Let's Review:
After a grueling pitchers' duel saw the Cardinals take a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the ninth, the speedy George Orta chopped a Todd Worrel fastball up the first base line to Cardinal first baseman Jack Clark who tossed it to Todd Worrel as Worrel shifted over to cover the bag. The throw beat the runner, but first base umpire Don Denkinger thought Todd Worrel's foot came off the bag. Orta was called safe by Denkinger, and the play will forever be remembered as the bang-bang play heard round the world.
What many people don't remember is that this play really meant nothing to the final outcome of the game (and certainly not the series) because you could easily blame the loss on a slew of subsequent Cardinal screw-ups that led to the eventual momentum-shifting, 2-run, walk-off RBI from Dane Iorg to send the series to a winner-take-all Game 7 (a game in which the Royals would win handily, 11-0).
It's also not well-known outside of St. Louis, Kansas City, and Los Angeles that fate was truly against this Cardinal club. How else can you explain the Vince Coleman tarp incident in the NLCS. Sure, the Cardinals won the 1985 NLCS 4-2, but who in the world can reasonably explain Vince Coleman's inability to evade an automated tarpauline inside Busch Stadium?
What impact did this have on the 1985 World Series? Coleman stole 110 bases in the 1985 regular season and surely would have added another layer of complexity to the Cardinal offense build on speed and hitting.
Sorry, Jon Hamm. Denkinger or no Denkinger, it wasn't meant to be.
