Before I dig into the meat of my top 25 list of Baseball's Most Exciting Games, I thought I'd write about four games that were close, but just missed out on qualifying.
The first two is a pair of early World Series games that ended in ties. Both of these games would have made the Top 25 list if I hadn't made the arbitrary decision that ties in baseball are weird and thus shouldn't be talked about. Ties were much more common in baseball before the stadiums had lights, and the official policy was always to just pretend the games didn't happen and replay them later.
But I can't imagine the disappointment you'd feel if you were watching an extra-inning World Series game, full of clutch hitting and dramatic comebacks, only to have the umpires decide it was too dark to continue and call it off. All that excitement, and the game didn't even count? Come on.
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| See? Four fingers. |
(The early baseball world was a completely different world than ours.)
In Game 1, the Tigers - with the help of three Cub errors - scored three runs in the top of the 8th to take a 3-1 lead. The Cubs got one back in the bottom of the ninth and had two runners on with two outs. Tigers pitcher Wild Bill Donovan then struck out pinch-hitter Del Howard to seemingly end the game, but catcher Boss Schmidt dropped the third strike, allowing Howard to reach and the tying run to score. During the next plate appearance, Schmidt redeemed himself by tagging out Johnny Evers trying to steal home. Schmidt also tagged out a runner at the plate to end the 10th inning. There was no more scoring (despite the Cubs loading the bases in the 11th) and the game was called by darkness after the 12th inning.
Game 1, 1907 World Series Overall Rank: 21 Top 10 Swing: 193 Top play: B9, 2 out, Detroit up 3-2, Del Howard strikes out, Harry Steinfeldt scores on E2, Johnny Evers to 3rd, Howard to 1st (WPA of 40% for Chicago) Loser's largest WE: 95 Detroit leading 3-1, T9, 1 out, 1 on base (measured as highest WE for either team since game ended as a tie) Average LI: 1.89 Highest leverage moment: 8.15 (Howard's at bat in B9) |
The other tie that cracked the top 25 list was Game 2 of the 1912 World Series. With the Red Sox leading the series 1-0, Game 2 was played in Fenway Park, then in its inaugural season. Fenway has had a gigantic wall in left field since the day it opened, but in 1912 the wall wasn't green, and there was a 10-foot-tall hill leading up to it from the playing field. Because safety! That hill eventually got the nickname Duffy's Cliff because of the skill Boston leftfielder Duffy Lewis showed in navigating it.
But with Boston leading 4-2 in the eighth inning. Duffy Lewis fell on Duffy's Cliff while chasing a fly ball. His fall helped start a New York Giant rally, which ended with them taking a 5-4 lead. The Red Sox tied the game in the bottom of the 8th, and the game eventually went into extra innings.
In the top of the 10th, Fred Merkle (old time baseball names ruled) hit a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly. And then came the chaos of the bottom of the 10th. With one out, Tris Speaker hit one deep to center field. As he was rounding first, he appeared to miss the base, but he kept right on going past second and on to third, where Giants third baseman Buck Herzog got in his way, apparently intentionally. Speaker crashed into Herzog, but kept going anyway, and he scored when catcher Art Wilson dropped the relay throw. The Giants appealed to the umpires about Speaker missing first, but the appeal was denied, and the game was tied.
(Imagine for a second if that play had happened in modern times. Sports Twitter would have melted.)
Anyway, two Giants were thrown out stealing in the top of the 11th, the Red Sox went down in order in the bottom of the inning, and the umpires decided to call it a tie, ignoring the protests of the players who thought they could keep going.
| Game 2, 1912 World Series Overall Rank: 15 Top 10 Swing: 247 Top Play: B10, 1 out, New York up 6-5, Tris Speaker triples to center, scores on error by catcher (WPA of 47% for Boston) Loser's largest WE: 88 The start of Speaker's at bat in the 10th (measured as highest WE for either team since game ended as a tie) Average LI: 1.70 Highest leverage moment: 6.88 (B9, 2 outs, bases loaded, game tied 5-5, Red Murray batting for New York) |
The other two honorable mention games actually came to a conclusion. Game 1 of the 1946 World Series was the first World Series game for the Red Sox since they sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1919. The Cardinals were one strike from winning in the top of the ninth before Tom McBride hit an RBI single to tie the game. Boston's Rudy York then hit a home run in the 10th to win it. Other people who played in this series included Ted Williams (in his first full season back from the War), Stan Musial (playing in his fourth World Series in five seasons), and Johnny Pesky, Pinky Higgins, Rip Russell, Harry Walker, and Tex Hughson (all listed because, again, old-time baseball names ruled).
| Game 1, 1946 World Series Overall Rank: 29 Top 10 Swing: 219 Top Play: T10, 2 outs, tied 2-2, Rudy York homers to left (WPA of 42% for Boston) Loser's largest WE: 92 St. Louis leading 2-1, 1 out, T9, Pinky Higgins batting Average LI: 1.70 Highest leverage moment: 6.12 (B9, 1 out, runners on 1st and 3rd, St. Louis leading 2-1, Roy Partee batting for Boston) |
The other game that just missed the cutoff was Game 7 of the 1924 World Series, a game that was surprisingly modern. Washington Senators manager Bucky Harris (also the team's second baseman) picked righty Curly Ogden as the starting pitcher, forcing the New York Giants to commit to their left-handed lineup; after one batter, Harris brought in lefty George Mogridge as the actual starter. It was one of baseball's first instances of the "Opener."
The opener concept worked great for a while, as the Senators had a 1-0 lead going into the 6th inning. But the Giants scored three times in the 6th (with the help of two straight Washington errors) and the Senators trailed 3-1 going into the 8th.
In the 8th, with the bases loaded and two outs, Harris hit a grounder to third that seemed certain to end the inning. However, it took a bad hop off a pebble to get past Freddie Lindstrom to score two runs and tie the game. Walter Johnson then entered in relief for Washington in the top of the 9th and held the Giants scoreless through the 12th. In the bottom of the 12th, Washington's Muddy Ruel hit a popup behind the plate that Giants catcher Hank Gowdy seemed to be tracking. But Gowdy stepped on his discarded catcher's mask, fell over, and let the ball drop. Ruel then doubled to put the Series winning run on base. Two batters later, Earl McNeely hit a grounder to third that should have ended the inning, but another bad hop off a pebble let the ball get into left field, allowing Ruel to score the series-winning run.
(Even though that series was 98 years ago, there's a surviving highlight reel. Think of it as 1924's version of SportsCenter.)
| Game 7, 1924 World Series Overall Rank: 28 Top 10 Swing: 215 Top Play: B8, 2 out, bases loaded, New York up 3-1, Bucky Harris singles to left, Nemo Leibold and Muddy Ruel score, Mule Shirley to second (WPA of 35% for Washington) Loser's largest WE: 87 B8, 1 out, nobody on base, Nemo Leibold batting Average LI: 1.88 Highest leverage moment: 6.05 (Harris' 8th-inning single) |
So those were the just-missed games, the two I cut off the list because ties in baseball are stupid and the two that just missed. That Senators win in particular is one always mentioned when people compile lists of the greatest ever baseball games. And yet it didn't make the top 25.
Starting tomorrow, we'll begin the actual list of baseball's 25 most exciting games, looking at a game where both teams pulled off three-run rallies that started with two outs in the inning.
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