Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Kent and Drew tagged out at home . . . on the same play

Tom Boswell has the details.

Yes, I saw it the last time it happened: 1985, Monday Night Baseball, Comiskey Park, Yanks-White Sox. Dale Berra (who was probably out of his mind on coke that night) and Bobby Meacham. Pudge Fisk kept his feet as Meacham crashed.

There are four basic rules of baseball. The game will always humble you. In the field, the ball will find you. At bat, the more you try to hide a batter, the more the situation will seek him out.

And mental lapses will haunt you.

Had Berra simply stayed at second (and the play was his fault--third-base coach Stick Michael wanted Meacham to stay but had to send him when Berra came roaring up, and then Berra ran through a stone stop sign), the Yankees would have had nobody out, bases loaded, with 1985 MVP and RBI leader Don Mattingly due up and in-his-prime Dave Winfield on deck.

Instead, they lost in extra innings by one run, when Ozzie Guillen (yes, him) scored from second on a wild pitch.

And they lost the division by two games.

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