Hey everyone! We've now reached both the pinnacle and the most exciting point of the baseball calendar: the World Series! Last year, while clearly thankful to have any sort of postseason, still didn't feel entirely the same with most games taking place at neutral sites and devoid of fans. This year we saw things return to a much more normal look, and the apex of all that fun is finally here. Ironically enough, it is last year's pennant runnerups that are challenging one another for the Commissioner's Trophy this time: the Houston Astros and the Atlanta Braves. To celebrate the World Series' arrival, lets take a look back at some home runs that took place during Fall Classics of old, that you may have forgotten about. Here we go!

1. Pedro Guerrero & Steve Yeager (back-to-back), 1981 World Series Game 5 – We'll start this list off with a 2-for-1 special from exactly 40 years ago. There are many things I think of when it comes to the noteworthy 1981 Major League Baseball campaign. First and foremost, it's the infamous "split season," which wasn't entirely fair to all parties involved (see here for more information on that). But some really good things happened during 1981, too. The American League and the National League's respective Rookies of the Year, starting pitchers Dave Righetti (Yankees) and Fernando Valenzuela (Dodgers) took their cities and leagues by storm. In fact, 1981 was kind to many a Dodger, as they went on to win the World Series. It represented the first and only championship of Dusty Baker's combined playing and managerial career. Forty years later he's gunning for his first ring as a manager in this season's World Series with the Houston Astros, as he's currently the winningest manager in major league history who hasn't led a team to a title. And in that aforementioned 1981 World Series, Valenzuela and Baker's Dodgers found themselves tied at two games apiece with Righetti's Yankees. With Games 6 and 7 taking place at Yankee Stadium, the Dodgers went into Game 5 at Dodger Stadium with a sense of urgency, not wanting to travel to the Bronx having to pick up two wins as opposed to just one. Thankfully for them, things went as planned, though it was dicey for a while. Facing Yankees southpaw Ron Guidry down 1–0 in the bottom of the 7th, Pedro Guerrero came to the plate with one out, and took Gator's 0–1 offering over the wall in left, tying the score at 1. That is, until a few minutes later, when Steve Yeager did the exact same thing, to put the Dodgers ahead 2–1, which would also be the game's final score. LA then went on to steamroll the Yankees on the road in Game 6, winning their first World Series since 1965.

Recommended reading: Split Season: 1981: Fernandomania, The Bronx Zoo, and the Strike that Saved Baseball by Jeff Katz

2. Fred McGriff, 1995 World Series Game 1 – Going up against Dusty Baker's Astros in the 2021 World Series will be the Atlanta Braves, who last won the World Series 26 years ago in 1995. Similarly to the truncated 1981 season, the 1995 season was also slightly shorter than your normal length MLB campaign. That was thanks to the quite ignominious work stoppage of 1994 that wiped out the regular season's final 948 games, plus its postseason and World Series (once again, check out this blog post for more details). As a result, when Game 1 of the 1995 World Series rolled around, it was almost exactly two years to the date of both the last Series and Series homer, Joe Carter's championship-clinching blast in Game 6 of the 1993 edition. So when Braves first baseman Fred McGriff strode to the plate for the first World Series at-bat of his career in Game 1, he made sure it counted. Facing Orel Hershiser with Atlanta down 1–0 in the bottom of the second, McGriff connected on the first offering, sending it way out to right centerfield to tie things up. The Braves tacked on a pair of runs later in the game which proved to be vital as they, along with McGriff's sorta-historic blast, propelled Atlanta to a 1-run victory in Game 1, en route to them winning it all in '95. 

Recommended reading: Ballplayer by Chipper Jones

3. Tino Martinez, 2001 World Series Game 4 – 20 years ago, one of the all-time greatest World Series was played between the New York Yankees and the Arizona Diamondbacks. With the September 11th terror attacks serving somewhat as a backdrop, this particular World Series had a lot of storylines and narrative heading into it. None bigger than how badly the Yankees wanted to win this one, to provide something worth celebrating for the city of New York after all it had been through that fall. And while that wasn't quite how things turned out in the end (Arizona would win in seven games, in their final turn at-bat—one of the most memorable finishes in baseball history), the Series nonetheless did provide Yankee fans with many timeless moments. Perhaps none bigger than newly-minted Hall of Famer Derek Jeter's walk-off 10th inning home run in Game 4, a mere handful of minutes after the clock struck midnight. Plus, Major League Baseball was played in November for the first time ever (everything was pushed back a week due to the stoppage after 9/11). That being said, such a scenario may never have been possible had it not been for the heroics of Tino Martinez an inning earlier. With the Yanks down 3–1 with 1 on and 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th, Martinez came to bat, facing soon-to-be-tortured Arizona closer Byung-Hyun Kim. First pitch swinging, Martinez hit one way into the New York night, sending the Yankee faithful into a frenzy, and tying Game 4 at 3 in the process. While everyone remembers Jeter's subsequent blast, Martinez's sometimes gets overlooked due to the unique nature of the homer that followed. Let's remember it today! 

Recommended reading: The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty by Buster Olney

4. Tim McCarver, 1964 World Series Game 5 – From referencing one recent Hall of Famer to one we recently lost, Bob Gibson was a masterful pitcher in general. But even more so when you look at his postseason resume (back then it was solely World Series play): a 1.89 ERA over nine starts. Gibson's catcher during the days of those 1960s Cardinals was Tim McCarver, who was known for handling sometimes difficult pitching personalities like Gibson, and later Philadelphia's Steve Carlton. And as a result McCarver caught some pretty amazing postseason performances, such as Gibson's record-setting 17-strikeout start in the 1968 World Series against the Detroit Tigers. Another noteworthy Gibson-McCarver start took place in Game 5 of the 1964 World Series. Gibson was in the midst of pitching a complete game shutout heading into the bottom of the 9th against the Yankees. Mickey Mantle reached base on shortstop Dick Groat's error to lead off the frame. Gibson then retired the next two batters before Tom Tresh took him yard for a 2-run homer. Though both runs were unearned, they still tied the score up at 2 to force extras. In the top of the 10th, McCarver's turn to bat came with two runners on. He proceeded to club a Pete Mikkelsen pitch into the stands in right beyond Mickey Mantle's reach for the eventual game winning 3-run homer, giving St. Louis a 3–2 lead in the Series. The Yankees went on to win Game 6, but Gibson returned to start on two days rest for the Cardinals in the winner-takes-all Game 7, and picked up the victory as the Cards became champions. 

Recommended reading: Pitch by Pitch: My View of One Unforgettable Game by Bob Gibson

5. Fred Schulte, 1933 World Series Game 5 – Every now and again I like to go way, way back, and to wrap up this post, I think we'll do just that. The original incarnation of the Washington Senators (one of the American League's first eight ballclubs) never really had much success over their 60-year life. Only winners of three pennants over their lifetime, the final one of those came in 1933, pairing them up with the National League's New York Giants. Down 3–1 in the Series heading into Game 5, Washington fell into a 3–0 hole heading into the bottom of the 6th, and things seemed bleak. However the Senators' centerfielder at the very least made things interesting, hammering a 3-run home run to tie the score. Things stayed that way until the top of the 10th, where unfortunately Schulte would end up a scapegoat. Giants rightfielder Mel Ott hit a long drive to center where the ball caromed off of Schulte's glove and into the stands. After first being ruled a ground rule double, the umpires conferred with another to correctly change the call from 2-base hit to home run. This put New York ahead 4–3 in the 10th, which ended up being the final score, clinching the World Series victory for the Giants. Fred Schulte, both the hero and goat all at once.  

Recommended reading: Damn Senators: My Grandfather and the Story of Washington’s Only World Series Championship by Mark Gauvreau Judge

Enjoy the World Series everyone! To check out NYPL's newest baseball selections, please visit our catalog.