Clutch 30-2016: Baseball Heroes (and Goats) don’t Wear Capes

In the Clutch (no pun intended) the big star players are supposed to deliver. That’s what and why they get paid an outrageous ridiculous amount of money. Getting a bunch of key hits or striking out the side at a bunch of important moments is where the team benefits from giving a star that long-term bloated contract. Of course these players are also supposed to deliver on getting a team to that moment in addition to pushing them over the top.

You see this with a fair amount of regularity with great players doing their usual thing in the playoffs and the crown jewel: the World Series. The booming power-hitter bashes a couple of homeruns, the Ace of the staff picks up a couple of wins and shuts down the opposition and on and on. Since this is typically expected it’s often overlooked among the games of the series. The feeling is that since a player is doing with he’s “Supposed” to do it doesn’t necessarily draw headlines or long-term memories.

It’s the anomalies that become back-page news, watercooler talk and things later on discussed over a beer. There are two types of these situations. The first, which is the positive, is when an unknown player comes out of the woodwork and delivers in one or many spots on the biggest stage such as the World Series. The other type is quite the opposite were that star player folds like a cheap suit or broken down valise. Both types probably get equal storage in the prefrontal cortex to be recalled later on during baseball chat sessions.

Let’s first take a look at a few success stories. The first comes from the Boone family. No, not Daniel Boone, but the baseball Boones. Forget about the fact that the Boone family lineage goes back multiple generations, and if you don’t want to forget about it see the blog from a month or so ago that focused on ancestry in the major leagues. For now, let’s look at the current generation of Boones which spit out two big leaguers. One you likely heard of as he had a pretty solid career in the game. That of course is Bret Boone who spent 13 years in the league, a handful of awards, and solid career stats.  

The lesser Boone whose name might not be top of mind is Aaron Boone, Bret’s brother. Aaron kicked around for almost the same number of years, but with way less stellar stats, awards of general player notoriety over his career. That said, Aaron Boone is a bit of a hero in New York.  He spent the back half of one season (2003) with the Yankees, where he was traded to from Cincinnati in one of those “Rent a player” deals. One at bat summed up his career in the Bronx which was game 7 of the ALCS versus the arch-rival Boston Red Sox where he hit a dramatic walk-off home run in the 11^th inning to win the game and the series for the Yanks and propelled them into the World Series. It’s fair to say that no Yankee fan will ever forget that moment or that player. Yankee brass, on the other hand, must have thought differently as Aaron was cut from the team the next spring during camp.

In the fall of 1986 there were a string of heroes across town with the Mets. They were the guys that created and maintained the most drama filled come-back and rally in World Series history, bar none. Unfortunately for the city of Boston, this scenario also ends with them losing. If you are not familiar with “Game 6” I advise you to google it to get the full details. The Clutch research team is confident that the entire famous inning is well documented anywhere on the Internet. The hero focus that will be looked at here is on William Hayward Wilson. Though the name sounds like that of a historical US President, he is more affectionately known in these parts as “Mookie”.

Mookie Wilson had a pretty decent baseball career. He played for around 10 years, with the lion’s share of that being with the Mets. As a matter of fact, kid Clutch was (and still is) infuriated when Wilson was traded to the Blue Jays in the twilight of his career. Mookie was never the same as a player and his playing career ended up in Canada just two years later. Luckily the Mets “fixed” that debacle by hiring Wilson into several positions in the organization after he hung him his spikes and batting gloves. As a side-note teenage Clutch kind of met the Met legend. After a game one Sunday afternoon while catching a ride home from Shea on the Grand Central parkway a glance to right presented Mookie driving home after a day’s work in a customized van.

The simple reason that Wilson could do no wrong since that famous day is that he singlehandedly saved the 86 Mets from a disastrous end of season. Long story short, and as noted it’s highly recommended to look this up and watch it, The Mets and Mookie down to their last strike and were a pitch away from losing a World Series that they were highly favored to win. What did Mookie do? He managed to foul off four (4) pitches before the sound heard around the world: “Little roller up along first, behind the bag it gets through Buckner”. Mookie became a hero in literally 2.5 seconds.

Staying focused on New York for another moment or two, there were a couple of opposite cases where someone expected to deliver and didn’t. It was the malaise of game one of the 2000 subway World Series with the Mets pitted against the cross-town rival Yankees. Ironically they were the two teams that caused all that angst in Boston. The Yankees were favored to win the series with the star-studded and expensive lineup while the scrappy Mets got there by piecing together a great season with a collection of very good players plus star Mike Piazza. Clutch fun-fact that Robin Ventura and Joe McEwing batted 5^th and 6^th in the lineup in game one of the series and a baker’s dozen years later would be coaching side-by-side for the White Sox.

That infamous, considered as such by Met fans, Game One was queued up for the Mets to win until two goat type moves. Timo Perez neglected to run out a Todd Zeile double, which would have delivered an all-important insurance run to the one-run lead being nursed by the Metropolitans. Then there was Armando Benitez, who was lights out all regular season, but just couldn’t get it down in the big situation. He blew the save in the 9^th inning causing overtime. Yup, the Mets lost it in 11^th inning – and there went the momentum of the series. To his credit Armando pitched OK the rest of the way, including a save in the only game the Mets would win in the series. That said – he will only be remembered for the game one performance!

On to 2016 where a young unknown named Kyle Schwarber is making some name for himself. The future star in his second season suffered a season ending injury after five (5) season at-bats. Schwarber made an “Ali like” return to the diamond in the World Series and was a key contributor in the Cubs “Must win” game two of the World Series. He even had a rare to find hit in game one where the Cubs bats were frozen. Fans spanning the country and possible the globe are all ears to see what he does the rest of the way.  The Clutch guess-o-meter says he puts on a performance that makes him an insta-hero in the Windy City.