One small mark made one massive difference in baseball history.
The 1969 World Series between the Mets and Orioles swung on an unlikely piece of evidence — a smudge of shoe polish. In Game 5, Cleon Jones insisted that Dave McNally’s pitch hit him on the foot, but the umpire wasn’t buying it until manager Gil Hodges produced the ball with a telltale black mark. Jones was awarded first base, and the next batter, Donn Clendenon, launched a home run to pull New York within one. Al Weis followed with a solo shot to tie it, and the Mets surged ahead in the eighth to win the game — and the Series — in true Amazin’ fashion.
From the Archives
This article covering the game produced several quotable moments (below), while this article by a sportswriter made a tongue-in-cheek case for Supreme Court intervention.
“That was the turning point. If that ball goes into their dugout instead of ours, we never see it again.”
“How do you know that’s the same ball?”
“We’ve worked on that play since spring training. Gil’s had that ball with the shoe polish in his jacket all year.”