Paschal: Ghost homers: a look at lost round-trippers
From John Paschal at The Hardball Times on September 30, 2019:
Were it not for the airplane, Pee Wee Reese and John Lowenstein each would have another home run. Indeed, were it not for aerodynamic lift and the people who put its principles to use, Reese would have 127 dingers on his ledger and Lowenstein 117.
As it stands, though, the pair of 16-year vets finished with 126 and 116, respectively. And they could blame it on those who grasped Newton’s Third Law of Motion.
On August 4, 1942, at the Polo Grounds, Reese stepped to the plate in the top of the 10th inning to face Giants starter Bill McGee. Reese’s run-scoring single in the fifth inning had given his Dodgers a 1-0 lead over their Gotham rivals, but in the bottom of the sixth, a sacrifice fly off the bat of Willard Marshall had scored Mel Ott to tie the score at 1-1. And so it stood now, in the first extra frame, as the Brooklyn shortstop got set for an opportunity to change the score in dramatic fashion. Change it he did, in the most dramatic fashion available, by hitting an inside-the-park grand slam.
Read the full article here: https://tht.fangraphs.com/ghost-homers-a-look-at-lost-round-trippers/
Originally published: October 2, 2019. Last Updated: October 2, 2019.