1988 season set the standard for game length, excitabilityNow
that basketball and hockey have crowned their champions, the focus
of the sporting world is on baseball. The Olympics will come and go
in a few weeks, but baseball will remain with us all summer. That’s
the bad news.
I saw a broken-bat home run the other day, but as Keith Olberman
would say, "The ball isn’t juiced though." When teams average 27
runs a game, I long for the old days (like 10 years ago) when a
ball game routinely ended 3-2 in under three hours, when pitching
was the key to the game, not Coors Field.
Whatever happened to Orel Hershiser’s 59 consecutive scoreless
innings in 1988? While we’re on the subject, why are there so many
ex-Dodgers on all-star teams in the World Series? That’s another
story though.
The year 1988 still perplexes me. Not Hershiser’s record or
Canseco’s 40/40 season (40 home runs used to be a big thing), or
the way Mike Scioscia used to block the plate (Piazza?), but
something Peter Gammons may have never thought of.
We all know about Kirk Gibson’s home run in the bottom of the
ninth in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series  a bad hamstring, a
bad knee, a one and two count, two outs, trailing 4-3 and a man on
base against Dennis Eckersley.
That man-on-base, Mike Davis, is all but forgotten, but it is he
that could have been equally as famous.
Davis batted before and drew a walk. He stood on first base as
Gibson fouled off pitch after pitch, and then Davis, who had
marginal speed at best, took off for second and was safe without a
throw.
The problem is why there was no throw. The pitch was way outside
and Gibson leaned across the plate in order to watch the ball all
the way into the catcher’s mitt. A’s catcher Ron Hassey caught the
pitch, but when he jumped up to throw out Davis, he couldn’t get
the throw off. Gibson had ventured right in front of him. It should
have been batter’s interference: game over.
Perhaps if it wasn’t the World Series and Gibson wasn’t the
National League MVP, the umpire would have made the correct call.
Hassey can clearly be seen looking at the umpire for the
interference call, but to no avail.
If Hassey were to get the throw off, Davis probably would have
been tagged out. Davis was past his prime (I could have hit that
3-0 fastball out of the park like he did in Game 5) and got only an
average jump on the pitch. Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda had to send
Davis in hopes of putting the tying run in scoring position, but
Davis would have never made it safely.
I sound like an A’s fan, or worse, a Giants fan, but in fact,
even though the heavier version won more ball games, I still love
Tommy and bleed Dodger Blue. In fairness though, the "Big Dodger in
the Sky" was definitely looking down upon Chavez Ravine that
October evening.
Batter interference wasn’t called and Gibson hit the next pitch
into the right field pavilion. As Gibson was yanking his arm as he
rounded second, most forgot about Davis and his stolen base. But
with way too much free time on my hands, I actually dismantled a
moment in baseball lore.
Now that I think about, I should shut up. The old days of pure
baseball, when a gimp can win a World Series game, are over. Now we
get to watch grown men get paid for playing over-the-line and
home-run derby.
Scott Yabroff is a Daily Bruin sports columnist.