Ernie Banks would have loved World Series Game 3.
“Let’s play two!” was Mr. Cub’s signature phrase.
The Baseball Hall of Fame shortstop loved playing the game, and said so. Often.
But he wasn’t even sure when he started it. He ultimately, in various interviews, offered four different dates, and baseball historians decided despite a lack of documentation, the most plausible is July 11, 1960, at the first of two All-Star Games played that summer, because Banks recalled a specific broadcaster who handled the ASG for the first time, and referenced the heat, which was not oppressive in the other three games Banks cited through the years (on dates in 1967 and 1969).
The Dodgers and Blue Jays played two Monday night, and into this morning, for nearly all of America. Game 3 required 18 innings, 6:39 elapsed time, 609 pitches, 23 Toronto players, 10 L.A. pitchers, and almost 240 baseballs (discards, foul balls and homers) to settle.
Freddie Freeman, who is undoubtedly one of the nicest humans and biggest stars in baseball, did everybody a smooth, belting a walk-off homer at 1:51 a.m. CT, making the Dodgers 6-5 survivors and 2-1 leaders in the Series.
“Absolutely incredible,” he said in a massive understatement moments after he became the first player ever to club two World Series walk-off home runs.
Ever. That word came up again, and again, and again.
The teams tied the record for longest Series game, staged over 18 frames in 2018 between the Dodgers and Red Sox – also a Game 3 L.A. win, 3-2, on a walk off homer by Max Muncy. That one lasted 7 hours, 20 minutes.
This Game 3 gave us a couple more Shohei Ohtani milestones. He became the first player since the 1906 World Series to reach base with four extra base hits (two homers, two doubles). He did that in the first seven innings.
Ultimately, Ohtani got on nine times, four on intentional walks, and he got a base on four straight balls in the 17th.
Nobody has ever done all that before in the Fall Classic. In the ninth inning Toronto intentionally walked him, putting the winning run on base – the first time since 1955 it happened in postseason play.
Nobody could argue with Blue Jays manager John Schneider.
When Toronto started trotting him down to first base instead of pitching to him, Ohtani had slugged extra base hits in his last seven post-season at-bats in Dodger Stadium, going back to his epic three-homer Game 4 in the NLCS.
He starts Game 4 on the bump for LA. It starts tonight, 17 hours after Game 3 ended.
Ohtani keeps doing things that draw comparisons to only one other player, Babe Ruth. But Ruth was an ace pitcher only before he turned into the game’s most prolific slugger. Ohtani is doing both at the same time.
He is the Yagi (that’s goat, in Japanese, his native language).
On the other extreme, consider the winning pitcher on that superstar Dodgers’ staff.
Will Klein, a 25-year-old right-hander who made his MLB debut last year for the Kansas City Royals, and had a 5.16 ERA in his first two big league years.
Will Klein, who was traded to Oakland last summer, then designated for assignment by the A’s – and then this May, ditched by the Seattle Mariners after posting a 7.17 ERA in 20 appearances at Triple-A Tacoma.
Will Klein, picked up June by Los Angeles. He made 14 appearances for the big club and 20 for their Triple A affiliate, the Oklahoma City Comets.
Will Klein, who was not even on the Dodgers’ postseason roster through the National League playoffs.
Will Klein, who was the losing pitcher in 2020 for Eastern Illinois against Northwestern State in a February game at Brown-Stroud Field in Natchitoches.
Will Klein pitched four scoreless innings, striking out five Blue Jays, in one of baseball’s most epic games.
There were several dudes involved in Game 3 – Ohtani, Freeman, Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer, at least — who will one day find their place in the Hall of Fame.
Will Klein may not even be in big league baseball this time next season. The only way he gets into the Cooperstown shrine is if he plunks down $30 for a ticket.
But a few days before Halloween, he was Walter Mitty come to life, a superhero in one of the greatest games ever.
That’s the magic of baseball.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com