Posted By:
TBobCome on Bob---First the Yankee-Pirate series was 1960, not 1961.>
My bad. 1961 was the Yanks throttling the Reds.
Second, Mays' catch was just a good catch. There are plenty of these and he, with his huge ego, even downplays it.>
Just a good catch???? Name one better in the World Series' history! Gionfriddo's running one arm stab of Joe D.'s fly against the rail in left field foul territory is probably next. The Mets' rf in '69 robbing Brooks Robinson and saving the game was a great catch, too. But they weren't even close. Nothing else is even close. When Mays later hit a resounding shot to deep center over the head of the Indians' outfielder, it was said that "the only person in the world who could have caught that ball, hit it." It was an incredible moment, frozen in time.
Merkle's boner was really the umpire's boner for enforcing a rule that was never enforced before. It, to me, is no different than the George Brett pine tar incident except in that case the field ruling was reversed on appeal.>
Now this is just plain goofy. Merkle's boner impacted the entire season and forced a playoff game resulting in the Giants losing the pennant in 1908. Brett's home run impacted nothing except his home run total that year.