Baseball's Greatest Games

Any time you write a book on the greatest of anything you are asking for trouble. In this case Gutman covers baseball from its early years up to the year of the book's publication 1997 and I dare say there have been games since that could go on the list. But making it even harder on himGutman freely admits to not being qualified to pick such a list but he did extensive research and consulted with several experts. Gutman narrows it down to 9 games. He doesn't even have a top 10! gutman defines a great game as a game with dominant pitching or long home runs or spectacular catches or great strategy or any combination of the above. But for Gutman the one prerequisite is tension. A sense of excitement drama and suspense that is what makes baseball our national pastime. In the preface he mentions that his main regret is that he could not include many others due to page restrictions. He mentions Johnny Vander Meer's second no-hitter, Reggie Jackson 3 home run game on consecutive pitches in the 1977 World Series, Don Larsen's perfect game and Babe Ruth's called shot in the 1932 World Series against the Cubs. This book is very well written and holds your interest. He devotes an entire chapter to each game. They go by "The Shot Heard 'Round the World," the Dodger-Giant final playoff game of 1951, the Fisk Game, Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, "the Haddix Game where Harvey Haddix pitched 12 perfect inninngs against the Milwaukee Braves but because his Pittsburgh Pirate teammates could score 1 run he lost in the 13 th inning, "the Mazeroski Game" , the game when Bill Mazeroski hit a walkoff homer to defeat the Yankees in the seventh game of the 1960 World Series, "The $15,000 'Slide'", a game from the 19th Century, "the Houston Marathon", a 16 inning game between the Mets and the Astros that desided the 1986 NL pennant, "The Homer in the Gloamin'", a game that ended with a home run in darkness (no lights back in 1938) with the pennant on the line, "The Alexander Game", a confrontation between pitcher and hitter in the tense 7th game of the 1936 World Series, and "the Gibson Game", game 1 of the 1988 World Series where a Dodger comeback was climaxed by a home run by a hobbled Kirk Gibson and hit off Dennis Eckersley a Hall of Fame relief pitcher for Oakland. I can't complain about the stories that were picked but I do quibble about 2 that were left out. I don't see how Don larsen's perfect game is left out. it was a crucial game 5 on the 1956 World Series. Larsen and maglie dueled in a great pitchers battle and Sal Maglie was only lifted for a pinch hitter in Dale Mitchell, who made the final out of the game on a called third strike. The game went rapidly so quick that as a child in elementary school as I rushed home to watch the end of the game just past 3 PM on a school day the game was already over! The final score was 2-0 and both pitchers pitched complete games. There was also the drama of two defensive play that preseved the no-hitter