worst endings to regular season games (ever)

[flosses like fossas]

chris jaffe has a fun read over at the hardball times - 15 worst endings ever to regular season games. your hometown milwaukee brewers appear twice, once as winners and once as losers, but i won't say more about it than that. what can be said (perhaps not enough) is that the cubs' futility and proclivity for crapping the bed is made note of.

[RockCoCougars]

The Don Money/Billy Martin fiasco came to mind immediately, I'm kind of surprised that it's number one though. I'd have to say the Harvey Haddix game (also at County Stadium) would be first in my opinion, but I guess that was omitted from this list by design. I believe the #2 has a local twist as well, as Fred Merkle, famous for the bone(head) baserunning mistake was born in Watertown.

[Bikeage77]

I thought maybe that Balk Off back in 2003 or 2004 would be on there. How could I have forgot the "OH NO!" game against the Cubs.

[JohnBriggs12]

I've talked about the Don Money game a number of times on this site. I think it's safe to say I'm the only regular poster that was among the 10.871 that actually witnessed that game. The account on Hardball Times left out a key fact. The umpire that was supposed to have called time did not disallow the HR until Billy Martin argued for several minutes well after the Brewers had left the dugout for the clubhouse. Had Martin, notorious for umpire intimidation in those days, not come out and argued, that HR would have stood up. You can also bet your life that had Money made an out, it would have counted, just as it would have had Brett popped out with the pine tar bat.

 

That game marked the one and only time where I threw an object on the field albeit just an empty beer cup. The ushers would have had to eject half the stadium to enforce that rule however. In fact, I'm not sure the ushers weren't tossing cups that day too.

 

I have never left a game madder than I was that day. More context: It was the 2nd game of the 1976 season at the start of the ill fated Alex Grammas tenure. The Brewers had shut out the Yanks in the opener the day before (which I also attended). As with all early season games, their importance seems magnified especially for a franchise that up to that point had never had a winning season. Winning a game like that could have been a huge springboard. But we'll never know.

 

For all the attention given the George Brett fiasco that also involved that slime-ball Martin, it's amazing how little attention gets paid to this game. Kudos to the author for listing it number 1.

[owbc]

Interesting perspective John.

 

Why did the Brewers agree to come back out of the clubhouse and continue the game? If the umpires declared the game over, did they really have any right to go back out there? It seems like if that happened today, the Brewers' manager could refuse to take his team back out on the field and demand that the protest go through the league office first, since the game was already over. If the league decided that time out was called, they could have resumed the game on a different day.

[JohnBriggs12]

Interesting perspective John.

 

Why did the Brewers agree to come back out of the clubhouse and continue the game? If the umpires declared the game over, did they really have any right to go back out there? It seems like if that happened today, the Brewers' manager could refuse to take his team back out on the field and demand that the protest go through the league office first, since the game was already over. If the league decided that time out was called, they could have resumed the game on a different day.

One of the umpires actually went down the ramp and got the Brewers back out on the field. They would have forfeited otherwise and remember the bases were still loaded with just one out. I remember in my delirious celebrating seeing Martin out on the field arguing with the home plate umpire and wandering what in heck he was doing. Nobody and I mean nobody saw time called prior to that pitch. I lost a ton of respect that day for Grammas who didn't put up much of a fight in my opinion. Harvey Kuenn who was coaching first in those days, blew a gasket though. He was closest to where the supposed time was being called. There's no question why Harvey was so popular with the players as a manager. He had their backs.

 

One more thing I should add for those too young to have experienced 1970's Brewer baseball. By today's standards, crowd totals seem very small. In this case just over 10,000 in what I call "the true baseball fan opener". But today's crowds don't come close to matching the passion of those days. In those days, we could make 10,000 sound like 30,000. On a cold Saturday afternoon the day after the opener, that crowd was all fans that bled Brewer baseball. They weren't there for the ambiance or for a nice outing.

[Patrick425]

I thought it was a list of "Regular Season" games. Why is the tied All-Star game on the list?

 

Also, even though it did not effect the winner of the game, I would have to say that the Armando Gallaraga/Jim Joyce non-perfect game ending would have to get honorable mention.

 

On a cold Saturday afternoon the day after the opener, that crowd was all fans that bled Brewer baseball. They weren't there for the ambiance or for a nice outing.

 

I don't remember attending games on a regular basis until about 1977. However, John, I gotta agree with you that there certainly seems to be more fans that attend games now for the "ambiance".

[RockCoCougars]

On a cold Saturday afternoon the day after the opener, that crowd was all fans that bled Brewer baseball. They weren't there for the ambiance or for a nice outing.

 

That's why is miss County Stadium so much. That feeling was lost when Miller Park opened, though I regained the feeling in my toes during these type games...

[tomwopat]

R.I.P. Ron.

[young guns]

Also, even though it did not effect the winner of the game, I would have to say that the Armando Gallaraga/Jim Joyce non-perfect game ending would have to get honorable mention.

From the article:

 

One key rule: I will NOT use any game Joe Posnanski covered in his column. His list of 33 worst sports endings including six baseball games - of which three were regular season contests: 1) the Haddix game, 2) the Galarraga game, and 3) a bizarrely brutal Royals loss to the Indians in August, 2005. Those three are out - but that leaves plenty.

[Funketown]

Briggs, that's pretty cool that you were at that game. I think I get what you mean about County Stadium vs. Miller Park. So far, my favorite stadium to enjoy a ball game at has been The Ballpark at Arlington, bar none. It's just an older style ballpark where people watch the game.

 

When I saw the thread, I immediately thought of the Balk-off. I wonder who many times that's happened? Perhaps more often than one would expect.

[dlk9s]

I was at the Brant Brown game. I was 2 weeks old at the time of the Don Money game. Feel old, JohnBriggs?

 

OFF TOPIC EDIT: I just looked at the Brant Brown date and wondered how I could have been there, as I wasn't living in Milwaukee anymore. Then I remembered that it was when I was hanging out at home between college graduation and starting my job. Then I also remembered that three days later, I met my wife.

[RightFieldCoder]

The most amazing, imho, thing about the Balk-Off was that Stanton had yet to throw a pitch for his new team (Nats) when he balked home the winning run. I can't believe that a pitcher has ever allowed a walk off run without ever pitching for the team before. I was at the game and knew at the time it was the first time the Nats would see him pitch. I was so upset when I saw Rickie get picked off. My sadness swelled to utter joy while watching Rickie start clapping my hands, as I figured out what was going on.

[JohnBriggs12]

I recently subscribed to a newspaper archival site and out of curiosity I looked up the Don Money game to see if my recollection was correct. Quoting Harvey Kuenn from the Wisconsin State Journal: "I'm saying that (1st base umpire) McKean told Chambliss right after the ball was hit, 'Time wasn't called out...The first base umpire never called time."

 

Confirming this version was Brewer Bobby Darwin who was the runner at first: "He (Chambliss) was right along side of me. I saw the whole thing. The first baseman did ask for time out, then he started toward the pitcher. But I never did hear the ump call time and then Chambliss said "Oh (expletive)", then he ran back to his position. I thought the ball was in play because the umpire never called time. If he had, Chambliss would never had said "Oh (expletive".

 

The article goes on to say: "Brewer reserve infielder Kurt Bevacqua said he thought it was a simple case of Martin intimidating the umpires. "He's the best intimidator in the league."

 

Bevacqua was absolutely right. It's hard to imagine that a manager could intimidate umpires, but Martin could. Martin had this way about him that made umpires fear him.

[pitchleague]

It's hard to imagine that a manager could intimidate umpires, but Martin could. Martin had this way about him that made umpires fear him.

With Billy Martin, this is not hard to imagine at all. He was the kind of guy that would intimidate you on the field and if he was still not satisfied, he'd find out what hotel you were staying at and continue the "conversation" at the hotel bar later that night. The guy was never afraid of repercussions of getting into fights with people, including in bars.

[RockCoCougars]

Martin was feisty to say the least. Sometimes I wish that he and Ty Cobb would have played in the same era- if Cobb would have slid in to him spikes raised to break up a double play, there would have been a fight to the death.

[brewers4eric]

I can recall reading an interview with Don Money where he discussed that particular game. I can't remember if it was linked to this site or not, but Money also gave his perspective on playing in Japan within the article.

 

Aside from the constant Yankee drama, I'll always remember Martin for the way he managed the Oakland A's in 1980. Rickey Henderson had 100 steals, but what really amazed me was the way that he handled the pitching staff. Recognizing that he didn't have much of a bullpen, the starters stayed in the game every night and racked up the innings and complete games. He basically used a seven man pitching staff during the year.

 

When I was a kid, we made the 3.5 hour drive to County Stadium once a year. I remember sitting in a box seat along the left field line during batting practice for the Yankees when Martin came out and signed autographs. Looking back, I wish I would have battled the crowd of other kids to get one from him. It was the same game (summer 1979?) where Lou Pinella rolled Jim Gantner at third base and a benches clearing brawl ensued. I know that JohnBriggs12 has mentioned that he was at that game, also.

 

Back in 1976, I was a fan of Johnny Bench and the big Red machine. I think Martin got ejected from the last game of the World Series when he threw bats and an assortment of other equipment onto the field. Good memories.

[RockCoCougars]

Say what you want, but in my view, Martin was a Hall of Fame manager. It seems that outside of Texas, and a couple of his last stints in New York, he won everywhere. The thing about him was that he wore out his welcome generally at some point in his second season. He was usually able to get much more than expected out of a team the first year though. I remember the staff from those 80's 'A's teams well....before 'Moneyball' there was 'Billyball'... Langford, Norris, Keough, Brian Kingman (known as the last 20 game loser until that guy Dall from the Phillies I think), etc. They were a pretty tough team in a weak division.