Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark17
Matty had a 1-run lead going into the bottom of the 10th inning of the final game. With one out, all he has to do is take charge and either catch Speaker's pop foul himself, or do the logical thing and call for Merkle to take it. Instead he called for Meyers (possibly the slowest-footed player in baseball) and Chief couldn't quite get to it. For Merkle or Matty it would've been an easy out. Speaker then supposedly calls out to Matty something like: "You just called for the wrong man and now it's going to cost you this ballgame," before singling in the tying run and advancing the eventual winning run to third.
That and the famous matchup with Brown at the end of the 1908 season were two huge do-or-die games Matty lost.
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Matty's biggest mistake in that game came on the previous hitter. He walked the light-hitting Steve Yerkes, putting the winning run on base, and bringing up Speaker (who hit .383 that year).