Cox ends game with walk-off home run
SANDPOINT — There are a lot of ways for a baseball game to end, but perhaps none better than the walk-off home run.
Simply put, a walk-off home run is a home run that ends the game. It must be a home run that gives the home team the lead in the bottom of the final inning of the game. Thus the home team can “walk off” the field immediately afterward, rather than finishing the inning.
At an All-Star team baseball tournament in Whitefish, Mont., last weekend, Sandpoint player Payton Cox ended an extra-inning game with a walk-off home run, a fairly rare occurrence at the little league level. Not surprisingly, he was mobbed by teammate upon jumping on home plate.
Two Sandpoint Little League All-Star teams will be in action this weekend at the District All-Star tournament in Rathdrum and Hayden.
The term “walk-off homer” took root in early 90s, but the exciting ritual dates back to the earliest of baseball games.
Jim Thome holds the Major League Baseball record with 13 career walk-off homers. Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Jimmie Foxx, Stan Musial and Frank Robinson shared the record at 12 before Thome surpassed them.
On 27 occasions in major league history — all during the regular season — a player has hit a game-winning grand slam for a 1-run victory
The great Pittsburgh Pirate Roberto Clemente hit the only walk-off inside-the-park grand slam in baseball history. Clemente’s 3rd base coach instructed him to stop at 3rd, but Clemente ran through the stop sign to score the winning run.
Walk-off home runs are uncommon enough to be dramatic when they occur, especially during the postseason. There have been seven major league postseason series that have ended in a walk-off homerun, including two World Series.
The subject of the most famous walk-off home run in the history of the Major League Baseball is one that creates a great deal of argument: Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round the World;” the home run hit by Bill Mazeroski of the Pittsburgh Pirates, winning the 1960 World Series; the one hit by Carlton Fisk of the Boston Red Sox off the left-field foul pole in the 12th inning to win Game 6 of the 1975 World Series; Kirk Gibson’s hobbled pinch hit home run with his Los Angeles Dodgers trailing by one run and facing the Oakland A’s Cy Young Award-winning closer Dennis Eckersley to win Game 1 of the 1988 World Series; or Joe Carter’s 3-run blast over the left field wall in Game 6 of the 1993 World Series gave the Toronto Blue Jays an 8-6 win, a 4-2 series victory and their second straight World championship.