No walk-off knock-offs here

Long before there was Red Sox nation and Yankees Country, there was Wally World. In a summer game in 1989, a still prime Wally Joyner hit a a 3 run walk-off home run verse the Tigers. Angels fans were clamoring for days, even without the benefit of the internet. (I was bummed though, since I missed the shot as I had to leave the game early after my mental brother was kicked out for jumping on the field in pursuit of a foul ball.)

On another night in the early nineties, some friends and I kept sneaking down from our on the field seats, but in the outfield. By the last inning we had made it first row, behind home plate. The Angels were down 0-4 but had come back to tie it 4-4 with fan favorite Dick Schofield at the plate and the bases load. The long-time Angel walked on four pitches as the other team walked off the field with their heads down.

Those were both walk-offs! Literally the Angels could score the winning run, strutting around the bases if they wanted too; hence the term: walk-off. The walk-off was a rare but inspiring feat. It was a revered feat and we all knew what a walk-off was.

Somehow as attention spans shortened, and Sports Center and other brands craved ways to keep the low attention peeps satisfied; the term walk-off got watered down. All of the sudden any home team that came up and hit a ball into the outfield as the winning run sprinted in to beat the throw, qualified as a walk-off. That is not a walk-off people.

Perhaps the media feels justified by the fact that the team walks off the field. But that was not considered a walk-off back in the day; at least not in my circles. Nor was it always portrayed as a walk-off until about the last decade or so.

So yesterday, Garret Anderson came up with the bases loaded and one out and then walked on four pitches. The walk is the lesser of the two walk-offs, but it still counts. It's almost as embarrassing to the other team as the home run as the pitcher just looks like he was too scared to throw it in there and give up a game winning grand-slam.

Angels manager Mike Scioscia's said, "It was a walk-off win and we'll tak it." Indeed it was Sciosc (Soash). It was a first degree walk-off. A jack would have been a second degree walk-off. Everything else is just fool's gold.