- 10 hours ago
All these reasons are horse crap; they should've gotten the call right
IG: aj_mckenzie416
Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
IG: aj_mckenzie416
Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
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00:23Hi everybody, I'm Brian Kenney, and welcome to ESPN Classics' Top 5 Reasons You Can't
00:28Blame, a series that takes a fresh look at sports personalities who are remembered largely
00:32for their mistakes, controversial moments, or questionable decisions. Our mission is
00:37not to further vilify these individuals, but instead to challenge conventional wisdom
00:41and re-examine what has been accepted as fact. The crush of instant history makes it easier
00:46to scapegoat than to explain the complex dynamics of a complicated event. In this show, we'll
00:51take on the scorn still harbored by many a St. Louis Cardinals fan. We'll count down the
00:56reasons why you can't point out Dankinger for the cards lost to the Royals in the 1985 World
01:01Series. First, let's take a look at the evidence against the first base umpire.
01:101985, sixth game of the St. Louis Kansas City Series. In Kansas City, I'm working first base.
01:19The Cardinals are up 3-2 in games. And the Royals need one to tie and two to win. The
01:26Cardinals need
01:27three outs to win the World Series. Todd Worrell is now pitching for St. Louis. We got a 1-0
01:34win in
01:36the bag there. I don't think anyone had a problem with that because we played those kind of games all
01:39year long. George Orta will be batting for Motley. I remember us going out in the ninth and we were
01:44all saying, you know, the first outs are most important. A little squibber to the right side.
01:49Worrell races over to cover. I could see Worrell making his last stride to the bag and the ball
01:54in Todd's glove. And, you know, it was, it was such an obvious out.
02:11It was one of those plays where you didn't even need to see a replay.
02:16I don't think there's any doubt about it.
02:18And then when you saw the replay. It's a joke. He was 49, so it's not like he had bad
02:24sight that
02:24failed him. It's a joke. It made it even worse. The Royals got a break. I got myself in position
02:33where I got myself too close to play for the play that developed. I'm looking up. I see him catch
02:39it.
02:39I look down. I see his foot on the bag and I called him safe. You gotta come up with
02:44something better
02:44than that. Clearly from the number of replays that we saw here, George Orta was clearly out.
02:50There was no doubt about that. He said he beat the throw. He said he was on the bag and
02:54he beat the
02:54throw. I said, well, he beat the throw. How the hell come he stepped on Worrell's foot? It's not bang,
02:58bang. It's, he's a foot away. He's still in midair, you know. And Dankacher calls him safe and everybody's
03:03looking like, what? I can remember looking into the stands and Peter Eugroth was sitting right there
03:10with his whole entourage. And I mean, there was a look of disbelief on everyone's face.
03:16Percentage-wise in the game, if the first lead-off guy gets on base, the chances of a swarm go
03:22up
03:22drastically.
03:29We didn't think that that turn call would be the biggest point, but it was sort of like a momentum
03:35swing.
03:51The game is over. And as I approached the front door of the humpbars room, Peter Eugroth, the commissioner,
03:58was standing there. And I said to Peter, I said, did I get to play right? And he said, no.
04:05While the Cardinals fumed, the Royals capitalized on their good fortune by crushing their cross-state
04:11rivals 11-0 in the deciding game. The Royals have won the 1985 World Series.
04:21Immediately upon the Royals' victory, Don Denkinger became head goat in the St. Louis Hall of Shame.
04:28Although other missed calls have been made in World Series history, none is remembered with quite the
04:33clarity or quite the bitterness.
04:36If you're going to ask me to name one call in my time covering baseball that I look back on
04:46as
04:46life-altering, season-altering, post-season-altering, and was dead wrong, that was the call.
04:55It was raining for a while in St. Louis this morning. Someone suggested all that water was tears.
05:02Cardinal fans look at game six as the night the series should have been won.
05:06They do blame Don Denkinger. I mean, that will never change here in St. Louis.
05:11The city blamed him. I mean, the fans, you know, let him know how much he was hated.
05:18Two disc jockeys in St. Louis got my telephone number and my address.
05:23And they put it out over the air. I pulled in and there was a police car sitting there.
05:28They'd had numerous calls and they were threatened that they were going to burn the house down.
05:36That's way too far to go over a sports call. And it was a terrible call. That's too far.
05:44For a long while.
05:46I had a ton of letters that were sent to me from St. Louis fans.
05:53Only about two or three of them really stood out in my mind that there's something wrong.
06:00This guy's sick. He said, I know where you go. I know what you do.
06:05And if I plant my 357 Magnum pointed at you, it'll blow you away.
06:13You saw the backlash against umpire Don.
06:16Honolulu Iowa isn't out of reach from St. Louis, Missouri.
06:24It's not out of reach at all.
06:28Three, three hundred something mile drive, five hour drive.
06:35On Denkinger, which in parts of Missouri has lasted to this day.
06:38This show will count down the top five reasons you can't blame Denkinger for the Cardinals losing the 1985 World
06:44Series.
06:44But there are other reasons as well. We call them the best of the rest.
06:50The need for instant replay. Among the brick backs and diatribes leveled at Denkinger, at least one constructive idea was
06:59raised.
07:00Everybody talked about instant replay and that was the battle cry for why there should be instant replay in baseball.
07:08In retrospect, if by some chance they had instant replay way back in 1985, you know, Don would be out
07:14of the hole.
07:17Another best of the rest. Had the league championship series not been expanded from five games to seven in 1985,
07:25Denkinger would never have had to make the worst call of his career.
07:28That was the first year that it was best of seven. The Blue Jays did take three of the first
07:33four games.
07:34So Toronto might have gone to the World Series.
07:37We were down two to nothing to Toronto, three to one to Toronto, came back and won the last three
07:42games.
07:43That series definitely would have been over if it had not been changed to best of seven.
07:50The killer tarp. A freak accident before game four of the NL playoffs sidelined Cardinals running sensation Vince Coleman for
07:59the rest of the postseason.
08:01That night it started raining so we kind of raised the tarp lift up and we started going out with
08:07it and the players were coming on the infield.
08:10They had automatic tarpaulin so it was raised up out of the ground about, you know, three feet or so
08:15and then ran from behind home plate all the way beyond first base.
08:19Terry Pillson and I was just standing there talking and doing nothing else.
08:23That tarp comes up out of the ground and you had your back to it.
08:26You cannot hear it and once it started rolling, if it hadn't gotten me, it would have gotten Terry.
08:31If it hadn't been for seven players holding it until they could get it shut off, the thing would have
08:35crushed him.
08:36They carry Coleman off. The teammates are Vince Coleman.
08:39A couple of days later we went in to take an MRI and found out that it had a cracked
08:45tibia.
08:45I heard some of the players, you know, kind of say, you know, there goes our chance.
08:51Arriving from the minors nine days into the card season, Coleman hit the big leagues in full stride and didn't
08:58slow down for the rest of the year.
09:00He turned the league on its ear, basically is what he did. I mean, he made catchers into blithering idiots
09:06behind the plate.
09:07Third steal of the night for Coleman is 150th of the year.
09:15And there goes Coleman, a pitch out. He's in there.
09:21Stealing 110 bases and scoring 107 runs, Coleman ran away from the competition for rookie of the year.
09:29Catchers couldn't get him out, but the monster tarp could.
09:39What irony. The fastest man in the National League. Swallowed up by a tarp moving two and a half miles
09:46an hour.
09:46It's the greatest postseason injury ever. Vince Coleman being eaten by the tarp machine.
09:51We didn't feel the impact of that immediately. I think where we felt it was, you know, regrouping and then
09:58going to the World Series against Kansas City.
10:01I blame myself for being in the way of that tarp. I tell Brett Sabahagen he wouldn't have a World
10:06Series ring if I was in there.
10:10Before getting to reason number four, we pause to consider the merits of a question raised by some St. Louis
10:16fans.
10:17Is it possible that former co-MVP Keith Hernandez put a curse on his former team?
10:25He'd won the MVP in 79. He was a big part of their 82 championship team. And they trade him
10:31for Neil Allen, who was an absolute bust.
10:35The night that Keith Hernandez came to New York, he was distraught.
10:39I became very angry and I started reading books of the occult and black magic and I learned some spells.
10:48An electric tarp comes out of nowhere and runs over Vince Coleman, your spark plug, your lead off man.
10:54He stole over a hundred bases that year. I blame Keith Hernandez.
10:57I didn't realize how strong my powers were. I had no intention of hurting him like that.
11:02World Series 85, losing seven games. World Series 87, losing seven games.
11:08World Series 2004, maybe the most embarrassing display in the history of a World Series.
11:14And that is the worst base running of all time.
11:18Jeff Supan with the base running blunder. I looked at number that went the back of his jersey, number 37.
11:25Ringing some bells, Keith Hernandez. The curse comes back.
11:31A doubleheader.
11:35Somebody from St. Louis, he has no seasoning.
11:37Tommy Lasorda and Tom Niedenfure. Their decisions in games five and six enabled the Cards to win the NLCS.
11:47If it wasn't for Tom Niedenfure, the Cardinals wouldn't be in there, obviously.
11:50They would not have won game six. They would not have won game five.
11:53Game five, ninth inning. Cardinals and Dodgers tied at two.
11:57Tom Niedenfure facing switch hitter Ozzie Smith, who hadn't homered left-handed in 3,009 at-bats.
12:05Smith, corks one in the right, down the line. It may go. Go crazy, folks. Go crazy.
12:14Ozzie hadn't hit a homerun left-handed in, I don't know, since God made dirt or something.
12:18And the Cardinals have won the game by the score of 3-2 at a homerun.
12:26Typical Jack Buck.
12:31With two on and two out in the ninth inning of game six, St. Louis trailed 5-4 with cleanup
12:38hitter Jack Clark at the plate.
12:40And how do you like this situation? The tying and possible winning runs are in scoring position with two out
12:47and Jack Clark coming up.
12:49I remember the meeting that we had before the first game. One of the key things that came out of
12:55there was Jack Clark is the only guy in the late innings who is a homerun threat.
13:02I'm saying pitch to Jack Clark. Please give him a shot.
13:05I was warming up in the bullpen and Nidenfuhrer was in there. I said, he's got to walk Clark here
13:09because he said in the meeting that we're going to pitch a round.
13:13Tom was sort of reiterated to Tom Nidenfuhrer, you cannot throw a fastball of any kind. 105 miles an hour
13:20by Jack Clark.
13:21He's not going to walk him. It is Jack Clark and Tom Nidenfuhrer going head to head.
13:27Everyone just all of a sudden glanced at each other and dug out and go, can you believe this?
13:34And he hits one to deep left field and that one is gone.
13:40And LaShorda got the answer to his rhetorical question.
13:45Something about should I walk this guy and pitch to that so-and-so.
13:50To this day, I never understood why Tom LaShorda didn't walk Jack Clark and Andy Van Slyke and myself were
13:57behind him.
13:57And I think combined, we probably had five hits in the whole series.
14:07The Cards pathetic offense. With a regular season batting average of a league leading 264,
14:14St. Louis hit 185 against the Royals.
14:18Ozzy didn't hit. Willie didn't hit. Tommy didn't hit. No one hit during the World Series.
14:22We weren't hitting the ball. I mean, we were, we scratched out some runs and managed to win some
14:27ball games. But you hit like that, usually you don't even have the opportunity to see Game 7.
14:32With Vince Coleman out of the lineup, center fielder Willie McGee batted nearly 100 points below his
14:39regular season average of .353.
14:41Even though he was a batting champion MVP, he did not like leading off, was not used to it.
14:46He didn't do a very good job leading off.
14:482-2, got him swinging.
14:53And it's strike three.
14:55In seven games against the Royals, the Cards scored just 13 times.
15:01I didn't drive in and run the whole series after, after having 110 during this, the whole season. But
15:07there weren't a whole lot of guys to drive in that series.
15:11Down goes Landry.
15:13The pitching has just been superlative this whole series.
15:16Well, I don't know whether so much their pitching is, just our lack of hitting.
15:20They pretty much shut down our whole lineup.
15:23The pitch is strike three, the throw to third is a double play.
15:27We should have taken care of business and done more, that's all. We should have put some more
15:32points on the board.
15:36That brings us to reason number two. The Cardinals collapse in the field after
15:41Denkinger gave the Royals a lead off base runner in the ninth.
15:45He pops it up and fouls round, and Clark comes over to the dugout with Porter, and Clark doesn't know
15:51where he is.
15:52Darryl Porter was calling it all the way.
15:54Ball is behind me.
15:56Don Denkinger's call was the first out of the inning.
15:58You can regroup and get the three outs. Jack Clark dropped the pop-up.
16:03I don't think I would have dropped it.
16:05We all look like we don't know what we're doing now, and all of a sudden, boom, base hit.
16:09Now you have first and second.
16:10Ground ball, base hit, left field.
16:12Oh, and a second and holding.
16:15After a Royals failed sacrifice bunt got the cards and out at third,
16:19catcher Darryl Porter's mixed signal to Todd Worrell cost them dearly.
16:25The key play of the whole series came with Hal McRae batting against Todd Worrell.
16:31Darryl had a sign that if he went to his mask, you know, we were going to go back to
16:36the first sign
16:37or, you know, switch it back. Darryl, I'm sure, Ketchum was sweating and stuff,
16:40but he reached through his mask to push his glasses up on his face. And what appeared to me,
16:47you know, going to his mask, that we were going to switch, it went from a fastball to a slider.
16:52That gets away from corner and the runners move up.
16:56The runners scored a second and third, and Whitey Herzog was then forced to walk McRae,
17:02which he didn't want to do, to load the bases for a possible double play.
17:05I think that series came down to not catching the pop-up, to making the bad pitch, and then
17:12letting Dane Orch, an extra guy, beat you.
17:16A little loopy fly ball, base hit! One run is in!
17:20They still got a crack at the play at the plate. Van Slyke charges and throws.
17:24Andy Van Slyke's right throw to the plate! He is safe! The game is over!
17:31Porter might have done a better job blocking the plate, rest his soul, but Porter could have
17:35caught the pop-up, he might have been able to prevent the pass ball, and he might have been
17:39able to block the plate. And you can see that someone was smiling down on the Kansas City Royals
17:45here tonight. Game six was still the Cardinals for the taking after Denkinger's call.
17:54The Cards' nervous breakdown. They began obsessing over Denkinger's bad call after game six,
18:01and carried it onto the field in game seven. The Cardinals walked off the field,
18:08convinced that the call had cost them that win, and I think convinced that they had no chance to
18:14win in game seven. I thought the guy was out at first base. Once again, it doesn't seem like we're
18:20getting too many calls either. I don't like to get on the umpires, but geez, you think once in a
18:23while
18:24that we would get one. I'm pretty perturbed about that call. When brilliant managers become
18:29unstrung by something that drives them crazy, Wadey Herzog by the Don Denkinger call in the World
18:33Series, the players respond to that by quitting. Balboni is going, and the pitch is again through
18:39the left field, hooking down the line, and five!
18:43As it turns out in game seven, I don't get the job done, and neither does anybody else.
18:48Four walks into the bullpen they go.
18:52After giving up five earned runs in two-plus innings,
18:55Cards ace John Tudor cut his hand during an emotional outburst in the dugout.
19:11In the World Series, the rest of it was more about vending than it was about winning.
19:18That's Whitey Herzog screaming at Don Denkinger.
19:21You got Don Denkinger behind the plate. I mean, that's like putting a stick of dynamite back there
19:26and someone lighting it.
19:28Down 9-0 in the fifth inning, Whitey Herzog dispatched his most volatile thrower,
19:34Joaquin Andahar, to the mound.
19:36I looked out to the bullpen, and I saw Andahar warming up. I thought, oh boy,
19:41this is Whitey's way of getting even here with Denkinger.
19:44And it's inside ball four.
19:47Whitey come running out of the dugout, and Whitey said,
19:50where are you going? I said, I'm going out to stop him. I said, if he raises his hands again,
19:54he's gone. He said, Don, if you got to play right last night, we wouldn't have had to be here
19:58tonight.
20:00Whitey's gone. You can see that coming.
20:04Should Whitey have brought Andahar in the game? Probably not. I mean, that was asking for trouble.
20:09And Andahar's going out of the game, and they better get him out of there.
20:12They better get him out in a hurry.
20:14Following the humiliating 11-0 blowout, Cardinal players unleashed their fury on various inanimate
20:21objects in the clubhouse.
20:23Ah, the bat that Joaquin Andahar used to destroy a restroom underneath Royal Stadium. Look at this.
20:30Maybe this bat represents the frustration of a team picked to win the World Series and devastated in
20:34Game 7. It was one of the most embarrassing moments in Cardinal history, how that club behaved.
20:40And the Cardinals are venting their wrath. They are so angry and so frustrated.
20:47It was a nervous breakdown. Once Dinkinger missed the call with no outs in the top of the ninth of
20:53the
20:53previous game, the Cardinals went into a nervous breakdown that didn't end until it was 11-0 in the
20:58seventh game.
21:00I have never seen a team come this unraveled.
21:06With as many decisions as they make in a game, we could do a whole show blaming the loss of
21:10many
21:10championship series on an umpire or official. We chose to concentrate on one. Did we change your
21:16mind? Maybe, maybe not. Hopefully we made you think about it in a different light. I'm Brian Kenney.
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