Tap-In Question: What’s the greatest World Series that you personally remember?

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• 1975 .... lived in Massachusetts. Watched my high school buddies go crazy (much to my agony) on Pudge's game 6 tater ... only to watch them squirm on their couch as the Big Red Machine broke their tiny cold soulless Red Sox hearts in game 7. I remember them crying after Tony Perez sent a Spaceman Lee Eephus deep into the night, and then crying again after the coup de gras - Joe Morgan inning bloop single scored Griffey Sr for the series winner in the top of the 9th. Poetic justice had none other than Yaz flying out to record the last out of this 7 game classic!

  Why was this the best? Because I think I was the only O's fan in that stinkin' lousy sliver of a state in 1975 and I couldn't stomach the Sox then, any more than I can stomach them now!

  • I understand this current series has been a good one too. Too bad it's on TOO FREAKIN' LATE TO WATCH Mr. Manfred!

    I hope your grandchildren enjoy their Soccer & Quidditch matches 20 years from now as you tune out America's youth to this great pastime of ours, you stupid greedy ba##ards!

    Beertender ... I'm begging you ... please another!?!

    • Will you watch the series next year Boog if Mr Manfred institutes a 20 second pitch clock?

      • I don't think a pitch clock would help all that much. The problem is the time of day at which the game gets underway. 8:30 PM? Even if the game only takes 3 hours, that's still an 11:30 finish. Too late for many of us worker bees to stay up for, not to mention school aged children who will be tomorrow's Soccer & Quidditch fans at this rate!

        MLB needs to start the games at 7:00 or 7:30 EST. A couple of weekend day games would be nice as well. This is all done for the West Coast advertising dollar. The end of the game is even a bit late for the Central & Mountain time zone folks! It won't cost the west coast folks that much to miss an inning or 2 at the start of a game if they can't possibly make it home by 4:30 their time. And frankly, if they're true baseball fans that are set on watching the games in their entirety, they simply leave work a hour early. They're not missing anything!! It's all about how many commercials Fox can cram into a 4 hour time slot.

        So NO ... I won't watch next year with a 20 second pitch clock, UNLESS some miracle were to happen and the O's get in.

      • Pitch clock is pointless. It's adding a shiny piece of metal for everyone to look at instead of just telling the Umpires to have some backbone and tell these guys to get their a** in gear. If, say, Penn State can play Maryland for 9 innings in under 3 hours, there is no reason the Boston Red Sox can't play the New York Yankees in roughly the same amount of time. I'm sorry, but you can't tell me that taking 2 minutes after each pitch to adjust your batting gloves and scratch yourself makes one a better hitter. There's plenty of ways to get the game going faster without introducing 5 yard delay of game penalties. For instance, tell the pitching coach to put on a polo shirt and go sit in the clubhouse or up in the suite. Your average major league battery has been a pitcher and catcher for around 20 years respectively, and are lavishly compensated. Is it too much to ask that, if they have the first 2 batters get on base in the fifth inning, they should be capable of figuring a way out on their own?

        • Personally, I think calling the strike zone as it's defined in the book would be step number one in speeding up the pace of a game.

  • Drink chip for the description of 1975. And for the interesting interaction here without me. I'm just pouring and listening.

• I was all of 3 months old in 1983 when the O's won their last championship. Heck, I even lived in California at the time, so I wasn't even an inkling of an O's fan at that point. Perhaps for me, the greatest World Series I've seen so far was 2011, watching David Freese go from zero to hero in the blink of an eye when the Cards were one strike away from losing the series to the Rangers. 2016 was pretty special too, watching a very epic Cubs team finally make 94 year old women in Chicago happy for the first time in their lives.

  • Yep. Two excellent ones. Goodness I enjoy the World Series.

• Sorry Dan-o, this'll be a long one...

  3. 2015. It wasn't a particularly riveting series, but it stands out to me because that was about a month after my son was born and he would sit on my lap every night and watch it with me. Plus, I am a closet Mets fan, more on that below.

  2. 1986. That was really the first Series that I actually watched and comprehended as a kid, and it was spectacular (BEHIND THE BAG! IT GETS THROUGH BUCKNER, HERE COMES KNIGHT AND THE METS WIN IT!*) The next Easter I got a VHS copy of "This Year in Baseball '86" hosted by Mel Allen which I watched over and over, and to this day I still call the Mets my National League team.

  1. 2001. Far and away my number one. Even if the Orioles were to win a seven game classic at some point, '01 will probably remain in the top spot. I had enlisted in the Army immediately after 9-11, but due to some administrative stuff I wasn't able to leave for Fort Benning until late October. I had quit my job and moved out of my apartment in Ocean City, so during those few weeks, I didn't have whole lot to do other than watch baseball, think about the decision I had just made, and I even made a pilgrimage of sorts to Manhattan to see the ground zero site, which was still smoking and people were posting signs for missing loved ones at that time. So with all this madness swirling about, I watched game 6 sitting in the hotel out by BWI the Army puts you in before they fly you down to Georgia the next morning. The very next day I found out something ELSE got screwed up in my packet and I would have to wait an additional day. Obviously I was frustrated at this point, but I ended up getting to watch game 7 in the same hotel room, screaming like a madman when the D-Backs pulled it out. The next day I was off to the next chapter in my life. 2001 was also the year my boyhood hero, Cal, retired. So it was almost like my childhood came to a very definitive end when Luis Gonzalez put that bloop past Jeter and Jay Bell crossed the plate. Gonna be tough to top that one.

  *please, please, PLEASE let FOX give Vin Scully the booth just for a half inning tonight.

  • That's awesome stuff. Does anyone remember the Super Bowls this way? NBA Championships? I guess maybe. Still. Baseball. Drink chip.

• 1960. I was 12 years old. The games were all played in daytime hours. They went quickly. It was a stunning series, because the Yankees dominated three games in the Pirates won three games by one or two runs each. In game seven, the score went back-and-forth. Finally, in the bottom of the ninth of game seven, Bill Mazeroski hit a homerun to win the World Series!! This was prior to the time when homeruns were called “walk off “.
  If tonight‘s game seven ends with a Dodgers walk off, this World Series can lay claim to the title greatest ever. Of course, if Houston wins their first-ever World Series, that would make it an all-time great series as well.

  • My father talks of Maz's homer all the time. Good one.

  • another good one. I'm really liking this thread today. Drink chip.

• 1955. I was a 10-year-old Brooklyn Dodgers fan in a family of Yankees enthusiasts in NJ. 1955 was finally next year! Who can forget that catch by Sandy Amoros!
  In 1956 I was present at the Larsen perfect game. My mother, aunt and I got there at 9 am and paid $2:50 for bleacher seats. It was not a good series.
  When the Dodgers moved in 1957, they broke that little boy's heart and taught him that baseball was a business, not a game. I now hate the Yankees and the Dodgers and the corporatization of baseball, like the ridiculous 8 pm start time and the endless commercials.

  • Bartender, get this man whatever he needs

  • Done. Drink chips.

• Although I was alive, I was too young to remember either the 1979 or the 1983 World Series. I remember watching a little bit of the '86 series and it wasn't until the 1988 series that I remember watching more of it because I could stay up later. As a kid, I always promised myself that when I was old enough to, I was going to always stay up late and watch the World Series. I kept that promise to myself and watched many a game until I dozed off, and now, there is no shot that I can stay up late between work and being a parent. I agree with Boog, the games have to start earlier if East Coasters are going to be able to watch the whole game. Is it too much to ask to start the games at 7:30? So what if the West Coast misses the first hour of the game; MLB seems to have no problem scheduling O's opening day at 3PM on a work day every year. Most of B'more misses the game because of that and it doesn't bother them (and it's one of the biggest events in B'more every year to boot). Maybe they could limit commercials and reduce the amount of time it takes for the games to be played by doing more of the in-game commercials like they did last night? Or maybe compromise on start times to make everyone happy- earlier start time on weekdays, later start time Friday and Saturday nights?

  Now with that rant over, the two I remember most were the 2001 Series b/c nobody gave Arizona a chance and they pulled off one of the most miraculous wins ever with that bloop single by Gonzo off of Rivera and then the pitching performances were unreal. Also, the 1991 Series for just how close every game of that series was and again, the pitching performances. I'd also throw in the 2004 World Series because as a fan of the Sox (they were always my 2nd team behind the O's; I always pull for the O's though when they meet head to head), it was great to see them get over the hump after the heartbreak inflicted by Aaron Boone in 2003. It literally was watching history being made. If I could stay up late for it, I would have witnessed history again this time last year, but twas not to be because of adult responsibilities.....

  • Ditto on the late nights. And the emotion of that 2004 series is what sports is all about. Same for last year's Cubs win.

• That's easy. The 1966 World Series. I was only 12 years old and I had a paper route. I remember vividly listening to my transistor radio and listening to Game one and game two. Looking back, that was an ENORMOUS upset. At the time, the Dodgers were trying to build a dynasty. They had won the WS in 1959, 1963 and 1965. The core of that team was still there. They had Maury Wills, Willie Davis, Wes Parker and Junior Gilliam. Their pitching was incredible with Drysdale, Koufax, Osteen and Podres. Instead, the Orioles pitching dominated. Jim Palmer, Wally Bunker and Dave Mcnally all pitched shutouts. LA scored just two runs in the series. That WS ended the Dodgers potential dynasty and started the Orioles. LA didn't return to the WS until 1974. Frank and Brooks set the tone in the first inning of game one when they hit back to back home runs. Paul Blair's homer in Game 3 was the only run of the game. Frank's HR in Game 4 was the only run of that game.

  • My favorite factoid from that Series. The Orioles used four pitchers. TOTAL. TOTAL.

• It's hard to choose between '66 and '70 for me. They were both special but for different reasons.

  They say the first time is always the best and that's why I'll never forget 1966. Our O's were such an underdog to Sandy, Don and Maury that it was expected they would sweep and not the other way around.

  I just got home from school in time to see Frank and then Brooks homer in the 1st inning but when McNally struggled it was time to worry. Moe saved the day with a great relief outing.

  Palmer versus Koufax seemed like a no brainer for Dodger fans but "Cakes" did Baltimore proud and ended Sandy's career on a down note. Those back-to-back-to-back shutouts have to go down as some of the greatest WS games of all time. When Blair squeezed the last out and Brooks leapt for joy this 13 year old's baseball dream came true. No way it could be topped for me...

  Until 1970. By then I was 17 and able to actually buy tickets to Game 4. Everyone knows that this was Brook's coming out party to the country and to be there to see him make play after play after diving play was unforgettable. I still get goose bumps seeing the line drive catch he made while telling my kids..."I was there!!" One thing that a lot of folks forget though is McNally's grand slam. A rare thing for a pitcher in a World Series. Being there on 33rd Street with the crowd makes this one so memorable to me.

  Thanks Dan for triggering this trip down memory lane!

  Bill

  • Damn Bill .. you've got me all misty!!! Awesome piece.

  • Great stuff. Tho it isn't that difficult to make the Boogster misty. Drink chip.

• I agree with 19. It was the 2011 World Series and especially Game 6 as the most exciting game I ever watched. Some great moments this year but much too late to watch and that is a shame. Most of the playoffs are on cable and my friends don't buy it.

  • Yeah. I really wish it was more accessible. My 86-year-old dad was so mad he couldn't find one game that he gave up.

• I was 6 years old in 1983, so I missed the last time the O’s were in one. For me it would also be the 1991 Braves- Twins fall classic. 1991 was the year I really got into all things baseball. The Twins went on a 15 game winning streak during that season and it was the Orioles that ended it when Randy Milligan hit a gapper to walk off the Twins. I couldn’t talk on the way home from that game, because we were cheering so loud.

  That series had great pitching and clutch hitting. Kirby Puckett’s homer and Jack Morris’ big series have always been at the top of my list. In second would be 2002 Angels-Giants. I was living in Southern California at the time and that series sparked that whole area. The Angels came back to win against Bonds and the mighty Giants.

  • Those 2 really stand out for me as well. I still remember where I watched both Game 7s.

• For me it was the 83 series with the Orioles winning after our heartbreak in 79, but for the last time. Another that I enjoyed immensely is the 81 series when the Dodgers finally beat the Yankees after the 77 and 78 heartbreaks.

  • I was bitter about 81 cuz I felt like the Os could have been there. Don't remember much of that one.

• I’ve only been at one WS game: 1983 Game 5. But as great an experience as that was, the 1966 WS is the greatest for me: Drabowski’s dominant relief, the home runs, the incredible string of shut outs, the SWEEP of the mighty Dodgers — and my favorite trivia question: who was the last person to get a hit off Sandy Koufax. (I especially liked adding, “He’s wearing a NY Mets uniform today,” when Davy Johnson was Manager.)

  • And the last pitcher to beat Koufax? We all know the answer to that one.

• Last year was pretty tough to beat. ‘91 is runner-up. I remember knowing who the Big Red Machine were but I don’t remember watching any series before ‘79.

  • I vaguely remember 1976, I think. That was my first

• 66. L.A. vs Baltimore. David vs Goliath

• With the Orioles, no question the 1966 sweep of the Dodgers.