THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Aaron bleepin’ Boone and Tim Wakefield anyone? Considering everything that happened previously in that game, what the game meant for each team (WS appearance), and the rivalry, I think it has to be up there.

I don’t know why these rules don’t make sense in basketball: I instantly think of Michael Jordan’s final shot. (I do not recognize his time as a Wizard.) Fits all the criteria. Plus, it’s Michael Jordan.

Andy: that’s the only one I can remember too.  But, basketball has to be more than that doesn’t it?

I think most people remember specific plays in basketball. Just look at all the buzzer beaters in the NCAA tournament. Lorenze Charles comes to mind immediately.

To be honest, a lot of basketball games seem pretty forgettable until the last two minutes.

As a Dodger fan, I gotta go with Gibby’s HR. Decided the game (and probably the series) and he could barely walk to the plate. He was facing one of the most, if not the most, dominant pitchers in the game and it was the World Series.

Tango: It’s hard to top that one; there are other plays, but that one will always render the others less great. Michael Jordan has had plenty of similar moments, like his shot over Craig Ehlo. I also think of Bird’s steal off the inbound pass to win it over Detroit, or Magic Johnson’s baby hook to win in the finals. Basketball lends itself to a single “greatest play” more than baseball because the possibility that a game is decided on a final game-winning shot is much greater.

As for baseball, we can look statistically at something like WPA to find situations of great leverage, or time of season, or different situations. But that doesn’t work at all. “Greatest plays” are really more about narratives than plays. As such, and this is unfair, it really helps your cause to be a great player. Baseball fans remember that Steve Kerr (and Craig Hodges) before him clinched winning games, but the common person remembers michael jordan. So for baseball, I would put up there Babe Ruth’s Called Shot.

It’s not completely necessary to be famous though: Bobby Thomson’s “Shot heard ‘round the world” qualifies.

Of course these are before my lifetime, but that’s why we consider them “Greatest Plays.” In my lifetime, as someone who has lived in New York and Seattle, I remember Sandy Alomar’s homer off Mariano Rivera, Luis Gonzalez’s hit off Rivera, Edgar Martinez’s double in the ‘95 ALDS. I notice now that, like being a great player, it helps to be playing for or against, an iconic team, like the Yankees.

How about Bill Bucker’s gaffe? Is that considered a greatest play even though it was an unfortunate one (for everyone but the Mets). It’s like how Time would put Hitler as Person of the Year.

The Giants win the pennant

Mazeroski homerun

Henderson’s goal

IMO, the greatest baseball play ever in an important game was Jeter’s flip that got Jeremy Giambi at home.  Talk about unrepeatable!!  I’ve never figured out why he decided to go where he went???  To me, it was almost unimaginable that he somehow knew he should be there, and then to make the toss to Posada.

#8: I just finished reading “Living on the Black” (fantastic book). Mike Mussina actually talks about that play in the book (he was the Yankee pitcher when it happened). He said...well, here’s the exact quote:

“The funny part of it is, Derek was exactly where he was supposed to be when he made the play, which people don’t understand,” [Mussina] said. “His job on the play is to be in the middle of the infield and read the throw from the outfield...The throw...missed two cut-off men. Derek saw that, got over to the line and made the play.

“What was unbelievable was that he was able to backhand and, in one motion, get it to Posada and that Posada was able to grab it and make the tag in one motion.”

#8 - The fact that Giambi was actually safe makes that not the greatest play ever in my book (which I won’t call The Book).

Tango - The Miracle on Ice is a special circumstance, and I’m going to struggle explaining this but I’ll try. What made it memorable wasn’t an on-ice event. It wasn’t Gibson over Eck, Jordan hitting a shot, or Dwight Clark making an unbelievable catch. It was bigger. That game transcended sports. Sure, you had the underdog triumph angle, and that’s a popular sports theme. But the underdog wins a lot. This was America vs. the USSR. The Miracle on Ice was a global event, not just a game in a sport. That’s why it’s special, and that’s why it doesn’t really fit the criteria. Great moments in sports are, generally, somewhat spontaneous. That victory wasn’t really spontaneous, though it was unexpected.

The Miracle on Ice had two components.  One is that backdrop of USA v USSR in the middle of the cold war, played on US soil (uhm, ice), as you are pointing out.

But, more than that I think, is that it was college kids against professionals, professionals that destroyed the NHL all-stars in 1979, would demolish Team Canada in 1981 (and play them very close in 84 and 87).  It’s to that end that it was a “miracle”.  Had this been a professional American hockey team, it would just have been a good win.

I don’t know what the odds were for the Americans to beat the Soviets in that game (especially after the thrashing the Soviets gave the Americans at MSG in a “friendly” game, just two weeks earlier), but that’s got to be one of the biggest upsets ever.

To recap:
1. 6-0: score of last Soviet game against NHL all-stars (1979)

2. 10-3: score of last Soviet game against Team USA, prior to Olympics (1980)

3. 8-1: score of championship game, Soviet v NHL Canadians (1981) ... though they lost 7-3 in the round robin game

The Soviets were giants in hockey, better than the pros in the NHL.  To think that college kids could compete with them, much less win?  Yowza.