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World Series Swings The White Sox' Way
Scott Podsednik, center, is welcomed home after his game-winning blast in the bottom of the ninth. Podsednik called the homer "pretty indescribable."
(By Morry Gash -- Associated Press)
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"It's the second-best feeling I've had all week," said Konerko, whose wife gave birth four days earlier. "It's hard to explain, other than it's fun."
If Konerko's grand slam had not been preceded by a controversial call, it would been completely out of character for a postseason in which the umpires often have been bigger stories than the players.
Indeed, the batter before Konerko, Jermaine Dye, was hit somewhere in the vicinity of his hands by a full-count pitch from right-hander Dan Wheeler, with two outs and runners on first and second. Home plate umpire Jeff Nelson ruled the pitch had hit Dye on the hand, awarding him first base and loading the bases.
However, replays appeared to show the pitch hitting the barrel of Dye's bat, which perhaps Nelson could not see. However, Nelson missed one other crucial bit of evidence -- the fact Dye's hands never left the bat. Doesn't it stand to reason that a fastball on the hands on a 45-degree night would have stung Dye enough to yank his hands off the bat?
Afterward, Dye admitted the pitch had hit his bat. Nelson was unavailable for comment, but he said through a Major League Baseball spokesman that he believed "definitively" at the time that the ball had hit Dye's hand.
Jenks, 270 pounds of high, hard heat, was one strike from closing out the win in the top of the ninth, with the tying runs in scoring position, when Vizcaino slashed an opposite-field single into left field.
The trailing runner, Chris Burke, representing the tying run, scored with a head-first slide, his hand barely touching the plate just beyond the reach of catcher A.J. Pierzynski, whose tag attempt was late -- primarily because the throw from left field was late, weak and off-target.
And who made that weak and off-target throw? None other than Podsednik. As the stadium deflated around him, and the Astros pumped their fists, Podsednik hoped he would get one more chance, maybe one more at-bat, just one swing to turn the electricity on again.
