Kirk Gibson's Walk-Off Home Run: A World Series Miracle

On October fifteenth, nineteen eighty eight, was Game one of the World Series featuring two California teams in the Oakland Athletics and the LA Dodgers. And as the Oakland Athletics Dennis Eckersley was trying to finish out the game, Kurt Gibson, who had been injured, checks in and hits arguably one of the most famous home runs in baseball history. Today, we're going to go through the steps that led to this amazing moment and the effects it had in the baseball world. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide as you daily learn more about sports history, increasing your sports knowledge. And today's trivia question is how did Kirk Gibson get out of his contract with the Tigers to sign with the LA Dodgers. So before we get to this iconic moment, we need to dive into how each team made it to the World Series. See the Dodgers and specifically, Kirk Gibson was not expected to be on the Dodgers. See after the nineteen eighty seven season with the Detroit Tigers, who he had spent his entire career with and likely would have loved to stay there as He was born in Michigan and went to college at Michigan State, and in nineteen eighty four he led the Tigers to a championship to a World Series win, and had always been one of their better players, but he got low balled by them after their nineteen eighty seven season, but no one else was offering him a contract. See it turns out that team owners had colluded against the players in an effort to lessen the free agency burden on them so they wouldn't have to pay as much to all the free agents. So when this happened, Gibson was now again a free agent. Even now he had just signed a contract with the Detroit Tigers, which meant now he was a free agent again, and the Tigers didn't offer him as much as the LA Dodgers, so he moved across the country where he had a great season with the LA Dodgers, batting two ninety, hitting twenty five home runs, and thirty one stolen bases, and helped the Dodgers, who finished fourth in their division the year before, win the division in nineteen eighty eight, seven games ahead of the next closest team, the Cincinnati Reds, with a record of ninety four and sixty seven, and they were also led by one of the greatest pitchers at the time, Oral Firstcheizer, but they were facing him off against the Oakland Athletics, who had the best record in the Major leagues and won one hundred and four games. On offense, they were led by the Bash brothers in Jose Conseco and Mark McGuire, as well as Dave Henderson, and they had a great pitcher on their team as well in Dave Stewart. They would have to face the Boston Red Sox and the Alcs that year, where they swept the Boston Red Sox to head to the World Series, and the LA Dodgers to get there had to go through the New York Mets, who had won one hundred games that season and had also won ten of their eleven meetings with the Dodgers. But Kirk Gibson stepped up in the series, making defensive plays and having a great hitting output, and the series went to seven games, where Earl Hersheizer ended up pitching that final seventh game, pitching a shutout and leading the Dodgers into the World Series. But the problem was heading into this game since Earl Hrsseeies had just pitched they wouldn't have him for Game one of the series, and Kirk Gibson had injured both his legs coming into the World Series and did not start in Game one. So the Dodgers were coming in hobbled, facing off against a team that was well rested and could come out with their best shot. But despite that, the LA Dodgers took the early lead, where Mickey Hatcher hit a two run home run in the first inning, but not to be outdone. The next inning, Jose Canseco hit a grand slam to give Oakland a four to two lead. Now in the sixth inning, Oakley was able to get some bass hits to score one more run to make it a one run game. Now at this moment, kirk Gibson wasn't even in the dugout. He was actually watching the game from a therapy room in the Dodgers' clubhouse. And during the game, legendary announcer for the LA Dodgers, Vin Scully, was announcing the game. As they panned across the dugout, he said that kirk Gibson was nowhere to be found. He was saying this in a way to say that he wasn't going to be playing in the game, but this bird Kirk Gibson to come out of the therapy room and tell Tommy LaRussa, his manager, that he was available to pinch hit if needed, and Gibson went to the batting cages in the clubhouse to take some practice swings to be ready. So, with a one run lead heading into the ninth inning, Hall of Fame closer Dennis Eckersley took the mound, and he had led the American League with forty five saves that season and was a daunting closer throughout his entire year, and he was looking to finish. With Dave Stewart, their ace had started. Eckersley got the first batter to pop up to shortstop and struck out the next one, so in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, all they needed was one more out to take the game one the lead in the momentum to win the World Series. Next up was Mike Davis, who was pinch hitting and was able to get on base, and the Dodgers wanted to kind of keep Kirk Gibson a secret. As Dave Anderson went to the on deck circle to warm up before his at bat, and then after Mike Davis got on to first Anderson came into the dugout and Gibson walked out with a little bit of a limp, and the crowd erupted as Gibson stepped into the batter's box. Gibson quickly fouled off the first two pitches, making the count zero to two, and then found another one down the line. The count was two and two and on those foul balls, Kurt was swinging awkwardly, and on the seventh pitch, Davis actually stole second, giving them a runner in scoring position, and now the count was three and two into a left handed batter actually would normally pitch a backdoor slider in this count, so Gibson collected himself and was ready to go in a swing that looked like his legs didn't even move and looked like more of a bunt than an actual swing. He makes contact with the ball and it keeps going and going as it goes over the right field fence, and Gibson hobbles around first and as he does makes his way to second, he does his iconic fist pump that has been replayed for years and years, so the Dodgers took Game one in this iconic moment not only fueled the Dodgers, but it devastated the Oakland A's as in the next night, the Dodgers would win six to zero, and in the first game back in Oakland two days later, Oakland would take their first and only game of the series, winning two to one, and over the next two days, la Dodgers would win the next two games, winning the World Series, their first one since nineteen eighty one. Is not often that the game one of a series is the one that everyone remembers, but sometimes it's a story book moment that we remember, and that's exactly what Kirk Gibson's moment was. And after the game, everyone started calling Gibson Roy Hobbs from the movie, as the home run was similar to the end of that movie. And this was arguably the best moment in the best share of Kirk Gibson's career, as he would also be named mL MVP and win the Silver Slugger Award. But after a couple more years in the Dodgers, he would move on to the Kansas City Royals, then the Pittsburgh Pirates and finished his career with two more seasons with the Detroit Tigers before retiring in nineteen ninety five. Though he had a great stretch there with the Tigers and the Dodgers, he was injury prone and missed a lot of time due to this and only managed to hit two hundred and fifty five home runs with eight hundred and seventy runs batted in with a career batting average of two sixty eight. A good player, not really Hall of Fame worthy. After this, he would go on after his career, he would go on to be a broadcaster for the Detroit Tigers as well as as well as become a coach in the Tigers system, and in twenty ten would be the Arizona Diamondbacks manager for four years. But even though he's not a Hall of Famer, everyone remembers him because of this iconic moment. It only takes one moment to be immortalized forever. If you want more Dodgers content, check out the podcast Dodgers Daily, where Austin and Casey bringing you interviews, player featurettes, daily updates on the minor league system as well as the majors, giving you everything you need to know about what's going on behind the scenes for the Dodgers. And if you liked this episode of Daily Sports History, please tell everyone about it on social media. Tell your friends, tell your families, tell your kids, tell your wives. Let everyone know about Daily Sports History so we can continue to grow. Come back tomorrow for more Daily Sports History. And did you catch the answer today's trivia question? How did Kirk Gibson get off his contract with the Tigers to sign with the Dodgers? And it was because a ruling that the team owners had colluded after the nineteen eighty seven season to limit the money given to free agents, so his contract was void with the Tigers and the Dodgers offered him more money. Patent for the pat patent