Frazier’s Gil Hodges Moment

Part of Mets lore is Game 5 of the 1969 World Series when Gil Hodges brought a ball from the dugout to show that a Dave McNally pitch had actually hit Cleon Jones on the foot.

The very next batter, Don Clendenon, would take McNally deep to cut the Orioles lead to 3-2 en route to the Mets winning that game 5-3 securing the first World Series In Mets history.

The funny thing is the shoe polish wasn’t Jones’. Rather, it belonged to Jerry Koosman, who was instructed by Hodges to swipe the ball on his cleat so he could present it to the umpires.

To this day, we never quite found out if the ball really hit Jones’ foot. What we do know is that proved to be a pivotal moment in a shocking upset.

While it certainly was not of the same magnitude or lasting impact, we can now say Todd Frazier is up to the same level of trickanery as Hodges.

While everyone initially believed this to be a play reminiscent of the one Derek Jeter made against the Red Sox (which is absurd as Jeter caught that ball in fair territory and continued to run into the stands), it was much more like Hodges and Koosman.

As Frazier explained, he didn’t make, or rather, complete the catch. Instead, as luck would have it, there was a rubber ball laying on the ground. Frazier picked up the ball, showed it to the umpire who then ruled Alex Verdugo out, and he tossed the ball back into the stands.

Eventually, the Mets would tie the game and win it with a Brandon Nimmo pinch hit three run homer. The homer came too late to give Jacob deGrom the win.

However, in a season where deGrom has received criminally low run support, at least players like Frazier are looking for any which way to help deGrom win the Cy Young.

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