The two things arguably most synonymous with October are the MLB postseason and Halloween, in that order — for our purposes at least. And there have been quite a few instances where these beloved fall staples align.
In the spirit of spooky season, we’ve put together the best World Series moments from Halloweens past as we wait to see what the Blue Jays and Dodgers have in store for us in Game 6 on Friday night.
There are a couple of honorable mentions that were certainly baseball related but didn’t occur in the Fall Classic. In 2019, the day after the Nationals claimed their first World Series championship, Juan Soto again delivered in the clutch, saving Halloween for the players and their families.
And then there was the Great Ape Escape. As legend has it, when then-Boston general manager Theo Epstein stunned Red Sox Nation on Halloween night by (temporarily) departing his post in 2005, he left a party at Fenway Park in a gorilla costume to avoid reporters mingling outside. That was certainly an all-time Halloween trick, but the Cubs enjoyed a treat six years later, as Epstein signed on to help them end their curse in the 2016 Fall Classic (Halloween was an off-day between Games 5 and 6 that year).
They just … keep … coming
The 2015 Royals gave their opponents fits because you just couldn’t keep them down. They gave the fans at Citi Field nightmares on Halloween, rallying yet again with three runs in the top of the eighth — after a crucial error by second baseman Daniel Murphy — to stun the Mets in Game 4. The Amazin’s never recovered, and dropped Game 5 the next day as Kansas City claimed its second World Series championship.
Madison Bumgarner is a bona fide postseason legend, and the genesis was the 2010 World Series. The then-21-year-old Giants rookie had struggled in his two prior postseason starts that year, but manager Bruce Bochy still gave him the ball for Game 4 of the Fall Classic — and a fire-breathing monster was born. Bumgarner dominated the Rangers over eight scoreless innings to claim the victory, and San Francisco won again the next day to claim its first of three titles in six years.
Plenty of people dressed as Alex Rodriguez in New York City on Halloween in 2009, pulling double duty in honor of both the spooky holiday and Game 3 of the World Series against the Phillies. A-Rod was appropriately very much in the middle of the action, smacking the first-ever postseason homer to be awarded after a review. The two-run shot off Cole Hamels sparked a Bombers comeback that gave them the Series edge in a Fall Classic they eventually won in six games.
Despite what most seasonal imagery would tell you, a full moon on Oct. 31 is very rare. It most recently happened in 2020; before that, you had to go all the way back to 2001, when the Yankees and D-backs played Game 4 of their epic World Series. After Tino Martinezâ€s clutch homer sent it to extras, Derek Jeter strode to the plate literally at the stroke of midnight, signifying the first time baseball had ever been played in November. The rest … is Samhain history.
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