Quote:
Originally Posted by One Great Matrix
Good luck against those Singapore Sluggers. If you win two, great.
If you don't, sing the Singapore Blues.
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In the fateful game 6, Huntley took the field in the bottom of the 8th with a 4-2 lead. Roger Clemens had completed his redemption after last year's playoff disasters with another solid start (5 innings, 2 runs), and the offense had scratched out single runs in the first 4 innings to support him. After 2 scoreless innings from Dennis Eckersley, Lee Smith took the mound, looking to hold the Sluggers at bay for Eric Gagne in the 9th.
Mickey Cochrane struck out swinging, but Willie Mays singled. Perhaps too hastily, the Red Raiders' manager pulled Smith in favor of Vida Blue. He induced a ground out from George Brett for out number 2, with Mays moving up to second, but then switch-hitter Ozzie Smith grounded one through the infield and Mays raced home. Joe DiMaggio coaxed a walk, taking a borderline 3-2 pitch for ball 4, and up came Josh Gibson. Blue got ahead 0-2, but after a ball, Gibson fouled off 4 straight pitches before grounding a single through the infield. Ken Griffey came up throwing, but Smith slid around the Yogi Berra tag to tie the game at 4. Ty Cobb grounded out to end the inning, but the damage was done.
But the Red Raiders refused to quit! In the top of the 10th, with 1 out, Luke Appling drew a walk off Singapore's Mariano Rivera. Dennis Eckersley came on and got Mickey Mantle to ground out, but Carl Yastrzemski walked. George Brett, ice cold in the playoffs entering the game, stared down Eck, waited for his pitch, and banged his third hit of the night all the way to the wall. The double scored Appling, and Huntley reclaimed the lead, 5-4. Arky Vaughan had the chance to add to the damage, but he grounded out. Still, Huntley was back on top, and a game 7 loomed.
Eric Gagne strode to the mound for his second inning of work. Singapore's George Brett promptly greeted him with a line-drive single. Again quite possibly too hasty with the hook, Huntley brought Cy Blanton into the game. Ken Griffey singled and Honus Wagner walked, leaving the sacks packed with Sluggers, nobody out, and Eck, Smith, Blue, and Gagne already used up out of Huntley's bullpen. The game, and potentially the series, was Cy Blanton's to win or lose.
Josh Gibson, who had tied the game in the 8th, sent a fly ball deep into left field. Mickey Mantle raced back and made the catch, but it was too deep to stop Brett from tagging and coming home and Griffey scampering to third. Singapore had once again tied the game and was poised to win it.
With Ty Cobb at the plate, Wagner stole second. Frustrated, Blanton's next pitch "slipped out of his hands" and plunked Cobb, reloading the bases with still only 1 out. Mighty Babe Ruth came to bat, but Blanton hunkered down, and on a 2-2 count, the Babe went down swinging. All that stood between Huntley and an 11th inning was King Kelly.
King took ball one, then fouled off a pitch. Blanton induced a swinging strike, and the Red Raiders were one strike away from escaping with the game still tied. But Kelly lined the next pitch over the infield, and long before Griffey touched the plate, the celebration in Singapore had begun.
Despite a 115-win season and coming up only 2 games short of a fourth Perfect title, Huntley did not factor much into the postseason awards, with the only earned hardware an AC Platinum Stick for SS Luke Appling and his .312/.414/.414, 135 wRC+, 5.9 WAR batting line. Vida Blue finished second in the Reliever of the Year award voting with 5 first-place votes, with Lee Smith and Warren Spahn each receiving one vote; Don Sutton and Rube Marquard finished third and sixth in the Pitcher of the Year award voting with 63 and 17 votes, respectively; and Appling (8th place) was the only top-10 Huntley representative in the Most Valuable Player award voting, with Sutton, Marquard, Jackie Robinson, Mantle, and Yastrzemski also receiving votes.
On to 2045!