Let's Give Holliday a Break, for Once

Contrary to popular belief, Ralph Branca didn't throw away a pennant with his pitch that became Bobby Thomson's shot heard around the world. All of the Brooklyn Dodgers kept themselves out of the World Series back then. They choked away a huge lead in September to force that playoff against the New York Giants.

Remember Bill Buckner's gaffe?

Overrated.

That was in Game 6. The Boston Red Sox still had a chance to win the world championship in Game 7, but they didn't.

On and on we can go, with a slew of examples -- even from other sports involving HUGE blunders that actually were just huge, which is to say folks should lay off Matt Holliday just a little. They won't, though. St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa had it exactly right when he said of Holliday's drop fly ball during the National League Division Series that supposedly triggered the Los Angeles Dodgers sweeping the Cardinals into the offseason: "Ain't no free lunch. Matt's going to take some hits for this."

He will, and he should. Then again, he shouldn't.

Yes, Holliday's drop occurred in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 2 in Los Angeles . Yes, there were two outs. And, yes, his catch of that routine line drive would have ended the game and tied the best-of-five series at 1-1. But consider this: Holliday wasn't on the mound for the Cardinals in the aftermath when the Dodgers tied the game and then won it. The Cardinals also were still alive in the series when they returned home for Game 3, but they lost 5-1.

And, please. When it comes to other infamous moments throughout sports history, no more talk about The Jackie Smith Drop. For one, it occurred in the third quarter of Super Bowl XIII. The Dallas Cowboys would have tied the game at the time with Smith's catch in the end zone, but it wouldn't have mattered. With Terry Bradshaw outplaying Roger Staubach, the Pittsburgh Steelers simply were better than the error-prone Cowboys along the way to a 35-31 victory.

Here's one more thing to ponder: When Georgetown's Fred Brown threw to the wrong man down the stretch of that 1982 NCAA basketball championship game in New Orleans, something rarely gets mentioned. Michael Jordan and his North Carolina Tar Heels were LEADING by a point at the time.

Who is to say Brown was dribbling Georgetown toward a game-winning shot? Maybe the Hoyas shoot and miss. Maybe there is a hurricane that rocks the Superdome and requires the game to be rescheduled and North Carolina sprints to a rout.

Maybe everybody should just chill in these situations. The sporting world loves anointing a singular scapegoat, especially when it has a chance to do so after the spotlight shines brightly on an inexplicable mishap.

So Holliday has become the Cardinals' Buckner, who was the Boston Red Sox's Leon Durham, who was the Chicago Cubs' Fred Merkle.


Fred Merkle? Well, let's start with Leon Durham, who foreshadowed things to come for Buckner during the 1984 National League Championships Series. What many remember is that Durham allowed a crucial ground ball to roll between his legs in the fifth and decisive game. What they often forget is that it was only the seventh inning, and the error just allowed the San Diego Padres to tie the game.

The other Cubs helped Durham blow it from there.

As for Merkle, it all goes back to September 1908 at the Polo Grounds, where he took off from first base for the hometown New York Giants on what should have been a game-winning hit against the Cubs. He didn't touch second base. He eventually was called out on a force out to negate the run. Since the crowd thought the game was over and poured onto the field to head for the center-field exits, the umpires ruled that what still was a tie game had to be replayed at a later date.

It just so happened that the Giants and the Cubs finished tied in the standings. As a result, the replayed game was a playoff game, and the Giants lost. It sent the 19-year-old Merkle into a funk for the rest of his life.

That's why it's all up to Holliday these days. When you blow it for eternity in the often wrongheaded minds of others, you have two choices, and neither is good. You can live with it, or you can do the lesser of those choices by dying with it. To hear some tell it through the years, Donnie Moore literally spent his pitching performance in the 1986 American League Championship Series dying courtesy of the memory.

Moore found himself standing one strike away in Game 5 back then from sending his California Angels to the World Series in the top of the ninth. Instead, he gave up a two-run homer to the Boston's Dave Henderson. Then after the Angeles tied the game in the bottom of the ninth, Moore relinquished what would be a game-winning sacrifice fly to Henderson in extra innings.

Never mind the Angels still had a 3-2 lead in the series. The fans, the media and the demons inside of Moore blamed Moore.

Three years later, after Moore wounded his wife with gunshots in front of their children, he pointed the gun at himself and committed suicide. This wasn't all the result of his Game 5 meltdown, but it didn't help.

The point is, Holliday needs to forget about it.

Even though folks won't let him.

Terence Moore is a national columnist and commentator for FanHouse. He is a frequent panelist on "Rome Is Burning," an ESPN show hosted by Jim Rome, that is seen Monday through Friday at 4:30 PM ET. Moore spent more than three decades working for major newspapers, including 26 years as an award-winning sports columnist for the San Francisco Examiner and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He resides in Atlanta.