The steal that wasn't ...It is gospel. You can find it in all of the baseball record books: "The first steal of home in a world series was achieved by the legendary Jackie Robinson Noun 1. Jackie Robinson - United States baseball player; first Black to play in the major leagues (1919-1972) Jack Roosevelt Robinson, Robinson in the 1949 World Series against the Yankees." It was a quick, exciting, wonderful play at the plate, and it deserves the immortality immortality, attribute of deathlessness ascribed to the soul in many religions and philosophies. Forthright belief in immortality of the body is rare. Immortality of the soul is a cardinal tenet of Islam and is held generally in Judaism, although it is not an it has attained over the years. Let us strike medals for the heroes of that marvelous incident: Jackie Robinson, the runner, and Yogi Berra Noun 1. Yogi Berra - United States baseball player (born 1925) Berra, Lawrence Peter Berra, Yogi , the catcher. But what about the umpire? He will get his medal, but only when we start dispensing them to goats. The truth is that he made a bum 1. bum - To make highly efficient, either in time or space, often at the expense of clarity. "I managed to bum three more instructions out of that code." "I spent half the night bumming the interrupt code. call. And we've been waiting a half-century to right it. What disconcerted dis·con·cert tr.v. dis·con·cert·ed, dis·con·cert·ing, dis·con·certs 1. To upset the self-possession of; ruffle. See Synonyms at embarrass. 2. us about it originally was that the ball clearly got to the plate before the runner. Berra, from his crouched crouch v. crouched, crouch·ing, crouch·es v.intr. 1. a. To stoop, especially with the knees bent: crouched over the grate, searching for his keys. position, put the mitt and ball down in front of the plate. Robinson came sliding in off his inside foot, and nobody really knows what happened next. Did he slide into the mitt? Was the mitt in front of the plate or over it? Did Berra somehow blow the tag? He didn't react that way. He jumped up and charged the umpire like a man possessed--screaming, gesticulating ges·tic·u·late v. ges·tic·u·lat·ed, ges·tic·u·lat·ing, ges·tic·u·lates v.intr. To make gestures especially while speaking, as for emphasis. v.tr. To say or express by gestures. , totally out of his mind. You're not going to believe this--but Berra's response made a believer out of us. He was maybe the only person who really knew what had happened, and it was obvious to us that he knew Robinson was out. We never gave up on the play. We researched all the magazines, news-reel shots, books, anything that would give us a positive view of the play at the plate. None of them provided any kind of certitude cer·ti·tude n. 1. The state of being certain; complete assurance; confidence. 2. Sureness of occurrence or result; inevitability. 3. about the tag. We never dreamed that it would take a half-century to discover a piece of evidence that clearly and positively provided the answer. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] While watching a baseball show before the 2004 World Series, we were thrilled to be confronted by a five or six minute piece of tape called "Jackie Robinson's Steal of Home in the 1949 World Series." That did it! It provided the perfect shot of the play--shot from the perfect angle and showing exactly what happened: Jackie barreling in from third base in a foot-first slide with his inside (right) foot leading. Yogi Berra catching the ball well before Robinson's arrival and moving from a crouched position to the back of the plate, then putting the mitt and ball down on the ground before the plate. The umpire was definitely caught out of position--standing behind the catcher and apparently sealing himself off from the plate and the mitt (and ball). Jackie Robinson had committed himself too far with his sliding foot and absolutely all he could do was slide squarely into the mitt. There was absolutely no question of what the call should have been--OUT! We had read Yogi Berra correctly--he went bonkers because he knew the runner was out. |
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