September, for baseball fans, creates—and brings back—some wonderful memories.
Reputations are earned. The pennant-race games take on a less easy-going, pastoral flavor and the intensity is ratcheted up significantly.
As the 2010 season comes to a close, it’s hard not to think back on September performances that stand out.
In recent years, it would be difficult to argue that David Ortiz of the Red Sox is not the finest ‘clutch’ hitter in baseball. He slid back early this (2010) season, but has still finished the season with good numbers. But I’m more harkening back to the Sox championship seasons, when “big Papi” was indeed big, when it mattered, at key times during the regular season and the playoffs.
Since joining the Red Sox from the Twins some years back, he has surpassed Mo Vaughn as a slugging favorite in Boston, and more importantly, has helped lead the Sox to their first World Series championships since the days of Babe Ruth.
Ortiz’ mere presence in the BoSox lineup dictates game strategy for their opponents, particularly so in the late innings—though the notion of lefty-righty matchups seem to mean very little to Ortiz.
Given his somewhat diminished production this year, how long this will last, of course, is impossible to say.
No one stays ‘clutch’ forever. Even the greatest hitters can’t stay ‘in the zone’ indefinitely over the course of a season, or a career.
But Ortiz’ extraordinary performance in late-game situations brought back memories of other great performances by baseball immortals of the past.
The greatest performance I ever recall over a short period of time was from Roberto Clemente in the 1971 World Series, against the Baltimore Orioles.
I was born in 1953, and remember watching games on TV with my dad (he loved the Yankees, having watched Ruth and Gehrig, among others, in person as a young man) as early as probably 1958-’59.
The first World Series I remember was the ’60 series, when Bill Mazeroski hit the famous game-winning home run against Ralph Terry in the bottom of the 9th inning of Game 7 to win it for the underdog Pirates.
So, I had certainly seen Clemente play on television on occasion through the 60’s, and would have heard Pirate broadcasters (probably Bob Prince, if I remember correctly) as well, as I loved to channel surf on the old family radio long before it was called surfing.
But knowing about Clemente, and then watching him on the big stage over a 7-game series was astonishing to me.
Baltimore had that great pitching staff from the mid-60s to the mid-‘70s, and names like Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar and others come to mind.
But in that October World Series, Clemente was unbelievable, for 7 consecutive games. He didn’t hit moon shots. He would hit line drives to every part of the ball park. Outside pitches would get stung to right field. He’d pull the inside pitch. His bat speed was remarkable, his wrists so strong to be able to drive the ball so hard the opposite way.
Without looking it up, I don’t recall what he hit, but I seem to recall it was well over .400 in the Series . But beyond that, his base running was spectacular and his outfield play was unbelievable. He had an arm like I’ve never seen before or since. (And I’ve seen many great outfield arms, from Al Kaline with the Tigers in the 60s and beyond, to a young Reggie Jackson in Oakland
But no one could throw like Clemente. Low, flat, and like a rocket from deep in right-field.
To this day, Clemente is the best all-around ballplayer I have ever seen. In that ’71 Series he was so clutch. And so good.
That said, the greatest day-after-day clutch performance I can recall was authored by Red Sox outfielder Carl Yastrzemski, throughout the month of September in 1967.
In the mid-‘60s, the Sox were perennial losers. Good individual players but a second-division team, basically. Yaz, as he was knick-named, was a good ballplayer, who had replaced the legendary Ted Williams in left field for the BoSox in 1961 or thereabouts.
But something special happened in 1967. The Sox brought in a new manager, Dick Williams, from their Triple “A” affiliate in Toronto
The Red Sox were fighting with the Tigers, Twins and White Sox if I remember correctly, for first place in the American league. This was before the days of 4 or 6 divisions. There was only one pennant winner in the American League, one in the National League, all based on the regular season schedule.
The Sox came out of nowhere that season, but had a number of young players like Joe Foy, Mike Andrews and Tony Conigliaro, if memory serves correct.
But “the man” was Yaz. He had an unbelievable September. It seemed that, day after day, in the heat of a tight pennant race, he would deliver the clutch hits and plays that would push the Red Sox to victory.
His month of September was the finest prolonged stretch of excellence I had ever seen to that point as a young baseball fan, and frankly, I don’t think I’ve witnessed anything like it since.
A number of the September games in those days were day games, and I would come home from school and listen to the radio to hear about what Yaz and the Sox had done that day. More often then not, he led the way as the Sox kept winning.
So prolific was he that by the end of the season, he had earned the “Triple Crown”, having led the American League in Home runs, RBI’s and batting average. The last guy to do that before him was Mickey Mantle, and I don’t believe anyone has done it since.
Both Clemente and Yastrzemski were inducted into the Baseball Hall-of-Fame, and very deservedly so based on lengthy and outstanding careers.
Whether Ortiz reaches that level, we’re a ways off from knowing. But in the interim, he has provided the Red Sox over many seasons with the kind of season-long excellence that Hall-of-Fame credentials are based on.
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