homer. He made two highlight-reel catches in that game, too.

In 1970, he hit .286 with 24 home runs and 74 RBI and won a Gold Glove. The Mets finished with an 83-79 record, in third place.

1970 Topps Art Shamsky

Art Shamsky platooned with Ron Swoboda in right field in 1969. He played in all three games of the NLCS, getting 7 hits in 13 at-bats. Because of Baltimore’s rotation, he only started one game of the World Series.

In 1970, Shamsky hit .293 with 11 home runs and 49 RBI. After he retired as a player, Shamsky worked as a broadcaster and managed a team in the Israel Baseball League. He is a member of the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

1971 Topps Donn Clendenon

Donn Clendenon was the final piece of the puzzle for the 1969 Mets. Acquired in a mid-season trade, Clendenon went on to win the World Series MVP award.

Clendenon hit .247 with 11 home runs and 37 RBI in 88 games in 1971, his final season with the Mets. New York again finished in third place with an 83-79 record.

1971 Topps Wayne Garrett

Wayne Garrett arrived in the majors just in time to be part of the 1969 Miracle Mets team. He was a utility infielder, but got most of his playing time at third base.

Garrett hit .213 with one home run and 11 RBI in 1971, but he only appeared in 56 games because he spent the majority of the year fulfilling military service obligations.

The Expos had selected power-hitting first baseman Donn Clendenon in the expansion draft the previous year. Early in the 1969 campaign, the Mets were sniffing around for a right-handed hitting first baseman to platoon with Ed Kranepool. Turner reports that on May 20, 1969 rumours that the Mets were offering Ryan for Clendenon were heating up. Now keep in mind that 1969 represented Ryan’s second big league season and he wasn’t a regular in the Mets rotation. It’s also important to note that the Texas fireballer missed the 1967 season with arm troubles and had been hampered by blisters on his pitching hand. These injury woes were the reason that the Expos would pass on the deal.

But trade discussions would resume between the clubs the following month and eventually Clendenon was shipped to the Mets for four players, the most prominent being a right-handed hurler named Steve Renko. Renko would evolve into a journeyman starter and win 134 games for seven different teams in his 15-year career.

When Clendenon arrived in the Big Apple in June 1969, the Mets trailed the Chicago Cubs by nine games in the National League East division. Serving in a leadership role, Clendenon would belt several key home runs for the surprising Mets, who would eventually surpass the Cubs and win the World Series. Clendenon would belt three home runs and hit .357 in the Fall Classic to win MVP honors. The right-handed slugger would play 12 big league seasons and finish with 159 home runs, before retiring to become a lawyer. He died in 2005, after a long battle with leukemia.

Ryan would struggle through two more, less-than-remarkable seasons with the Mets, prior to being dealt to the California Angels in December 1971 for an aging Jim Fregosi. Many regard this trade as one of the worst in baseball history. Ryan, of course, would achieve stardom on the West Coast and later with the Astros and Rangers. The Hall of Fame hurler finished his career with 324 wins, a record 5,714 strikeouts and seven no-hitters. The championship-calibre Expos teams of the late ’70s and early ’80s certainly could’ve used the Ryan Express.

In Part 3, we will be taking a look at a couple of players who are not often remarked upon these days, but who, about forty years ago, performed extremely well for the New York Yankees.

But first, some background.

The years 1963-75 were not kind ones to the New York Yankees.  After having won nine World’s Championships from 1949-62, the Yankees (gasp!) did not even make it to another World Series until 1976.

There were several reasons for this decline.  One of the reasons was that the American League in general, and the Yankees (and the Red Sox) in particular, were slow to integrate African-American players into their ranks.

Most of the African-American stars who played in the major leagues in the middle of the twentieth century rendered their services to National League teams.  Willie Mays and Willie McCovey played for the Giants; Ernie Banks for the Cubs; Jackie Robinson, Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella for the Dodgers; Frank Robinson for the Reds (although the Orioles were happy to steal him in 1966).  Hank Aaron, of course, was hitting homers for the Braves, and a little later, Gibson, Brock and Flood played in St. Louis.

Meanwhile, although Elston Howard had been on the Yankees since 1955, his talents had largely been wasted (300-400 at bats per season) until he finally took over full-time catching duties in 1962 at age 33.  The Bronx Bombers featured a decidedly white roster in those years that included Mantle, Maris, Rizzuto, Martin, Ford, Skowron, Richardson, etc.  Elston Howard’s blackness only served to accentuate the rest of the team’s whiteness.

Yet the Yankees enjoyed enormous success in the 1950′s and early ’60′s without having to alter the status quo.  Therefore, the lesson that the Yankees learned during this period of time was that if the N.L. wanted to bow to social pressures and seriously integrate their teams, fine.  But the Yankees weren’t going to bow to this fad.  Yankee Tradition was doing just fine, thank you, and would have none of that tomfoolery on display in the proletarian N.L.

By 1965, however, Yankee Tradition began to fray around the edges.  By 1969, when their cross-town rival Miracle Mets won a stunning victory over the heavily favored Orioles, Yankee Tradition had all but unraveled.

There was no way to ignore the fact that the Mets lineup included African-American players who made significant contributions to that World Series triumph.  Donn Clendenon, Tommie Agee, and Cleon Jones were integral parts of that Mets team.

Finally, in the Bronx, it was time for Plan B.  This plan took a while to implement because the Yankee farm system was largely bereft of “colored” talent into the mid-’60′s.  Yet even during this rare Yankee rebuilding phase, it soon became clear that the new master plan wouldn’t be entirely different from the traditional Yankee Way.

The new plan would simply be, as it turned out, a modest modification of the old traditional Yankee rosters.  Here’s what the new strategy would look like:  Instead of having a white super-star buttressed by a competent cast of white supporting personnel, the new Plan B would feature a white star providing leadership to a tolerably mixed race roster.

Enter Bobby Murcer and Roy White.

By the mid-60′s, the current Yankee star, Mickey Mantle, was essentially done.  His heir apparent would be a fresh-faced kid from Oklahoma, Mantle’s own home state.

Bobby Murcer signed a $10,000 dollar contract to play for the Yankees in 1964.  He turned down twice as much money offered to him by the Dodgers because he was a life-long Yankee fan.  He debuted in 1965 when he was just 19 years old.

After spending a couple of years in the minors, Murcer came up to stay with the big club in 1969.  By 1971, he had almost become the star the Yankees were hoping for.

When viewed in the context of what Mantle accomplished in the 1950′s and early ’60′s, Murcer’s accomplishments in his prime years, the early 1970′s, appeared to fall short.  He was not smashing forty or fifty homers a year.  He was not winning a Triple Crown.  And most importantly, he was not leading the Yankees back to glory.

Yet, in truth, baseball had already become a very different game by the late 1960′s, and well into the 1970′s.  Pitching, not hitting, was now dominant.  It was simply inaccurate and unfair to compare Murcer’s accomplishments stat-line by stat-line with what Mantle had accomplished in an era far friendlier to hitters.

Murcer’s best “forgotten” season, one of the best forgotten seasons by any Yankee, was 1971.  In that year, at age 25, Murcer had 175 hits, 94 runs scored, 25 homers, 94 RBI’s, 14 stolen bases.  He drew 91 walks while striking out only 60 times.  Now, those numbers might not look all that great until you take a second look.  Let’s flesh out the rest of his season.

In 1971, Murcer also hit .331, which was second in the league.  He led his league in runs created with 266.  He led the A.L. in on base percentage at .427.  He slugged .543 in an era when slugging over .500 meant something.  His OPS (on base plus slugging) was a league best .969.  His adjusted OPS+ was an astonishing 181, which means that, adjusting for ballpark and era, he was about 80% better than the average A.L. player that year.

It could be argued, however, that his 1972 season was in some ways even better.  Without going into all the numbers from that season, I’ll simply note that he led the A.L. in total bases with 314 and runs scored with 102.  His 70 extra base hits also led the league.  And in 1972, he won his first Gold Glove.

So take your pick, 1971 or ’72.  Either way, you are looking at a pair of the best “forgotten” seasons by a player on a team that has enjoyed more media coverage than several other teams combined.

Murcer, after spending a few decent seasons with the Giants and the Cubs, returned to the Yankees in 1980, having missed out on their World Series triumphs (which featured black players like Reggie Jackson, Chris Chambliss, Willie Randolph and others.)  He finished out his career with the Yanks in 1983 at age 37.

A five time all-star, Murcer hit 252 home runs in his career and drove in over 1,000.  He passed away almost two years ago at age 62, never having attained the super-star status the Yankee brass expected of him, never having led his team to a World Series.  But in his largely forgotten 1971 season, he was truly a star.

Roy White, being black, was, of course, supposed to play the supporting role on several Yankees championship teams.  Oddly enough, he did.

Roy White enjoyed a highly productive and lengthy career with the Yankees that lasted from 1965-1979, meaning that, unlike his contemporary Bobby Murcer, White went to three World Series with the Yankees, enjoying the triumphant World Championship seasons of 1977-78.

But White’s best forgotten season came much earlier.  Debuting in 1965 at age 21, White enjoyed his best year in 1970 at age 26, during the Yankees lost in the wilderness era.

White played all 162 games that season, which he would do again in 1973.  He had 180 hits in 1970, 30 of which were doubles, and he hit 22 homers, which translated into Year 2000 numbers, would have been more like forty.  He scored an impressive 109 runs, drove in 94, had 24 stolen bases, drew 95 walks (against just 66 strikeouts), and hit .296 with a .387 on base percentage.

His OPS+ in 1970 was an excellent 142.  He was also an excellent defensive outfielder.  In fact, he led A.L. outfielders in range factor six times, and in fielding percentage four times.  Always a good eye at the plate, White finished in the top ten in the A.L. in walks seven times.  He drew 934 walks in his career against just 708 strikeouts.

Roy White was drafted to be a competent black player on a white Bobby Murcer-led team.  Ironically, it was Roy White who helped guide the Yankees back to glory in the late ’70′s, while Murcer was exiled in Chicago.

In truth, though, both of these players enjoyed two of the most overlooked, underrated, and almost certainly forgotten seasons in the long history of the New York Yankees.

On a personal note.  I will be attending to some personal business for about a week, so I will not be posting again on this blog until about Friday, June 11th.  But please feel free to leave comments for me regarding your thoughts about this blog-post.  I’ll be looking forward to reading them when I return.

Thanks for reading, Bill

One of the most famous Mets of all time is posed in Pirates gear here. After all, Donn spent the first decade-plus of his career in the Pittsburgh organization. My example of this card is in the EX range — no creases but some noticeable corner wear and a clean back. This is a common card from the 2nd series.

The trivia question on the back asks how many times Babe Ruth hit more than 50 homers. The answer is four time (1920, 1921, 1927, 1928). Ruth hit between 40 and 50 homers seven times.

Donn Clendenon was really good at striking out back when striking out wasn’t cool. In fact, he did it 163 times in 1968 while only hitting 17 home runs. For the most part, Clendenon was a decent hitter who was never quite a star. In fact, he never played in the All-Star Game.

But of the 10 seasons in which he had at least 250 plate appearances, he only once posted an OPS+ of below 100 (a 91 in 1967). He had a very nice 1965 season with the Pirates (.301/.351/.467 with 32 doubles, 14 triples, 14 homers, and 96 RBI), and followed it up with his best power season, slugging .520 with 28 homers in 1966.

After a decline in 1967 and ’68, he was left unprotected in the expansion draft and the Expos selected him. However, they chose to trade him to Houston in January of ’69 as part of a deal for Rusty Staub, but Clendenon refused to report to the Astros because he didn’t like manager Harry Walker, who had been his manager in Pittsburgh for three years. The two teams eventually worked out a new trade, and Clendenon stuck with Montreal until June, when he was shipped to the Mets for four prospects (Steve Renko is the only one who went on to a significant career).

Donn struggled early with the Mets, and split time with Ed Kranepool at first, but eventually he came on a bit. Still, manager Gil Hodges didn’t give Clendenon any playing time in the NLCS. Finally added to the lineup in the World Series, Clendenon hit three homers in four games and went on to be named MVP of the series, which we all know the Mets unexpectedly won in five games over the heavily-favored Orioles.

His first two homers in the series gave the Mets a 1-0 lead in games they would win 2-1. His third came with the Mets trailing 3-0 in the sixth inning of Game 5, following the famed “shoe polish” incident. Cleon Jones took a pitch from Dave McNally down around his foot, and acted as if he had been hit and headed toward first. The umpire didn’t buy it and ordered him back, but Hodges emerged from the dugout and asked to see the ball, which was marked with shoe polish. The umpire reversed his call and allowed Jones to take first. Clendenon followed with a two-run shot over the left field wall at Shea.

Clendenon followed with another nice year in 1970, hitting 22 homers and posting an .863 OPS. It was the only year in which he received MVP votes (he got 26, or 8%). But he declined in 1971, and Ed Kranepool took over the full-time job at first.

Clendenon was relased by the Mets, and finished his career by playing in 61 games with the Cardinals in 1972. But he only hit .191 and never played again.

Clendenon became a lawyer after his career. Ironically, while most players who have drug and alcohol issues have them during their playing days, Clendenon became a cocaine addict more than a decade after he retired from the game. When he sought treatment for his addiction, he learned that he had leukemia. After cleaning up, he became an addiction counselor in South Dakota before succumbing to cancer in 2005 at the age of 70.

We’ll be doing this on television tonight, illustrated in large part with the kind help of the folks behind one of the most remarkable contributions ever made to baseball history, The Major League Baseball World Series Film Collection, which comes out officially next week, and which, as the name suggests, is a DVD set of all of the official “films” of the Series since  ex-player Lew Fonseca started them as a service to those in the military in 1943. The amount of baseball history and the quality of the presentation (the “box” is by itself, actually a gorgeous Series history book) are equally staggering.

We start, in ascending order, with a famous name indeed, and Jackie Robinson’s steal of home in the eighth inning of the first game of the 1955 World Series. It is perhaps the iconic image of the pioneer player of our society’s history, but it was also a statement in a time when the concept was new. Ironically, the Dodgers were losing 6 to 4 when Robinson got on, on an error, moved to second on a Don Zimmer bunt, aggressively tagged up on a sacrifice fly.

Robinson was at third, but up for the Dodgers was the weak-hitting Frank Kellert. And, after all but taunting pitcher Whitey Ford and catcher Yogi Berra of the Yankees, Jackie seized the day, and broke for the plate. No catcher has more emphatically argued a call, and no moment has better summed up a player, his influence, or the changes he would bring to the game.

Ironically, that was the last run the Dodgers would score and they would lose the game. But the steal set a tone for a different Brooklyn team than the one which had tried but failed to outslug the Yankees in their previous five World Series meetings. The Dodgers would win this one, in seven games.

The eighth play on the list is another moment of base-running exuberance. In a regular season game in 1946, Enos “Country” Slaughter, on first base, had been given the run-and-hit sign by his St. Louis Cardinals’ manager Eddie Dyer. Slaughter took off, the batter swung and laced one into the outfield. As Slaughter approached third base with home in his sights, he was held up by his third base coach Mike Gonzalez. Slaughter complained to his skipper. He knew better than Gonzalez, he told Dyer, whether or not he could beat a throw home. Dyer said fine. “If it happens again and you think you can make it, run on your own. I’ll back you up.”

It indeed happened again – and in the bottom of the eighth inning of the seventh game of the 1946 Series! The visiting Red Sox had just tied the score at three, but Slaughter led off the inning with a single. Manager Dyer again flashed the run-and-hit sign, and Harry “The Hat” Walker lined Bob Klinger’s pitch over shortstop for what looked to everybody like a long single.

Everybody but Slaughter. He never slowed down. He may never have even seen third base coach Gonzalez again giving him the stop sign. When Boston shortstop Johnny Pesky turned clockwise to take the relay throw from centerfielder Leon Culberson, and, thus oddly twisted, could get little on his throw to the plate – Slaughter scored, the Cardinals led, and, an inning later, were World Champions.

The Red Sox should’ve seen it coming. Long before Pete Rose, Slaughter ran everywhere on the field, to the dugout and from it, on walks, everywhere. He said he had learned to do it in the minor leagues, when as a 20-year old he walked back from the outfield only to hear his manager say “Hey, kid, if you’re tired, I’ll get you some help.”

That manager was Eddie Dyer – the same guy who a decade later would encourage Slaughter to run any and all red lights.

The particulars of the seventh smartest play in Series history are lost in the shrouds of time: the 1907 Fall Classic between the Tigers and Cubs. This was the Detroit team of the young and ferocious Ty Cobb, but its captain was a veteran light-hitting third baseman named Bill Coughlin. In the first inning of the second game, Cubs’ lead-off man Jimmy Slagle walked, then broke for second base. Catcher Fred Payne’s throw was wild and Slagle made it to third. Coughlin knew the Tigers were in trouble.

There are two ways to do what Coughlin did next; we don’t know which he used. Later third basemen like Matt Williams were known to ask runners to step off the base so he could clean the dirt off it. Others, through nonchalance or downright misdirection, would convince the runner that they no longer had the ball. Which one Coughlin did, we don’t know. The Spalding Base Ball Guide for 1908 simply described it as “Coughlin working that ancient and decrepit trick of the ‘hidden ball,’ got ‘Rabbit’ Slagle as he stepped off the third sack. What the sleep of Slagle cost was shown the next minute when Chance singled over second.”

Coughlin snagged Slagle with what is believed to be the only successful hidden ball trick in the history of the Series.

 
Sixth among the smartest plays is another we will not likely see again. The New York Mets led the Baltimore Orioles three games to one as they played the fifth game of the 1969 World Series. But the favored Birds led that game 3-zip going into the bottom of the sixth. Then, Dave McNally bounced a breaking pitch at the feet of Cleon Jones of the Mets. Jones claimed he’d been hit by the pitch, but umpire Lou DiMuro disagreed – until Mets’ skipper Gil Hodges came out of the dugout to show DiMuro the baseball, and the smudge of shoe polish from where it had supposedly hit Jones. DiMuro changed his mind, Jones was awarded first, Donn Clendenon followed with a two-run homer, Al Weis hit one in the seventh to tie, and the Mets scored two more in the eighth to win the game and the Series.

But there were questions, most of them voiced in Baltimore, about the provenance of that baseball. Was it really the one that McNally had thrown? A nearly identical play in 1957 with Milwaukee’s Nippy Jones had helped to decide that Series. And years later an unnamed Met said that ever since, it had always been considered good planning to have a baseball in the dugout with shoe polish on it, just in case.

Today, of course, players’ shoes don’t get shined.

Hall of Fame pitcher, Hall of Fame batter, Hall of Fame manager, all involved in the fifth smartest play. But only two of them were smart in it. Reds 1, A’s nothing, one out, top of the eighth, runners on second and third, third game of the ’72 Series, and Oakland reliever Rollie Fingers struggles to a 3-2 count on Cincinnati’s legendary Johnny Bench. With great theatrics and evident anxiety, the A’s battery and manager Dick Williams agree to go ahead and throw the next pitch deliberately wide — an intentional walk.

Which is when Oakland catcher Gene Tenace jumps back behind the plate to catch the third strike that slides right past a forever-embarrassed Bench. As if to rub it in, the A’s then walked Tony Perez intentionally. For real.

Another all-time great was central to the fourth smartest play in Series history. With Mickey Mantle, you tend to think brawn, not brain, but in the seventh game of the epic 1960 Series, he was, for a moment, the smartest man in America. Mantle had just singled home a run that cut Pittsburgh’s lead over the Yankees to 9-to-8.  

With one out and Gil McDougald as the tying run at third, Yogi Berra hit a ground rocket to Pirate first baseman Rocky Nelson. Nelson, having barely moved from where he was holding Mantle on, stepped on the bag to retire Berra for the second out. Mantle, on his way into no man’s land between first and second, about to be tagged hi
mself for the final out of the Series, stopped, faded slightly towards the outfield, faked his way around Nelson, got back safely to first, and took enough time to do it, that in the process, McDougald could score the tying run.

Mantle’s quick thinking and base-running alacrity would have been one of the game’s all-time greatest plays – if only, minutes later, the 9-to-9 tie he had created, had not been erased by Bill Mazeroski’s unforgettable Series-Winning Home Run to lead off the bottom of the ninth.

Like the Mantle example, the gut and not the cerebellum is associated with the third smartest play in Series history. It’s Kirk Gibson’s epic home run to win the opening game of the 1988 classic. The story is well-known to this day; Gibson, aching, knees swollen, limping, somehow creeps to the batter’s box and then takes a 3-2 pitch from another hall of fame Oakland reliever, Dennis Eckersley, and turns it into the most improbable of game-winning home runs.

But the backstory involves a Dodger special assignment scout named Mel Didier. When the count reached 3-and-2, Gibson says he stepped out of the batter’s box and could hear the scouting report on Eckersley that Didier had recited to the Dodgers, in his distinctive Mississippi accent, before the Series began. On a 3-2 count, against a left-handed power hitter, you could be absolutely certain that Eckersley would throw a backdoor slider. He always did it. And as Gibson once joked, “I was a left-handed power hitter.”

So Gibson’s home run wasn’t just mind over matter. It was also mind. And it was also Mel Didier.

The second smartest play in Series history came in perhaps the greatest seventh game in modern Series history. The Braves and Twins were locked in their remorseless battle of 1991, scoreless into the eighth inning. Veteran Lonnie Smith led off the top of the frame with a single. Just like Enos Slaughter in 1946, he then got the signal to run with the pitch, and just like Harry Walker in 1946, his teammate Terry Pendleton connected.

But something was amiss at second base. Minnesota Shortstop Greg Gagne and second baseman Chuck Knoblauch were either completing a double-play, or they had decided they were the Harlem Globetrotters playing pantomime ball. Smith, at least momentarily startled by the infielders pretending to make a play on him at second, hesitated just long enough that he could not score from first as Enos Slaughter once had. He would later claim the Twins’ infielders hadn’t fooled him at all with their phantom double play – that he was just waiting to make sure the ball wasn’t caught.

But he never scored a run, nor did the Braves. The game, and the Series, ended 1-0 Minnesota, in the 10th inning on a pinch-hit single by Gene Larkin from — appropriately enough for the subject — Columbia University.
 

All-stars and cup of coffee guys; fielders and hitters and baserunners and pitchers and even a scout, and stretching over a span of 102 years of Series history. And yet the smartest play is: from this past Sunday. Johnny Damon not only worked his way back from down 0-2 to a line single on the ninth pitch of the at bat against Brad Lidge, but he quickly gauged the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with which the Phillies had seemingly presented him. Few teams employ a defensive shift towards the left side or the right when there’s a runner on base. This is largely because if there is a play to be made at second or third, the fielders who would normally handle the ball are elsewhere. With Mark Teixeira up, the Phillies had shifted their infield, right.

So Damon realized.

If he tried to steal, the throw and tag would probably be the responsibility of third baseman Pedro Feliz. Feliz is superb at third base, fine at first, has experience in both outfield corners, and even caught a game for part of an inning. But his major league games up the middle total to less than 30 and this just isn’t his job. Even if Feliz didn’t botch the throw or the tag, his meager experience in the middle infield slightly increased the odds in Damon’s favor. The question really was, what would happen immediately afterwards, if Damon stole successfully: Where would Feliz go, and who would cover third base?

Damon chose a pop-up slide so he could keep running. Feliz took the throw cleanly, but did not stop his own momentum and continued to run slightly towards the center of the diamond. And nobody covered third base. All Damon needed was daylight between himself and Feliz, and Feliz would have no chance of outrunning him to third, and nobody to throw to at third.     

And all of that went through Johnny Damon’s mind, in a matter of seconds. Before anybody else could truly gauge what had happened, he had stolen two bases on one play without as much as a bad throw, let alone an error, involved. It is a play few if any have seen before, and it is unimaginable that any manager will let us ever see it again!

Thereafter, in a matter of minutes, the Yankees had turned a tie game, with them down to their last strike of the ninth inning, into a three-run rally that put them within one win of the World’s Championship. And all thanks to the Smartest Play in World Series History.