Let us celebrate the takeout slides of Hal McRae
Let's see how Hal McRae executed a pair of high-stakes takeout slides from way back in the day.
By
Dayn Perry
•
2 min read
Takeout slides! They have been rather drastically redefined in advance of the upcoming season, you know. Such structural changes may have you pining away for the days in which a base-runner could ritually abuse the pivot man while all of America stood with him. Let's go back to those days and appreciate the takeout stylings of gentleman baseball-ist Hal McRae. Come with us, won't you?
First, here's a 26-year-old Mr. McRae in his Reds days perpetrating a Mil Máscaras finishing move upon a barely suspecting Dick Green of the Athletics. Let's go back to Game 4 of the 1972 World Series ...
Watch the full video, and you'll see that Mr. McRae promply asked about the general condition of Mr. Green shortly after he pulverized him. So that was thoughtful.
That was the second inning of Game 4, and McRae had just notched a leadoff single off Athletics starter Ken Holtzman. Denis Menke followed with a grounder to third, and McRae made darn sure that no 5-4-3 would be happening. As it happens, Green recorded all three putouts in the inning -- a scoreless frame for Holtzman. The A's went to win that contest by a score of 3-2 and the series in seven.
Now let's leap ahead to the 1977 ALCS, when McRae, then of the Royals, uncorked what stands as the Platonic ideal of takeout slides. It's the sixth inning of Game 2, and, Willie Randolph, your life is calling ...
And the people say: sports violence! It's an exaggeration to say McRae darn near fired himself into the outfield on that "slide," but it's not a grave exaggeration. In any event, props to McRae for not only flying past the bag, but also using the bag as a trampoline of sorts.
Excessive? Quite possibly. After all, this was the rough-hewn 1970s, when people had sex during riots and riots during sex, and people still raised a hue and cry about McRae's seeming competitive excesses. In fact, no less a sum buck than Yankees manager Billy Martin (whom Howard Cosell in the 1977 World Series would refer to as a "beleaguered little pepperpot") aired many grievances after McRae's flying body-block. Here, see for yourself ...
Last October, when Chase Utley's takeout of Ruben Tejada was the leading source of baseball consternation, Anthony McCarron of the New York Daily News caught up with Randolph, and, oh almost 40 years later he was still social scientists refer to as "super-big-time pissed." As Randolph told McCarron:
“I was so pissed I threw the ball into their dugout,” Randolph says. “I was livid. I was fired up. I was pissed that (Fred) Patek was able to scoot home with a run.
“I’m not sure I hit anybody. I hope I did. But that was a long time ago.”
But that was a long time ago. Sure, according to the calendar it was, but umbrage nestled deep in the loam of our memories is our most accurate timepiece.
Yes, the McRae-grade takeout slide is probably going away forevermore, but the people will always have YouTube. And on YouTube, just as people are always fighting in the streets, so is Hal McRae eternally cracking open an infielder like a good book.
The book is by Hal McRae, and it's called "I'll Kill Your Thighs and Soul."
