Was fielding the bunt and throwing it to first an error?
Should the 3rd baseman held the ball the keep Hayes from advancing?
In a real life situation where the runner breaks towards 3rd and the batter successfully lays down a bunt along the 3rd base line - there is very, very little chance that the defense gets the out at 3rd. Not only would the ball have to cleanly fielded but the shortstop would have to get over to cover and would also have to apply the tag because there is no force. The high percentage play is to get the force at 1st.
The implication in the movie is that the Yankees were willing to concede (as if they had a choice) 3rd base to Willie Mays Hays on the bunt play but didn’t expect him to go for home. Thus the exciting conclusion.
No, because as noted, it would be be (IRL) almost certain to get the man at first, and game is over.
I’ve seen guys score from 2nd on a ball in the infield before. So has Bill James.
As I haven’t seen the movie in ages, was Willie Mays Hayes running on the play, or on contact?
It is not an error to throw to first, but IMO it would show poor situational judgment, and perhaps poor on-field communication.
It would never be scored an error unless the throw was errant. Bad decisions by a fielder are not scored as errors, especially if there was a legitimate chance to get an out. In this case, an out would have ended the game, so a throw to first was not at all unreasonable.
He was running on the play, not on contact.
Of course, his clairvoyance helped him know which pitch wasn’t going to be a bean-ball, but then there’s the whole suspension of disbelief thing going on.
Wasn’t clairvoyance - he read the signs. They just left that part on the cutting room floor.
(That’s my story and I’m sticking with it)
Nitpick, but the game was tied at the time, so the out at first would just have put it into extra innings. Hayes’ run won the game for the Indians.
And if you watch the scene, after Taylor makes it to first, the first baseman spins around to the the umpire presumably to argue the call, and only then realizes he has to throw home giving Hayes an extra second or two.
Well, Uecker does say the Yankees closer leads the league in hit batsmen, and he “threw at his own kid at a father-son game”, so maybe it wasn’t that hard to guess.
Movie trivia: The Yankees first baseman was played by Pete Vuckovich, former Brewers ace.
Of course it isn’t realistic. There’s no way that Rene Russo gets good tickets on the first base line and then is able to clearly show Tom Berenguer that she is no longer wearing her engagement ring. Plus, she’d have stayed with the attorney.
Twice I saw Kirk Gibson score from second on a long fly ball. It could happen.
Nice. It was also filmed in County Stadium in Milwaukee. I was sitting behind third base for most of the crowd scenes.
I always assumed Jake kept leaving a ticket at the will call window for Rene. Just in case kind of thing.
What I can’t quite figure out is who writes a line up card with Jake hitting after Hayes.
Part of the charm of the game is that even top-notch pro ballplayers do stupid stuff sometimes. A guy who made a stunning mid-air throw to make the previous out will throw to the wrong base or throw over the first baseman’s head. So, could it happen? It would have been crazy to try it, but yes, it could have worked. I have seen ballplayers do dumb, tear-your-hair-out things that gave away the game.
So you were watching the Twins play the Yankees (and even the Twins/Tigers one-game playoff).
That went over the fence, right? 
Reggie Willits (whom I will plug shamelessly til the day I die since we’re from the same small town) has done this.
Hell no. He scored after they caught it.
Must’ve been the next batter. 
Or Hayes could have seen Taylor pull a Bambino and known there’s no point in running on the first pitch. The crowd did go wild, and the movie slow to a crawl, when Taylor did it, so Hayes was almost certain to have noticed it, and could have figured “The next pitch is going to his bean, I’ll get another chance.”
Enjoy,
Steven