Now I've finally gotten around to finishing up my tribute to Post Season MVPs who were denied their glory.
I covered the ALCS and the NLCS... now for the big Kahuna: The players who were denied the World Series MVP.
I am not including Bobby Richardson who did indeed win the 1960 World Series MVP despite the fact that his Yankees lost the Series.
Ready? Let's go
1958 Yankees Defeat Braves, 4-3
Robbed MVP – Warren Spahn.
2-1, 2.20 ERA. 28 2/3 innings.
How close were the Braves from winning?
The Braves took a 3-1 series lead.
Game 6… bottom 8th inning. Braves put the potential go-ahead run on first but didn’t score. Bottom 9th, Ryne Duren faced Covington, Bruton and Spahn… a single run would win the World Series, but struck out the side. The Yankees scored twice in the 10th. The Braves scored in the 10th and had the tying run on third and the World Series winning run at first, but Bob Turley got Frank Torre to line out.
Game 7, the game was tied going into the 8th but the Yankees scored 4 runs and never looked back.
Goat. Eddie Mathews.
The future Hall of Famer was held to a .160 average with no homers and 11 strikeouts. Held to a single hit total in the Braves four losses.
Actual MVP: Bob Turley
1962 Yankees defeat Giants, 4-3
Robbed MVP– Jack Sanford.
3 starts, 1.93 ERA over 23 1/3 innings. 19 strikeouts. 7 innings 1 run in game 7.
How close were the Giants from winning?
If Willie McCovey’s line drive was a foot more to the left or right, the Giants would have won the World Series.
Goat. Felipe Alou.
He could not get a sacrifice bunt down in the 9th to move his brother Matty to scoring position. Matty went to third on Willie Mays’ double but never scored the tying run.
Actual MVP: Ralph Terry
1964 Cardinals defeat Yankees, 4-3
Robbed MVPs– Mickey Mantle. 3 HRs, 8 RBI, .333 average including a walk off homer in game 3.
Jim Bouton.
2-0 including a complete game victory in game 3 and 8 1/3 solid innings in game 6 to tie the seres.
How close were the Yankees from winning?
Game 7 was tied through 3 and home runs brought the Yankees to within 2 in the 9th.
Goat. Bobby Richardson.
He batted .406 in the series but fumbled a key double play ball that set up a game winning grand slam by Ken Boyer in game 4.
Actual MVP: Bob Gibson
1967 Cardinals defeat Red Sox, 4-3
Robbed MVP– Carl Yastrzemski
.400, 3 HRs, 5 RBI
How close were the Red Sox from winning?
Actually not that close. But George Scott tripled and scored on an error to cut the Cardinal lead in game 7 to 4-1. But the Cardinals unloaded on Lonborg the next inning.
Goat. The Red Sox hitters NOT named Yastrzemski.
Ken Harrleson, Elston Howard, Reggie Smith, George Scott, Jose Tartabull et al were all flops.
Actual MVP: Bob Gibson
1968 Tigers defeat Cardinals, 4-3
Robbed MVP – Bob Gibson.
Mind boggling game one where he threw a complete game shutout with 17 strikeouts and 1 walk. Struck out 35 batters in 27 innings over three complete games with a 1.67 ERA
How close were the Cardinals from winning?
Up 3-1 in the series, the Cardinals scored 3 in the top of the first of game 5 on Cepeda’s homer. The Cardinals led until the bottom of the 7th when the Tigers rallied for the lead.
After the 13-1 game six blow out the Bob Gibson and Mickey Lolich were scoreless into the 7th inning when the Tigers rallied to win.
Goat. Curt Flood
Flood slipped in centerfield and turned an inning ending scoreless tie protecting out into a 2 run World Series winning triple.
Actual MVP: Mickey Lolich
1971 Pirates defeat Orioles, 4-3
Robbed MVP – Dave McNally.
Pitched a complete game victory in game 1 and came out of the bullpen to win game 6.
How close were the Orioles from winning?
The Orioles had base runners in each of the first 3 scoreless innings of game 7. The Orioles put the tying run at third and the go ahead run at the plate, but Davey Johnson grounded out. Steve Blass faced Boog Powell, Frank Robinson and Merv Rettemund, each representing the tying run, in the bottom of the 9th in game 7. They went down 1-2-3.
Goat. Davey Johnson.
Ended the 8th inning rally in game 7 and hit only .148 in the series.
Actual MVP: Roberto Clemente.
1972 A's defeat Reds, 4-3
Robbed MVP – Jack Billingham.
1-0 with a save and let up no earned runs in 13 2/3 innings.
How close were the Reds form winning?
Trailing by 1 in the 8th inning, the Reds put the tying run at third and the go ahead run at second, but Denis Menke flew out to end the rally. Pete Rose came up as the potential World Series run in the bottom of the 9th but flew out to end the series.
Goat. Clay Carroll
Carroll allowed 4 straight pinch hits blowing the Reds 2-1 lead in the 9th as the A’s won 3-2 and took command of the series.
Actual MVP: Gene Tenace
1973 A's defeat Mets, 4-3
Robbed MVP – Rusty Staub.
Batted .423 with a homer, 6 RBI including a key 3 run homer in the Mets game 5 victory.
How close were the Mets from winning?
Up 3-2 in the series but losing 2-1 in the 8th inning of game 6, the Mets put runners on first and third with only one out. Knowles struck out Staub and Rollie Fingers got Cleon Jones to pop up to end the threat.
The Mets had the tying run at the plate with 2 outs in the 9th of game 7, but Knowles got Wayne Garrett to pop up to end the series
Goat: Wayne Garrett. Despite hitting 2 homers, Garrett batted .167 for the series, struck out 11 times, including 3 times in game 7. Inexcusable for a leadoff man.
Actual MVP: Reggie Jackson
1975 Reds defeat Red Sox, 4-3
Robbed MVP – Luis Tiant.
2-0, 3.60 ERA, complete game victories in games 1 and 4, pitched into the 8th of game 6.
How close were the Red Sox from winning?
The Red Sox were up 3-0 after 3 innings of game 7. They took a 3-2 lead into the 7th inning of game 7. The score was tied with 2 outs in the top of the 9th inning of game 7. That’s close.
Goat – Manager Darrell Johnson.
With Dick Drago and Reggie Cleveland available, manager Johnson inexplicably put seldom used rookie Jim Burton in a tied 9th inning of game 7 of the World Series. He walked two and allowed a World Series winning bloop single to Joe Morgan. His career was ruined as he pitched only one more game in the majors after that.
Actual MVP: Pete Rose
1979 Pirates defeat Orioles, 4-3
Robbed MVP – Kiko Garcia
Although he didn’t start either game 1 or 2, he batted .400 in the last 5 games including a bases clearing triple that broke game 3 open for Baltimore.
How Close were the Orioles from winning?
The Orioles took a 3-1 lead in the series with a stunning 6 run 8th inning rally in game 4 that seemed to have broken the Pirates back.
The Orioles had leads in a potential clinching game 5 and 7 while game 6 was scoreless into the 7th.
Goat – Eddie Murray.
Steady Eddie was held hitless over the last 3 games, all losses for Baltimore. The Orioles offense scored 2 runs total over the last 3 games.
Actual MVP: Willie Stargell
1982 Cardinals defeat Brewers, 4-3
Robbed MVPs – Paul Molitor
Had a World Series record 5 hits in game 1. Batted .355 for the series.
Robin Yount
Led the team with a .414 average, driving in 6 runs.
Mike Caldwell
Threw a complete game shutout in game 1 and pitched 8 2/3 for the game 5 win.How close were the Brewers from winning?
The Brewers had a 2 run lead in the 6th inning of game 7.
The Cardinals rallied on Keith Hernandez’s 2 run single and George Hendrick’s go ahead hit.
Goat – The Bullpen.
With Rollie Fingers hurt and unavailable for the Series, both Pete Ladd and Bob McLure were pressed into critical roles. Pete Ladd walked home the winning run in game 2. McLure blew the lead in Game 7 and went 0-2 for the series.
Actual MVP: Darrell Porter
1985 Royals defeat Cardinals, 4-3
Robbed MVP – John Tudor.
Won game 1 and threw a complete game shutout to win game 4 and give the Cardinals a 3-1 series lead.
How close were the Cardinals from winning?
How about a lead going into the 9th inning of game 6 up 3-2 in the series?
Goat – Don Denkinger
Denkinger is the obvious goat blowing the call at first base with what should have been the first out. But the Cardinal team deserves some heat for how they handled the blown call.
Darrell Porter could have caught a routine pop up that inning to get the first out, but he let it drop.
After the crushing game winning single by Dane Iorg, the Cardinals put potential series MVP John Tudor on the mound, who got bombed out of the building. Whitey Herzog and Joaquin Andujar got ejected arguing with Denkinger and the Cardinals were blown out 11-0.
They got a bad break. A double play could have erased it. (See also Bartman, Steve)
Actual MVP: Bret Saberhagen
1986 Mets defeat Red Sox, 4-3
Robbed MVPs– Bruce Hurst
Pitched 8 shut out innings in the game 1 victory and a complete game win in game 5. Held the Mets scoreless until their 3 run outburst in the 6th of game 7.
Marty Barrett
Batted .433, collecting 13 hits in the series including an RBI single in the 10th of game 6 that seemed to have clinched the World Series… until you know what happened.
How close were the Red Sox from winning?
Are you kidding?
Have you WATCHED HBO?
Beyond the 10th inning collapse in game 6, the Red Sox were up 3-0 going into the 6th inning of game 7. And had the tying run on second with nobody out in the 8th inning of game 7. Had the Sox held on, the Buckner error would have been long forgotten.
Goat – NOT BILL BUCKNER!
Get that through your heads!
John McNamara made so many stupid decisions that he should be put in the Grady Little (but not quite Don Zimmer) category of post season bone heads managing the Red Sox.
Calvin Schraldi lost game 6 and 7 of the World Series. Read that sentence again. THAT’S a goat.
Bob Stanley, who threw that pitch too far inside.
Rich Gedman, who should have blocked that pitch that was too far inside.
Actual MVP: Ray Knight
1987 Twins defeat Cardinals, 4-3
Robbed MVP – Tony Pena
Batted a team high .409 as a catcher and DH.
How close were the Cardinals from winning?
Up 3-2 in the series, the Cardinals went to Minnesota to play the last ever day game in World Series history (played indoors, naturally.) Willie McGee’s RBI single in the 5th gave the Cardinals a 5-2 lead. With John Tudor on the mound and a rested bullpen, the Cardinals looked like they were in control.
Don Baylor smacked a game tying homer off of Tudor and Kent Hrbek hit a grandslam off of Ken Dayley and the Twins went on to an 11-6 game 6 win to tie the series.
In Game 7, the Cardinals rallied for an early 2-0 lead but let Viola off of the ropes by failing to score more in a second inning rally. The Twins took the lead in the 6th. Tony Pena doubled and stole third representing the tying run in the 7th, but he was the last Cardinal baserunner of the game as the Twins held on to win 4-2.
Goat – Danny Cox.
The normally reliable starter couldn’t get out of the 4th in game 2 and came out of the bullpen to let up the winning run in game 7.
Actual MVP: Frank Viola
Robbed MVP – Mark Lemke –
The anonymous second baseman wasn’t even in the line up for game 1. But hit .417 in the series including a 12th inning RBI single to end game 3 and scored the game ending run in the 9th of game 4.
How close were the Braves from winning?
Up 3-2 in the series, the Braves put the potential series winning run on base in the 9th, 10th and 11th. But they hit into double plays in the 9th and 10th and pinch runner Keith Mitchell was caught stealing in the 11th, before Kirby Puckett’s homer tied the series.
In the 7th game, the Braves had runners in scoring position in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 8th… but were held scoreless in the 10 inning 1-0 loss.
Goat – Lonnie Smith.
The steady veteran with 3 World Series rings prior to 1991, was fooled late in game 7 by a decoy play by Chuck Knoblauch and Greg Gagne that prevented him from scoring on Terry Pendleton’s double into the gap. He would stay at 3rd and never come home as the Braves were shut out in 10.
Otis Nixon.
The speedy outfielder was suspended from post season play for testing positive for drugs (remember when the league tested for drugs? It almost seems quaint now.) His suspension left the Braves short handed for the World Series.
Actual MVP: Jack Morris
1992 Blue Jays defeat Braves, 4-2
Robbed MVP – Tom Glavine.
Pitched 2 complete games with a 1.59 ERA.
How close were the Braves from winning?
Never got to a clinching game 7, but had leads in the 9th inning of game 2, the 8th inning of game 3, had the tying run on 3rd in the 8th of game 4, had the winning run on 3rd in the 9th of game 6 and the winning run at the plate in the 10th and 11th of game 6.
They lost all 4 games by 1 run.
Goat – Jeff Reardon.
The newly acquired closer let up an unlikely game winning 2 run homer to reserve Ed Sprague in game 2, blowing a 1 run lead. Also allowed Candy Maldonado’s walk off game 3 hit. Bobby Cox had lost confidence in him and would not use him in the 11 inning game 6 marathon.
Actual MVP – Pat Borders
1993 Blue Jays defeat Phillies, 4-2
Robbed MVP – Lenny Dykstra.
Batted .348 with 4 homers and 8 RBIs in the 6 game series. Piled up a .913 slugging percentage.
How close were the Phillies from winning?
Never got to the clinching game, but had a 5 run 8th inning lead in game 4 that would have tied the series 2-2… and a 1 run 9th inning lead that would have forced a game 7.
Goat – Mitch Williams.
No clearer goat in World Series history. His 0-2 record… his 20.25 ERA… the fact that when Rickey Henderson saw him coming into game 6 he became giddy.
Actual MVP – Paul Molitor
1996 Yankees defeat Braves, 4-2
Robbed MVP – John Smoltz.
Won game 1 in Yankee Stadium and finished the series with and ERA of 0.64.
How close were the Braves from winning?
Never got to the game 7, but the Braves out pitched and out hit the Yankees so badly during the first 4 games that it looked like a boring rout of a World Series. Atlanta was winning 6-3 in the 8th inning of game 4, rolling to a 3-1 lead. They never had another lead in the series.
The Braves lost games 5 and 6 by one run and had the tying run in scoring position when both games ended.
Goat – Mark Wohlers.
He surrendered Jim Leyritz’s stunning World Series turning game tying homer in game 4. The Braves never recovered.
Actual MVP – John Wetteland.
1997 Marlins defeat Indians, 4-3
Robbed MVP – Sandy Alomar Jr.
Batted .367 with 2 homers and 10 RBI for Cleveland. Had an OPS of 1.006, which I understand isn’t bad.
How close were the Indians from winning?
They had the lead in the 9th inning of game 7. That’s pretty close!
The Indians then put the go ahead run on base in the 10th and 11th of game 7.
Goat – Jose Mesa.
When you are the closer and you are given a 1 run lead in the 9th inning of game 7 of the World Series and do NOT clinch it, you are a goat.
His failure in the 9th led to Omar Vizquel’s bizarre feud with Mesa.
Tony Fernandez.
The sure fielded shortstop was playing second base and made a critical error in the 11th. The Marlins would win the World Series with a 2 out single in the 11th.
Actual MVP – Livan Hernandez
2001 Diamondbacks defeat Yankees, 4-3
Robbed MVP – Mariano Rivera.
In a World Series where D’Backs closer Byuen Yung Kim blew two critical saves, Rivera was his usual steady self with 2 shutout innings for a game 3 save and a scoreless inning for a game 4 win. Going into the 9th inning of game 7, Rivera had thrown 6 shutout innings.
How close were the Yankees from winning?
They had the lead with Mariano Rivera on the mound in the 9th inning of game 7. Anything other than a win would be the most unlikely scenario since Kirk Gibson’s homer off of Eckersley.
Goat – Mariano Rivera.
I know it sounds odd to be the goat who spoiled the MVP for himself… but who else is there to blame? He threw a ball into centerfield and let Tony Womack beat him with a game tying double before hitting Counsell and allowing Gonzalez’s series ending single. His ERA ballooned to 1.42.
Actual MVPs – Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling
2002 Angels defeat Giants, 4-3
Robbed MVP – Barry Bonds.
Bonds homered in his first at bat, clubbed 4 over all and batted .471 with an OPS of 1.994.How close were the Giants to winning?
Leading the series 3-2, the Giants ran a 5-0 lead up on the Angels highlighted by homers by Bonds and veteran Shawon Dunston. Russ Ortiz threw a shut out into the 7th inning.
The Giants were still leading 5-3 in the 8th inning and brought in reliever Robb Nen with a 5-4 lead and 6 outs from the first ever World Series title in San Francisco.
Goat – Dusty Baker.
Having his three year old around to run on the field of play during a World Series game was at best the fourth stupidest decision he made. Giving Russ Ortiz the game 6 “game ball” was a rubbing in the nose moment for which the Angels responded right away with 6 unanswered runs.
Bakers decision to pitch Livan Hernandez over Kirk Reuter was bad enough. But letting him even walk out of the dugout in the third when EVERYONE saw he had nothing was inexcusable.
As I wrote before, my dad has never forgiven Livan for pitching so horribly in game 7.
Actual MVP: Troy Glaus.
2003 Marlins defeat Yankees, 4-2
Robbed MVP – Andy Pettite.
Pitched 8 2/3 innings of 1 run ball in the Yankees game 2 win and in the potential elimination game 6, pitched 7 innings letting up 1 earned run. He finished the series with a 0.57 ERA.
How close were the Yankees from winning?
Fresh off of the heart stopping 7 game series with the Red Sox climaxing with Aaron Boone’s homer, the World Series against Florida seemed like a formality. In actuality the Yankees lost games 1 and 4 by 1 run and games 5 and 6 by only 2.
The Yankees rallied in game 4 to send the game into extra innings and possibly take a 3-1 lead in the series. They loaded the bases with 1 out in the 11th but couldn’t score and lost the next inning on Alex Gonzalez’s homer.
Goat – Jeff Weaver
He was on 29 days of rest… so either he was completely rested and ready or he was rusty and a last resort. Either way, he served up Gonzalez’s walk off homer in game 4that turned the tide of the World Series.
David Wells
His lack of body condition finally came back to haunt him as he left a crucial game 5after only 1 inning. Jose Contreras absorbed the loss, but there was no way he should have been pitching in the 2nd inning.
Actual MVP: Josh Beckett.
So there you go… quite a range of players who were denied a World Series MVP. From Hall of Famers like Yaz and Yount to unlikely stars like Mark Lemke and Kiko Garcia.
Here’s hoping they get standing ovations in their home park anyway.
Their team losing was clearly NOT their fault.
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