Baseball · 1988 · Los Angeles, USA
Gibson's Impossible Home Run
Too injured in both legs to start Game 1 of the World Series, Kirk Gibson limps up for a single pinch-hit at-bat and wins it.
Dodgers 5-4 Athletics
Result
1
Gibson's plate appearances, series
Dennis Eckersley
Pitcher
Kirk Gibson had been the National League MVP that season, and by Game 1 of the 1988 World Series both his legs were hurt badly enough that the Los Angeles Dodgers left him out of the starting lineup against the Oakland Athletics. In the bottom of the ninth, 4-3 down with two outs and a runner on against Oakland's dominant closer Dennis Eckersley, Tommy Lasorda sent him up to pinch hit because there was effectively nobody else.
He could barely push off his back leg. He fouled several pitches away, worked the count full, and then drove a backdoor slider over the right-field wall for a two-run, walk-off home run. He hobbled round the bases pumping his fist while the broadcaster Jack Buck told viewers, 'I don't believe what I just saw.'
It was his only plate appearance of the entire series, since his legs never recovered enough to play again, and Los Angeles won it in five games regardless. The picture of him limping round the bases with his fist swinging has been shown at every World Series since.
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