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Heartbreak in Arlington
By Bob Costas – October 31, 1922, Globe Life Field, Arlington, Texas
In baseball, as in life, greatness often comes down to three outs.
And on this cool Texas night, the New York Mets were three outs away from achieving a kind of baseball immortality — a second straight World Series title, a validation of everything they’d built.
But those final three outs can be the heaviest a pitcher ever tries to lift.
Rey González, the Mets’ trusted closer, the man who had been nearly automatic all October, simply couldn’t find the finish line. A sharp single here, a walk there, and suddenly, the once-quiet Texas crowd roared to life. Then, with one out and the bases loaded, Juan Contreras lifted a fly ball deep enough to right — a sacrifice fly that sent home the winning run and sent the Rangers streaming out of the dugout.
Texas 8, New York 7.
A breathless Game 5 that had everything October baseball promises — tension, reversals, and heartbreak.
For the Mets, it was a night of too many chances lost. Eighteen hits, but only seven runs. Time and again, they filled the basepaths, only to see opportunity fade into frustration. Brubaker, Stacks, and Peña each had three hits, but the knockout blow never came.
Meanwhile, for the Rangers, it was about resilience — and one man who refused to let his team’s season end. Josh Norwood, their designated hitter, delivered not one, but two towering home runs, each swing carrying the weight of defiance.
“This place was rocking at the end,” Norwood said afterward. And indeed, it was. For one night, Arlington felt like the heart of the baseball world.
And so, the Series shifts back to New York — to Flushing Meadows, where the Mets will try once more to seize history. They still lead, three games to two. The champagne remains on ice, the ticker tape not yet ordered.
But this much we know: baseball has a way of humbling even its most dominant teams. It reminds them, and us, that nothing — not even destiny — is guaranteed until the final out is made.
The Mets were three outs from glory. Now, they’ll have to earn it all over again.
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