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THE DAGGER
Good evening. This is Dead Legends. The daily newsletter that loves baseball as much as elves love Christmas.
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Let’s dive in.
Today’s story is about one of the most epic walk offs of all time, and how it effectively ended a ballplayer’s career.
We’ve all heard the call.
“Touch ‘em all Joe, you’ll never hit a bigger home run in your life.”
Besides the days his children were born, this was presumably the best day of Joe Carter’s entire life.
He won the World Series with one swing; every kid’s dream.
At the same time, it was the WORST day of Mitch Williams’ life.
Before he rebranded himself as an analyst, Williams was a hard-throwing lefty who was the embodiment of “controlled chaos” on the mound.
He threw gas, and he was wild af, but it worked for him.
Williams started his career in ‘86 and made his first-and-only All-Star Game in ‘89.
In ‘93, he had a career-high 43 saves for the Phils, but the only thing people really remember is what happened in Game 6.
Williams came into the game in the bottom of the ninth inning with a one-run lead.
He walked Rickey Henderson (bad choice) and then gave up a single to Paul Molitor - which brought Joe Carter to the plate with two on and one out.
On a 2-2 count, Joe Carter hit the most important dinger of his life, and the rest is history.
Williams was traded to several teams over the next few years but was never able to recapture his earlier success.
By ‘97, he was completely out of baseball.
Despite the downturn in his career, Mitch has always been gracious in his comments about the game and the home run.
He has also talked about how he’s used the experience as a teaching tool for young players, emphasizing the importance of perseverance and mental toughness.
BASEBALL TRIVIA
STRANGE NAMES
If you're just joining us, we play this game every day where we try to find the weirdest names throughout baseball history.
Why? Don't ask us, it's just something we like to do.
If you've been rocking with us for awhile now, you know what time it is.
Today's winner is:
George Francis “Doc” Medich played for seven different big-league ball clubs.
He was one of the few “docs” baseball has seen who was actually an MD.
In April of ‘76, Medich actually performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on a 73-year-old spectator after the fan collapsed with a heart attack mid-game.
Unfortunately, the guy died later that day.
During another game in ‘78 another spectator had a heart attack, and this time Medich was able to revive them.
The man survived and lived several more years.
After baseball, Medich became an orthopedic surgeon.
Later on though, he lost his career after being convicted for writing false prescriptions for painkillers.
THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE
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