Many of you are probably aware of the fact that the Hanshin Tigers have a long history of scandal and notoriety. During the weeks before the upcoming season, we will look at ten of the most interesting ones. We continue here with a call reversal by the umpires that essentially kept the team mired in its Dark Ages period for an extra decade.
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In case you were unsure of how lousy the Hanshin Tigers at the end of the 20th century, the standings make it clear: between 1987 and 2001, they only finished above 5th place once. That one year, in fact, the team somehow found itself in the pennant race quite late into the season.
In fact, on September 11, 1992, they were just a game behind the Yakult Swallows and had a chance to move into a first-place tie at Koshien Stadium that night. And with the score 3-3 in the bottom of the ninth, two outs and a runner on first, the Tigers brought pinch hitter extraordinaire Hiroshi Yagi up to the dish.
Yagi took a full count slider deep to left, and the second base umpire signaled home run. Game over. Bring out the hero’s podium for a jubilant post-game interview.
But wait. The Swallows center fielder and left fielder claimed that the ball hit the top of the fence and bounced into the stands. Swallows manager Katsuya Nomura also protested the home run call. In the end, the decision was overturned. Now it was Hanshin manager Katsuhiro Nakamura’s turn to argue. More than half an hour later, play resumed. The phantom home run turned ground-rule double resulted in runners on second and third with two outs.
The Tigers did not push the winning run across the plate that inning, or in extras. The tie game meant the one-game difference in the standings remained unchanged. Though they won their next five games, they sputtered to the finish line after that, finishing the season with a 4-11 stretch.
They would finish tied for second
Just a side note. When Yagi hit that ball, there were two outs and it was a full count. The runner on first (Jim Paciorek) was off and running before the pitch was thrown. Had the ball somehow remained in play instead of bouncing over the fence, he would have quite easily scored the walk-off run. The ground-rule double makes no concessions for cases like this, meaning he was stranded on third. It was the bad bounce, and not the umpires, that cost the team the game.