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With the dearth of actual live, real baseball to watch this spring, like many other baseball die-hards I’ve taken to watching old Boston Red Sox games on YouTube. It’s actually been great fun to go back and watch (or in many cases, re-watch) games, some of which I haven’t seen since they aired and some which were from before I was born. If you’ve never watched this game, you owe it to yourself to do so; in my forty-plus years on this planet, it’s still one of the greatest and most dramatic moments in baseball I’ve ever seen.
Henderson began his career in Seattle as the first draft pick in the history of the Mariners franchise in 1977. He made his debut in 1981 and played parts of six seasons with the Mariners. Henderson was traded to Boston during the 1986 season and later played for San Francisco and Kansas City. Former major league outfielder Dave Henderson, best remembered for his dramatic home run in Game 5 of the 1986 ALCS, died Sunday.
Summary of 197 Home Runs
After knocking Sutton out of the game in the seventh, the Sox picked up two more in the eighth to make it 3-0. The epic Game Five is the one everyone remembers most about this series, but Game Four was almost as good and gets my vote as the second best game of the series. Red Sox manager John McNamara, going with a three-man rotation for the series, brought Clemens back on three days rest and he went up against 300 game winner and future Hall of Famer Don Sutton.
In early September, he was recalled, with his first appearance back with the Mariners coming on September 3, in a 20-inning game against the Red Sox—one of the longest MLB games ever played. Henderson is best remembered for the two-out, two-strike home run he hit in the top of the ninth inning in Game 5 of the 1986 American League Championship Series. He helped his teams reach the World Series four times during his career—Boston in 1986 and Oakland from 1988 to 1990, with Oakland winning the championship in 1989. His uncle Joe Henderson appeared in 16 MLB games as a pitcher during the mid-1970s. Henderson is best remembered for a two-out, two-strike home run at the top of the ninth inning in Game 5 of the 1986 American League Championship Series.
Dave Henderson
Taking advantage of all this time, I decided to do something a little crazy and revisit one of my favorite teams of all time, the 1986 Red Sox. Since Major League Baseball has suspended the 2020 season, let’s take a trip back in time and revisit the Red Sox thrilling victory in the 1986 ALCS. All images are property the copyright holder and are displayed here for informational purposes only. Baseball-Reference Bullpen 100,000+ pages of baseball information, How to Contribute, ...
The Angels tied the game 6–6 in the bottom of the ninth, and the game went into extra innings. In the top of the 11th, the Red Sox loaded the bases with no outs, and Henderson hit a sacrifice fly that Baylor scored on, which put the Red Sox ahead 7–6 and proved to be the margin of victory. Still down 3 games to 2 in the series, the Red Sox returned home to Fenway Park for the final two games, where they defeated the Angels 10–4 and 8–1 to capture the AL pennant. Henderson played center field for both of those games – collecting a walk and a run in each game, but going hitless – as Armas' injury kept him from playing. For the ALCS, Henderson finished 1-for-9 at the plate, with his only hit being the season-saving home run in Game 5. Before the start of the 1994 season, Henderson was signed as a free agent by the Kansas City Royals, as the club intended to platoon him with Bob Hamelin.
Dave Henderson World Series Stats
Dave Henderson came to spring training in 1988 as a non-roster invitee. He won the center field job and quickly made himself valuable in ways that went beyond box scores. In Henderson’s first five years, the A entered the playoffs four times and made it to the World Series for three consecutive seasons in 1988–90, winning the 1989 title. He got a second straight fastball with a 1-0 count, took it to the center and extended his left arm in the direction of the Dodgers dugout in anticipation of a celebration. Steven Duggar raced toward the warning track, momentarily losing his footing as he suddenly began to overtake, then securing the catch on the edge of the dirt. It was his twenty-sixth season as a manager and he came one agonizing strike away from the World Series.
The Red Sox kept the same lineup and batting order for the entire series whereas the Angels used a different lineup and order in every game. The Angels loved to try and steal bases, but I had forgotten how great a defensive catcher Rich Gedman was . He threw out four of the five steals the Angels attempted in the series and had thrown out 50% of base stealers during the 1986 regular season. It was even pointed out multiple times by Jim Palmer that Clemens “only” threw ten complete games that season in his 33 starts. Contrast that with, for example, Chris Sale who has only thrown 16 complete games in his entire career. Even all these years later, it’s one of the most shocking comebacks in baseball history.
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His uncle Joe Henderson appeared as a pitcher in 16 MLB games in the mid-1970s. Game Five of the 1986 ALCS is one of the greatest postseason games in baseball history. Down 3-1 in the series after an eleven inning heartbreaker that ended late the previous night, the Red Sox had to come back fourteen hours later to play Game Five at noon under the California sun. At the time of the trade, Henderson was batting .276 with 14 home runs and 44 RBIs, having appeared in 103 games. The Red Sox had a chance in the tenth when Barrett made it to third base with two outs but they couldn’t capitalize.
He was a member of the 1991 American League All-Star team and played in four World Series. During his 14 MLB seasons, Henderson appeared in 1538 games, batting .258 with 197 home runs and 708 RBIs. Defensively, he played 1,388 games in the outfield , with a .984 fielding percentage. While Oakland won the AL West , Henderson was left off of the postseason roster due to his injury. Henderson spent the final month of the 1987 season with San Francisco, where he appeared in 15 games, batting for a .238 average.
I always thought he was just trying to fire himself up more than anything else. The Red Sox struck first when Rich Gedman drove in a run in the second inning, but the Sox could’ve had more if they had paid attention to details a bit more. Overall, it was pretty sloppy in the field , exacerbated by the setting afternoon sun, but Hurst pitched great and the Red Sox evened up the series at a game apiece. Apart from Rice and Evans, none of the other Red Sox were on the team in 1978 and most had never been in the postseason before.
There were a couple of interesting pregame things I didn’t know or remember as the series started which I was reminded of on the broadcast. The Red Sox had home field advantage in the series and hosted games 1, 2, 6, and 7 while the Angles hosted games 3, 4, and 5. The series started on October 7, 1986, a mere two days after the Red Sox final game of the regular season. The ALCS and NLCS, which had come into being in 1969 when Major League Baseball split the two leagues into two divisions each, had been a best-of-five series from 1969 to 1984.
I didn’t really pay attention growing up because that’s just the way it was, but going back and watching older games and comparing to these days, it’s like night and day. Boyd settled down after the first and was dealing, throwing seven strong innings, only giving up a subsequent solo home run to Brian Downing in the seventh. Meanwhile, the Red Sox knocked McCaskill out of the game in the third inning when they put up five runs. They scored another in the fifth to go up 8-2 and even though Downing hit his solo homer in the seventh and the Angels got another in the eighth, they looked defeated.
The Angels tied it in the bottom of the inning, but Boston won the game in the 11th on Henderson's sacrifice fly and eventually won the series. Owen led off the inning with a single, moved to second on a fielder’s choice and to third on a wild pitch. Barrett drove him in with a single and then himself scored on a passed ball and an error to make it 3-0. Everything seemed to go wrong for the Angels in this inning and it looked like the Red Sox were well on their way to tying the series. Clemens entered the ninth inning with a 3-0 lead, three outs away from getting the Red Sox back into the series. The Angels scored a run in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game and had loaded the bases with one out.
Meanwhile, Hurst was dealing and even though he scattered eleven hits over his nine innings, he didn’t walk anyone and struck out four while only giving up two runs . Instead, it was a role reversal from the night before as the Sox hit McCaskill hard from the very start. Boggs led off the game with a triple and was driven in by Barrett’s double. Barrett drove in another run in the second with a bases loaded single, but Buckner ended the rally by grounding into a double play. The Red Sox squandered multiple chances to blow the game open and McCaskill settled down after the second inning. Second, Boggs was nursing a nasty hamstring pull suffered toward the end of the season.
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