We’re counting down the biggest plays in Kansas City sports history: Today, Nos. 6-10
This week, The Kansas City Star is counting down the 25 biggest sports plays involving our professional, college and high school teams or individuals.
We’re unveiling five a day. These aren’t the best single-game performances or milestones — these are singular moments, the kind where you readily recall where you were and who you were with when you watched them.
Here are plays No. 6-10.
10. Great Dane, Royal win and a bloody nose
Just imagine if the launch angle on Dane Iorg’s two run-single in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 6 of the 1985 World Series had been a few degrees higher or lower. A bit higher and Iorg likely would have hit a pop-up on the infield, keeping the bases loaded. A little lower and the Cardinals may have been able to turn a series-ending double play.
Heck, even if Iorg had hit a clean single, Jim Sundberg either would have been held at third base or thrown out, because Cardinals right fielder Andy Van Slyke’s throw was just a hair late.
With one perfectly imperfect swing of the bat, Iorg knocked in two runs, ended the game, forced a Game 7 thanks to the Royals’ 2-1 win over St. Louis and assured that Don Denkinger’s name would be etched in the minds of Cardinals fans for 35 years and counting.
As the Los Angeles Times noted, Iorg also ended up with a bloody nose thanks to pitcher Mike Jones, who was part of the group of Royals players who stormed the field.
“He hit a bleeder, and he’s bleeding,” Jones told the Times in 1985, “but that was the most beautiful bleeder I’ve ever seen.”
It may have been the most significant bloop hit in Major League Baseball history. Was fortune smiling on Iorg and the Royals?
“If you ever had to hit a single, it was perfect,” Iorg told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch this week. “If I had hit a line drive, Andy Van Slyke, with that good arm, throws out Sundberg by 10 feet at the plate. I was a lucky hitter. Always have been.”
9. In biggest football Border War, Mizzou sacks KU
Second-ranked Kansas met third-ranked Missouri in a college football regular-season finale for the ages. The winner would become the nation’s top-ranked team. ESPN’s GameDay set a ratings record. The game was played at Arrowhead Stadium in front of 80,537 fans — the second-largest crowd for a football game ever at Arrowhead.
Was this a dream?
No, but it was a moment in time that wound up favoring Missouri. Tigers quarterback Chase Daniel tossed three touchdown passes as Mizzou opened a 21-point lead. But Todd Reesing and the Jayhawks closed it to 34-28 and had the ball at their own 11 with 17 seconds remaining. A long way to go, not much time, but Kansas had a chance ...
Until the Missouri defense swarmed Reesing in the end zone for a game-clinching safety. Reesing coming to his feet with clumps of Arrowhead turf stuck in his helmet became Mizzou’s snapshot moment.
A year later, Reesing got some measure of revenge with a game-winning TD pass with 27 seconds remaining to beat the Tigers. But in 2007, the rankings and stakes were much higher. To this day, in fact, there’s never been a higher-profile college football moment in the region.
“I’ve coached in three Rose Bowls, Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowls, Citrus Bowls and everything else. I’ve been to a lot of games, and I don’t know of a bigger game-day environment than this game,” Missouri coach Gary Pinkel told The Star in 2017.
8. The most famous chip shot in golf history
To be honest, you don’t see a whole lot of running during the final round of a golf major.
But at the 1982 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, Kansas City’s Tom Watson went for a short jog at the 17th hole after sinking arguably the most famous shot in golf history. Watson reached that hole tied for the lead with Jack Nicklaus, who was already in the clubhouse.
Watson’s drive went past the green and into the rough. His shot at birdie (and the lead) on the par-3 hole seemed unlikely. Watson, however, had no doubt he could do the impossible, and he told caddie Bruce Edwards as much.
“Typical Pebble Beach back in those days: If you missed the green and not in the bunker, you’d be hitting in the down-slope. I practiced the shot. I picked the sand wedge out of the bag,” Watson told the USGA a year ago. “Bruce said to me, ‘Get it close.’ I said, ‘Get it close? Hell, I’m going to hole it.’ I took dead aim.”
Watson also birdied the 18th and won his first U.S. Open.
“Why, you S.O.B.,” Nicklaus told Watson on the green to congratulate him, per the Monterey County Herald. “You’re something else. I’m really proud of you.”
7. Blazing Cain runs Royals to World Series
For 45 minutes, fans at Kauffman Stadium had to wait out a rain delay and wonder if they’d missed seeing the Royals win a second straight American League pennant.
Toronto’s Jose Bautista had hit a two-run home run in the top of the eighth to tie the game. Then came the rains and the anxiety.
When play resumed, Lorenzo Cain drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch from Blue Jays reliever Roberto Osuna. Eric Hosmer laced a pitch down the right-field line. Bautista raced to keep the ball from reaching the wall and threw to second base, holding Hosmer to a single.
But Cain simply never stopped running. Third-base coach Mike Jirschele waved him home. The relay to the plate was late and Kauffman roared as loudly as it was at any point during KC’s two-year playoff run.
“This place,” Royals announcer Denny Matthews said in his call of the moment, “is vibrating.”
6. George Brett helps exorcise playoff demons
With one swing of the bat, George Brett erased years of angst for the Royals — and their fans.
After losing to the Yankees in the ALCS in 1976, 1977 and 1978, the Royals again faced New York in 1980. After winning the first two games in Kansas City, the Royals trailed 2-1 in the seventh of Game 3 at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees brought in Goose Gossage to shut the door. After two quick outs, Willie Wilson doubled and U.L. Washington singled, putting runners on the corners. Brett stepped up and crushed the first pitch he saw into the third deck.
Brett took his time rounding the bases, savoring what he was hearing.
“It was probably the longest home run I ever hit,” Brett told The Star in 1993. “But what I remember the most is how quiet the stadium got.”
The Yankees loaded the bases in the eighth inning, but Rick Cerone lined into a double play, muting the rally, and the Royals were off to their first World Series after coming achingly close so many times.
“The people in Kansas City are going to feel that we won the World Series,” Brett told Sports Illustrated. “For us to beat New York is the ultimate for them.”
This story was originally published May 28, 2020 at 9:01 AM.