Today's Top 10: Byung-Hyun Kim Edition

Today's Top 10 wishes a happy 30th birthday to the one-time D'backs closer, probably best known for the dramatic home runs he surrendered in Games 4 and 5 of the 2001 World Series. Fortunately for him, Luis Gonzalez Game 7 blooper kept him from becoming a scapegoat.

So, in honor of BHK, we rank the top 10 greatest postseason home runs.

Don't worry Byung, neither Tino Martinez nor Scott Brosius are in this lineup.

1. Bill Mazeroski, Game 7 1960 World Series
2. Bobby Thomson, Game 3 1951 NL Pennant Playoff
3. Kirk Gibson, Game 1 1988 World Series
4. Joe Carter, Game 6 1993 World Series
5. Dave Henderson, Game 5 1986 ALCS
6. Carlton Fisk, Game 6 1975 World Series
7. Kirby Puckett, Game 6 1991 World Series
8. Ozzie Smith, Game 5 1985 NLCS
9. Aaron Boone, Game 7 2003 ALCS
10. David Ortiz, Game 4 2004 ALCS

Apologies to: Babe Ruth (Game 3 1932 World Series), Chris Chambliss (Game 5 1976 ALCS) and Chris Burke (Game 4 2005 NLDS)

 

I'm slightly biased, but I think Brosius' homer belongs. Mainly because it was so insane for it to happen in consecutive games.

 

You need Leyritz game 4 '96 world series

I guess Bucky Dent HR would not be considered in post season

 

At least one of them does. What they meant for the city, etc., even if they did lose the series. And because, IIRC, only once in WS history had a team come from two down in the last of the ninth to win, and the Yankees did it twice in two nights.

 

And I'd flop Puck and Pudge ahead of Hendu, because World Series elimination games trump ALCS elimination game.

But not a bad list, at all.

 

I'm going to take it as a personal challenge to pick seven more pre-1978 home runs (the year I started following baseball), not only to flesh out the list and give it more historical perspective, but to beat Buckweaver to the punch.

I know Eddie Mathews had a walk-off in the '57 World Series, so there's one.

 

Well, Bobby Thomson's is on there. Though that one is a bit bigger of a deal than Bucky Dent's.

 

You have a point with Dent, especially since I put Thompson's shot in there. My bad.

 

That's the rub, though. When the playoffs expanded so did the opportunities for significant home runs.

Here's a list of postseason walk offs. The first was in 1949.

Not that walk offs are the only significant homers, but it's a starting point.

 

Pretty good list, FH. I can't argue with any of the first seven, although I'm struggling with whether to put Puckett over Pudge, because Puckett's team did win the Series in Game 7, unlike Fisk's. I agree with Zeke that both of those should be ahead of Henderson's.

Leyritz probably should be included over Ortiz, IMO. It doesn't look quite as great all these years later, when we see how much of a dynasty the Yankees would build in the late 1990s, but Leyritz's home run really changed the entire course of the decade, I think. Had the Braves won that game and gone up 3-1, they likely would have won a second consecutive championship, and we might be looking at them like a Big Red Machine dynasty rather than a near-Buffalo Bills run. The Braves had dominated the last three games of the NLCS against St. Louis and the first two games against the Yankees. They looked unstoppable. Then Leyritz changed all that.

As far as pre-ESPN homers, I vote for Dusty Rhodes' pinch-hit walkoff HR in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series. Talk about a mismatch -- Cleveland's 111 wins stood as an AL record for 44 years. And lil' ol' Dusty beat the Tribe singlehandedly in the first two games. Just as much of a momentum-changer as Kirk Gibson, three decades later.

 

I put Henderson's over Puckett and Pudge because Boston's season could have ended in that at bat. There's also the Donnie Moore factor, tragic as it is, too.

 

Oh, and another good entry from the way-back machine:

Frank Baker became a household name with his ninth-inning, game-tying home run off the great Christy Mathewson in Game 3 of the 1911 World Series. It was his second consecutive day with a home run, and Baker scored the eventual winning run in the 11th inning as the A's beat the Giants.