Quote:
Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman
It's indisputable that the photo was taken from a day game between the Pirates and Giants in Candlestick Park, and the key evidence of exactly which game is the Giants catcher, #18 Russ Gibson. The only time Gibson appeared in a Giants home game against the Pirates was August 1, 1971, in the first game of a doubleheader. Clemente struck out once that day but it was swinging. I'm guessing that in one of the five plate appearances he had a 3-0 or 3-1 count and took a pitch thinking it was ball four but the umpire called it a strike, but not strike three. Baseball-Reference.com is an amazing site :-).
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That's pretty cool to know.
I have always thought it was immediate reaction to a pitch "he wish he had back" , but looking at it today, the position of the infield dirt and what I assume is half of the 3rd base umpire in the background seems to indicate that Roberto may have taken a bit of a step toward first base. So I now cast my vote with "disagreed with umpires call on what he thought was ball four"