Morgan Magic was over, but the A's went on to the World Series highly favored over the LA Dodgers. But Tony LaRussa's gang was in for a shock. Kirk Gibson limped to the plate and slammed a two-run walkoff homer against supercloser Dennis Eckersley to win game one. It was all downhill for Oakland from there, and Orel Hershiser and reliever Jay Howell shut down the A's attack in a 4 games to 1 triumph. It was scant consolation to Sox fans, but Bash Brothers Jose Canseco and Mark McGuire were held to a combined .066 average with just one homer. Eckersley showed he was very human, sporting a 10.80 ERA in two appearences. The Dodgers did what the Sox couldn't do-neutralize strong hitting with superior pitching. LA's last two victories were in the Oakland Coliseum, where Boston hadn't won in over a year.
The only other Bosox news in late October concerned catcher Rich Gedman. He was granted free agency after a finding of owner collusion the previous year. Geddy and 11 other players had remained unsigned when they "tested the waters" after 1987. Gedman had eventually re-signed with Boston, and would again find no other takers in the 88 offseason.
If there was a Curse of Game 6, Geddy, a Worcester native, was the worst victim. A week after his failure to block a Bob Stanley pitch allowed the tying run to score in a 6-5 Mets victory, he suffered a broken cheekbone from a warmup pitch while practicing for a postseason series with Japanese all-stars. In the words of his Wikipedia biography "this was the beginning of a litany of injuries, holdouts, and inconsistency which contributed to the waning of Gedman's skills, both offensive and defensive." He was eventually demoted to backup on the Sox, then bounced to Houston, St Louis and Oakland before calling it quits in 1994 at the age of 34.
Geddy is really a tale of two careers. Before that October night in Shea Stadium, he had been a Sporting News Rookie of the Year and a two-time AL all-star. Helped by coach Walt Hriniak, he slammed 24 homers in 84 and followed with career highs in average (.295) and rbi's (80) in 85 while throwing out half of potential base stealers. After 86, he never batted more than 300 times or hit higher than .231. He also had only 9 more home runs.
He has stayed in the game, serving as pitching coach for the Salem Red Sox. His three children have all been standout college athletes. Gedman must wonder, however, what would have happened if he had stopped Stanley's toss.
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