The World Series spotlight is not selective.  It doesn't really care who it shines on, and any player who takes the field during World Series play has a chance to step into the glare.

 

A timely hit from a relative unknown can create instant celebrity and forge a legacy where none had existed just seconds before.  A superstar simply acting the part can solidify his iconic status in the game.  Conversely, a single misstep at the wrong time can plunge an otherwise credible career into infamy.

 

Although it is baseball's biggest stage, consider the World Series something akin to a wheel of fortune.  Good and bad, famous and obscure, it can make heroes and goats in the blink of eye with a sometimes unnerving sense of randomness.  Though, that dizzying game of chance is simply a condition of baseball itself.  The World Series is just a finely condensed version of that - with millions of fans with relentless memories taking note of every moment of it.

 

And those memories linger.

 

Whether it is Carlton Fisk frantically waving his extra-inning homer fair or Bob Gibson practically charging at Detroit hitters with his follow-through on the way to a Series-record 17 strikeouts, those moments resonate in the public consciousness.  While Fisk and Gibson were great players having great moments that were amplified by the October spotlight, other more ordinary players have felt that very amplifying effect, all the same.

 

 

 

Brooklyn Dodger OF Al Gionfriddo's MLB career was stunningly bereft of achievement, except one.  In the final game of his otherwise unremarkable career, he made the catch of his life.  In Game 6 of the 1947 World Series between Brooklyn and the Yankees, Giofriddo make a spectacular lunging grab in the left field corner to rob Joe DiMaggio of a homer and preserved the Dodgers' 8-6 victory.  

 

 

  

In 1969, Al Weis hit .215 with 2 home runs for the New York Mets.  However, in the Mets' miraculous run to a World Series title, it was the uber-light hitting Weis who helped to cement New York's Series-clinching win in Game 5 with a stunning 7th inning homer.  For the Series, the otherwise invisible utility infielder hit .455. 

 

 

So, even the most unlikely can have that one extraordinary moment in the sun.

 

However, the memories of Bill Buckner and Mookie Wilson's uneven grounder also occupy the same space.  A moment of error can lead to years of torment.  Mitch Williams, Fred Snodgrass, and Lonnie Smith certainly knew the feeling.  

 

 

  

Williams watched Joe Carter dance around the bases after hitting a Series-ending homer off of him in 1993, Snodgrass dropped a fly ball in the 10th inning that cost the New York Giants the 1912 Series, and Smith's baserunning gaffe in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series prolonged a scoreless tie that ultimately ended in an Atlanta loss.   

 

 

  

The agony of defeat, indeed.

 

So, as images of Bill Mazeroski stunning the Yankees in 1960, Roberto Clemente's relentless fury in 1971, and Willie Mays pulling off the greatest optical illusion in baseball history in 1954 undoubtedly dance across the television screen in leading up to tonight's opening salvo of the 2007 World Series, there will be heroes and goats sitting in both dugouts.  

 

 

  

The wheel of fortune that is the World Series just hasn't passed out those assignments, yet.

 

Sources:

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/ws/yr1968ws.shtml

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/ws/yr1947ws.shtml

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/ws/yr1969ws.shtml

http://www.baseball-reference.com/w/weisal01.shtml

http://www.baseballlibrary.com/ballplayers/player.php?name=Fred_Snodgrass_1887