By Edwin Cooney
At this writing, the 2015 World Series
is underway. The New York Mets, who in
all of their five World Series have yet to ever win game 1 of the fall classic,
are down three games to one in the best-of-seven series. The Amazin’ Mets and the relentless Kansas
City Royals are thus locked in an intense struggle for the “world championship”
of professional baseball. The question
is: how much does it all count or matter?
The most intriguing answer is: it depends on how you look at it!
In 2015, if you are a Met or a Royal
player, a family member or a fan, it both counts and matters big time! By 2016, once the beer and champagne have
been spilled and the parades are all marched out and all the money is in the
bank, the new “World Champions” will have to earn their status all over again!
From an historical standpoint, it
counts less today financially than it once did.
Back in the 1950s when the Yankees won six out of ten world
championships and the average player’s salary was approximately $5,000, most of
the players nearly doubled their salaries even if they only received the loser’s
share of the World Series’ take. Yankee
right fielder Hank Bauer, a tough ex-marine (observers used to say that Bauer
had a face like a clenched fist!) would growl at teammates who made errors or
outs in a crucial game situation, saying “hey, you’re messin’ with my money.”
One of my favorite teams was the 1960
Yankees. That team, with all its
superior power, pitching, and defense capability, lost to the Pittsburgh
Pirates by a score of ten to nine in the seventh game when the Pirates’ second
baseman Bill Mazeroski hit one over Yogi Berra’s head into the left field
stands off pitcher Ralph Terry. Of
course, the Pirates earned their victory, but Yankee fans still debate the
cause of the loss. Some insist that if manager Casey Stengel had started left-handed pitching ace Whitey Ford three times during the series instead of only twice, the series
outcome might well have been a Yankee victory.
Ford, after all, had shut out the Pirates 10 to nothing on Saturday,
October 8th at Yankee Stadium and 12 to zip at Forbes Field on
Wednesday, October 12th. Others insist that the bouncing ball that
caught shortstop Tony Kubek in the throat rather than sticking in his glove was
the turning point of game seven. That otherwise
double-play ball loaded the bases rather than ending the inning making Yankee
disaster possible. The Pirates
subsequently erased a Yankee three run lead and took their own lead in the
eighth inning. Although the Yankees tied
the game in the ninth, they were just one pitch away from stunning ego-deflating
doom as Terry pitched to Mazeroski. “It
was the only time I cried after a World Series loss,” Mickey mantle told
broadcaster Larry King in 1989. He
related further that a teammate proceeded to insist that it was “…only a game.
Let’s have a drink.” Mantle had to work
hard to restrain himself from slugging the pitcher.
It’s my guess that Mickey Mantle’s
tears of frustration had little to do with the difference between winning and
losing dollars. Sport is by its nature
competitive. It provides an opportunity
for instant gratification via the reward of temporary dominance. We all experience this thrill when we win,
whether we’re bowling or playing games with friends or family. The late football coach Vince Lombardi used
to lecture his players and anyone else who would listen that winning was not
just a pleasant circumstance. Winning was absolutely everything.
Forty years ago between October 11th
and 22nd, the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Red Sox played perhaps
the most exciting seven-game World Series of them all. Long will Reds fans remember the exploits of
Pete Rose, (the series’ MVP), Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench, and Tony Perez. However,
I believe that Red Sox fans as well as other baseball fans who otherwise
supported other teams will remember Bernie Carbo’s eighth inning blast that tied
the sixth game and Carlton Fisk’s dramatic home run in the 12th inning that
provided the necessity for a dramatic seventh game the following day.
I’ve read that Carlton Fisk and his
wife couldn’t find an empty hotel room to rent during the immediate hours after
Carlton’s feat of Red Sox heroism. For
Carlton Fisk, it was almost a religious experience in that for him, the Red
Sox’s messiah, there was no room at the inn!
Yes, indeed, the Mets and the Royals
are currently struggling for what counts and one of them will succeed. Surely Carlton Fisk would have preferred to
win in 1975, but he achieved a feat that still evokes both nightmares and happy
dreams in the hearts of millions of baseball fans. As much as Fisk’s home run couldn’t count
toward a Sox victory in the 1975 series, it still matters to a lot of
people. It may well be a part of the
reason why Carlton Fisk has a plaque in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
As for Bill Mazeroski in 1960, his feat
of heroism not only matters, it very much both counted and mattered.
If you ask me, that’s pure
unadulterated glory! Ouch! It still
hurts!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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