Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
At this time the Rob Dibble Show, Take someone back
to the sports that once were.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
I don't believe what I I know.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Here's Ben Donnell with unsolicited sports history.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Right, alright, alright, Wow.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
What a baseball season we have had this year in
twenty twenty five, and we have just been marveling, honestly
before this week, last couple of weeks, so like, how
close it is for so many of these teams. How
many teams have come from the brink of being eliminated
like in July, to all of a sudden being contenders
nearing October.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
It's like, is this the best one ever? Just feels
like it.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
I mean, maybe it's the extra team in the wildcard
that's at It's obviously the extra team in the Wildcard
that's made us all so excited and given us more
hope for more franchises across Major League Baseball. However, nineteen
oh eight, man right around this time, one hundred and
seventeen years ago from yesterday, nineteen o eight was like
(01:03):
the biggest three way split in the National League.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
You had the New York Giants that were hot.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
They're like this New York team that was just killing everybody.
Just go ask the New York Superbas how they played
kick their butt every single day. And then you've got
the almighty Chicago Cubs, I mean Big Bruis and Chicago Cubs,
who have won so many World Series up to this point.
Everybody's afraid of the Cubs in nineteen oh eight. And
(01:31):
then you had the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pittsburgh Pirates are
good too, man. All three of these teams are within
a game and a half of each other come mid September.
Now we're playing one hundred and fifty four back then,
not one sixty two.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
But the season went a little bit longer in the year.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
We're not stopping right at September twenty ninth, that's the
open date that we have on Monday. We're going to
like October fifth, October six, So there's like twenty some
games to go when we get to September two, twenty third,
nineteen oh eight in the New York Polo Grounds, where
the Cubs took on the Giants and the story of
the biggest boner in Major League Baseball history. It's known
(02:12):
as Merkeles boner. Look it up, but don't do it
at work. I don't know if this is going to
be safe for your Google search. You might take in
other directions that I don't want to be responsible for.
But Merkeles Boner. Every umpire should know Merkeles Boner. I say,
every baseball fan should know about Merkeles Boner.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
What's Merkeles Boner?
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Ben Ah, let me tell you about a guy by
the name of Fred Merkle. Fred Merkle is the youngest
player in the National League. He's only nineteen years old.
He gets put on the New York Giants. He's happy.
He's a clam man. He's a backup first baseman. He
can give you a pinch run every now and then.
Hell he even catch you sometimes bullpen catcher. Sometimes he
might drive the bus. Fred Merkle's great dude, man, great dude.
(02:53):
Everybody loves having him on the team. Why didn't you
know they're playing a really important game against the Cubs
at the Polo grind rounds and the original first baseman,
mister Fred Tenney gets lombago. Lombago was a fancy way
of saying back pain that time, because I guess it's
your lumbar. Probably the people what the bona joint is
(03:14):
to Hartford Healthcare like, that's not what it is. But
from what my research today, lombago is just like severe
back pain. They want to say any type, they want
to say all these fancy words around it, but it's
just yeah, he's got a tight back.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Man. So what do we do? We call our boy?
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Fred Merklin Frett, you're playing first man, you're bat in
seventh right, Like, gosh, I've only had thirty eight games
that I've appeared in so far this year, and I'm
only nineteen years old, and I'm playing in this really
important game of the New York Polo Grounds. And there's
twenty thousand people here sold out at the Polo Grounds
(03:49):
to see this baseball game, regular season game. But we
got two of the top National League teams going head
to head. Right, Oh, what a game it was, Nick Federico.
We had some of the best pitchers on the mound
for both teams. Hall of Famer Christy Matthewson, look his
numbers up, dude. Christy Matthewson for the New York Giants
was just a maestro. And Jack Feister of the Chicago Cubs.
(04:15):
It started out with Matthewson giving up a home run
to Joe Tinker now, a home run at the Polo
Grounds was like a ball in the gap, like it
would just roll and roll, because like imagine playing on
a football field and the orientation is the goalpost in
the back end zone is home plate, and then like
center field is three hundred yards that way, like it's
(04:37):
so huge, So if you get a ball in the gap,
it will roll forever. And outfielders are just like whatever,
man have it, Like I ain't gonna run after this
to throw you out at home.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
So they just have it.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
So Joe Tinker puts one on the board. The Giants
put another one on the board in the fifth inning,
tie ball game one one. Fred Merkles up to the
bat in the bottom of the ninth Federico bottom nine
k got a man on first two outs. He is
shaken in his boots that he's gonna strike out and.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Lose this game.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Lucks up, sprays one to right field. Guy on first
round second makes it to third. Merkel safe at first.
Merkle's like, yes, man, nobody's gonna hate me now because
like I finally contributed to this team. I'm only nineteen,
I'm on first of the polar graphs. The police is
packed like, I gotta like save the game. Kind if
(05:29):
I would have got out the game, we'd gone to
extras we want in a one first pitch, next at
bat laced into center field, base hit run comes in
from third. Oh man Fred Merkle is so happy now
and the fans are rushing the field. Fans are everywhere,
and Murkle's like, I'm out of here. I am not
gonna be a part of this melee. It's great, we won,
(05:50):
thanks for coming, but I'm gonna go the dugout before
I get stomped by these crazy New Yorkers.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
The Cubs notice Merkele never went to second. He's the baseball.
Grab the baseball.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
The first the coach of the Cubs is grabbed the baseball.
The third base coach of the Giants knows what's going on.
He knows where the baseball is. He sees Merkele walking
to the dugout. He sees the Cubs shortstop trying to
get the baseball. The coach of the Giants takes the
baseball and throws in.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
The stands, go get it now.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
A guy from the New York Giants fan base is like,
I got the baseball.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
We wonted and I got the baseball. Everybody, let's go
to the bar.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
The Cubs are like, get that dude, he's got the baseball.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
They chase after the guy.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
They beat him up in the stands, rip the baseball
off his hands, relay it to right field. Right fielder
relays it to second, grabs a baseball, jumps on second.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
I got it. He's out. He never touched second. He's out.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
The umpires get together. There's only two. I think I
got their names. One of them's a Hall of Famer,
hank O Day. I think he's the Hall of Famer.
Bomb M. Sleeve is also there. Bob and Hank are like, okay,
let's see here.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
So they're conferring, trying to figure out how to play this.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Did he touch second base? There's no replay, there's no replay.
Did he touch second base?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Comes like he.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Did touch second base? Just he left. He saw the
dudes and he left. We'll go get Merkle. Then I left.
I just left. Well, how do I even know that's
the base It is the baseball. We beat up that guy.
Did you see kick the crap out of that guy?
Why would we do that if that wasn't the ball?
We were just grabbed a random ball. So Major League
(07:31):
Baseball was like, okay, let's try to bring everybody back.
Everybody get off the field. We're gonna resume the game.
All the Giants fans like the hell you are, this
game's over.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
We won. We're gonna kick the crap out of you
umpires if you let this go on. And then I'm like,
oh the world, we're out of here.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
They leave, and then major League Baseball deems the game suspended.
If we gotta go back and play it in the end,
because because these two teams.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Are tied in the end, then we'll do it.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
But what are the chances that that's gonna happen in
the standings? We got like thirty more games. Somebody's gonna
get some separation. It was fun while it lasted, everybody,
but everybody just go home. The game suspended. It's one
to one. There's not gonna be a win, not gonna
be a loss.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Whatever.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
So they go home and everybody's like talking about it,
and the newspaper. I do have the newspaper from the
next day. Blunder costs Giants victory. Merkle rushes off baseline
before winning run is scored. And is declared out confusion
on the ball field. Chance asserts that McCormick run does
(08:42):
not count. Crowd broke up the game, umpires declared it
a tie.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
So they're waiting around.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
They're like, okay, this is not going to like come
down to the end, Like we still got more games
to play. We know what happened in the Polo Grounds
in New York in September, Like it's all good.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Let's see what happens.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Cubs start win and then Pirates start winning, Giants start losing,
Pirates start losing, Cubs start losing, Giants start winning. Everything
just keeps getting knotted up. Like Pirates are in first
by a half a game. Now Cubs are in first
by a half game. Now we're all tied. There's four
games or three games left. Pirates are knodded with the Cubs.
(09:19):
Ninety eight and fifty six is the Pirates record. Ninety
eight and fifty five is the Cubs record because they're
one game less than the Pirates because the suspended game.
The Giants still have a three game series that was
suspended earlier in the season against the Boston Doves. All
the Doves, they're so nice, they were so nice that
(09:39):
they let the Giants sweep them.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Guess what we've got to tie.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
We got to come back and play this ball game again,
starting from the first inning. We're gonna play nine full innings,
a full new game of baseball to determine who finally
wins the National League.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
And one inch, you guessed it.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
The c Rubs come out on top, and Merkle is
known as the boner of baseball. Forever, he is known
as Fred Bonehead Merkle and just lives out his days
in Major League Baseball in shame. He's passed around from
other teams. Cubs go on to win the nineteen oh
eight World Series. Maybe that's when a curse starts, because
(10:22):
they don't win another one until twenty and thirteen. Just
think of that, like Cubs pulling this at the end
of that game. Which here's another thing, by the way,
to give the umpires an out in this one. What
Fred Merkle did was like kind of a normal thing
to do. Like people used to rush the field for
baseball wins on walkoff hits all the time, and no
(10:44):
one really completed the force. Like if you were on
first and there was a ball hit to the wall
and a guy was on third and he scored the
guy on first never really touched second. It was just
like understood, like, yeah we won, man, I ain't got touched.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Second of like a gentleman's agreement game.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Even though it was.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
In the rule book that a forceout wasn't complete or
a run doesn't score unless a forceout is made on
the basis you know the rules, that's how it's always been.
But there was always this great area around this because
of the crowd storming the field. So Fred Merkle, even
though he's a bonehead idiot, no one likes you, Fred,
(11:20):
he was doing something that everyone was always doing, except
this really meant something. This game really mattered, and the
Cubs were not gonna let it go. So they win
the World Series win nineteen oh eight because of Fred
Merkle's famous boner that he pulls running the bass pass.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Will Fred Merkle ever make up for this? Now?
Speaker 1 (11:40):
He bounces around the league, comes back to the Giants.
Fred Merkel ends up playing in five different World Series
loses every single one of them. There is a moment
where I think it's trust Speaker is at bat and
they are down by a couple of runs, think we're
playing the Boston Red Socks at this point New York
(12:01):
Giants Boston Red Sox. Merkele's playing first base. There's a
foul ball in foul territory in play. Merkle can get it.
It could seal the deal and the game. The pitcher says, no, Merkele.
Catcher's got it. Catchers got it done. Fred, back it up,
back up.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Fred, Friend's like, okay, I'll let it drop. And the
catcher never heard the pitcher, and the ball drops right
in front of Fred, and everyone's like, there he goes again.
What a boner? Fred the bonehead Merkle doing it again.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
But the nineteen eight World Series made it sure that
the umpires got those force outs and the people on
base and didn't let runs scored until after everything was
complete on the basis. Therefore, Merkele's boner lives in history
of all time and the greatest races and hunts for
(12:54):
October between the New York Giants and the Chicago Cubs.
So now you know when someone's like, hey, seeing Merkles boner,
be like, nah, I didn't because they didn't have video
back then.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Unbelievable, unbelievable. The consequences that came forth following that incident.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
As a Cubs fan, like, I totally believe, like the
curse is real. The baseball God screwed us for one
hundred years because we pulled that. Like Cubs, you know,
you lost that game, but you know, good on them
to go out in the crowd and beat somebody up
for that baseball Like that's wanting it.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Yeah, yeah, that's some what's that hockey movie that I love?
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Slap shot?
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Slapshot of course, jumping the crowds or being up on people.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
So now you know, if you.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Bring up Merkeles Boner, it's you know, it's not something
you want to Google search at work, but it's something
that you know is very important in the world of
Major League Baseball.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
It sounds like that curse might have been double a
double edged sword though, because it cursed the Cubs, your Cubs,
but based on the events following, he lost all five
World Series that he played in.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Well, think about this too, because I was thinking about
this last night. Merkle's on first in place for the
New York Giants. I know it's not the Mets, but
it's like the Mets became a combination of the Brooklyn
Dodgers and New York Giants equivalent, and then I think
of Bill Buckner on.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
First for the New York Mets.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
It's like, Wow, these things just like history repeats itself,
doesn't it. It's just crazy to think about all the
little things that kind of stemmed away from that Merkele boner.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Now, you know, Federico
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Unbelievable, So for through major League baseball life, knowing that
you know more than most
At this time the Rob Dibble Show, Take someone back
to the sports that once were.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
I don't believe what I I know.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Here's Ben Donnell with unsolicited sports history.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Right, alright, alright, Wow.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
What a baseball season we have had this year in
twenty twenty five, and we have just been marveling, honestly
before this week, last couple of weeks, so like, how
close it is for so many of these teams. How
many teams have come from the brink of being eliminated
like in July, to all of a sudden being contenders
nearing October.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
It's like, is this the best one ever? Just feels
like it.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
I mean, maybe it's the extra team in the wildcard
that's at It's obviously the extra team in the Wildcard
that's made us all so excited and given us more
hope for more franchises across Major League Baseball. However, nineteen
oh eight, man right around this time, one hundred and
seventeen years ago from yesterday, nineteen o eight was like
(01:03):
the biggest three way split in the National League.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
You had the New York Giants that were hot.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
They're like this New York team that was just killing everybody.
Just go ask the New York Superbas how they played
kick their butt every single day. And then you've got
the almighty Chicago Cubs, I mean Big Bruis and Chicago Cubs,
who have won so many World Series up to this point.
Everybody's afraid of the Cubs in nineteen oh eight. And
(01:31):
then you had the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pittsburgh Pirates are
good too, man. All three of these teams are within
a game and a half of each other come mid September.
Now we're playing one hundred and fifty four back then,
not one sixty two.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
But the season went a little bit longer in the year.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
We're not stopping right at September twenty ninth, that's the
open date that we have on Monday. We're going to
like October fifth, October six, So there's like twenty some
games to go when we get to September two, twenty third,
nineteen oh eight in the New York Polo Grounds, where
the Cubs took on the Giants and the story of
the biggest boner in Major League Baseball history. It's known
(02:12):
as Merkeles boner. Look it up, but don't do it
at work. I don't know if this is going to
be safe for your Google search. You might take in
other directions that I don't want to be responsible for.
But Merkeles Boner. Every umpire should know Merkeles Boner. I say,
every baseball fan should know about Merkeles Boner.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
What's Merkeles Boner?
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Ben Ah, let me tell you about a guy by
the name of Fred Merkle. Fred Merkle is the youngest
player in the National League. He's only nineteen years old.
He gets put on the New York Giants. He's happy.
He's a clam man. He's a backup first baseman. He
can give you a pinch run every now and then.
Hell he even catch you sometimes bullpen catcher. Sometimes he
might drive the bus. Fred Merkle's great dude, man, great dude.
(02:53):
Everybody loves having him on the team. Why didn't you
know they're playing a really important game against the Cubs
at the Polo grind rounds and the original first baseman,
mister Fred Tenney gets lombago. Lombago was a fancy way
of saying back pain that time, because I guess it's
your lumbar. Probably the people what the bona joint is
(03:14):
to Hartford Healthcare like, that's not what it is. But
from what my research today, lombago is just like severe
back pain. They want to say any type, they want
to say all these fancy words around it, but it's
just yeah, he's got a tight back.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Man. So what do we do? We call our boy?
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Fred Merklin Frett, you're playing first man, you're bat in
seventh right, Like, gosh, I've only had thirty eight games
that I've appeared in so far this year, and I'm
only nineteen years old, and I'm playing in this really
important game of the New York Polo Grounds. And there's
twenty thousand people here sold out at the Polo Grounds
(03:49):
to see this baseball game, regular season game. But we
got two of the top National League teams going head
to head. Right, Oh, what a game it was, Nick Federico.
We had some of the best pitchers on the mound
for both teams. Hall of Famer Christy Matthewson, look his
numbers up, dude. Christy Matthewson for the New York Giants
was just a maestro. And Jack Feister of the Chicago Cubs.
(04:15):
It started out with Matthewson giving up a home run
to Joe Tinker now, a home run at the Polo
Grounds was like a ball in the gap, like it
would just roll and roll, because like imagine playing on
a football field and the orientation is the goalpost in
the back end zone is home plate, and then like
center field is three hundred yards that way, like it's
(04:37):
so huge, So if you get a ball in the gap,
it will roll forever. And outfielders are just like whatever,
man have it, Like I ain't gonna run after this
to throw you out at home.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
So they just have it.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
So Joe Tinker puts one on the board. The Giants
put another one on the board in the fifth inning,
tie ball game one one. Fred Merkles up to the
bat in the bottom of the ninth Federico bottom nine
k got a man on first two outs. He is
shaken in his boots that he's gonna strike out and.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Lose this game.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Lucks up, sprays one to right field. Guy on first
round second makes it to third. Merkel safe at first.
Merkle's like, yes, man, nobody's gonna hate me now because
like I finally contributed to this team. I'm only nineteen,
I'm on first of the polar graphs. The police is
packed like, I gotta like save the game. Kind if
(05:29):
I would have got out the game, we'd gone to
extras we want in a one first pitch, next at
bat laced into center field, base hit run comes in
from third. Oh man Fred Merkle is so happy now
and the fans are rushing the field. Fans are everywhere,
and Murkle's like, I'm out of here. I am not
gonna be a part of this melee. It's great, we won,
(05:50):
thanks for coming, but I'm gonna go the dugout before
I get stomped by these crazy New Yorkers.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
The Cubs notice Merkele never went to second. He's the baseball.
Grab the baseball.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
The first the coach of the Cubs is grabbed the baseball.
The third base coach of the Giants knows what's going on.
He knows where the baseball is. He sees Merkele walking
to the dugout. He sees the Cubs shortstop trying to
get the baseball. The coach of the Giants takes the
baseball and throws in.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
The stands, go get it now.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
A guy from the New York Giants fan base is like,
I got the baseball.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
We wonted and I got the baseball. Everybody, let's go
to the bar.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
The Cubs are like, get that dude, he's got the baseball.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
They chase after the guy.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
They beat him up in the stands, rip the baseball
off his hands, relay it to right field. Right fielder
relays it to second, grabs a baseball, jumps on second.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
I got it. He's out. He never touched second. He's out.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
The umpires get together. There's only two. I think I
got their names. One of them's a Hall of Famer,
hank O Day. I think he's the Hall of Famer.
Bomb M. Sleeve is also there. Bob and Hank are like, okay,
let's see here.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
So they're conferring, trying to figure out how to play this.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Did he touch second base? There's no replay, there's no replay.
Did he touch second base?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Comes like he.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Did touch second base? Just he left. He saw the
dudes and he left. We'll go get Merkle. Then I left.
I just left. Well, how do I even know that's
the base It is the baseball. We beat up that guy.
Did you see kick the crap out of that guy?
Why would we do that if that wasn't the ball?
We were just grabbed a random ball. So Major League
(07:31):
Baseball was like, okay, let's try to bring everybody back.
Everybody get off the field. We're gonna resume the game.
All the Giants fans like the hell you are, this
game's over.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
We won. We're gonna kick the crap out of you
umpires if you let this go on. And then I'm like,
oh the world, we're out of here.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
They leave, and then major League Baseball deems the game suspended.
If we gotta go back and play it in the end,
because because these two teams.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Are tied in the end, then we'll do it.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
But what are the chances that that's gonna happen in
the standings? We got like thirty more games. Somebody's gonna
get some separation. It was fun while it lasted, everybody,
but everybody just go home. The game suspended. It's one
to one. There's not gonna be a win, not gonna
be a loss.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Whatever.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
So they go home and everybody's like talking about it,
and the newspaper. I do have the newspaper from the
next day. Blunder costs Giants victory. Merkle rushes off baseline
before winning run is scored. And is declared out confusion
on the ball field. Chance asserts that McCormick run does
(08:42):
not count. Crowd broke up the game, umpires declared it
a tie.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
So they're waiting around.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
They're like, okay, this is not going to like come
down to the end, Like we still got more games
to play. We know what happened in the Polo Grounds
in New York in September, Like it's all good.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Let's see what happens.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Cubs start win and then Pirates start winning, Giants start losing,
Pirates start losing, Cubs start losing, Giants start winning. Everything
just keeps getting knotted up. Like Pirates are in first
by a half a game. Now Cubs are in first
by a half game. Now we're all tied. There's four
games or three games left. Pirates are knodded with the Cubs.
(09:19):
Ninety eight and fifty six is the Pirates record. Ninety
eight and fifty five is the Cubs record because they're
one game less than the Pirates because the suspended game.
The Giants still have a three game series that was
suspended earlier in the season against the Boston Doves. All
the Doves, they're so nice, they were so nice that
(09:39):
they let the Giants sweep them.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Guess what we've got to tie.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
We got to come back and play this ball game again,
starting from the first inning. We're gonna play nine full innings,
a full new game of baseball to determine who finally
wins the National League.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
And one inch, you guessed it.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
The c Rubs come out on top, and Merkle is
known as the boner of baseball. Forever, he is known
as Fred Bonehead Merkle and just lives out his days
in Major League Baseball in shame. He's passed around from
other teams. Cubs go on to win the nineteen oh
eight World Series. Maybe that's when a curse starts, because
(10:22):
they don't win another one until twenty and thirteen. Just
think of that, like Cubs pulling this at the end
of that game. Which here's another thing, by the way,
to give the umpires an out in this one. What
Fred Merkle did was like kind of a normal thing
to do. Like people used to rush the field for
baseball wins on walkoff hits all the time, and no
(10:44):
one really completed the force. Like if you were on
first and there was a ball hit to the wall
and a guy was on third and he scored the
guy on first never really touched second. It was just
like understood, like, yeah we won, man, I ain't got touched.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Second of like a gentleman's agreement game.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Even though it was.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
In the rule book that a forceout wasn't complete or
a run doesn't score unless a forceout is made on
the basis you know the rules, that's how it's always been.
But there was always this great area around this because
of the crowd storming the field. So Fred Merkle, even
though he's a bonehead idiot, no one likes you, Fred,
(11:20):
he was doing something that everyone was always doing, except
this really meant something. This game really mattered, and the
Cubs were not gonna let it go. So they win
the World Series win nineteen oh eight because of Fred
Merkle's famous boner that he pulls running the bass pass.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Will Fred Merkle ever make up for this? Now?
Speaker 1 (11:40):
He bounces around the league, comes back to the Giants.
Fred Merkel ends up playing in five different World Series
loses every single one of them. There is a moment
where I think it's trust Speaker is at bat and
they are down by a couple of runs, think we're
playing the Boston Red Socks at this point New York
(12:01):
Giants Boston Red Sox. Merkele's playing first base. There's a
foul ball in foul territory in play. Merkle can get it.
It could seal the deal and the game. The pitcher says, no, Merkele.
Catcher's got it. Catchers got it done. Fred, back it up,
back up.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Fred, Friend's like, okay, I'll let it drop. And the
catcher never heard the pitcher, and the ball drops right
in front of Fred, and everyone's like, there he goes again.
What a boner? Fred the bonehead Merkle doing it again.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
But the nineteen eight World Series made it sure that
the umpires got those force outs and the people on
base and didn't let runs scored until after everything was
complete on the basis. Therefore, Merkele's boner lives in history
of all time and the greatest races and hunts for
(12:54):
October between the New York Giants and the Chicago Cubs.
So now you know when someone's like, hey, seeing Merkles boner,
be like, nah, I didn't because they didn't have video
back then.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Unbelievable, unbelievable. The consequences that came forth following that incident.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
As a Cubs fan, like, I totally believe, like the
curse is real. The baseball God screwed us for one
hundred years because we pulled that. Like Cubs, you know,
you lost that game, but you know, good on them
to go out in the crowd and beat somebody up
for that baseball Like that's wanting it.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Yeah, yeah, that's some what's that hockey movie that I love?
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Slap shot?
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Slapshot of course, jumping the crowds or being up on people.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
So now you know, if you.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Bring up Merkeles Boner, it's you know, it's not something
you want to Google search at work, but it's something
that you know is very important in the world of
Major League Baseball.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
It sounds like that curse might have been double a
double edged sword though, because it cursed the Cubs, your Cubs,
but based on the events following, he lost all five
World Series that he played in.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Well, think about this too, because I was thinking about
this last night. Merkle's on first in place for the
New York Giants. I know it's not the Mets, but
it's like the Mets became a combination of the Brooklyn
Dodgers and New York Giants equivalent, and then I think
of Bill Buckner on.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
First for the New York Mets.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
It's like, Wow, these things just like history repeats itself,
doesn't it. It's just crazy to think about all the
little things that kind of stemmed away from that Merkele boner.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Now, you know, Federico
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Unbelievable, So for through major League baseball life, knowing that
you know more than most
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