Skip to main content

Walk Off Origins

The magazine Mental Floss does a feature in which they find the inauguaral references to phrases within the New York Times. That seemed like a cool thing to do, so I did it for "walk-off."

The problem is that entering that phrase didn't guarantee the results I wanted, but it provided some interesting findings, which I'll share here...

Indians Calmly Walk Off
February 19, 1887 edition

The Jicarilla Apaches left their reservation in southern New Mexico for one in southwest Colorado. "Trouble between the Indians and the settlers is anticipated," the newspaper reported.

Headline: Gen Walkoff Resigns As Sofia War Minister
January 3, 1929 edition

Apparently the Bulgarian Minister of War, General Walkoff (first name not given, unless it's 'General') and the premier of Bulgaria had a disagreement regarding Walkoffs feelings about a group of Macedonian revolutionaries (Walkoff liked them, the premier didn't). In return, Walkoff was named Minister to Rome. A google search found no further mentions of this man, whom I'd like to know more about.

Robins 5 in Ninth Beat the Cubs, 6-5
Four Passes in Last Frame Enable Robbie's Men Literally to Walk-Off With Game
May 24, 1925 edition

The Robins, later to be known as the Dodgers did stage an epic comeback to beat the Cubs. However, this was only referred to as a "walk-off" because of the number of bases on balls. As it turned out, the Robins were the visiting team.

One funny excerpt from the end of the piece: "The news system of three umpires at all games is a great idea," remarked one fan. "Two burglars and a lookout."

Skidding Yankees Lose Fourth in Row, 5-2
Senators Simply Walk Off With Game As Beall Mixes 9 Passes With 6 Hits
August 13, 1926 edition

And you thought today's media was harsh. Here's the lead to this piece from James Harrison.

"Behind the grotesque efforts of Walter Beall..."

The story goes on to tell how Beall once balked by throwing to first base, with runners on first and second, not realizing that Lou Gehrig was not holding the runner on. Grotesque indeed.

There's also the tale of Hall of Fame pitcher Waite Hoyt being upset about being pulled from a poor pitching effort recently. Hoyt was fined for issuing "harsh and insubordinate words" towards manager Miller Huggins. "The rate was $200 a gesture."

Wrote Harrison: "Huggins, as a matter of fact, should have been fined $200 for leaving Waite in as long as he did."

----

The May 8, 2005 edition of William Safire's "On Language" column in the Magazine section notes the first intended usage. We've referenced it previously, but will note it here too.

Dennis Eckersley coined the term in an article from the Gannett News Service on July 30, 1988: "In Dennis Eckersley's colorful vocabulary, a walk-off piece is a home run that wins the game and the pitcher walks off the mound."

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Best Games I Know: Phillies (Updated)

  The best wins against the Phillies in Mets history …   May 5, 2022 – Mets 8, Phillies 7 The Mets score 7 runs in the 9 th inning to overcome a 7-1 deficit and win in Philadelphia.   April 29, 2022 – Mets 3, Phillies 0 Tylor Megill and 4 Mets relievers combine on the second no-hitter in franchise history.   September 22, 2016 – Mets 9, Phillies 8 (11) The Mets tie it in the 9 th on a Jose Reyes home run and win it in the 11 th on a 3-run home run by Asdrubal Cabrera.   July 17, 2016 - Mets 5, Phillies 0 Jacob deGrom pitches a one-hitter. Only hit is a single by Zach Eflin in the 5 th inning.   August 24, 2015 – Mets 16, Phillies 7 David Wright homers in his first at-bat in more than 4 months. The Mets hit a team-record 8 home runs.   July 5, 2012 – Mets 6, Phillies 5 The Mets score 2 runs with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9 th to beat Jonathan Papelbon. The winning run scores on David Wright’s bloop down the right field line.   August 13

The best Mets ejections I know

When you think of the Mets and famous ejections, I'm guessing you first think of the famous Bobby Valentine mustache game, when after Valentine got tossed, he returned to the dugout in disguise. You know it. You love it. I remember being amused when I asked Bobby V about it while we were working on Baseball Tonight, how he simply said "It worked. We won the game." (true) But the Bobby V mustache game of June 9, 1999 is one of many, many memorable Mets ejection stories. And now thanks to Retrosheet and the magic of Newspapers.com , we have a convenient means for being able to share them. Ever since Retrosheet's David Smith recently announced that the Retrosheet ejection database was posted online , I've been a kid in a candy store. I've organized the data and done some lookups of media coverage around the games that interested me post. Those newspaper accounts fill in a lot of blanks. Without further ado (and with more work to do), here are some of my findings

Trip(le) Through Time

In their illustrious history, the Mets have had one 'Triple Crown Winner,' so to speak and I'm not talking about the typical meaning of the term. I've gotten some queries recently as to whether a walk-off triple is even possible and I'm here to tell you that it is. There has been one, and only one, in Mets history, though I don't have the full explanation of circumstances that I would like. It took place against the Phillies on September 10, 1970. This was a marathon game that would have fit in perfectly with those having taken place so far this season and allowed the Mets to maintain a temporary hold on first place in an NL East race oft forgotten in team history. It went 14 innings, with a tinge of controversy in a negated Ken Boswell home run, a thrilling play by Bud Harrelson, who stole home in the third inning, and some stellar relief pitching, in the form of five scoreless innings from Danny Frisella, aided by Tim McCarver getting thrown out in a rundown b