FanPost

Looking Back on the Denkinger Play: 30 Years Later

don-denkinger-call.0.jpg

Today marks the 30th anniversary of game 6 of the 1985 World Series, a game that lives in infamy for a missed call by first base umpire Don Denkinger in the opening play of the 9th inning. It has become possibly the most famous blown call in World Series history, and is so inextricably linked to the Royals' championship that it seems difficult for many writers and broadcasters to even mention the Royals' victory without adding a qualifier that it was aided by Denkinger. It is also probably the most overblown play in baseball history.

So with the Royals headed back to the Series to try to bring home a championship 30 years later, it seems appropriate to revisit this game and try to get a proper perspective on the play and its impact on the game and series.

The Perception

The perception now is that the umpire stole the game from the Cardinals and gave it to the Royals, thus robbing St. Louis and handing Kansas City an illegitimate championship. This idea is so ingrained that it has become reflexive for many in the media and among fans whenever the 1985 World Series is mentioned to also mention the blown call or Denkinger's name.

Ten years ago, I was living in Houston during the 2005 World Series. There was some controversy on a hit-by-pitch in one of the games that led to a game-changing grand slam against the Astros. They were talking on the radio the next day about bad umpire calls in the World Series, and the Denkinger call (of course) was mentioned right away. And these two guys remembered the blown call taking away the final out from the Cardinals, so that the call quite literally stole the championship from the Cardinals.

And it's no wonder they would remember it this way, because of how the call looms over the series in the collective memory. The reality is much different. The call was important, but it did not, by any stretch, decide the game.

What Really Happened

It was the bottom of the ninth inning. The Cardinals had a 3-2 series lead and a 1-0 lead in the game. Todd Worrell was on the mound for the Cardinals, relieving Ken Dayley, who had worked around a walk to Willie Wilson to navigate the Royals' best bats unscathed, striking out George Brett along the way. Now the rookie Worrell, who had struck out a record six straight in game 5, was facing the bottom half of the Royals' lineup, one of the weakest in World Series history.

It was such a weak lineup that Dick Howser sent up Jorge Orta to pinch-hit for his 5-hole batter, Pat Sheridan, to lead off the inning. The Royals win probability stood at 20%.

Orta hit a chopper to Jack Clark at first. Clark's toss was high and Worrell was a little late in getting to the bag. The play seemed close at full speed, and Denkinger called Orta safe. There was an argument and the replay showed on the telecast showed the call was wrong. Worrell had his foot on the bag with the ball in the glove for a brief moment before Orta arrived. But Orta was safe, and he stood at first base. Win probability was now at 34%.

The next batter was Steve Balboni, a hitter whose entire value was in his home runs who also happened to be in a long power drought. He hit a foul pop up. Clark tracked the ball near the first base dugout but then glanced at catcher Darrell Porter, who was also in pursuit, and lost track of the ball. The ball fell harmlessly to the turf several feet from Clark. Balboni then singled. Men on first and second, no outs. Win probability jumped to 52%.

Onix Concepcion pinch-ran for Balboni, and Jim Sundberg came to the plate. He bunted hard back to the pitcher, who threw to third, erasing Orta. Men on first and second, one out. Win probability back down to 34%.

The next batter was going to be Buddy Biancalana from the 8-hole, but Hal McRae was sent up to pinch hit. In 1985, they were still alternating years for using the DH in the World Series, so the Royals' DH and cleanup hitter was making just his third plate appearance of the series. Worrell crossed up Porter, resulting in a passed ball. Runners moved up to second and third, still just one out. Win probability now up to 54%.

Worrell intentionally walks McRae. Bases loaded, one out. Win probability remains at 54%.

Up comes Dane Iorg, a lefty-swinging utility guy, the third pinch hitter off the bench for Royals manager Dick Howser. Iorg is 0-1 in the series and hit .223 on the season. He bloops one over the right side of the infield, toward the line. Concepcion scores and Sundberg beats the throw from Andy Van Slyke in right field, and the Royals win.

The Call Did Not Determine the Game

By Win Probability Added, Orta's "single" (at +13% WPA) was not one of the five most important plays of the game, and it ranked as the least important at-bat of the inning: Iorg's single was +46%, McRae's at-bat (the passed ball and IBB) was +20%, Balboni's single was +18%, and Sundberg's botched sacrifice was -18%.

That said, there's no denying that the play was significant. Sundberg replaced Orta on the base paths after the botched sacrifice, and he scored the winning run. It gave a shot of hope to the Royals and may have rattled the Cardinals, particularly their rookie pitcher on the mound.

But here's the thing: Orta himself never scored. He was erased on a failed sacrifice, which was the only out the Cardinals managed to record that inning. The inning included singles by a .243 hitter and a .223 hitter. The blown call simply resulted in the leadoff man reaching base for the bottom of one of the worst lineups in World Series history, with a dominant pitcher on the mound.

In fact, the narrative of the game on the broadcast up to that point was how the Royals had been putting the leadoff runner on base against Cardinals starter Danny Cox but failing to capitalize.

If Worrell had simply dropped the ball or Clark's toss were just a bit higher, no one would be saying that particular error cost the Cardinals the World Series. It would have taken its proper perspective as a break that the Cardinals failed to neutralize and on which the Royals capitalized.

If you watch the broadcast, the announcers don't seem to put much weight on the blown call. After the replays were shown and they acknowledged the call was incorrect, the play was never mentioned again until Tim McCarver mentioned it during the pregame for the Game 7 telecast, when he simply called it a "big play."

The Series Loss Is on the Cardinals, Not Denkinger

The heavily-favored Cardinals won 101 games in 1985 and led the National League in runs scored. But they were thoroughly outplayed all series by the Royals. The Royals outhit them .288/.366/.381 to .185/.248/.269 and outpitched them with a 1.89 ERA in the series. Outside of game 6, the other three KC wins were not close: 6-1, 6-1, and 11-0.

The call came in game 6. St. Louis had the rest of the 9th inning and all of game 7 to rebound from the bad break but instead went into an epic collapse. They failed to catch a pop-up. They could not communicate their signs, leading to a passed ball. They could not get weak hitters out. They completely lost their composure in game 7, not only losing 11-0 but throwing tantrums along the way that led to two ejections and a trip to the hospital after John Tudor punched an electric fan and needed stitches.

Even the call itself was arguably brought about by poor execution by the Cardinals. If Clark had made a better toss and/or Worrell had gotten to the bag at a better angle and on time, they would have made the call much easier. Instead, Worrell was reaching high in the air while his toe searched for the bag as he and Orta both rushed past, making it much less clear in real time whether he had the ball and the bag at the same time before Orta arrived.

The Greatest PR Job in Baseball History

During the Game 7 meltdown, as Whitey Herzog had already been ejected and Joaquin Andujar was having to be carried off the field by three teammates after his ejection, with the Royals already leading 11-0 in the fifth inning, and with reports of John Tudor in the hospital getting stitches in his hand, the announcers (Al Michaels, Jim Palmer and Tim McCarver) openly worried about the 1985 Cardinals' legacy and the legacy of the 1985 World Series. They said that what people would remember is how the Cardinals completely lost their cool and forget how great a team they were and how great a series it had been. But somehow the Cardinals flipped the script, cast themselves as the victims, and history sided with them.

Whitey Herzog gave a classy interview after Game 7, where he admitted that they should have put the series away in the 6th game and did not mention the umpire at all. But some time during the winter he started whining and he succeeded in deflecting the blame from himself and his team for their embarrassing collapse and pinning it on Denkinger.

The unfortunate result in the Cardinals cleaning up their own reputation, however, is that the Royals' lone championship to date comes with a mental asterisk for most people and a fine umpire is remembered for being the ump that blew the World Series.

The play was a key play, probably more than WPA suggests (the win probability would have only been about 10% had the correct call been made), but the end result of the game and series clearly had more to do with how the Cardinals reacted to the bad break than Denkinger's call in itself. And the call's place in history has a lot more to do with the Whitey Herzog and the Cardinals' desire to save face than it does with reality.

This FanPost was written by a member of the Royals Review community. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the editors and writers of this site.