New book features lesser-known World Series stories, including those featuring the Royals

“Shadows of Glory: Memorable and Offbeat World Series Stories” offers stories you may not know about the Fall Classic.

For all of the great, wonderful, and well-known stories about the World Series, there are just as many great, wonderful, and lesser-known stories from the Fall Classic, stories of which even diehard baseball fans are unaware. During the playoffs this season, I had the opportunity to read the new baseball book, “Shadows of Glory: Memorable and Offbeat World Series Stories” by Dave Brown and Jeff Rodimer with a foreword by former Major League first-baseman, Mark Teixeira.

The book details a number of those lesser-known stories from different World Series, including ones on the 1942 Kansas City Monarchs and 1985 Kansas City Royals. One chapter introduces a young Willie Mays—while the one before it has a story about Mays in his last season, about 25 years later. Another chapter features the 1978 New York Yankees that included several men with connections to the Royals—Bob Lemon, Cedric Tallis, and Dick Howser.

Another chapter highlights the hero at the center of one of the greatest World Series games ever played—St. Louis Cardinal third baseman David Freese and Game Six of the 2011 World Series.

Dave Brown spoke with me a couple of weeks ago about the book. Brown is a lifetime Phillies fan, so the story that really sparked the idea behind the book comes from a World Series involving the Phillies, but one they lost.

In 2009, the Phillies took on the New York Yankees in the World Series, which the Yankees ultimately won in six games. (If you watched the World Series this year, then you would’ve heard about the 2009 Series, as it was mentioned seemingly every five seconds.)

Cliff Lee took the mound in Game 1 for the Phillies back in 2009 and went the distance, holding a Yankees lineup—featuring the likes of Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Teixeira, Jorge Posada, Robinson Cano, and eventual series-MVP Hideki Matsui—to six hits, zero walks, one unearned run while striking out 10 on 122 pitches.

Brad Mills-Imagn Images

But it’s the story of what happened to Lee before the game that’s in the book. He had to hail a cab, which then got stuck in a snarling traffic jam. “And then [he] had to shift gears and jump out [of the cab],” said Brown, “and took the subway. It can’t be easy to navigate the New York subway system when you’re not from the area.”

Then when Lee finally made it to the stadium, he encountered an issue getting inside of it. Eventually, he did, and he pitched lights out, giving the Phillies a one-game lead in the Series.

Brown said, “I think all that chaos could have thrown some pitchers off their game but just didn’t seem to bother Lee. When he got there, he got dressed, threw his warm-up pitches, and completely locked in throughout the nine innings.” He added: “Teixeira really tipped his hat to Lee for that performance,”

The writers wanted to honor and recognize the Negro Leagues by including a chapter about the Negro Leagues World Series, which, interestingly, didn’t happen every year. It occurred only four times in the 1920s before taking place another seven times in the 1940s. The 1942 series pitted Satchel Paige and the Kansas City Monarchs against Josh Gibson and the Homestead Grays.

The fighting between owners of the teams led to a huge delay between two of the games, and when the Grays used a new player in a game they won, the Monarchs protested the result, a protest that was upheld, completely wiping out the game after it finished.

Of course, there’s a chapter about the 1985 World Series, particularly Game Six. One thing I learned, and some of you diehards probably already knew this, but Jorge Orta, who reached first base on umpire Don Denkinger’s blown call, didn’t score that inning—he was wiped out at third when catcher Jim Sundberg tried to sacrifice him and Steve Balboni up ninety feet.

Still, the Royals prevailed as the Cardinals continued to melt down.

“[T]hen there was a passed ball and an intentional walk,” Brown said, “and then a two-run single by [Dane] Iorg, but Cardinals fans, and [Cardinals second baseman] Tom Herr, who we spoke to, they really think that that call was such a dramatic turning point, and that if Denkinger had gotten the call right, the Cardinals would’ve closed out the Series. Maybe that’s true, but not necessarily.”

It’s not in the book, but Brown and I also discussed the Royals-Phillies World Series in 1980, the ending of Game Six mirroring what would happen five years later. In 1985, after reached first, Balboni popped up into foul territory. Cardinals catcher Darrell Porter and first baseman converged but neither caught the ball. Balboni then singled, making it two on with none out instead of none on with two out.

In 1980, in the bottom of the ninth of Game Six, down by three, the Royals loaded the bases. Here’s Brown with what happened next:

With one out, there’s a memorable play—there’s a foul pop-up not completely unlike the Balboni pop-up in the ‘85 Series, and [catcher] Bob Boone and Pete Rose converged on the ball, and it went off of Boone’s glove and then Rose, very alertly, reached out and grabbed it for the second out. And then Willie Wilson struck out, and the Phillies finally, after 77 years, had won a World Series.

One final nugget, which is my favorite from the book. Don Barnes owned the St. Louis Browns from 1936 to 1944, and he had a plan to move the ballclub to Los Angeles. That move would be decided in a league meeting.

That league meeting took place on December 8, 1941.

Due to what occurred the previous day, it was denied.

Had Japan not attacked Pearl Harbor, would the move have gone through?

“I think it would have” Brown said. “[Co-author] Jeff [Rodimer] was certain it would have. That would have changed things dramatically...there would’ve been a team in L.A. fifteen years before the Dodgers moved there, and the Giants moved to San Fran. That would’ve really changed the face of baseball had that happened.”

Learn more about the book here. I’d recommend grabbing a copy. The stories were entertaining and insightful, and I learned a ton.