I keep up on sports and think I know quite a bit, but I’ve never understood this term. It’s often used to talk about a home run as in “Carlos Beltran just hit a walk-off home run.” My thought is that it means a run that ends the game; you hit it and walk off the diamond. Is this correct?
That’s pretty much it. Like if someone on the home team hits a home run that scores the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. The game is over, even if three outs haven’t been recorded. Joe Carter won the World Series for the Toronto Blue Jays like this years back…pretty dramatic.
Keep in mind that all three bases and home still have to be touched. Even with a walk off.
Ah, thanks very much. I kept hearing it at the end of last season after the Aaron Boone HR in the ALCS with the Red Sox. And the Joe Carter HR is the classic example, apparently, but I’d never heard the term applied to it.
Alright, question answered. Nothing to see here…
The term is generally credited to Dennis Eckersley. Eck had his own unique vocabulary.
He actually came up with the phrase BEFORE the 1988 World Series.
John Olerud’s grand slam home run single comes to mind.
Actually that was Robin Ventura.
What’s a “grand slam home run single?” Doesn’t “grand slam” imply that the bases were loaded?
Wow, I hadn’t heard that before. Oh, the irony.
Then again, Kirk Gibson’s home run off Eck in '88 was more of a “limp off”. 
D
The walk-off grand slam that was only a single happened because, as with the infamous Fred Merkle, Robin Ventura never made it to second base.
Even though the baseball rules say
Ventura reached first safely, guaranteeing that the go-ahead run could successfully score, but because he was mobbed by his teammates he did not proceed to second. There is other precedent for crediting a hitter only for the number of bases necessary to push home the winning run, so even though Ventura hit the grand salami he was only credited with a Kraft single.
Let’s say it’s tied in the bottom of the 9th, runner on third. I get up and hit a home run, as soon as the guy from third touches home plate, I think the game is over. No need for me to touch all the bases. Isn’t that right?
OK, I found the answer from
http://www.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/official_info/official_rules/runner_7.jsp
Less than two out, score tied last of ninth inning, runner on first, batter hits a ball out of park for winning run, the runner on first passes second and thinking the home run automatically wins the game, cuts across diamond toward his bench as batter runner circles bases. In this case, the base runner would be called out “for abandoning his effort to touch the next base” and batter runner permitted to continue around bases to make his home run valid. If there are two out, home run would not count (see Rule 7.12).
Yes. That’s exactly what happened with Ventura; once you touch first, the run counts.
In Ventura’s case, he didn’t realize the ball went over the fence. The Atlanta outfied was playing shallow. Once the ball went over their heads, they didn’t even bother to chase it. The game ended when he touched first and the other runner touched home.
However, most batters want credit for a home run, so they will touch all the bases.
Years ago, BTW, the rule was that the batter was not credited with a home run if there was a man on base in this situation. Thus, if there were a man on third and you hit it over the fence, you’d be credited with a single, since that was all that was needed to win the game. Babe Ruth had at least one home run taken away from him due to this rule.