Willie Horton by Willie Horton

Author:Willie Horton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Triumph Books
Published: 2022-04-22T19:21:35+00:00

11. We Knew Lou Wouldn’t Slide

Everyone in the baseball world seemed shocked that Lou Brock didn’t slide in Game 5 of the World Series. But everyone on the Detroit Tigers would’ve been surprised if he had slid.

When the ball left my hand in the fifth inning, I believe the throw was going to nail Brock at the plate because our scouting reports indicated that he’d developed some bad habits.

Brock was probably too dominant for his own good in 1968. He stole 62 bases in 74 attempts during the regular season, and he’d swiped an unprecedented 294 bases over a five-season span. During that era, Brock and all of his teammates—and maybe even the entire National League—began to believe that he owned the basepaths. He always raced from first to third on a base hit. And he always scored on a single from second base. Our scouting reports indicated that no one was challenging him. Teams were just conceding runs to his world-class speed.

Given that kind of treatment, it was easy to understand why Brock began to take his dominance for granted. According to scouting reports, he usually drifted around third base, and Cardinals third-base coach Joe Schultz usually didn’t offer him much guidance because Brock didn’t need it. Lou always had the green light on the basepaths. Likewise, the on-deck batter usually didn’t move to the plate to signal Brock when to slide on close plays because Lou never had close plays.

Before the Series started, the Tigers outfielders vowed we would challenge Brock if the situation presented itself.

Unquestionably, the throw I made to nip Brock at the plate was the most important moment in my professional career. The general consensus seems to be that the throw was the turning point of the 1968 World Series. But plenty of people deserve credit for making that play possible.

Going into Game 5 at Tiger Stadium, we were already trailing the Cardinals 3–1 in the best-of-seven series. And in that contest, we were already down 3–0 after the Cardinals’ first at-bats. In the fourth inning, we chipped away at their lead with a pair of runs. Mickey Stanley tripled to start the inning, and Norm Cash drove him home with a sacrifice fly. Then I launched a triple out near the 440-foot marker in center field, and Jim Northrup chased me home with a single to right, cutting the Cardinals’ lead to 3–2.

As I said before, we were confident in our ability to come from behind. But we also knew that we couldn’t afford to surrender any more runs. When Lou Brock doubled with one out in the fifth, we all understood that the World Series might hinge on our ability to prevent Brock from scoring.

Cardinals second baseman Julian Javier stepped to the plate. Since he batted right-handed, I was fully expecting him to hit the ball in my direction. Many years of training would all come together at this exact moment. It started with my father, who taught me to listen to my coaches and respect my opponents.

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.