This particular video really raises the hair on this lil ole chiweenie Sportsphile’s back….I mean straight up hair at attention…..cuz the Houston Astros got robbed in Game 5 on the 1986 National League Championship Series….heck even the front page of the Houston Chronicle…..where the headline read…WE GOT ROBBED.….as they posted the picture of Astros Craig Reynolds obviously beating the throw to first base….as a run would have scored on the play….and as the game played out….that one run would have been enough to win the game in regulation…..but NOBODY ever said or wrote much about how this call discussed in this video interview herewith between ABC’s Keith Jackson and Mets 1B Keith Hernandez…..and we’ve got it here at ImaSportsphile….Hernandez saying, “now I’m not gonna say he was out, cuz I saw the picture”….so, the Astros not only got robbed of the run….and not only got robbed of the game…..but, in my chiweenie Sportsphile opinion…..they also got robbed of the NL Pennant….and maybe the World Series.
With no score in the top of the second, Mets P Dwight Gooden surrendered consecutive singles to Kevin Bass and José Cruz….thus putting runners on the corners with nobody out….when Doc caught Alan Ashby looking on a full count…and then got Craig Reynolds to ground into a double play to escape the jam….however, Reynolds appeared to clearly beat out a double-play ball….as a result of a slow pivot by shortstop Rafael Santana….as the play was close at first base….when umpire Fred Brocklander called Reynolds out….which negated a run from Kevin Bass. Brocklander ruled that Reynolds’ foot was above the bag and not on it when Santana’s relay arrived to Keith Hernandez….after which the Ump was surrounded by reporters after the game when he said “I saw the replay, I go with my call. It was a bang-bang play, as close to a tie as you’ll get.” ….to which Reynolds criticized Brocklander’s response, saying, “If he said he saw the replay, then all I can say is that he missed it twice.” Said Astros manager Hal Lanier: ….“If it goes our way, we would have won in nine.” ….as Hernandez would reveal in 2011 that he had stepped off the bag as the first baseman in that play. Hernandez would say, “[Reynolds] clearly beat it, but I cheated and we got the call.” Had Reynolds correctly been called safe, Bass would have scored from third and the Astros would have taken an early 1–0 lead.
Couple all that with the fact that our Bone Daddy, the original Sportsphile was at every game of the 1986 NLCS Astros vs Mets…..calling it the greatest series, be it ALCS, NLCS or World Series…..that he ever saw. He said the pitching was in games 1, 5 and 6 was beyond incredible….and Bone Daddy has said often just how important the subject of this video was to the entire 1986 NLCS.
