Tigers Left Fielding Questions, Or Maybe It's Just Karma

ST. LOUIS -- Maybe the players on the field didn't think instantly of Curt Flood slipping in the outfield during Game 7 of the 1968 World Series on a high line drive to center field by Jim Northrup off Bob Gibson. That misplayed ball was the turning point in the Detroit Tigers' world championship and a bitter defeat for the St. Louis Cardinals.

But both managers here in the 2006 Series, Tony La Russa of the Cards and Jim Leyland of the Tigers, thought of it instantly when Detroit's Curtis Granderson slipped -- not exactly like Flood, but as close as you'll ever see this side of pure fiction -- on David Eckstein's high line drive to center field to lead off the seventh inning at Busch Stadium with the Cards trailing 3-2. From that instant, this Game 4 of the World Series turned into instant Cardinals-red mythology. Everything that followed felt like gigantic karmic payback for Flood's misstep and the great Gibson's defeat.

"I knew I would be asked about that," Leyland said after his team's 5-4 loss on an eighth-inning, tiebreaking RBI double by Eckstein off Joel Zumaya to give St. Louis a commanding three-games-to-one lead.

"I don't care about Curt Flood in '68," Leyland said. And he wouldn't say another word about it. Which, of course, just proved how deeply it bothers him, how hard it must be for such a steeped-in-lore baseball lifer to think that the circle won't be squared, that the turning point of this series will not be Granderson's completely excusable but still vital slip.

As for La Russa, his eyes flashed hard when asked. No one in the game is more superstitious than Tony. He knew every detail. And wouldn't address it, retreating behind cliches about how capable the Tigers are of winning three games in a row.

After this game? You could not script a more melodramatic, momentum-turning game. If the Cardinals do not feel destined after this game, they never will. As for the Tigers, they gave this game away in every conceivable way. They deserved to lose this game even more than the Cards deserved to win it. And, of course, they know it.

After Granderson missed Eckstein's ball for a leadoff double in the seventh, the next hitter, So Taguchi, laid down a routine sacrifice bunt to reliever Fernando Rodney, another in the endless stream of flame-throwing Tigers. Rodney could have flipped underhand to first and beaten Taguchi easily. He could have thrown from any angle at any speed. Perhaps half of the people in the crowd of 46,470 could have executed the play -- which may be the easiest in baseball, a bunt back to the pitcher with the batter easily out by many yards. The only thing Rodney could not do was get "caught in between" as players say. He halfway threw the ball firmly and halfway flipped it softly. Everyone who has ever played catch in the back yard knows the feeling. The ball flew a good three feet over the leap of the Tiger covering first base.

Eckstein scored, Taguchi ended up on second and, as always seems to happen, the Cards scored a two-out run on a single by Preston Wilson when the inning should already have been over. Rodney's throw made both runs unearned. But it was the utterly unnerving Granderson slip on the previous play that set the emotional tone. If that ball had been caught, two runs would also have been saved.

As if that inning were not enough of an emotional blow to the gut, the Cards' winning run -- after the Tigers had gamely tied the score at 4 in the top of the eighth -- was also a gift, courtesy of losing pitcher Zumaya, the 21-year-old with the fastball that has been clocked as high as 103 mph. You can't teach a fastball like that. But you can't teach age and experience either. You're born with one, but you have to wait for the other. Zumaya was so excited by the October stage, as he had every right to be, that he walked the leadoff man on four pitches. Then, his strikeout pitch to Juan Encarnacion was a slider in the dirt that escaped catcher Ivan Rodriguez for a wild pitch and put the winning run in scoring position.

Eckstein then lashed a liner to left-center field that the Tigers' Craig Monroe had in the tip of his glove for a split second, only to see it roll away. That completed a night of almost ludicrous heroics and good luck for Eckstein. He beat out an infield dribbler in the first. He doubled in a run off tough starter Jeremy Bonderman in the third. His "double" opened the seventh and his final game-winning double came in the eighth. Naturally, the last groundball out of the game was hit to him at shortstop, too.

Hosannas will be sung to him here under the Gateway Arch. "David is the toughest guy I've ever seen in a uniform," said La Russa after watching his favorite player, a diminutive Eddie Stanky-type who seems to have no visible reason to be so excellent.

When the highlights of this Series are shown, Granderson's slip and Eckstein's clutch hit will be shown. "The best game I've probably ever had, considering the [Series] stage," said Eckstein, who was the sparkplug of the '02 champion Angels.