THE BALL BOUNCES FUNNY IN OCTOBER

 This world series is turning out to be a classic. The Blue Jays, in last place last year, had the world champ Dodgers down 3 games to 2 heading into last night's game six in Toronto. And then something happened, which showed once again why there is nothing better in sports than October baseball. 

But before we get to last night's game, we will briefly talk about a similar play in what we consider to be the greatest world series game ever played: Game Seven, Yankees at Pirates 1960. The Yankees were overwhelming favourites in the series. And as the series played out, it showed. The Yankees won three games 16-4, 10-0, and 6-4. Getting to game 7, the Pirates won 6-4, 3-2, and 5-2.  Now Game 7 1960 is famous for the only game 7 bottom of the 9th walk off home run. Bill Mazeroski hit it, and the Pirates shocked the Yankees and became world champs. 

But before Maz's famous dinger, there was the bottom of the eighth inning. The game had see-sawed back and forth with the Pirates going up 2-0, and then 4-1 before the Yankees went up 5-4 and then 8-4. In the bottom of the 8th, Bill Virdon came up with a runner on first and no outs. He hit a sharp grounder to Tony Kubek at short. It was an easy double-play ball. But the infield in Forbes Field had small pebbles in the dirt. The sharp grounder hit a pebble that kicked up and hit Kubek in the throat. He collapsed and was subsequently taken to the hospital. 

The ball can bounce strangely in October game sevens.

 Without the double play, the Pirates had two on, and slugging catcher Hall Smith bashed a three-run homer in what turned out to be a five run Pirate inning. The Yanks tied it back up  in the top of the ninth, setting the stage for Maz's clutch immortal home run. But none of that happens if the grounder doesn't hit a pebble that causes a freak injury to Kubek. You can hear Mel Allen on the call mistakenly thinking that the ball hit Kubek in the face. 

Which brings us to Game Six in the current Series Friday night.  The Jays were down 3-1 in the bottom of the ninth with a man on first. Addison "Bam Bam" Barger came to bat and was the tying run. Barger hammered a fastball from Roki Sasaki to deep left-center, over the head of the outfielders. The runner from first scored, and the Jays were down by one with a man on second. A walk off world series championship hit was in the cards. 

Except it was Halloween and the ball bounces funny in World Series games in October. 

Barger's ball stuck in the bottom of the fence... what??? 

  We shall repeat it, because we did not believe it. The ball stuck in the bottom of the fence.  We have NEVER seen that in a baseball game (of course no one had ever seen a grounder hit a pebble and take out a shortstop either). The umpires called it a ground rule double, the runner that scored was moved back to third- and this being October baseball, the next batter flied out to short center and Barger, thinking the ball was going to drop, was doubled off second-  this being the first 7-4 double play to end a world series game. 

GAME SEVEN TONIGHT! 

This is just the best time of the year.