Baseball · 1988 · Los Angeles, USA
Gibson's Impossible Home Run
Too injured in both legs to start Game 1 of the World Series, Kirk Gibson limps to the plate for a single pinch-hit at-bat and hits one of the most replayed home runs in baseball history.
Dodgers 5-4 Athletics
Result
1
Gibson's plate appearances, series
Dennis Eckersley
Pitcher
Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Kirk Gibson, the National League MVP that season, was so hobbled by injuries to both legs that he was not even in the starting lineup for Game 1 of the 1988 World Series against the Oakland Athletics. Trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and a runner on, and facing the Athletics' dominant closer Dennis Eckersley, Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda sent Gibson up to pinch hit as effectively his only option.
Visibly struggling to run, Gibson worked the count full, fouling off several pitches while barely able to push off his back leg, before driving a backdoor slider over the right-field wall for a two-run, walk-off home run. He hobbled around the bases pumping his fist, an image that became one of the most replayed in World Series history, while broadcaster Jack Buck told viewers, 'I don't believe what I just saw.'
It was Gibson's only plate appearance of the entire series, since his legs never recovered enough to play again, but Los Angeles won it in five games regardless. The home run is routinely ranked among the greatest moments in World Series history for the improbability of a nearly immobile hitter delivering it at all.
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