Larry Stone / Baseball reporter
10 Great Moments in "The Book" history

AP, 2000 Ex-Arizona skipper Buck Showalter walked Barry Bonds with the based loaded.

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1. One of the great modern examples of flouting The Book — indeed, of tearing it into tiny pieces and burying them under the nearest cactus — occurred May 28, 1998, executed by Arizona manager Buck Showalter.

Barry Bonds, who no one yet knew would hit 73 home runs three years later, came to bat in the ninth inning against Showalter's Diamondbacks. Gregg Olson was on the mound, Arizona was leading 8-6, there were two outs and the bases were loaded.

Showalter did the unthinkable and ordered Bonds walked intentionally, forcing in a run. The strategy worked, but not without an anxious moment; the next hitter, the overtly disrespected Brent Mayne, worked the count full before hitting a line drive that was caught by right fielder Brent Brede, ending the game.

Research revealed that Bonds was the fourth player in baseball history walked intentionally with the bases loaded.

2. Dick Williams, while managing the Montreal Expos, once elected to issue an intentional walk to Philadelphia's Bake McBride with runners on second and third. That loaded the bases for Mike Schmidt, who hit a game-winning single.

Queried about the strategy after the game, Williams said, "I don't care if Jesus Christ was coming up, I was going to walk McBride."

A reporter asked Williams, "What if Babe Ruth was coming up?"

After a long pause, Williams said, "I don't know about Babe Ruth."

3. It was Williams who pulled off one of the great Book ruses of all time while managing the A's against the Big Red Machine in the 1972 World Series. In Game 3 at Oakland, with Cincinnati leading 1-0 in the eighth inning, the Reds put runners on second and third with one out and powerful Johnny Bench at the plate.

Rather than do the conventional move, which would have been to walk Bench intentionally to load the bases and set up the double play or force at home, Williams had Rollie Fingers pitch to Bench, with Tony Perez sitting on deck. But when the count worked full at 3-2, Williams went to the mound and made the traditional hand signal for an intentional walk. Sure enough, when Oakland catcher Gene Tenace returned to the plate, he pointed toward first, stood up and moved to the right of home plate.

But just as Fingers was delivering, Tenace jumped back behind the plate, and Fingers threw a slider on the outside corner. Bench, lulled into expecting ball four, never took the bat off his shoulders, and it was strike three.

Postscript: The Reds won the game anyway, 1-0. But Oakland won the series in seven games.

	Ralph Houk made a legendary anti-Book call.

4. Williams had one more notable Book moment in the World Series, this time while managing the Padres against Detroit in 1984. With the Padres trailing by a run in the eighth inning of the fifth game, down three games to one, the Tigers put runners on second and third, bringing up Kirk Gibson to face Goose Gossage.

From the dugout, Williams signaled to San Diego catcher Terry Kennedy to walk the left-handed-hitting Gibson in order to face right-hander Lance Parrish. But when Gossage visibly resisted, Williams trotted to the mound, and allowed Gossage to convince him that he could get out Gibson, who homered earlier in the game.

With the intentional walk called off, Gibson hit Gossage's third pitch into the upper deck in right field, a three-run homer that clinched the game, and the World Series title, for the Tigers.

5. One prime tenet of The Book is to never intentionally put the winning run on base. Perhaps the most famous case of a manager violating the rule — and paying a heavy price — occurred in the 1947 World Series between the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees.

In Game 4, Yankees pitcher Bill Bevens took a no-hitter and a 2-1 lead (wildness having led to a Dodgers run) into the ninth. With one out, Bevens walked Carl Furillo, but got the second out on a pop foul. After pinch-runner Al Gionfriddo stole second, Yankees manager Bucky Harris elected to issue an intentional walk to pinch-hitter Pete Reiser — thus putting the go-ahead run on base.

Sure enough, the next batter, pinch-hitter Cookie Lavagetto, launched a double off the right-field wall, the first and only hit off Bevens, who was one out shy of pulling off the first World Series no-hitter, nine years ahead of Don Larsen. Both runners scored to give the Dodgers a 3-2 victory.

Postscript: Brooklyn's victory tied the series at two games apiece, but the Yankees still managed to win in seven.

6. Another Book-defying World Series decision by a Yankees manager, 15 years later, paid off — but just barely. One of the diciest moments in World Series history occurred in 1962, when the Yankees were clinging to a 1-0 lead over the San Francisco Giants with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7.

With Matty Alou on third base, Willie Mays on second base and left-handed hitting slugger Willie McCovey at the plate, Yankees manager Ralph Houk could have gone with The Book move and had his right-handed pitcher, Ralph Terry, walk McCovey intentionally. That would set up the force at any base and bring the coveted right-hander against right-hander matchup with the next hitter, Orlando Cepeda.

But after a mound conference, Houk elected to let Terry (who two years earlier had given up Bill Mazeroski's walk-off, Series-ending homer against the Pirates) face McCovey. It worked, but it wasn't easy; McCovey hit a screaming line drive right at Yankees second baseman Bobby Richardson, who snagged it to end the game, and the Series.

	AP, 1951 New York Giants players and fans mob Bobby Thomson, head being rubbed, after his pennant-winning home run against the Brooklyn Dodgers

7. Chuck Dressen, manager of the 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers, adhered stubbornly to The Book in the ninth inning of a playoff game against the Giants, to the everlasting sorrow of the Dodgers and their fans.

The situation has become legend: the Dodgers still clinging to a 4-2 lead, runners on second and third, one out, Bobby Thomson at the plate, Ralph Branca on the mound. Though a base was open, and Thomson was having a hot series while the on-deck hitter wasn't, Dressen abided the rule that you never put the go-ahead run on base. Thomson made him regret it with his "Shot Heard Round the World," a three-run homer that gave the Giants the pennant.

The on-deck hitter, by the way? A promising rookie who had hit .274 in 121 games, with 20 homers. Fellow by the name of Willie Mays.

8. Doc Edwards, while managing the Cleveland Indians, went against The Book in late August of 1987 to give Paul Molitor a final chance to extend his 39-game hitting streak.

Molitor, hitting .370 for the season and .414 during the streak — fourth-longest in baseball history — came up for Milwaukee with one out, Dale Sveum on second, and the two teams locked in a scoreless tie.

The Book would dictate taking the bat out of the hands of the torrid Molitor, despite the fact he was hitless in three at-bats, and future Hall of Famer Robin Yount was on deck. But Edwards elected to pitch to Molitor, and he hit a slow roller to third baseman Brook Jacoby. Jacoby's throw to first was in plenty of time to nail Molitor, but first baseman Pat Tabler dropped it for an error. The Indians eventually got out of the jam, but the Brewers won it in the 10th, 1-0, on Rick Manning's run-scoring single — with Molitor on deck.

"I had a gut feeling the percentages were running out on Molitor," Edwards said afterward.

9. The section of The Book dealing with etiquette is the haziest of all, because, like the Bible, it is subject to varying interpretation.

Mariners catcher Ben Davis, while with the Padres in 2001, tested the boundaries of the sport's code of honor in a

	AP, 1958 Casey Stengel had ready responses for second-guessers, Book or no Book.

memorable game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. With Curt Schilling carrying a perfect game with one out in the eighth inning, Davis had the audacity to drop down a bunt, which he beat out for a single.

Many of the Diamondbacks players were outraged, as was manager Bob Brenly, who felt that Davis' bunt was a blatant flaunting of fair play. Never mind that the Padres were trailing just 2-0 at the time, and his hit allowed them to bring the tying run to the plate.

"I guess they wanted us to drop our weapons and raise our hands," countered Padres manager Bruce Bochy.

10. Hall of Famer Casey Stengel had the classic response for a second-guesser, which is one of the inevitabilities of managing regardless of whether they go with or against The Book.

A U.S. soldier once sent Stengel a note criticizing one of his strategic moves. According to legend, Stengel wired back: "If you're so smart, let's see you get out of the Army."

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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