Is That Legal?: Saddest World Series Moment

September 29, 2006

Saddest World Series Moment

n a year when baseball may have a playoff team barely over .500, I thought back to 1973 when the 82-79 N.Y. Mets lost a 7-game set, after leading 3-2, to the Oakland A's -- who were in the midst of a 3-year run as World Champion.

Forgotten is the heroic performance of the Mets' rightfielder Rusty Staub. Staub played the entire series with a separated shoulder injured after crashing into Shea Stadium's right-field wall in game 4 of the NLCS against the Reds. But against the A's, Staub hit .423 with 1 HR, 6 RBI, .464 OBP, and a .615 SLG. Staub outhit WS MVP Reggie Jackson, who likewise had 1 HR, 6 RBI, but hit .310 with a .355 OBP, and a .586 SLG. And Jackson struckout 7 times to Staub's 2.

But more memorable than Staub's performance was the agonizingly painful denouement to the legendary career of the Mets' Willie Mays. In Game 1, Mays was forced to short-toss an extrabase hit in the right-field gap to Mets' rightfielder George Theodore so he could throw it back to the infield. Mays no longer had the arm strength to do it.

It remains for me the saddest moment in all my years of watching baseball. Baseball's most exciting and talented player so weakened and feeble.

Posted by shertaugh at September 29, 2006 4:42 PM