There’s probably nothing worse for fans than when their favorite team pulls ahead, things look promising … and then things fall apart. In baseball, it has a name, “September Swoon.” Just remembering is cringeworthy.
With one of my two favorite teams, the San Francisco Giants, desperately hoping the teams ahead of them in the National League Wild Card chase falter, let’s recall other teams that had “September Swoons,” which sometimes started earlier in the season.
As of the morning of September 8, the Giants were four games behind the New York Mets for the final Wild Card slot. While I hate to root against my other favorite team, the Mets, I am pulling for the Giants, who were written off when they were 61-68 on August 21. In my perfect world, the San Diego Padres, two games ahead of the Mets, self-destruct, and the Mets and Giants make the playoffs.
When it comes to self-destructing, here are seven infamous choke jobs.
Jim Bunning (photo courtesy MLB)
1964 Philadelphia Phillies: On September 20, the Phillies led the National League by six and a half games with 12 left. Sports Illustrated had already done a photo shoot with starting pitcher Jim Bunning for a World Series preview issue. The Phils then lost 10 straight games and the pennant, overtaken by the Cardinals. Manager Gene Mauch started aces Jim Bunning and Chris Short in seven of those ten games, four of them (two each) on just two days’ rest. Even if the Phils had somehow made it to the World Series, what sort of shape would their pitching have been in?
1962 Los Angeles Dodgers: The Dodgers won seven straight games leading up to their final eight and held a four-game lead over the San Francisco Giants. LA then lost six of their last eight, including their final four, allowing the Giants to force a three-game playoff. The teams split the first two games. In the winner-take-all game at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles was up 4-2 heading into the ninth inning, but then the Giants rallied for four runs, the last on an error. The Dodgers were unable to score in the bottom of the ninth and were left aghast as their pennant hopes collapsed.
1969 Chicago Cubs: This historic nosedive was a gift to my beloved Mets. Five players on Chicago’s roster made that year’s All-Star Game, and four went on to the Hall of Fame. On August 16, the Cubbies were up by a season-high nine games over second-place New York. By September 2, their lead had fallen to five games, and then the Mets went on a tear. Meanwhile, the Cubs lost 17 of the last 25 games, including eight in a row in September. The Mets went 23–7 to overtake the Cubs and finish eight games ahead of them. Rich Cohen of Sports Illustrated interviewed Ernie Banks, who said the collapse pivoted on one play.
Ernie Banks: They say one apple can spoil the whole barrel, and I saw that. Before going to New York to play the big series against the Mets [in early September], I went to different players on our team. I told them, ‘We’re going to New York, and when the game is over, there’s going to be more media than you’ve ever seen in the clubhouse, so watch what you say.’ So, we went to New York and lost the first game. Don Young dropped a fly ball, and that was it. We came into the locker room. I was next to [Ron] Santo, and he just went crazy [blaming Young]. Young was so upset, he ran out. [Coach] Pete [Reiser] had to bring him back. I had never seen something so hurtful.
It ended up in the papers, Cohen wrote, and, according to Banks, the team fell apart. It was factions in the locker room, players at cross-purposes after that.
1978 Boston Red Sox: After beating the Milwaukee Brewers on July 19, Boston led them by nine games, while the fourth-place Yankees were 14 games back.
But New York put together an incredible 52-21 run the remainder of the season, while Boston went 37-36 the rest of the way. The Red Sox put together an eight-game winning streak to close out the season, forcing a one-game playoff with the Yankees to decide the division champ. Boston entered the seventh inning with a 2-0 lead, but Yankees shortstop Bucky Dent, a .247 career hitter who choked up on the bat, drilled a two-out, three-run homer over the Fenway Green Monster to take down the Red Sox. Boston wouldn’t reach the playoffs until 1986.
2009 Detroit Tigers: On September 6, the Tigers, the only team in the American League Central with a winning record, led the Twins by seven games. From September 13 through the 26th, Minnesota won 11 of 12 to draw within two games of Detroit. Then it came down to this: the Tigers faced the White Sox in the season-closing series, needing to win two of three to clinch the division. That didn’t happen. Detroit lost two while the Twins won their final four games to finish in a tie with Detroit, and force a one-game playoff. The Twins won the tiebreaker in twelve innings, 6-5, on a walk-off single by Alexi Casilla.
2007 New York Mets: The Mets began play on September 13 with a seven-game lead over the Phillies in the NL East. They lost 12 of their final 17 games, including a three-game sweep by the Phils at Shea Stadium. The Mets lost the division on the final day of the season, only the second time since May 15 that they were not in first place.
1951 Brooklyn Dodgers: Brooklyn was 13.5 games up on the New York Giants on August 11. The Giants then closed out their season with a remarkable 37-7 record, including a 16-game winning streak. Over their final games, the Dodgers went 14-13, mediocre enough to end up in a tie with the Giants, necessitating a three-game playoff. After splitting the first two games, Brooklyn entered the ninth inning at the Polo Grounds with a 4-1 lead, sending in Ralph Branca to close out the game. The Giants’ Bobby Thomson drilled the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World,” a three-run walk-off homer to send the Giants to the World Series.
