Another Fall Classic is upon us. The dawn of a new World Series each year brings the opportunity for new stories to be told and for history to be made. We have already seen history made during this postseason. Shohei Ohtani, in the game that sent his Los Angeles Dodgers to their second straight World Series, hit three home runs and threw six scoreless innings to essentially put the Dodgers in the World Series all on his own in one of the greatest individual performances of all time. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit the first Grand Slam in Blue Jays postseason history in Game 2 of the American League Division Series. That’s just a couple of examples of the moments we’ve witnessed this October.
Every baseball fan has memories of the World Series, even the ones their team wasn’t a part of. Everyone in the New York area remembers the dread hanging in the air after Freddie Freeman’s grand slam in Game 1 last year against the New York Yankees. In 2021, when the Atlanta Braves and Houston Astros squared off, I complained that I hated both so much that I couldn’t pick one to be happy about. I was astonished when my dad said he would be okay with the then-Cleveland Indians beating the Chicago Cubs in the 2016 World Series, who were looking to win their first World Series in 108 years. I remember when my dad, who was covering the 2012 World Series between the San Francisco Giants and Detroit Tigers, got stuck in Detroit during Hurricane Sandy and was forced to drive home. There are, of course, numerous others, but those are some of the first that occur to me.
Of course, if you asked me about my favorite World Series, I’m likely going to say 2015, even if it ended in heartbreak for my New York Mets. I was 10, and I’m not sure I had a grip on how important this was to the Mets at the time. But I’ll always remember David Wright’s home run in Game 3, in the only game the Mets won of the series. It was an iconic moment – the moment for my favorite player who had only played 38 games that year due to injuries, which would continue to follow him for the rest of his career. I would only get to see Wright play in person once, three years later in his second-to-last MLB game in 2018, but that moment in October 2015 lives in my head forever.
There’s also the moments you’re told about that live in baseball lore for all time. One such moment was Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ’Round the World” home run that sent the New York Giants to the 1951 World Series over the rival Brooklyn Dodgers. There’s Don Larsen’s perfect game in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series between the Yankees and Dodgers, which still stands as the only perfect game in World Series history. There’s Carlton Fisk waving his arms to guide his home run fair in the 1975 World Series, a renowned moment in what is widely regarded as one of the best Fall Classics of all time. Fisk’s walk-off homer forced a Game 7 for his Boston Red Sox and the Cincinnati Reds, which the Reds ultimately won. There’s David Freese’s miraculous performance for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2011 postseason, including his walk-off home run in Game 6 of the World Series to force a Game 7.
Another favorite of mine that I want to revisit is Mookie Wilson’s walkoff hit, known for the Boston Red Sox’s Bill Buckner’s error on what would normally be a routine groundball. That forced a Game 7 of the 1986 World Series that the Mets won. The play is widely known as the “Buckner play” and Vin Scully’s “It gets through Buckner!” call remains iconic almost 40 years later.
Each year, one can only hope for the World Series to deliver moments that weigh as much as these. The beauty of this sport, and all the others, is that each day we could wake up and go to sleep that night having witnessed something that has never happened before, the ultimate reason to keep watching.
