Wendel: My dream game, 1968 World Series Game 7
From SABR member Tim Wendel at The National Pastime Museum on May 7, 2015:
When the ball left the bat, Bob Gibson turned to follow its flight. His first reaction? Cardinals center fielder Curt Flood would catch it.
The Tigers’ Jim Northrup, who had tagged the fastball, took a glance skyward too. Maybe it would drop, he thought.
Somehow Detroit had put two men on ahead of Northrup, thanks to a pair of pedestrian singles by Norm Cash and Willie Horton. An extra-base hit would deliver the Tigers their first real measure of success against Gibson, who had already beaten them twice in the 1968 World Series and set a strikeout record in the process.
Let’s pause here for a moment, with the ball streaming toward Flood in center field. For if I could go back in time and see any game in person this would be the one. In a perfect world, I’d ask to see all seven games of this classic too. In 1968, the top ballclubs from the National League and the American League went directly to the World Series. Now, I love the playoffs and the wild cards as much as the next guy. But ’68 was the end of an era in the grand game, and many who took the field that October, either for the favored Cardinals or the upstart Tigers, soon realized it.
Read the full article here: http://www.thenationalpastimemuseum.com/article/1968-world-series-game-7
Originally published: May 7, 2015. Last Updated: May 7, 2015.