Blog Tour: SHOCKTOBER: THE BIGGEST UPSETS IN WORLD SERIES HISTORY by Jonathan Weeks

 

Shocktober: The Biggest Upsets in World Series History

Jonathan Weeks

 

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GENRE:  Sports History

 

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BLURB:

 

Mays’s spectacular catch in 1954, Bill Mazeroski’s walk-off homer in 1960, and Kirk Gibson’s pinch-hit blast in 1988 are just a few of the memorable moments that have dominated highlight reels. The outcome of the Series has not always been terribly surprising—especially during the late 1940s and early 1950s when the Yankees captured five consecutive championships, breaking their previous record of four straight titles from 1936 to 1939. But despite its predictability at times, the Fall Classic has taken many unexpected turns. The 1906 Cubs lost to the weak-hitting White Sox after establishing a new regular season record for

wins. The 1955 Dodgers avenged seven prior October failures with an improbable victory over the seemingly invincible Yankees. And in 1969, the Mets finally shed their image as “loveable losers,” dethroning the powerful Orioles. In more than a century of World Series plays, a number of similar scenarios have emerged; twenty-two of those stories are told in Shocktober.

 

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Excerpt Three:

 

Game 1 was held at Dodger Stadium with 56,000 fans in attendance. Since Hershiser had pitched in Game 7 of the NLCS, he was unavailable for the Series opener. Lasorda was forced to send rookie right-hander Tim Belcher to the mound while LaRussa had the luxury of starting a well-rested Dave Stewart. Perhaps feeling the pressure of the moment, Stewart hit Sax with the first pitch he threw, balked him to second base, and served up a two-run homer to Mickey Hatcher. Hatcher got the L.A. crowd worked up by rounding the bases at full speed. This prompted broadcaster Vin Scully to joke: “He’s a Saturday Evening Post character.” Regaining his composure, Stewart yielded just one more run over the next seven innings. Belcher had a rough go of it, staking the A’s to a 4-2 lead in the top of the second. The big blow was struck by Canseco—a grand slam to deep center field with two outs. The monster blast reportedly hit an NBC camera, leaving a dent. With the A’s nursing a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the ninth, the legend of Kirk Gibson was born.

 

Eckersley was summoned to close out the game for Oakland. He retired the first two batters before issuing a walk to pinch-hitter Mike Davis. Gibson, who was suffering from a pulled hamstring and strained knee ligaments, had been in street clothes at the start of the game. After a pair of cortisone shots, he was still limping, but feeling less pain. With the Dodgers trailing in the late innings, he pulled on his uniform and shuffled to the batting cage beneath the stadium for some practice swings. Summoned to pinch-hit for Alejandro Pena, he worked the count full. By his own admission, he was hoping at best for a blooper over the head of Oakland shortstop Walt Weiss. Essentially swinging on one leg, the ailing slugger did much better than that, pounding a backdoor slider into the right field bleachers for a walk-off homer.

 

“First of all, it was like almost some kind of foolish thing to go up there and hit because of the shape I was in,” Gibson reminisced years later. “...I remember when I was rounding the bases, my parents went through my mind. Throughout my career, there were a lot of doubters, a lot of people who directed a lot of criticism at me. People would say things to my dad, and initially, early in my career, they had to defend me. I told them, ‘You guys don’t have to defend me. I’m going to bust it and I’m going to fail sometimes. But we’ll have a laugh some day [and] it will all be worth it.’ When I [hit that home run], I thought, ‘This is the moment.’” Gibson’s moment—which came in his only at-bat of the Series—has appeared in virtually every October highlight anthology ever since. In 2016, Eckersley said he felt honored to be a part of Gibson’s achievement. “I’ve always had a respect for Kirk—the kind of player he was. And for something like that to happen to me, in that moment in baseball, was incredible...I can step away from that and appreciate it because I love this game.” 

 

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What kind of research did you have to do to write this book?

 

Baseball’s World Series attracts millions of fans every year and I knew when I began my research that there would be plenty of material available. I was able to find a great number of books and online sources dealing with the topic. I also sent questionnaires out to a few players in the hope of obtaining some previously unpublished material. In addition to a brief history of the World Series, itself, the book provides a thorough recap of every season in question along with biographical information about the players involved. I tried to add as many quotes and anecdotes as possible, injecting a little humor whenever I could. I also added an appendix that includes World Series trivia and statistics of individual players.

I conducted my research one chapter at a time and took notes the old-fashioned way, writing them down in spiral notebooks. The final manuscript was around 90,000 words and the notes took up space in four separate notebooks (80 pages apiece). Naturally, I didn’t use all of the notes. The entire project took about seven months to complete with the research accounting for about half of that time.

I hope readers find the material as interesting as I did. I’ve been following the World Series since I was a kid and this book was a bucket list item for me. 

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Jonathan Weeks has written several sports biographies and two novels, one of which was a posthumous collaboration with his late father. He grew up in the Capital District region of New York State and currently works in the mental health field.

 

BLOG: http://www.jonathanweeks.blogspot.com

GOODREADS AUTHOR PAGE:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/5862273.Jonathan_Weeks

 

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GIVEAWAY 

Jonathan Weeks will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.