Author Guest Post with Jonathan Weeks: Shocktober

Mays’s spectacular catch in 1954, Bill Mazeroski’s walk-off homer in 1960, and Kirk Gibson’s pinch-hit blast in 1988 are just a few of the memorable moments that have dominated highlight reels.

Welcome to the January 23rd stop on the blog tour for Shocktober by Jonathan Weeks with Goddess Fish Promotions. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for spotlights, reviews, more guest posts, and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.

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Author Guest Post

Why do you write in your genre?

We often find ourselves curiously drawn to the activities we have failed at. We come to admire those who are successful in areas that we are not. Such is the story of my life—especially when it comes to sports.

 I religiously followed all of the major sports as a kid—baseball, football, basketball, and hockey. There was a time during my developmental years when I would have offered my first born child in exchange for the opportunity to play professionally. But reality dealt me a crushing blow when I discovered that I was ill-equipped to excel at any of the sports I was so enamored with. Too small for football…too wobbly on skates for ice hockey…too clumsy and too short to be anything but a second-string point guard in basketball. I was actually pretty good at baseball early-on—one of the better players in the neighborhood. But as soon as the kids in my age group started throwing curveballs and hitting towering pop-ups, my weaknesses were glaringly exposed. I was finished as a player by the end of my thirteenth year. 

They say those who can, do. Those who cannot, teach. And those who can’t teach, write—or at least try to. Although a career as a professional athlete was off the table, I knew that I could stay connected to sports as a writer. Thirty years and a thousand rejection letters later, I published my first baseball book. I’ve been pumping them out ever since. I write them almost obsessively in the fear of not being able to sell them anymore. Like the great Satchel Paige once said: “Don’t look back, something might be gaining on you.”

As far as I can tell, I’m still a little bit ahead at this point.

About the Book

Shocktober
The Biggest Upsets in World Series History
by Jonathan Weeks

Published 7 January 2025
Lyons Press

Genre: Sports History
Page Count: 258
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Mays’s spectacular catch in 1954, Bill Mazeroski’s walk-off homer in 1960, and Kirk Gibson’s pinch-hit blast in 1988 are just a few of the memorable moments that have dominated highlight reels. The outcome of the Series has not always been terribly surprising—especially during the late 1940s and early 1950s when the Yankees captured five consecutive championships, breaking their previous record of four straight titles from 1936 to 1939. But despite its predictability at times, the Fall Classic has taken many unexpected turns. The 1906 Cubs lost to the weak-hitting White Sox after establishing a new regular season record for wins. The 1955 Dodgers avenged seven prior October failures with an improbable victory over the seemingly invincible Yankees. And in 1969, the Mets finally shed their image as “loveable losers,” dethroning the powerful Orioles. In more than a century of World Series plays, a number of similar scenarios have emerged; twenty-two of those stories are told in Shocktober.

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Excerpt

Giants’ skipper Leo Durocher sent Sal Maglie to the mound in Game 1 as Al Lopez—Cleveland’s Hall of Fame manager—countered with Bob Lemon. Lemon was effective through nine innings, holding the New Yorkers to a pair of runs on eight hits. But Lopez’s decision to leave Lemon on the mound after the game moved into extra innings proved to be a mistake. Most of the scoring took place early. Maglie got off to a wobbly start, hitting leadoff batter Al Smith and yielding a single to Avila before serving up a hittable pitch to Vic Wertz, who sent both runners home with a triple. The Giants answered with a pair in the bottom of the third as Mueller and Thompson each drove in a run. The score remained tied until the tenth frame.  

The game is best remembered for a remarkable defensive play made by Mays in the top of the eighth. After a leadoff walk to Doby, Rosen singled, chasing Maglie from the game. With left-handed curve-baller Don Liddle on the mound, Wertz drove a pitch to the deep recesses of the Polo Grounds. The stadium’s most striking feature was its elongated shape, which resembled a bathtub or a bowling alley from above. The right field foul pole was only 258 feet from home plate while the left field corner was a meager 280-foot stretch. The power alleys were monstrous in comparison at 450 feet while the wall in dead-center field was a 480-foot expanse. Mays—with his incredible speed and rifle arm—was uniquely suited to patrol the perimeter. Sportswriter Donald Honig once quipped that “putting Mays in a small ballpark would have been like trimming a masterpiece to fit a frame.” 

Mays knew that batters tended to hit grounders off of Liddle, so he was playing shallow in the hope of cutting down a runner at the plate in the event of a single. With Mays in hot pursuit of Wertz’s drive, Irvin rushed over from left field to play the carom off the wall. There would be no carom, however, as Willie made a stupendous grab. Without missing a beat, he spun and threw the ball back to the infield to hold both of the runners on base. Describing the play in his column, Arthur Daley of the New York Times reported, “This was akin to an optical illusion…Catching the ball appeared a sheer impossibility. But Willie, running like a frightened gazelle for the bleacher wall and with his back to the plate, speared it over the shoulder with a gloved hand. It was one of the great catches in World Series history.” Asked if it was the best play of his career after the game, Mays said, “I don’t know whether I made a greater catch any time. I just try to get a jump on the ball and go get it. I thought I had that one all the way.”

In the bottom of the tenth, Mays drew a one-out walk and stole second. Thompson was intentionally walked to face Rhodes, who was inserted in place of Irvin. Rising to the occasion, Rhodes thrilled the 52,000-plus fans in attendance with a walk-off homer to deep right field.

About the Author

Jonathan Weeks has written several sports biographies and two novels, one of which was a posthumous collaboration with his late father. He grew up in the Capital District region of New York State and currently works in the mental health field.

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