As with most classics, fans will agree which games should appear on a top-ten list, though not necessarily the order. If you're truly a passionate fan of our national pastime, then you know these games as well as you know your phone number. But while these are inarguably great games, replayed on TV over and over, which one sits atop? Here are the 10 best baseball games ever played.
10. Seattle Mariners vs. New York Yankees
October 8, 1995
ALDS, Game 5
With the series tied, 2-2, the Yanks and Mariners fittingly took the deciding Game 5 into extra innings. The Yankees darted ahead, 5-4, in the top of the 11th inning. This was their return to glory, not having been in the playoffs since 1981, and they had run away with the AL East in 1994 when MLB, for the first and last time, cancelled a baseball season. It was also the first playoff action for beloved first baseman Don "Donnie Baseball" Mattingly, who languished on loads of mediocre teams over the prior 12 years. But the Mariners burst the dream bubble, when hit machine Edgar Martinez smacked a double off of Yankees pitcher Jack McDowell. Ken Griffey Jr.'s famous slide plated the winning run and ended the Yankees' dream of getting Mattingly to a World Series. The Yanks made a few changes that offseason. Donnie Baseball retired, Joe Torre was hired as manager, Tino Martinez was acquired from Seattle, and some kids named Pettitte, Rivera, and Jeter were added to the club. You know the rest.
9. New York Giants vs. Brooklyn Dodgers
October 3, 1951
Best-of-three playoff for NL Pennant
We're sure you've heard about the "Shot Heard 'Round the World." That piece of baseball terminology was spawned in uptown Manhattan, in the Polo Grounds, back when the Giants and Dodgers played in the Big Apple. The two NYC teams were part of a scalding hot rivalry that fanned across the five boroughs and beyond, and it hit its highest point on October 3, 1951. Each team finished the season with a 96-58 record, and because there were no divisions, the Dodgers and Giants played a best-of-three series for the NL pennant. Each team won a game, leading to the winner-take-all Game 3, which the Dodgers led 4-1 entering the ninth inning. The Giants scored a run, and Brooklyn pulled ace Don Newcombe from the game, and replaced him with Ralph Branca. With the score 4-2 and two men on base, Branca faced pinch-hitter Bobby Thomson, who jumped on Branca's second pitch and mashed it over the left field wall, leading to the timeless radio call, "The Giants win the Pennant! The Giants win the Pennant! The Giants win the Pennant!" To show you how different the world was back then, the soft-spoken Thomson was offered $500 to appear on the Perry Como show that night. Thomson passed, as if watching a wayward pitch sail by. He said he wanted to be with his family on this special day. Then, the offer was doubled, and Thomson said the family would happily wait a few hours.
8. Toronto Blue Jays vs. Philadelphia Phillies
October 23, 1993
World Series, Game 6
A crazy series between the buttoned-down Blue Jays and the chaotic Phillies, loaded with characters from Lenny "Nails" Dykstra to Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams, ended in epic fashion. With the Blue Jays up in the series, 3-2, the Phillies took the lead in Game 6 with five runs in the seventh inning to go up, 6-5. They protected the lead going into the bottom of the ninth. Enter Joe Carter, who stepped up to bat against Williams with two men on base. Carter smashed a fastball over the fence for the first walk-off homer in a World Series since Bill Mazeroski's homer in Game 7 of the 1960 Fall Classic defeated the mighty Yankees. Carter jogged and jumped for joy as he rounded the bases to celebrate Toronto's second straight world title.
7. Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Oakland Athletics
October 15, 1988
World Series, Game 1
There were two baseball dragons in 1988 - the Mets and A's - and the Dodgers somehow slayed both of them. The 94-67 Dodgers lost 10 of 11 games to the Mets (100-60) during the regular season, yet they managed to slip past them in the NLCS in seven games. Then the 104-58 A's rumbled into the World Series as a heavy favorite, ready to stomp all over the inferior Dodgers. The Dodgers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning, only to see Jose Canseco blast a grand slam in the second. The game remained 4-2 A's entering the bottom of the ninth. Oakland's closer nonpareil, Dennis Eckersley, entered the game to seal the win. He walked a batter. And then, as if a wounded western hero staggering back into town, Kirk Gibson limped toward home plate to thunderous applause from the fans at Dodger Stadium. Gibson could barely walk, yet he took Eckersley's first pitch and planted it into the right field seats for a game-winning homer. Gibson excitedly limped around the bases, pumping his right fist in pure glee. The hit not only won the game, it gave them epic momentum and took all the air out of the A's, who must have felt like they were playing against ghosts. The Dodgers stormed on to win the World Series in five games.
6. Minnesota Twins vs. Atlanta Braves
October 27, 1991
World Series, Game 7
Jack Morris tossed perhaps the most clutch and dominant start since Don Larsen's perfect game in 1956. Morris pitched all ten innings, allowing seven hits while firing eight strikeouts in a classic duel with a youngster and future Hall of Famer named John Smoltz. Kirby Puckett tied the series, 3-3, by clubbing a walk-off home run in the 11th inning of Game 6 to force Game 7. Then, Morris followed that up with a gem in a Game 7 that featured one run scored by both teams in 69 total at-bats. For its pure tension, some folks call this the greatest World Series ever.
5. New York Mets vs. Houston Astros
October 15, 1986
NLCS, Game 6
Despite their astounding 108-54 record, which won the NL East by 21 1/2 games, the Mets found themselves embroiled in playoff nail biters every step of the way. This one, against the Houston Astros at the old Astrodome, spilled into extra innings. The Mets were up, 3-2, in the series, but this was practically the same as Game 7 for the Mets, who did not want to lose and then face the unhittable Mike Scott on the road in Game 7. Houston jumped out to a 3-0 lead, which lasted eight innings. The desperate Mets plated three runs in the ninth. Then they score the go-ahead run in the 14th, only to watch the Astros tie it, 4-4. Then the Mets scored three runs in the 16th. Houston scored two runs and came within a nose hair of tying the game and series. The Mets closed out the Astros and advanced to face Boston in Fall Classic.
4. New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox
October 6, 2003
ALCS, Game 7
One pitch. One swing. And the birth of Aaron "bleeping" Boone. Tied 6-6 in the bottom of the 11th, Aaron Boone strode toward home plate. Willie Randolph had just told Boone that he was about to hit a home run. Tim Wakefield's first, fluttering knuckleball met Boone's bat. Then the crack, the arc, and the subsequent reaction were all part of the chaos as Boone punched the Yankees' ticket to the World Series. It was the end of a marathon series, a grueling game that had come to define the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry over the last century. Perhaps no player captured the moment better than Mariano Rivera. The iconic Yankees closer ran out to the diamond during the jubilance and collapsed on the mound. Fellow Yankees tried to lift him from the ground, yet his limp body kept collapsing from relief, exhaustion, and exhilaration.
3. Boston Red Sox vs. Cincinnati Reds
October 21, 1975
World Series, Game 6
This contest was responsible for perhaps the most celebrated swing and reaction of all time. With the game tied, 6-6, in the 12th inning and the Reds leading in the series, 3-2, Carlton Fisk strolled to home plate. His uppercut swing launched a pitch high and deep, with fans shooting up out of their seats to follow its path. Fisk famously hopped up and down the first base line, waving his hands like an air-traffic controller, as if commanding the ball to fly out of Fenway Park. The ball did indeed sail over the Green Monster, and into the electric Boston night. The Red Sox beat the Big Red Machine to force Game 7, which they lost. But few, if any, events are more heralded than the Fisk homer at Fenway Park.
2. St. Louis Cardinals vs. Texas Rangers
October 27, 2011
World Series, Game 6
If you're in St. Louis, all you have to do is say Game 6 and it immediately sends chills through any die-hard Cardinals fan. It's the night that the home-town kid, David Freese, became a legend and hero. First, he was up to bat in the bottom of the ninth with St. Louis down by two runs, there were two runners on, two out and down to his final strike. He smacked a triple over the head of a flailing Nelson Cruz in right field to tie the game. Then two innings later he won the game with a solo home run to send us to Game 7, which St. Louis also won for the franchise's 11th and most-recent World Series championship. The game had 11 different lead changes or ties through 11 innings of heart-pounding playoff baseball.
1. New York Mets vs. Boston Red Sox
October 25, 1986
World Series, Game 6
The Mets were down two runs, with two outs, in the bottom of the 10th. The champagne and World Series Trophy were already planted in the Red Sox clubhouse. Even an accidental flash on the Shea Stadium scoreboard showed the words, "Congratulations Boston Red Sox, 1986 World Champions." Then, there was a base hit. Then another one. Then another. Mookie Wilson came to the plate with the lead shaved to 5-4, and two outs in the 10th. With two balls and two strikes, Wilson watched a wild pitch fly by that rolled to the backstop, bringing Kevin Mitchell home from third base, and the score was suddenly tied at five, with a full count on Wilson in the 10th. He hit a dribbler to first base, and you know the rest. Bill Buckner lumbered forward, the ball squirted through his legs, and Mookie made it to first as Ray Knight ran frantically toward home plate from second base to score the winning run. Boston went from the intoxicating high of World Series victory to the most ignominious defeat in the history of baseball. The Mets won Game 7 in Queens and became kings of the sport.
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