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Bigalke said 07/04, 09:31 PM
Essentially this argument becomes Mazeroski (Pittsburgh 1960) v. Carter (Toronto 1993)...

I'll gladly take Joe Carter for three main reasons:


1. Carter's homer is the first (& as of now ONLY) time the WORLD Series was won on foreign soil. Though the Blue Jays won in 1992 as well, they won that game six against Atlanta in Fulton County Stadium; when Carter took Mitch Williams over that left-field wall in the SkyDome, the Commissioner's Trophy finally went global...

2. This team became the first team since the 1977-78 Yankees to win back-to-back World Series. Pittsburgh, by contrast, had that one season (4th in NL in 1959, 6th in 1961)... while Toronto legitimized its previous season.

3. Not to diminish the Pirates' and Mazeroski's accomplishment, but the game was tied when Mazeroski went yard... Toronto, by contrast, were down 6-5 in the 9th and staring at a surging Phillies team. The Pirates had no outs; if Mazeroski hadn't done it, then Pittsburgh could just pinch hit the pitcher & had the top of the order to generate one run... Toronto was in a do-or-die spot -- two men on, one out, DOWN in the game...


Carter's shot simply had greater historical impact...

Bigalke said 07/06, 03:07 AM
To refute your refutations -- since there were no new contentions...

1. Yes, the Blue Jays won in 1992... but they won IN ATLANTA. Never before, and never since, has the Commissioner's Trophy been awarded on foreign soil. By contrast, the World Series has been won many times since -- both by New York and their opponents -- in Yankee Stadium...

2. Toronto may not have needed to legitimize its 1992 win... but they did anyway. The labor strike does not diminish that fact. And the Pirates winning in 1960 did nothing to advance the game of baseball in new environs like Toronto's 1993 victory did...

3. Yes, a one-run deficit can be recovered... but in World Series play, to do it in such dramatic fashion has never before been seen. Yes, Mazeroski had previously hit a walk-off homer... but never before had there been a come-from-behind walk-off homer in World Series play...


And you fail to mention that, while Mazeroski hit his off a 10-8 pitcher in Ralph Terry, Carter hit his off one of the most dominant closers of the 1993 season in Mitch Williams. Carter had the harder road to travel, and his homer has greater historical impact than Mazeroski's...

Bigalke said 07/06, 09:25 AM
To refute your points:

1. Other no-name teams had won the Series in the recent past before Pittsburgh in 1960 -- the Milwaukee braves in 1957, for instance. Pittsburgh neither set a trend (Milwaukee really heralded in the beginning of the end for the dynastic Yankees) nor did it capitalize on that trend beyond Mazeroski's anomalous blast. Those Braves, three years before the Pirates, REALLY set the trend... conversely, I didn't see the Expos winning a World Series in Montreal three years before Toronto won...

2. Really, #2 is an extension of your first point. And, seeing as Baltimore in 1966 was a 70+ year old team when it won its first WS, is that REALLY a new environ? It wasn't until 1971 with Oakland that a NEW team had the chance for the title... and Pittsburgh had already won another in that time... their FOURTH... hardly opening the floodgates for the nobodies...


In the end, you can't escape how Toronto's victory harbored in the rapid globalization by Major League Baseball of their product. From the explosion in overseas players to the playing of games in foreign markets, Toronto opened the doors for the WS to leave the country -- Carter's HR is JAM-PACKED with history...