The Last Miracle by Ed Kranepool

Author:Ed Kranepool
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Triumph Books
Published: 2023-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

THE UNSUNG HEROES

WE HELD AN IMPROBABLE 2–1 SERIES LEAD after two of the most exciting games of the season and most memorable in any recent World Series. Some of the writers and experts were calling us lucky, and that all we did was wake the sleeping giant inside the Baltimore Orioles, and that they’d come back and win in six.

We’d won 100 regular-season games, swept the Atlanta Braves in three games, held Baltimore’s offense down, and had them on the ropes. Some reporters said that what Tommie Agee did in Game 3 wouldn’t happen again, and that Baltimore was due for a few breaks, a few inches of their own. But what happened next in Game 4 and then Game 5 was nothing more than an extension of a season full of incredible, sometimes unbelievable games. I mean, with all that happened, these were games made out of some Hollywood script. Even now, when I think about it, it brings me chills just remembering how it all played out, of how our three outfielders made their mark, putting a stamp on a season of miracles.

There had been no guy working harder on his defense than Ron Swoboda. He’d have the coaches hit him sinking line drives at every angle, difficult ones for any outfielder to make a play on. He’d flop and dive around the field, trying to catch a ball before it hit the ground, but I don’t recall if I ever saw him catch even one.

That’s a part of the story and of that catch he made in the ninth inning that some people may not know, something that adds to the mystique of that ’69 team. Here’s a guy who had never made that play even once, and now in a crucial spot in a World Series game, he made it. For him to even have thought in that split second he had to go for it or play it safe, was incredibly brave. You look at that catch a hundred times and you still wonder how he caught it. And to then come up like he did and throw a strike, trying to get the runner tagging up from third, showed some pretty good concentration. I think that if that ball hit by Brooks Robinson gets by Swoboda, and even as slow as a runner as he was, Robinson gets an inside-the-park home run, and we probably lose the game.

The game went into the 10th, and Tom Seaver was still in there. He wasn’t mowing guys down with strikeouts like he usually did, but he struck out Paul Blair to end an Orioles threat, setting up another improbable late win for us.

Another guy who’d done it all year for us was Jerry Grote. He started rallies, kept innings alive, and had a number of game-winning hits and he did it again with a leadoff double. They walked Al Weis intentionally, and that’s when Gil Hodges made his moves.

Hodges was a champion at making the right moves at the right times.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.