Posnanski: Breaking down two great calls of Kirk Gibson’s World Series home run
From SABR member Joe Posnanski at Joe Blogs on October 16, 2013:
I first heard the home run on the radio. It was a Saturday night — should give you a small idea of how much sports has changed that they started the World Series on a Saturday night — and I was driving home from the Duke-Clemson game at Memorial Stadium. Hey, that was actually a good Duke team coached by the ol’ Ball Coach Steve Spurrier. And, yeah, Clemson won 49-17.
Anyway, I was driving up I-85, and I was literally driving by the giant water tower shaped like a peach right outside of Gaffney, when Gibson hit the home run and Buck screamed “I don’t believe what I just saw!” It was so amazing I remember pulling over to the side of the road and getting out of the car.
I honestly cannot remember when I first heard Scully’s legendary, “In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened.” But I remember being awed by it from the start. So perfect.
Now, 25 years later, it’s so clear what makes each of those calls such genius. I asked people on Twitter which call they liked better, which is a totally unfair question. And it did not surprise me that the vote went almost right down the middle. It did surprise me, though, how PASSIONATE people were about their choices. I figured a lot of, “They’re both great calls but I like this one better.” Intead, it was more like one tweet would say “Scully and it’s not close,” and the next would be, “I’m a Scully fan, but Buck’s call was way better.” It did not seem that many people liked BOTH calls at all, much less like them equally.
Read the full article here: http://joeposnanski.com/joeblogs/breaking-down-two-great-calls/
Originally published: October 16, 2013. Last Updated: October 16, 2013.