5 Most Dramatic World Series Home Runs, Ranked
A home run changes a score. The best ones change a series, a city, or a childhood. Nick ranked the five most dramatic home runs in World Series history for our show, and we argued about it for a while. Here is the list, the story behind each swing, and a few that missed the cut.
5. David Freese, 2011 World Series, Game 6
The St. Louis Cardinals were nearly eliminated twice that night at Busch Stadium. Freese, a hometown kid, tied the game with a triple in the ninth inning and then ended it with a walk-off home run in the 11th, forcing a Game 7. Hitting the game-tying triple and the game-winning homer in the same game is why it makes a top five so easily. As Nick said, Freese was unconscious in that entire series.
4. Carlton Fisk, 1975 World Series, Game 6
This is the image. Fisk, leading off the bottom of the 12th, drove a ball down the left-field line at Fenway Park and waved it fair with his arms as he went. It forced a Game 7, and, unfortunately for Red Sox fans, the Reds won it. Even so, the picture of Fisk hopping up the first-base line, willing the ball to stay fair, defines baseball history. It also happened in the middle of one of the greatest World Series ever played, and I still do not understand how the Red Sox lost it, since they led in nearly every game.
3. Kirk Gibson, 1988 World Series, Game 1
Gibson could barely walk. Injured in both legs, he was not supposed to play, and he came off the Dodgers' bench to pinch hit in the bottom of the ninth against Oakland's Dennis Eckersley, the best closer in the game. He fouled a ball off and hobbled up the first-base line. Then he came back, picked up his bat, and hit a walk-off home run to right-center, limping around the bases and pumping his fist. The Dodgers won Game 1 and the clip gets played every October. The whole thing is a script nobody would believe if it were a movie.
2. Joe Carter, 1993 World Series, Game 6
The Toronto Blue Jays trailed 6-5 in the bottom of the ninth, and Carter hit a three-run home run off Philadelphia's Mitch Williams to win the World Series. It was only the second time a Series had ended on a home run, and the call, "Touch 'em all, Joe, you'll never hit a bigger home run in your life," is one of the best in baseball history. Chat told us it was the first World Series game some of them ever attended, which says something about how a home run like that stays with you.
1. Bill Mazeroski, 1960 World Series, Game 7
The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Yankees 10-9 when Mazeroski led off the bottom of the ninth with a solo home run off Ralph Terry. It remains the only walk-off home run to end a Game 7 in World Series history. It is the backyard fantasy every kid has played out: Game 7, bottom of the ninth, a swing to win it all. He is the only player who ever actually lived it in that scenario.
There is an odd twist. The Yankees outscored Pittsburgh by a wide margin that series, with three blowouts of 16-3, 10-0 and 12-0, and still lost. Nick and I looked at the scores during the show and could not believe them. The Pirates won the close ones, and it was enough.
Honorable mentions
Reggie Jackson, 1977: three home runs in a single World Series game, a feat only Babe Ruth had matched.
Freddie Freeman, 2024: a walk-off grand slam. Get out of here.
Ed Sprague, 1992 Game 2: a pinch-hit, two-run home run off Jeff Reardon in the ninth.
Babe Ruth, 1932: the "called shot" against the Cubs. Plenty of people say it happened. At least one chat member claimed he was in the stands and said it did not.
Kirby Puckett, 1991: he left Nick's defensive list too, but his Game 6 walk-off is a big one.
Recency bias is real
I admitted it on the show: I was not around for 1960, and the ones I watched live feel bigger. That is the problem with any ranking like this. Mazeroski's home run is first because of what it was, a Game 7 walk-off, and nothing can be better than that. But the Carter home run is the one a lot of fans remember best, and chat was split.
Your turn
What is your top five, and which swing did we leave off? Argue it out in the Rounding Third community or on the next live show on the show page. For more, see the rest of the network shows and our companion list, the five greatest defensive plays in World Series history.
Sources: MLB.com on iconic World Series home runs, Baseball-Reference on World Series walk-off home runs.
