MLB. And here comes the Post Season!

The Game Room
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Just for fun I decided to list all the walk-off home runs that have ended playoff series or one game playoffs (there being only one instance of the latter) and tell you the career WAR of the guy who hit it, according to Baseball Reference.

It’s a fascinating list. Name, series, career WAR / WAR in the season he hit the homer.
Asterisk indicates that was, according to BB-Ref, the player’s best season:

Bobby Thompson, Giants, 1951 NLCS (best of 3) - 33.1 / 5.1*

Bill Mazeroski, Pirates, 1960 World Series - 36.2 / 2.5

Chris Chambliss, Yankees, 1976 ALCS - 27.4 / 4.1*

Joe Carter, Blue Jays, 1993 World Series - 19.3 / 2.0

Todd Pratt, Mets, 1999 NLDS - 4.3 / 0.7

Aaron Boone, Yankees, 2003 ALCS - 13.5 / 2.7

David Ortiz, Red Sox, 2004 ALDS - 55.4 / 4.2

Chris Burke, Astros, 2005 NLDS - -1.2 / 0.4

Magglio Ordonez, Tigers, 2006 ALCS - 38.5 / 1.6

Travis Ishakawa, Giants, 2014 NLCS - 1.2 / 0.3

Edwin Encarnacion, Blue Jays, 2016 ALWC - 27.5 / 3.7

It’s interesting how many of the players are scrubs and how few are all-time greats; only Bill Mazeroski is in the Hall of Fame and he maybe wasn’t a great choice. Big Papi probably will be eventually but you never know. Todd Pratt was actually a damn good player, but never got a chance to play regularly because he was always stuck behind someone.

Ishikawa won the NLCS two years ago and I had totally forgotten he existed. He didn’t even play in an MLB game this year, and has careened through a few other organizations since then and is back in the Giants system now.

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This reminds me of a pet concept of mine, that I’ve probably mentioned before – ranking walk-off HR’s.

In my methodology, I assign points to each scenario.

More points for deeper into the post-season, with the World Series being the ultimate, and the Wild Card game (or play-in series, like 1951 or 1962 NL) being the least.

Staving off elimination: a point (eg, Carlton Fisk 1975)
Ending the series: a point (eg, Joe Carter 1993)
Game 7: double points. (eg, Bill Mazeroski 1960)

Extra points if the HR changes a deficit to a win (eg, Bobby Thomson, 1951).

In 1960, the Pirates and Yankees were tied, so Mazeroski did not get the extra point. So the ultimate walk-off HR hasn’t happened yet. Maybe this year.

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I’m guessing you don’t want that any more than I do, given that would have to happen in an AL park.

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Crap – I hadn’t even considered that.

next year!

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Well said, TroutMan. Agreed. After many years of Candlestick Park weak teams in the 1980s, before the 1987 NLCS team, then after 2010 I’ve lived a complete life. In my own backyard I popped open a bottle of (cheap) champagne and sprayed it all over the place. Lord, you can take me home now. After 2012 and 2014, well, large icing on the cake and it lets naysayers who might say 2010 was a fluke go away.

If the Cubs win it, good on them and their faithful teams. So too for the Indians, it’s been a long wait since 1948 for them.

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The ultimate walk off home run would therefore be:

World Series
Game 7
Losing by 3
Grand slam
Two out

Doesn’t get any more epic than that.

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Agreed. Maybe one thing to possibly make it better is two strikes against, and an at bat of 12 pitches or so, many strikes being fouled off before it is launched over the wall.

Or even better, a walk off inside the park home run! That would be epic.

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On a 3-2 pitch.

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Then don’t count out Cleveland. They had that this year.

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jsc1953:

Salvador Perez, 2014, in the fiction my mind constructed to keep me sane the next twelve months. (Thank goodness it didn’t need to be longer!)

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Angel Pagan had a walk off ITPHR a few years back (regular season).

Some sportswriter once said that the triple is the most exciting play in baseball. An ITPHR is like a triple, but more so.

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We should be in extra innings as well, with the away team having scored 3 runs in the top of the inning.

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Bruce Bochy is one of the best managers I’ve ever seen.

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I tend to disagree. I think it would be on an 0-2 pitch. We are, after all, looking for the situation where the batter who hits the home run is in the most dire possible situation.

Ask yourself, as a hitter, whether you’d prefer to be in a 3-2 count or an 0-2 count.

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Blue Jays cruising right now.

I know that anything can happen in baseball, so i’m going to keep one eye on the score in case the Rangers mount a classic comeback, but the current situation gives me time to focus more fully on my work for a while before tonight’s game between Boston and Cleveland.

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Cruising Hell. They went to afterburners. 10-0.

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No kidding. That’s why I hate his ass so much - he’s managing the wrong team!

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Followed by an iconic rocker pose!

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I guess it’s fairly obvious that this series coverage is going to be all Ortiz all the fucking time.

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Baseball has now become an annual Farewell Tour for some media darfling – Rivera, Jeter, Ortiz.