World Series Game 1: The 10 most decisive moments in MLB history

The World Series is the oldest national team sports championship in the world. Contested since 1903 and this year in its 119th iteration, that span of experience has given the Series plenty of time to develop a legendary history.

The Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers will try to write some of that history for themselves starting this week. But as they do, it might be fun to look back on the best moments from past Series.

This article focuses on the 10 most decisive moments from World Series Games One.

The standard of measurement is Win Probability Added, a relatively new statistic that calculates the extent to which any play influenced the game’s outcome.

On subsequent days, you can keep an eye open for installments looking at the 10 most decisive moments from World Series Games 2, 3, 4 and right on through to Game 7. For tonight, here are the 10 most decisive moments of Games One of the past.

t-9. Glendon Rusch, 2000 New York Mets. An odd candidate for heroism, Rusch was a middle reliever who worked only four innings of that 2000 Mets-Yankee series. In its place, however, his work in that opening Series game was critical.

The fifth pitcher summoned by Mets manager Bobby Valentine, Rusch got the call in the bottom of the 10th inning of a 3-3 tie at Yankee Stadium. There was trouble afoot; his predecessor, Dennis Cook, had walked David Justice and Bernie Williams, presenting Rusch with the potential winning run in scoring  position and none out.

Just to compound matters, Rusch’s first pitch sailed to the screen, advancing Justice and Williams to second and third. Then he steadied, getting Tino Martinez to pop out to shortstop Kurt Abbott on the outfield grass.

Rusch walked Jorge Posada intentionally to load the bases and set up a double play with Paul O’Neill due up. It was exactly what he got, O’Neill grounding to second baseman Edgardo Alfonso who turned it to kill the threat.

The Yankees eventually won the game in 12 innings and took the Series in five games. But Rusch had done his part. Rusch Win Probability Added: 39 percent.

t-9. Bill Bruton, 1958 Milwaukee Braves. Bruton was a quality center fielder but an easy-to-overlook threat in a Braves lineup that also included Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews and Joe Adcock. Against the New York Yankees in the first game of the 1958 World Series at Milwaukee County Stadium, however, Bruton played as menacing as any of his teammates.

The game was tied at 3-3 when the defending champion Braves took their shot against fireballing reliever Ryne Duren in the bottom of the ninth. Duren fanned Aaron, but allowed ground singles to Adcock and Del Crandall sandwiched around Wes Covington’s fly ball. With two on  and two out, that left the issue to Bruton.

He  delivered the biggest hit of his life, a line single into the right-center gap that allowed Adcock to race home from second with the winning run. Alas for Braves fans, Bruton’s Game One heroics were not enough to prevent a 4-3 Yankee series victory. Bruton  Win Probability Added: 9 percent.

8. Boss Schmidt, 1907 Detroit Tigers. Schmidt, a veteran catcher for the American League champion Tigers, had the misfortune to screw up at the worst possible moment. The Tigers led the National League champion Chicago Cubs 3-2 with two out in the bottom of the ninth, but the Cubs had managed to push the tying and lead runs to second and third as light-hitting pinch hitter Del Howard came to the plate, batting for Joe Tinker.

Tiger pitcher Bill Donovan needed only to subdue Howard to put Game 1 in Detroit’s victory column, and he thought he’d done so when Howard whiffed at strike three. But the pitch eluded Schmidt and rolled to the backstop, allowing Johnny Evers to carry the tying run across.

Three innings later, with darkness intervening, the game was halted and declared a 3-3 tie. The Cubs swept the next four games to take the Series in five. Howard Win Probability Added: 40 percent.

7. Casey Stengel, 1923 New York Giants. The 1923 World Series not only represented the third consecutive meeting of the Giants and Yankees, but also the climactic moment in the playing career of the great future Yankee manager. Stengel was in center field for the Giants as Game 1 proceeded into the ninth inning at the brand new Yankee Stadium deadlocked at four runs a side.

Yankee starter Bullet Joe Bush dispensed with his first two foes, Ross Youngs and Irish Meusel, leaving only Stengel standing in his way. But Casey caught a Bush pitch he liked and smacked it into the deepest recesses of the new stadium’s center field. Before Whitey Witt could run it down out there, Stengel had raced all the way around the bases, sliding into home with an inside-the-park home run. Stengel Win Probability Added: 41 percent.

6. Rudy York, 1946 Boston Red Sox. The first post-war World Series featured the St. Louis Cardinals of Stan Musial and the Boston Red Sox of Ted Williams. But it was York, a veteran slugger, who would emerge as the Game 1 star.

At Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis, the Cardinals carried a 2-1 lead into the top of the ninth only to see the Red Sox tie the game on Tom McBride’s pinch hit single. One inning later, left-handed starter Howie Pollet, who had given up that McBride hit, remained in to face the heart of the Boston order.

Pollet got Dom DiMaggio on a grounder and Williams on a weak pop fly.  But York, a 32-year-old slugger with 256 home runs including 17 that season, drilled a Pollet pitch into the left field grandstand to give Boston a 3-2 lead. When reliever Earl Johnson set down the Cardinals in the bottom of the ninth, that’s how the game ended.

The Cardinals did recover to win the series in seven games. York Win Probability Added: 42 percent.

5. Damon Berryhill, 1992 Atlanta Braves. Hardly one of the stars of what would become the Braves juggernaut, Berryhill nonetheless got the start at catcher for Game 1 of the 1992 World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium.

Hitless in his first two at bats, Berryhill got a third shot at Jays starter Jack Morris with two out in the bottom of the sixth. Morris had held the Braves scoreless in a 1-0 game to that point, although a walk and base hit left two potential RBIs for Berryhill when he came up a third time.

Berryhill wasn’t much of a slugger; his 10 home runs that season were a career high. But in a 1-2 hole he caught hold of a Morris offering and pulled it deep into the right field seats for a three-run blast. It was all the support Braves starter Tom Glavin needed to wrap up a 3-1 victory, although the Jays would capture the Series in six games. Berryhill Win Probability Added: 44 percent.

4. Solly Hofman, 1908 Chicago Cubs. The Tigers and Cubs, both repeat champions from 1907, squared off in a rematch of that year’s World Series, which the Cubs had won 4-0 with one tie. Hofman, part of a center field platoon, got the call against Detroit left-hander Twilight Ed Kilian, but was hitless in three at bats when Chicago came up in the top of the ninth at Detroit’s Bennett Park.

The Tigers led 6-5 only to see three of Chicago’s first four batters single off Ed Summers, who had taken over for Kilian back in the third inning.

With the bases loaded, Hofman capitalized on his chance to redeem his lackluster showing to that point. He sent Summe’s pitch bounding into center field scoring both Frank Schulte from third base and Frank Chance from second with the tying and go-ahead runs. Before Summers could escape Chicago had added three more runs for a 10-6 victory on the way to a four games to one Series victory. Hofman Win Probability Added: 46 percent.