Nevermind. Mistaken
Yes - it has to be a rare thing for a left-handed batter to do so. Putting a lot of emphasis on not getting doubled off third base really seems like a strange choice here.
Atlanta has promoted bench coach Walt Weiss to manager.
What was going on with the Toronto fan who threw back the ball he caught after the tying home run in the 9th inning of Game 7? Was he required to do that, or could he have just bogarted the home run ball he caught? I don’t recall reading anything after the game about him, which is fine but strikes me as unusual these days.
Yeah, that was awfully generous of the fan to throw away what might have been a huge sum of money.
FWIW discussion of the Kiner play.
After reading that link, I’m still skeptical. The odds of a line drive being hit directly to the Dodgers’ 3rd base were pretty low. Like, maybe 5%. (Just my based-off-feelings-alone hunch)
And even if the Jays wanted to prevent a scenario where Kiner-Falefa got doubled off, he (IKF) could still have very safely taken 1 or 2 more steps as a lead towards home plate without compromising his ability to avoid being doubled by Muncy - one or two steps that would have meant scoring the winning run.
It was excessive/self-defeating caution all around.
It’s somewhat routine to throw back the ball when the opposing team hits a home run. I have a vague memory that it started at Wrigley decades ago.
New off-season thread here:
Thanks!
Antonelli Baseball on YouTube has a nice view of the IKF play that shows the miniscule lead that he took as well as Antonelli’s take on whether it makes sense or not. Personally, when I look at how far the 3B was away from the bag, I’d have taken another foot or two. Sliding was another mistake, I’d like to see every team make their players start from third and race home as fast as they can by sliding and then not sliding and use stopwatches or side-by-side videos to convince them that sliding doesn’t get you there faster either at first or on a force play at home.
How many times has the World Series ended on a double play?
From CoPilot:
World Series Final Outs via Double Play
- 1924 – Game 7: Washington Senators vs. New York Giants
- The Senators won their first (and only) championship with a 4-3 victory in 12 innings.
- The final out came on a ground ball double play, sealing the win for Washington.
- 1947 – Game 7: New York Yankees vs. Brooklyn Dodgers
- The Yankees clinched the title with a 5-2 win.
- The game ended with a 6-4-3 double play, a fitting cap to a tightly contested series.
- 2003 – Game 6: Florida Marlins vs. New York Yankees
- The Marlins won the series 4-2.
- Mariano Rivera induced a game-ending double play to secure the championship.
- 2025 – Game 7: Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Toronto Blue Jays
- The most recent example: with runners on the corners and one out in the bottom of the 11th, Alejandro Kirk grounded into a 6-3 double play.
Since I didn’t see anybody else respond to this, I’ll just post the answer here:
The 1912 World Series had 74 innings, because game 2 ended in an 11-inning tie. So there were actually 8 games, and the final game (Game 8) also went to extra innings. I haven’t counted up the exact number of half innings, but BBREF shows 74 IP for the Red Sox and 73.2 for the Yankees. So I think that’s at least a tie with this year.
Co-pilot must be drunk. I’m pretty sure Mariano Rivera never induced a double-play to secure a World Series championship for the Marlins.
This one is wrong too… the Senators were at home in Game 7, which was won on a walk-off hit (a double, so maybe that was where the AI got confused).
ETA: Removed erroneous comment on the team name… BBREF confused me.
So here’s what ChatGPT told me:
The World Series has ended on a double play twice in its history. Society for American Baseball Research+1
- The first time was in 1921, when Frank “Home Run” Baker of the New York Yankees grounded into a 4-3-5 double play that ended the series. Society for American Baseball Research+1
- The second time was in 1947, when Bruce Edwards of the Brooklyn Dodgers hit into a 6-4-3 double play to finish the series. Society for American Baseball Research+1
Obviously, Chat missed the most recent one. Which is understandable, because the reference SABR article was written in 2005.
AI is often wrong. It thinks the Misfits in Action beat up on Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Hollywood Hogan of the nWo, in World Championship Wrestling.
What a weird double-play to end the series. In a one-run game getting thrown out advancing to third on a groundball to the second baseman. Imagine what a roasting ol’ Aaron Ward would be getting if he did that today.
Although part of the goal of sliding is trying to get under a tag. Fielders don’t really want to launch the ball to arrive at the catcher at ground level. Because bad shit happens if they miss low. Better to aim a little higher.
Now if it’s a force at the plate, then the tag is immaterial and fastest time to the bag wins every time. You’d sure hope a major leaguer standing on third would know before the pitch whether this could or could not be a force play against him. And if a potential force, would adjust his play as he sees the ball be caught or not caught.