Hershiser: Gooden tipped pitches in ’88 playoffs

I was listening to Orel Hershiser talk on ESPN about Starsburg’s performance and he mentioned that the phenom tipped a few pitches.   He then slipped in that Gooden was tipping pitches in 1988 and addeda comment that the Dodgers only got two runs off him.

My brain gets fuzzy, and for accuracy and good writing maybe you should go read those Faith & Fear guys who probably have written a 20 page essay on this….but I do have Google and half a memory left.

Game 1 NLCS:   2 runs, 4 hits, 7ip, 10 strikeouts.   Tipping pitches.

Game 4 NLCS:  the last baseball game my father would attend.   Gooden was sailing along…and I don’t wanna talk about it. Go look it up. 8 and 1/3, 9 ks and one really annoying home run in the 9th.  Dynasty over, we just didn’t know it.

Game 7 NLCS:  my brain has blocked this one out…Dr. K to the rescue.  Darling went one, and Davey played all his cards.  3 shut out innings in relief but the score was already 6-0.     Awful.  Makes you wanna banish Ronnie to the Expos.

I don’t recall ever before hearing about Gooden tipping, but I heard it with my own ears this morning.  For a guy tipping pitches he sure had a great series…except for one deadly pitch.

2 Replies to “Hershiser: Gooden tipped pitches in ’88 playoffs”

  1. I definitely remember hearing about gooden tipping pitches at some point, don’t think it was during that NLCS though.

  2. I saw Doc on MLB channel one night talking about tipping his pitches and he admitted he did it. He said that when he would throw his curve ball his index finger, which stuck out of his glove, would stick up as opposed to when he threw his fastball when it would remain pressed against the outside of his glove. I think he said that Rusty Staub picked it up and that after that he had one of those things made for the outside of his glove that covered his index finger.

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