Womack: One flap down: Remembering Jeffrey Leonard’s incredible, unusual 1987 NLCS
From SABR member Graham Womack at The Sporting News on October 18, 2017:
Jeffrey Leonard snatched the lineup off the wall of the visiting clubhouse at Busch Stadium.
It was shortly before Game 1 of the 1987 National League Championship Series, with Leonard’s San Francisco Giants due to face the St. Louis Cardinals. And Leonard, a veteran embroiled in a 2-for-21 slump to close the regular season, wasn’t in the starting lineup, with a part-timer named Mike Aldrete in his place.
“Boy, you crazy,” Leonard said to no one in particular. Then he went in manager Roger Craig’s office and closed the door.
Seven years prior, while a member of the Houston Astros, Leonard had missed most of the 1980 NLCS after another part-timer, Gary Woods, shined in a September call-up and took his spot. Leonard vowed if he got another chance at the playoffs, he’d go off.
Through an up-and-down career, through injuries and through an appearance in the Pittsburgh drug trials of 1985 for cocaine use, Leonard finally found himself on the verge of the postseason once more — and not about to let the moment slip by.
Read the full article here: http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/news/jeffrey-leonard-1987-nlcs-mvp-one-flap-down-home-runs-video-giants-cardinals/t4ecro50b1e81aq9apfvv8egg
Originally published: October 18, 2017. Last Updated: October 18, 2017.