The Nine Greatest Upsets in American Baseball History

The Dutch were clutch in the WBC, sending the DR straight to the ER! 

Okay, that was a poor attempt to sound "hip." However, let not anyone underestimate the profoundly stunning result that 2-1 victory by the Netherlands over the Dominican Republic was. 

The Dominican Republic was a team loaded with MLB all-stars (Miguel Tejada, David Ortiz, Jose Reyes, and Pedro Martinez...to name a few); however, the Dutch had not a single player on its roster who is currently signed with an MLB team. 

The closest player on the Dutch team with MLB experience was starting pitcher Sidney Ponson, whose career was marked with so many off-the-field and in-the-clubhouse disciplinary incidents that even the volatile Milton Bradley found him frightening!!!

Nonetheless, the result got me to brainstorm about American baseball upsets, whether in international competition or in professional baseball.  Since it takes 9 innings to complete a baseball game, I gathered a list of the nine greatest upsets in American baseball.  I start with No. 9 and work my way to No. 1. 

Feel free to comment or to add suggestions at where you agreed or disagreed with my list:

9) 2004 Quarterfinal game at the Olympic Baseball Qualification Tournament: Mexico defeats USA (2-1)

This game eliminated Team USA from competing at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games held in Athens in the event of baseball.  Former Team USA manager Tommy Lasorda remarked that the episode was an embarrassment that the nation who invented the game cannot even qualify for the Olympic event.

After cruising through the preliminaries in this qualification tournament undefeated, USA faced a harmless team from Mexico that only advanced out of the preliminaries because another team who actually advanced did not have a complete roster to continue due to injuries. 

In this historical game, Team USA's offense was non-existent, collecting its only run on a solo home run.  Mexico's bullpen held off a final rally by Team USA in the ninth to finish a stunning upset and eliminating the Americans from Olympic competition.

8) 1924 World Series: Washington Senators defeat New York Giants (four games to three)

The Washington Senators had clinched its first pennant in 1924.  The New York Giants, on the other hand, were markedly more experienced having won several World Series titles in the previous 20 years of Major League Baseball.  In fact, in 1924, the Giants had clinched its fourth consecutive National League pennant.  The Giants were going for their third World Series title in the past four years!

In this historic World Series, the Giants clobbered the "Big Train" himself, Walter Johnson, in two starts.  The Senators had lost both those games he started; however, the Senators won three of the other four games he did not start!  This forced a magnificent Game Seven which went into extra innings. 

Walter Johnson redeemed himself by coming out of the bullpen to pitch a stellar long relief performance as the game went into the 12th inning.  In the bottom of the 12th, the Senators scored the game-winning run when a groundball to third hit a pebble and took a bad hop over the Giants' thirdbaseman Fred Lindstrom.  The bad hop allowed Senators catcher Muddy Ruel to score from second base, thus ending the game and the World Series.

7) 2000 Summer Olympics Gold Medal Game: USA defeats Cuba (4-0)

Talk about David versus Goliath!  With regard to international baseball, Cuba was the Goliath!  When baseball became an Olympic medal sport in 1992 for the Barcelona Games, Cuba cruised to a gold medal finish, whereas Team USA failed to win a medal. 

In 1996 in Atlanta, Cuba repeated this feat scoring a second straight gold medal, whereas Team USA settled for the bronze.  Team USA had never beaten Cuba in the Olympics.  Going into the Gold Medal Game at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, it appeared that that fact was not going to change.

In the preliminary round, Team USA lost to Cuba 5-1.  However, in the Gold Medal Game, Manager Tommy Lasorda sent fireball hurler Ben Sheets to the mound to start the game.  Sheets was spectacular completing a three-hit shutout over a Cuban national team as red-hot as their communist politics.

For that one game, Team USA was on top of international baseball.

6) 1973 NLCS: New York Mets defeat Cincinnati Reds (three games to two)

The Mets in 1973 won the National League East with a pathetic 82-79 record, the worst record for any division winning team until the 2005 San Diego Padres.  The faced a Cincinnati Reds team who had won its third division title in the past four years and who were defending National League champions.

In this historic NLCS matchup, the Reds and Mets split the first four games.  In Game Three, Pete Rose took out Mets shortstop Bud Harrelson to break up a double play.  But, Rose slid so far out of the basepath that Harrelson punched Rose in the stomach causing the worst bench-clearing brawl in postseason baseball history. 

In the critical Game Five of the series, the Mets crushed the Reds 7-2 collecting a total of 13 hits against the Big Red Machine.

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