BLUNDERS: DISHONORABLE MENTION

1. Jerry Grote makes like Mickey Owen, October 16, 1973, Shea Stadium

In the 1973 World Series Jerry Grote had 10 assists and 132 putouts and caught four of seven base-stealers. But for one brief moment the best defensive catcher of his generation became Mickey Owen, on a play that may have cost the Mets their crown.

With the Mets and Oakland even at 1-1 the Mets needed Game 3 at Shea Stadium. Ace Tom Seaver came through with eight masterful innings, striking out 12 and yielding just two runs. But Oakland’s Catfish Hunter was equally stingy.

In the 11th inning, Met reliever Harry Parker walked Ted Kubiak with one out. He whiffed Angel Mangual on a fastball … only to have the ball inexplicably squirt past Grote and roll forty feet away. Although Mangual couldn’t run for first (since there’d been a runner there) Kubiak moved ninety feet into scoring position. Parker was distracted and gave up a single that brought Kubiak home with the winning run. Grote was so angry at himself he wouldn’t discuss the play afterwards, snarling at the press.

The Mets outscored Oakland in the Series, 24-21 but lost in seven, falling short in two one-run and one two-run games… the kind of losses in which there is little margin for error.

2. Chuck Knoblauch loses his cool, October 7, 1998, Yankee Stadium

Chuck Knoblauch got lucky. If he had goofed up for any other team he could easily have worn goat horns for the rest of his life. In the 12th inning of Game 2 of the ALCS, Cleveland’s Travis Fryman bunted, hoping to get the winning run into scoring position. Knoblauch, the second baseman, covered first and readied for first baseman Tino Martinez’s throw. But it never arrived as the ball bounced off Fryman’s back.

Knoblauch argued that Fryman was out of the baseline. Unfortunately, he did this while the ball was still in play. As he ranted and raved the crowd howled, the runner scored and Fryman raced to third. The Yankees lost 4-1.

But nothing could stop the 1998 Yankees, not even the mental cramping of their second baseman. They came back to beat the Indians in six games, making Knoblauch’s gaffe something they could all laugh about.

3. Babe Herman doubles into a double play, August 15, 1926, Ebbets Field

Babe Herman did not triple into a triple play, as many believe. But the symbol of the Daffiness Boys--who had fly balls bounce off his head and walked around with a lit cigar in his pocket--did double into a double play, which as John Lardner famously wrote, “is the next best thing.”

. With the bases loaded, the rookie Herman banged the ball off the right field wall. One run scored easily. But the runner from second, pitcher Dazzy Vance, broke late and when he saw the throw beat him home he retreated to third-- only to find Chick Fewster sliding in from second and Herman chugging in behind him. Herman had slid into second where he heard the second baseman yell for the shortstop to throw home. Presuming it was for a play on Fewster, he made what he thought was a heads-up play and raced to third… where he found both teammates.

Vance—who’d caused the mess—was legal possessor of the base. So Fewster wandered off the bag and was tagged, while Herman started back to second only to find the ball waiting for him there. Amazingly, the one run that did score would be the margin of victory in the game making Herman the ostensible hero. But he was always remembered for his gaffe, as this play inspired the famous quip, “The Dodgers have three men on base,” “Oh yeah, which base?”

4. Merle Hapes and Frank Filchock fail to tell the truth, December 16, 1946

The cover-up is always worse than the crime. Nearly thirty years before Watergate Merle Hapes learned that lesson the hard way.

Shortly before the 1946 NFL championship gamblers approached Hapes, one of the few Giants running backs not sidelined by injuries, offering him a bribe to throw the game. While recordings made of Hapes’ phone call by investigators revealed he turned down the bribes, he apparently was afraid of guilt by association and failed to report the attempt to team or league officials.

When new commissioner Bert Bell learned of the situation through law enforcement officials, he quickly suspended Hapes from the championship. Meanwhile,

quarterback Frank Filchock was also implicated—he had either been approached directly or through Hapes (according to different tellings of the story) but he initially convinced Bell he had no first-hand knowledge and was allowed to play. Filchock threw two touchdown passes but the Giants lost to Chicago 24-14.

Afterwards Bell learned that Filchock was smoothing out the truth and suspended both Hapes and Filchock for life. Sometimes it’s better to be a tattletale.

5. Gus Mancuso delivers the wrong name, October 6, 1937 Yankee Stadium

       The Yankees had already scored five runs in the sixth inning and Game 1 of the 1937 World Series was getting away from the Giants. So manager Bill Terry called on Dick Coffman to relieve Carl Hubbell. Unfortunately catcher Gus Mancuso gave the name of a different pitcher, Harry Gumbert, to the home plate umpire. Once Gumbert was announced, the Yankees wouldn’t let Coffman pitch, citing the rule that Gumbert must face one batter. Called off the bench with no warm-ups, Gumbert got Tony Lazzeri to hit a grounder but the distracted Giants botched it, allowing one run to score. Then a rattled Coffman came on and walked Lefty Gomez, one of the worst hitting pitchers in history. One out later he walked home another run. The Giants lost the game 8-1 and the Series in five.

DISHONORABLE MENTION: BLUNDERS BY THE BOSSES

1. Fight Night gets KO’d, June 5, 1998, Madison Square Garden

       Don King was having more than a bad hair day. The notorious boxing promoter’s job was to put on and then hype fights but on June 5, 1998, King called off an entire event at Madison Square Garden, earning a split decision: virtually every columnist was thrilled that the lackluster event was not going to come off but half believed it had collapsed due to bad planning and bad luck while others smelled a scheme by the always cagey King.

       The card looked like this:

       Ray Mercer had tested positive for hepatitis B days earlier, forcing the cancellation of his bout. (He claimed it was hepatitis A, prompting his manager Marc Roberts to say, “Ray doesn't know much about letters.”)

       Christy Martin’s opponent, Maria Nieves-Garcia, was discovered to be 21 weeks pregnant (which she denied for three days); Martin then rejected the substitute, Melissa Salamore, prompting speculation that Martin thought her too challenging; a third opponent, Cheryl Nance was stuck in her place.

       An ancient Roberto Duran was going to fight but a Florida family court and the IRS were going to garnish most of his wages.

       As for the main event Evander Holyfield was pitted against WBA contender Henry Akinwande although he really wanted to take on WBC champ Lennox Lewis, a more glamorous match-up. With King having demanded insanely high ticket prices ($100-$1,000) and

distracted by his own troubles—he was on trial for federal insurance fraud charges—nobody had been able to drum up much business and only about 4-6,000 tickets had been sold. Given Holyfield’s and Akinwande’s payday ($10 and $2.5 million respectively), King, the Garden and Showtime (which also projected lower-than-expected pay-per-view sales) stood to lose a fortune.

       Then, lo and behold, the day before the fight it was declared that Akinwande’s last-minute test had also revealed hepatitis B and the entire card had to be cancelled, eliminating the paydays and minimizing the losses. Akinwande’s manager swore his fighter was healthy, further fueling cries that King was scamming the public once again…. unless, of course, he and the Garden had simply made a series of dumb decisions, each one compounding the last. Either way, it was not a pretty picture.

2. The Yankees nearly blow up Shea, June 10th, 1975, Shea Stadium

Emily Post certainly would have disapproved. The Yankees were guests at Shea Stadium in 1975 while their ballpark was being renovated but on June 10th, the Bombers strafed the joint and nearly wrecked it. In honor of Army Day, the Yankees held a 21-gun salute with cannons situated on the warning track facing the American flag behind the centerfield fence. The cannons held blanks but the blasts were still so powerful they knocked over three panels, set a fourth on fire, and shattered the windows at the stadium’s Diamond Club.

3. Garden bosses burn the mortgage, January, 1941, Madison Square Garden

       It was almost as if the Rangers didn’t deserve to win another Stanley Cup.        Once upon a time the Rangers were called The Classiest Team in Hockey. But in late January, 1941 General Reed John Kilpatrick and other Madison Square Garden corporate officers commit a heinous act of sacrilege—to celebrate paying off the Garden’s $3 million mortgage they tossed the papers and a lit match into the Stanley Cup itself (which the Rangers had won in 1940) and used it as an ashtray. According to legend, coach Lester Patrick said, “No good will come of this.” Rumors of the incident floated around and on February 2, the New York Times ran a photo confirming the blasphemous event. From then on, the Rangers were doomed. And while it’s hard to say there was a real Curse of the Cup, it certainly seems logical that the men responsible for one bad decision would be capable of many more.

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