The Writers Organize
A press box revolt, a one-man defense, a call Boston still argues about, and a pitcher who refused to leave.
Ed. 10.14.26
The Writers Organize (1908)
Baseball writers in 1908 often arrived to find politicians, cops and assorted big shots in their press box seats. So with the World Series in Detroit, they met at the Pontchartrain Hotel and formed the Baseball Writers' Association of America, electing Joe S. Jackson of the Detroit Free Press to lead it. That day's game drew 6,210 fans, still the smallest crowd in World Series history. Plenty of seats, for once. Those writers' successors still vote on the Hall of Fame.
Tommie Agee's Whole Day (1969)
In the first World Series home game in Mets history, Tommie Agee led off with a homer off Jim Palmer. In the fourth, with two on, he backhanded a drive deep in left-center. In the seventh, bases loaded, he dove for Paul Blair's drive to right-center and came up with the ball. The Mets won 5-0. The reliever who got the save was a young Nolan Ryan, in the only World Series game of his 27-year career.
The Bunt Boston Never Forgot (1975)
Tied 5-5, bottom of the 10th in Cincinnati. Pinch-hitter Ed Armbrister bunted, the ball bounced high, and he and Carlton Fisk got tangled up. Fisk's throw to second sailed into center field. Boston screamed interference. Umpire Larry Barnett called it a collision, and the call stood. Joe Morgan singled home the winner. A week later, Fisk got a little revenge with a home run of his own.
Finishing What You Start (2025)
Yoshinobu Yamamoto's first pitch of NLCS Game 2 in Milwaukee left the park. The Brewers got two more hits all night. Yamamoto went the distance in a 5-1 Dodgers win, the first postseason complete game in eight years. The last one? Justin Verlander, on October 14, 2017. Eleven days later, Yamamoto did it again in the World Series. In the age of the bullpen, he made nine innings look normal.
