Blog Tour: SHOCKTOBER: THE BIGGEST UPSETS IN WORLD SERIES HISTORY by Jonathan Weeks
Shocktober: The Biggest Upsets in WorldSeries History
Jonathan Weeks
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE: Sports History
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
Mays’sspectacular catch in 1954, Bill Mazeroski’s walk-off homer in 1960, and KirkGibson’s pinch-hit blast in 1988 are just a few of the memorable moments thathave dominated highlight reels. The outcome of the Series has not always beenterribly surprising—especially during the late 1940s and early 1950s when theYankees captured five consecutive championships, breaking their previous recordof four straight titles from 1936 to 1939. But despite its predictability attimes, the Fall Classic has taken many unexpected turns. The 1906 Cubs lost tothe weak-hitting White Sox after establishing a new regular season record for
wins.The 1955 Dodgers avenged seven prior October failures with an improbablevictory over the seemingly invincible Yankees. And in 1969, the Mets finallyshed their image as “loveable losers,” dethroning the powerful Orioles. In morethan a century of World Series plays, a number of similar scenarios haveemerged; twenty-two of those stories are told in Shocktober.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ExcerptThree:
Game 1 was held at Dodger Stadium with 56,000 fans inattendance. Since Hershiser had pitched in Game 7 of the NLCS, he wasunavailable for the Series opener. Lasorda was forced to send rookieright-hander Tim Belcher to the mound while LaRussa had the luxury of startinga well-rested Dave Stewart. Perhaps feeling the pressure of the moment, Stewarthit Sax with the first pitch he threw, balked him to second base, and served upa two-run homer to Mickey Hatcher. Hatcher got the L.A. crowd worked up by roundingthe bases at full speed. This prompted broadcaster Vin Scully to joke: “He’s aSaturday Evening Post character.” Regaining his composure, Stewart yielded justone more run over the next seven innings. Belcher had a rough go of it, stakingthe A’s to a 4-2 lead in the top of the second. The big blow was struck byCanseco—a grand slam to deep center field with two outs. The monster blastreportedly hit an NBC camera, leaving a dent. With the A’s nursing a 4-3 leadin the bottom of the ninth, the legend of Kirk Gibson was born.
Eckersley was summoned to close out the game for Oakland. Heretired the first two batters before issuing a walk to pinch-hitter Mike Davis.Gibson, who was suffering from a pulled hamstring and strained knee ligaments,had been in street clothes at the start of the game. After a pair of cortisoneshots, he was still limping, but feeling less pain. With the Dodgers trailingin the late innings, he pulled on his uniform and shuffled to the batting cagebeneath the stadium for some practice swings. Summoned to pinch-hit forAlejandro Pena, he worked the count full. By his own admission, he was hopingat best for a blooper over the head of Oakland shortstop Walt Weiss.Essentially swinging on one leg, the ailing slugger did much better than that,pounding a backdoor slider into the right field bleachers for a walk-off homer.
“First of all, it was like almost some kind of foolish thingto go up there and hit because of the shape I was in,” Gibson reminisced yearslater. “...I remember when I was rounding the bases, my parents went through mymind. Throughout my career, there were a lot of doubters, a lot of people whodirected a lot of criticism at me. People would say things to my dad, andinitially, early in my career, they had to defend me. I told them, ‘You guysdon’t have to defend me. I’m going to bust it and I’m going to fail sometimes.But we’ll have a laugh some day [and] it will all be worth it.’ When I [hitthat home run], I thought, ‘This is the moment.’” Gibson’s moment—which came inhis only at-bat of the Series—has appeared in virtually every October highlightanthology ever since. In 2016, Eckersley said he felt honored to be a part ofGibson’s achievement. “I’ve always had a respect for Kirk—the kind of player hewas. And for something like that to happen to me, in that moment in baseball,was incredible...I can step away from that and appreciate it because I lovethis game.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What kind of research didyou have to do to write this book?
Baseball’s World Seriesattracts millions of fans every year and I knew when I began my research thatthere would be plenty of material available. I was able to find a great numberof books and online sources dealing with the topic. I also sent questionnairesout to a few players in the hope of obtaining some previously unpublishedmaterial. In addition to a brief history of the World Series, itself, the bookprovides a thorough recap of every season in question along with biographicalinformation about the players involved. I tried to add as many quotes andanecdotes as possible, injecting a little humor whenever I could. I also addedan appendix that includes World Series trivia and statistics of individualplayers.
I conducted my research onechapter at a time and took notes the old-fashioned way, writing them down inspiral notebooks. The final manuscript was around 90,000 words and the notestook up space in four separate notebooks (80 pages apiece). Naturally, I didn’tuse all of the notes. The entire project took about seven months to completewith the research accounting for about half of that time.
I hope readers find thematerial as interesting as I did. I’ve been following the World Series since Iwas a kid and this book was a bucket list item for me.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Jonathan Weeks has written several sports biographies and twonovels, one of which was a posthumous collaboration with his late father. Hegrew up in the Capital District region of New York State and currently works inthe mental health field.
BLOG: http://www.jonathanweeks.blogspot.com
GOODREADS AUTHOR PAGE: https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/5862273.Jonathan_Weeks
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY
JonathanWeeks will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
