Lonnie Smith and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Baserunning
I have found over the years that when the name Lonnie Smith comes up, immediately, people who know that name have an image pop into their heads from the 1991 World Series. It isn't a flattering image. If you're a Twins fan, you are relieved that it went the way it went. If you're a Braves fan, you don't want to talk about it.
If you don't know who Lonnie Smith is, check out this video. It's phenomenal!
The Situation
The game was tied 0-0 through 7 innings. Jack Morris had started the game for the Twins and John Smoltz had started for the Braves. Both pitchers were still in the game at the start of the 8th. Morris made it out of the 8th, Smoltz did not.
However, Smoltz should have been in line for the win. Here's why:
Lonnie Smith led off the top of the 8th inning and blooped a 1-0 pitch on a check swing to right center field. The Braves were in business with a lead off single with Terry Pendleton coming to the plate. Pendleton would be named the 1991 NL MVP. This guy could hit!
On a 1-2 count, Morris threw a pitch that Pendleton BARELY got a piece of. It skipped into the dirt and into catch Brian Harper's glove. Harper showed the home plate umpire that he had caught the foul tip. Third base Umpire Terry Tata immediately signaled that it had hit the dirt first and then gone into the glove. Pendleton was still alive.
The Play
The next pitch, Morris' 100th of the night, was drilled into the Left Center Gap, between Kirby Puckett and Dan Gladden.
Here's where it gets painful for Braves fans, and relieving for Twins fans. When the dust settled and Gladden got the ball back into the infield, Smith stood on third and Pendleton stood on second.
Let's back up. As Jack Morris went into his slide step on this pitch, Lonnie Smith took his customary bounce off of his lead; his secondary lead. But then, he turned and started for second while the ball was traveling to home plate.
This is called a delayed steal. It is designed to fool the catcher. Instead of a straight steal where the runner takes off immediately when the pitcher starts to the plate, a delayed steal is performed with the hopes of catching the catcher (no pun intended) flat footed. The catcher sees the runner do what they've been doing (taking their secondary lead as the pitch comes in) and gives up on the thought that that runner may be trying to steal. By the time they realize that, nope, the runner is going, they have lost a step or two and the runner gets to second safely. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
The Play (continued)
So back to the pitch. Lonnie Smith takes his secondary lead; one bounce off his first lead. Then turns and heads for second. In that moment, Terry Pendleton connects with Morris’ pitch on the outside part of the plate and hits it into the gap.
Now this game was being played in the Metrodome. The Metrodome had a white roof. That year, the Star Tribune newspaper in Minneapolis had sent white Homer Hanky’s to all their subscribers to bring to Twins games. So a vast majority of the attendees at that game had a Homer Hanky. So the ceiling is white, the crowd is dotted with white specs. And can you think of anything else in this baseball game that is white?
The ball.
So in that moment, Lonnie Smith, takes his eye off the ball, as he should have, to try and steal second. When the ball is hit, he doesn’t know how hard, at what trajectory, he just sees that the outfielders are moving.
“The Decoy”
Tim McCarver, color commentator for the 1991 World Series, pointed out that Chuck Knoblauch, second baseman for the Twins, faked a throw to Greg Gagne, shortstop for the Twins, as Lonnie Smith approached the bag. A decoy. McCarver surmised that THIS is what caused Lonnie Smith to stop running and round second base, hopping in place before continuing on to third. The decoy, in this clip, starts at about 27 seconds in. This is where I get frustrated.
If this decoy play had in fact tricked Lonnie Smith into thinking that Knoblauch had the ball and was turning a double play, why on earth didn’t Lonnie Smith slide to break up the double play? I’ll give you a hint, because Lonnie Smith wasn’t stupid. He could see that Dan Gladden in LF and Kirby Puckett in CF were moving toward the deep gap and were obviously chasing a ball. The question was if they were going to catch it.
Now I will say this, I believe that that decoy by Knoblauch and Gagne slowed Smith down at least a little. It was confusing. Why is the second baseman making like he has the ball…? But as quick as that question entered Smith’s brain, it was gone. Again, he would have slid and at the very least, wouldn’t have rounded second like he did.
Now you’ve watched the play. You’ve seen it. Where am I going with this?
The Point
The fact that Lonnie Smith gets the blame for this play is rotten. This is a case of bad luck, home field advantage, poor coaching at third, and a mental lapse for a split second that I’m sure has haunted Lonnie Smith to this day.
Bad Luck: Jack Morris threw Terry Pendleton five pitches. The delayed steal came on the 5th pitch. If it had come on one of the others, this wouldn’t have happened.
Home Field Advantage: The Metrodome was a nightmare to play in for opposing teams. If you took your eyes off the ball, it was very difficult to find it again. It was also SO loud in that building.
Poor Coaching at Third: Why on earth was Jimy Williams, the third base coach, not frantically waving his arms to try to get Smith’s attention? He looks calm as a cucumber as Smith rounds second, does a two step, and then comes into third. In my opinion, Williams should have been screaming at the top of his lungs and waving his arms, trying to get Smith moving. He isn’t doing that. Maybe he was yelling but was drowned out by the noise, but it doesn’t look like that to me in that clip.
Mental Lapse on Lonnie Smith: Now, some of the blame falls to Lonnie Smith. He IS the one running the bases. However, there is no one out in the top of the 8th in Game 7 of the World Series and it is tied 0-0. If that ball is caught, he needs to get back to first tout suite. He was playing conservatively after executing a spot on delayed steal. He played it right. The ONLY thing I think he messed up on, is looking down at his third base coach. But again, Williams was watching the play like he was staring at a beautiful sunset.
One more point on this. I have another play to show you.This play looks incredibly similar to the Lonnie Smith play doesn’t it? It was from the night before in Game 6. That ball is hit in a very similar part of the park and it was caught. Guess where Terry Pendleton was standing when this ball was caught. Two or three steps past second base. Sound familiar? Lonnie Smith had seen Kirby Puckett catch an uncatchable ball 24 hours earlier. Again, he didn’t know where the ball was hit, how hard, and at what trajectory. And this play was in his head too.
The Ending
“Yea, but there are still two runners on, both in scoring position, and no one is out! Oh, and Morris has to be getting tired. How is this a bad thing. The Braves are going to push one across here!”
Well, the next batter, Ron Gant, lightly grounded out to Kent Hrbek for out number one, holding the runners in place. Morris then walked David Justice to load the bases and Sid Bream grounded a 1-2 pitch to Hrbek who fired home and received the throw back for a 3-2-3 inning ending double play.
The Twins tap-danced out of trouble. The next few innings were pretty nail biting as the next run would probably decide it.
Lonnie Smith did get one more chance in the top of the 10th but struck out swinging to Jack Morris who worked his tenth inning of shutout ball. You read that right. Jake Morris pitched 10 innings. Unbelievable now-a-days.
Dan Gladden led off the bottom of the 10th with a gutsy double, Chuck Knoblauch bunted him to third, and after having Kirby Puckett and Kent Hrbek intentionally walked, Gene Larkin delivered an RBI single to deep left center field for the game winner.
It was an amazing game. But what happened in the top of the 8th, is truly incredible. And unfortunately, I believe Lonnie Smith gets a lot of undue blame for losing the game. He didn’t. On the 100th pitch of Morris’ night, the world saw how unpredictable, beautiful, and nightmarish baseball can be, all in one moment. Thanks for reading.
TL;DR: Lonnie Smith did not lose the 1991 World Series. Also, Chuck Knoblauch did not fool him into stopping.
Posted Mar 6, 2018, 11:09 PM UTC