For every hero,

It’s a shame.

There’s a goat,

To take the blame.  

In 1961, Tracy Stallard surrendered Roger Maris’ 61st Home Run.  He started his career with for the Lafayette, Indiana Red Sox – members of the Midwest League.  Being a goat in this case, means never being forgotten.  He claims to not have grooved the pitch.  I happened to grow up in Indiana, so every connection with my home state and the game of baseball is important to me.  Here are some stories that may ring of importance to you:

Guy Bush gave up Babe Ruth’s last two home runs.  He hit Babe himself in Game 4 of the 1932 World Series, then gave up two hits and one earned run in a Cubs loss to the Yankees.  His goat-like stats in that series:  0-1 record, 14.29 ERA, and gave up nine earned runs in less than six innings of work.

“Rookie Fred Merkle’s “Boner” on September 23 1908 resulted in a one game playoff on  October 8, 1908 for the NL Pennant.  That rematch was won by Hoosier native Mordecai Brown, who then went on to win the World Series against the Tigers.  Sorry – I snuck in that Indiana reference again.  Mordecai was also the 1920 pitching coach for the Indiana Hoosiers baseball team, where he claimed a state championship.

Merkle had singled, putting a runner on third.  When Al Bridwell hit the apparent winner into center field, Merkle failed to touch second base as fans rushed the field, thinking the Giants had won.  Instead the Cubs’ Johnny Evers retrieved the ball and claimed the Merkle force-out, a decision enforced several days later with the game ruled a tie.  “Merkle’s Boner” was arguably the most controversial decision in the history of the game.

Another “boner” belongs to Boston’s Bill Buckner, who’s ground ball fielding error in game 6 of the 1986 World Series against the Met’s proved to stink of goat.  It was the 10th inning with two outs, after three singles and a wild pitch put Mookie Wilson in position to win the game.  His slow dribbler down the first base line went between the legs of Buckner, allowing Ray Knight to score the winning run from second base.  Perhaps the greater “boner” was made by Boston manager, John McNamara, who chose not to relieve the ailing Buckner with the defensive replacement Dave Stapleton as he had in games one, two, and five.  Boston was one out away from winning the Series for the first time since 1918, with a three game to two advantage before that ugly sequence led to a game 7.  Boston then “rebounded” to lead the decisive 7th Game  3-0, until the bottom of the 6th when the Mets scored three runs off Bruce Hurst.  Prematurely, Hurst had already been named World Series MVP before that improbable comeback in Game 6.  It was just another example of how the game of baseball turns a hero into a goat in just a blink of a horned mammal’s eye.

In the 1988 World Series, Oakland Athletics pitching ace, Dennis Eckersley, made a hero of Dodger pinch-hitter Kirk Gibson.  On the other hand, maybe it was Gibson who made a goat out of Eckersley as they faced each other in the bottom of the 9th of Game One?  Gibson, who was not expected to play due to injuries in both legs, limped to the plate with two outs and in dramatic fashion hit the game winning homer on a full count.  He would not make another appearance in the series, but his Dodgers claimed the World Series title four games to one.   Eckersley would redeem himself in the 1989 World Series by winning Game 2 and getting the save in a Game 4 sweep of the Giants.  Then, he would go on to win the Cy Young and MVP in 1992 by posting 51 saves – hero once again.

It was Eckersley who coined the phrase, “walk-off homer,” when describing the Gibson blast of 1988.  However, perhaps the most famous World Series “walk-off” occurred in 1960 when Bill Mazeroski won it for the Pittsburgh Pirates over the New York Yankees.  To this date, it is the only time that a Game 7 has ended on a homer, and in this case the goat was Yankee starter Ralph Tracy.  It was also the only series in history where the MVP award did not go to a member of the winning team.  Instead, Bobby Richardson, of the losing New York Yankees received the honor.   Ralph Terry, ironically, went on to become the MVP of the 1962 World Series, despite continuing his goatish struggles the previous year, giving up a two-run homer to Cincinnati’s Gordy Coleman in Game 2, plus a 3-run homer to Frank Robinson in Game 5 of the 1961 World Series.

Known as the “Shot heard round the world,” Brooklyn Dodger pitcher, Ralph Branca, gave up another historic “walk-off” to New York Giants outfielder, Bobby Thomson, to win the National League Pennant in 1951.  It was the decisive blow in this three-game tie-breaker playoff series to determine who would eventually lose to the “third” New York baseball team, the Yankees in the 1951 World Series.  Thomson had also homered against Branca in Game 1, so in retrospect, maybe the goat was Dodger’s coach, Clyde Sukeforth, who apparently instructed manager Charlie Dressen to go with Branca?  Or was the true hero of the game a “cheater” who admittedly relayed stolen signs from Branca to Thomson?

With this thought in mind, other “cheaters” have taken a “seat of shame” on the outside of baseball’s Hall of Fame.  Two of the best-known examples are “Shoeless Joe” Jackson and Pete Rose, who turned heroic careers into goat stew.  Not to mention those who cheated through the use of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. Please have a seat next to the goats outside.

Perhaps the greatest “boner,” the “goat of all goats” in baseball, occurred off the playing field.  On April 6, 1987, Al Campanis, the Los Angeles Dodgers VP and GM, was invited to appear on the ABC Network news show, “Nightline” with Ted Koppel.  The appearance was to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of when Jackie Robinson finally broke Baseball’s color barrier.   Companis was also a friend, teammate, and roommate of Jackie Robinson, having come up together with the Dodger minor league team, the Montreal Royals.

Koppel’s question to Campanis was as to why there had only been few black managers and no black general managers in Major League Baseball.   Campanis answered:  “I truly believe that they may not have some of the necessities to be, let’s say, a field manager, or perhaps a general manager. ”  He then went on uncomfortably, digging an even bigger hole in race relations. Needless to say, he conveniently resigned from the Dodger’s organization two days later, as civil rights groups showed their outrage.  Campanis’ comments literally set baseball relations back forty years, mimicking the exact same ridiculous attitudes that prevailed pre-Robinson about the baseball skills of black attitudes.  In defense of Campanis, many of his peers have suggested that he was known for butchering words, and that what he really meant was  “lack of experience” instead of “necessities.”  However, unlike many of the players who had “a goat moment” found a second chance – Campanis never did.

Ralph Branca, who was the “goat” to Bobby Thomson’s heroic homer, was at least one time a hero on the field himself.  It was Branca who lined up beside Jackie Robinson on Opening Day of 1947.  Other teammates refused.  In all fairness, Al Campanis did agree to be Robinson’s roommate – the very first interracial roommates in all of baseball.  Does that make Campanis less of a goat?

The game’s greatest hero, the Bambino, had his own curse that lasted from 1918 until 2004.  That’s only 86 years, compared with the Chicago Cubs’ “Curse of the Billy Goat,” that kept them from winning the World Series for 108 years. Now granted, both curses didn’t really get started with each team’s last World Series victory.  The Red Sox curse supposedly started in 1920 when Ruth was traded to the Yankees, while the Cubs curse allegedly began in 1945 by Billy Goat Tavern owner William Sianis.  The point is that both curses lasted a really long time, and thankfully both have finally ended.  It comes as no surprise that the Cubs lost that 1918 series to the Red Sox, but did manage to break Ruth’s 29 1/3 scoreless inning streak that stood for 43 years – another really long time.

I love a really good “goat” story and there are many surrounding Major League Baseball.  I’ve tried to highlight a few throughout this particular collection of baseball memories.  I would also be remiss if I did not bring up the name of Steve Bartman, who in my opinion has been unfairly judged as a “goat” in this long, painful process of making our Chicago Cubs heroes again, at last.   Finally, I would also like to take credit for ending the “Billy Goat Curse” by sitting in the top row of Wrigley Field for the game 5 victory, and then having lunch at the Billy Goat Tavern the next day.  I could literally feel the curse lift as we left the tavern in a giddy state.