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<\/p>\nRay Knight scored one of the most famous runs in baseball history, jumping onto home plate and into a sea of gleeful Mets teammates to end Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. It was a wild outpouring of joy from a team that played hard and celebrated harder.<\/p>\n
But if that same play happened today, the scene would look much different. The Mets would have streamed out of their dugout and, instead of turning left toward home plate, almost certainly sprinted to their right to chase Mookie Wilson, the batter who put the ball in play, slapping his helmet and hugging him tight.<\/p>\n
At some point the philosophy of celebrations shifted entirely, with the player who was at bat being the ultimate hero, even if the winning run scored on a fielding error. The one who touches home plate, no matter how dramatic his route to get there, is just the last click of the machine.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt definitely has changed,\u201d said Ron Darling, a pitcher for the 1986 Mets who is now a broadcaster. \u201cBack then, you wanted to greet the player scoring the winning run. Now you want to reward the guy that does whatever. It\u2019s a 100 percent change.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the playoffs set to begin next month, and the regular season synthesizing into its pennant stretches, the trend will be more evident as walk-off celebrations become more jubilant and expressive.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s an electric feeling when it happens,\u201d said CJ Abrams, the Washington Nationals\u2019 shortstop, whose single on July 26 knocked in Dominic Smith for a walk-off win against the Colorado Rockies, igniting a celebration around Abrams. \u201cYou celebrate with the guy who puts the exclamation point on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
But for years, home plate was a focal point of celebrations for walk-off wins on base hits, bases-loaded walks, sacrifice flies, balks and errors (home runs are a different matter, of course). Back then, teammates piled on the person whose physical action of touching home plate won the game \u2014 like a running back scoring a touchdown in overtime or a hockey player sliding the game-winning goal past the goalie.<\/p>\n
Sid Bream ended the 1992 National League Championship Series by sliding home on a single by the little-known reserve Francisco Cabrera and was smothered under a pile of his Atlanta teammates. The same went for Ken Griffey Jr. when the Mariners beat the Yankees in the decisive Game 5 of their 1995 American League divisional playoff.<\/p>\n
Some Mariners players ran to Edgar Martinez, who had the game-winning hit for Seattle in the 11th inning. But Griffey was nearly lost under a massive mound of teammates, which probably would not happen today. In 2004, Johnny Damon scored the winning run in Game 5 of the A.L.C.S. against the Yankees. Half the Red Sox players went to Damon at home plate and half went to celebrate with David Ortiz, whose bloop single enabled Damon to score.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s baseball teams credit the last person at bat on a winning play \u2014 almost regardless of what they did \u2014 so much so that they often ignore players whose hustle and instincts on the basepaths were sometimes more consequential.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we all understand how hard it is to get a hit with runners in scoring position in a situation like that,\u201d said Jose Altuve, the Houston Astros\u2019 second baseman, who has been involved in numerous postseason walk-offs. \u201cAny way you get the job done \u2014 with a walk, a hit-by-pitch or a home run \u2014 you did it, and that\u2019s what we celebrate.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an era when analytically driven front offices de-emphasize R.B.I. as a pure statistic, the players still believe in their value. Often, players scoring winning runs \u2014 like Dansby Swanson in Game 2 of the 2021 N.L.C.S. with Atlanta \u2014 touch the plate and immediately look for the teammate who knocked them in.<\/p>\n
Smith, who scored on Abrams\u2019s game-winning single earlier this summer, said there was more value in what Abrams had done because he got the hit and<\/em> the R.B.I.<\/p>\n \u201cI only got the run,\u201d Smith said. \u201cHe had more of a winning play, and that\u2019s why the guys celebrate with him.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the most striking examples happened at the end of Game 4 of the 2020 World Series. Randy Arozarena scored the winning run in the ninth inning after one of the wildest circuits around the bases to end a World Series game. He sprinted from first on a single by Brett Phillips (the ball was booted in the outfield). Arozarena fell down after rounding third base, scrambled to his feet and slid home safely, only because of an error by the Dodgers\u2019 catcher. His play was opportunistic, dramatic and thrilling, and it ignited a raucous celebration. Just not with Arozarena.<\/p>\n As Arozarena lay on his belly, repeatedly tapping home plate with both hands and wearing a smile of delighted surprise on his face, he was completely ignored in the postgame euphoria. Willy Adames, the first teammate on the scene, literally jumped over Arozarena and ran to the outfield to celebrate with Phillips. Brandon Lowe made an almost instinctive, micro-gesture toward Arozarena before running to the outfield, too, as did every other Rays player in the dugout.<\/p>\n \u201cSeeing Randy trip, your heart stopped,\u201d Lowe explained. \u201cBut once he scored, we were like, \u2018We got to go get Philly.\u2019 I think I gave up halfway trying to catch him.\u201d<\/p>\n Lowe and his fellow Rays chased Phillips across the outfield as the hero evaded them at top speed, his arms carving through the air like airplane wings. That explains part of why the modern celebration focuses on the last player at bat: It is fun to chase teammates around the field.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you run to home plate it\u2019s not as dynamic as chasing the guy all over the outfield,\u201d Darling said. \u201cIt\u2019s more fun, it\u2019s like you are 10 years old again.\u201d<\/p>\n Jeff Nelson, the former Yankees pitcher who is now a broadcaster, wondered if the stature of the players used to be a factor for home plate celebrations of old. Nelson was in the Mariners bullpen on Oct. 8, 1995, when Griffey, perhaps the most popular and talented player in baseball at the time, scored to beat the Yankees.<\/p>\n \u201cI went straight to home plate to jump on the pile,\u201d Nelson recalled. \u201cMaybe it was because it was Ken Griffey Jr. and all he meant to the team and the city. Maybe if it was someone else, we all would have gone to Edgar.\u201d<\/p>\n Alex Anthopoulos, Atlanta\u2019s general manager, has seen his team celebrate numerous walk-offs in recent years, including in back-to-back games of the 2021 N.L.C.S. on the way to a World Series title. He said only players can fully explain the trend, but he suspects it reflects the modernization of the game.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s just the culture now, where players are so much more expressive,\u201d he said. \u201cBack in the day you would never see players pushed around in laundry carts after home runs, or hand signs to the dugouts after hits, or bat flips. Chasing the guy in the outfield after he got the winning hit is part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n Ron Washington, who has been a major league player and manager and is now Atlanta\u2019s third-base coach, has been witness to the transformation.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the old days, we gave the guy at the plate his due, and then we would go to the other guy,\u201d Washington said. \u201cTimes have changed, players have changed.\u201d<\/p>\n It has even gotten to the point where players will celebrate with a batter who reached on a hit-by-pitch or an error, instead of the daring base runner who hustled all the way home. That happened to Tyler Wade earlier this year, when he was with the Oakland Athletics. Wade scored from second on a fielding error because he never stopped running hard on a grounder hit by JJ Bleday. But no one celebrated with him at home.<\/p>\n \u201cJJ did his job, too, by hustling all the way,\u201d Wade said. \u201cBut in those moments, you\u2019re not breaking down the play. Everyone just blacks out and looks for someone to mob.\u201d<\/p>\n That wasn\u2019t the case back in 1986, when Wilson hit the ball that eluded Bill Buckner\u2019s glove at first. Wilson reached first base safely, made the turn to second and then headed toward home to celebrate. He does not remember any teammates running to him.<\/p>\n \u201cIf that had been today, I\u2019d probably have a broken leg from all the guys jumping on me,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know why it\u2019s different. Just a cultural change. It\u2019s how the young guys do it now.\u201d<\/p>\n