The Inside Game by Keith Law

Author:Keith Law
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2020-04-21T00:00:00+00:00

Little wasn’t the first Red Sox manager to fall prey to status quo bias in a postseason game, although the manager in the previous incident largely escaped blame for his blunder, which instead went to the player whose fielding error led to the loss of the game and the series—even though that player shouldn’t have been on the field in the first place.

The Red Sox’ World Series drought began in 1919, the year after they won what would be their last World Series title of the twentieth century. They did so with the help of a twenty-three-year-old two-way player named Babe Ruth, who made 19 starts and posted a 2.22 earned run average while leading the American League with 11 (yes, eleven) home runs in 95 games played. Red Sox owner Harry Frazee would sell Ruth’s contract to the New York Yankees after the 1919 season; Ruth became a star in New York, as the Yankees would win six pennants and three World Series in the 1920s alone, while the Red Sox didn’t even return to the Fall Classic until 1946. Their championship drought was often referred to as the Curse of the Bambino, referring to Ruth’s nickname and the idea that there was some sort of “curse” on the franchise for selling their best player, a fun story until you remember that curses aren’t real.

Between 1918 and 1986, the Red Sox won the American League pennant just three times, and in all three instances lost the ensuing World Series in the maximum of seven games. Their 1967 season was known as the Impossible Dream, which turned out to be accurate when they lost the Series to the Cardinals. Their 1975 loss to the Cincinnati Reds, a team known as the Big Red Machine, is better remembered for the dramatic Game 6 win when Carlton Fisk homered in the bottom of the twelfth for a dramatic walk-off victory.

In 1986, however, they were one pitch away from ending their drought. The Red Sox were ahead in the series 3 games to 2, and were winning Game 6 by a score of 5–3 as they entered the bottom of the tenth inning at Shea Stadium, then the home of the New York Mets. Reliever Calvin Schiraldi retired the first two batters, so the Mets were down to their final out, and Boston’s win probability was at 99 percent. The next two batters singled, so the Mets had the tying runs on base, but there were still two outs and Boston’s win probability was 92 percent even after the second hit. Schiraldi got ahead of the next hitter, Ray Knight, with strikes on the first two pitches, so the Mets were quite literally down to their last strike—and the Red Sox were a single strike away from their first World Championship in sixty-eight years.

Then everything went pear-shaped. Knight singled to score one run and advance the trailing runner to third base. Manager John McNamara went to his bullpen to replace Schiraldi with Bob

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