Homer History: Tony Fernandez’s extra-innings postseason blast
In our Homer History series, writers re-tell the stories of memorable home runs from their perspective. In this installment, Yahoo Sports editor Joey Gulino tells the tale of Tony Fernandez’s clutch extra-innings blast.
You know who Tony Fernandez is. I know who Tony Fernandez is. You don’t even have to be a baseball fan to know who Tony Fernandez is.
He’s definitely not known as a home run hitter. He finished his 17-year career with just 94 homers, and never more than 11 in a season. One might wonder why he’s featured in a series such as this.
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To many, he’s the guy whose injury led to the Yankees calling up Derek Jeter for the very first time. To others, he’s the guy whose error put Craig Counsell on base to score the winning run in Game 7 of the 1997 World Series.
That’s where this story begins, because that’s where the Indians’ season ended. Counsell’s innocuous three-hopper snuck under the glove of Fernandez and into ignominy. It was a play the four-time Gold Glover had made countless times before, but one he couldn’t make this time.
Thanks in part to Fernandez, the Indians lost the World Series. Without his home run 11 days earlier, they might not have been there in the first place.
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Overcast skies and chilly air enveloped Camden Yards on Oct. 15, 1997, but the Indians’ disposition was as warm as could be.
During batting practice before Game 6 of the American League Championship Series, Fernandez gleefully pummeled baseballs all over the park. He wasn’t going to start that night against the Orioles – manager Mike Hargrove preferred the speed of Bip Roberts at the top of the order – but the 14-year veteran went about his routine.
“I told Bip, ‘I’m not a little guy, get away from those balls,’” Fernandez said. “You know how ball players joke around.”
[Homer History: The night Reggie Jackson became Mr. October]
The jokes stopped, however, when Fernandez lined one of those balls right at Roberts and accidentally injured his left thumb.
“I knew it was bad right away,” Roberts later recalled.
A painkiller shot and several grip changes couldn’t fix things. Suddenly Fernandez was back in the lineup, hitting second and starting at second against the team he nearly signed with the previous offseason.
Baltimore’s Mike Mussina was on the mound, and the Tribe’s prospects seemed dire, considering Mussina set an LCS record with 15 strikeouts in his prior start in the series. Mussina didn’t disappoint, striking out 10 and yielding just one hit through eight innings of work.
“Mike Mussina dominated us,” Hargrove conceded. “He was absolutely outstanding.”
Things were a lot messier for Indians starter Charles Nagy, as the Orioles put runners in scoring position in all but one inning he pitched. Still, Nagy didn’t give up any runs, either. Heading into extras, the scoreboard had zeroes on it.
Before long, the scoreboard would have a ball hit by Fernandez on top of it.
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Despite trading scoreless innings with Baltimore, a glimmer of hope remained for the Tribe in that they’d turn the lineup over in the 11th.
When Orioles reliever Armando Benitez quickly retired the first two batters, it brought Fernandez to the plate.
Fernandez and Benitez actually hail from the same town in the Dominican Republic, though Fernandez confessed he didn’t know much about Benitez, who was 10 years his junior.
There wasn’t much to know. Benitez threw smoke, and he threw it hard. But he missed on his first two pitches, and he wasn’t thrilled with the call on the second.
“He threw me a pitch outside,” Fernandez said. “He complained a little bit, and I motioned to him that it was outside.”
Benitez then opted to try his second-best pitch, a slider, which had too much force behind it and hung over the plate. Fernandez drove it deep into right field, where it bounced backward off the seats above the scoreboard.
The contact was clean. The crowd was quieted.
The series, effectively, was over.
“I knew something special was going to happen tonight,” Fernandez said at the time, “but I couldn’t tell you I was going to hit a home run.”
Neither could anyone else, really. Fernandez had never hit a postseason home run before, and the career .288 hitter was far better at piecing together runs than bombing them home in one fell swing.
[Elsewhere: Mookie Betts is great at bowling too]
“I’m a genius, aren’t I?” Hargrove joked. “It’s an absolutely fantastic story.”
The Orioles became the first team in Major League history to fail to reach the World Series after spending every day of the season in first place. Cleveland’s story wouldn’t have a happy ending, either, thanks to the Florida Marlins.
Fernandez spent three more seasons in the big leagues and one in Japan before retiring. He left baseball with five All-Star appearances and a World Series ring from 1993 with Toronto.
Blue Jays fans remember him as one of the franchise greats. Others remember him as the guy Derek Jeter replaced.
Indians fans remember him for that signature blast in 1997.
“This is what you dream about as a kid,” Fernandez said. “I don’t believe in destiny, but I do believe the Lord wanted this to happen.”
COMING SUNDAY: Dave Kingman takes a ball way out of Wrigley Field during an offensive explosion.
PREVIOUSLY IN HOMER HISTORY
– The night a hobbled Kirk Gibson broke my heart (by Mike Oz)
– Cal Ripken Jr. wowed us yet again on Iron Man night (by Lauren Shehadi)
– When Albert Pujols silenced Minute Maid Park (by Jeff Passan)
– Bill Mazeroski’s great walk-off World Series winner (by Kevin Iole)
– The Big Papi grand slam that still haunts Detroit (by Al Toby)
– That time Joe Blanton hit a home run in the World Series (by Sam Cooper)
– When Jim Leyritz halted hopes of a Braves dynasty (by Jay Busbee)
– Bryce Harper and the home run almost no one saw (by Chris Cwik)
– Shane Robinson and the home run on one predicted (by Tim Brown)
– The shot heard ’round the world (by Larry King)
– The night Reggie Jackson became Mr. October (by Scott Pianowski)
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