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Who the hell is Gorfax?

batmagadanleadoff Jul 09 2020 10:29 AM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Jul 09 2020 12:36 PM

The Athletic gives us an oral history of one of the wackiest baseball games ever played -- the Mets v. Braves 4th of July marathon from 1985 in ‘The greatest game ever played': The night the Mets and Braves broke baseball https://theathletic.com/1915000/2020/07/09/the-greatest-game-ever-played-the-night-the-mets-and-braves-broke-baseball/ I'll be posting excerpts throughout the day, including stuff about the heretofore unknown or since forgotten tremendous baseball nickname -- Gorfax. At 3:55 the morning of July 5, 1985, Dale Murphy and his Atlanta Braves teammates trudged into the home clubhouse at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, dazed. “I think this is what Rod Serling meant when you enter the twilight zone,” Murphy said last week over the phone. “What was that we just went through?” In the other clubhouse, Howard Johnson knew exactly what had just happened. “I remember walking off the field,” Johnson said, “thinking, ‘This is the greatest game ever played.'” On Independence Day 35 years ago, the Mets and Braves played arguably the wackiest game in major-league history. It included two rain delays totaling more than two hours, a protest, 19 innings, 29 runs and the most improbable home run in the sport's history. It ended later than any major-league game had ever ended before — with literal fireworks shot off just after 4 a.m. This is the story of the night the Mets and Braves broke baseball. Ron Darling (Mets pitcher): It was the strangest game because we shouldn't have played it. It had been raining all day. But you knew we were going to play because it was July 4. Dale Murphy (Braves center fielder): If we have a sellout crowd, they're going to do everything they can to play this. They weren't going to call that game because they needed the gate. Darling: That field was always like a lake anyway.

batmagadanleadoff Jul 09 2020 11:02 AM Re: Who the hell is Gorfax?

Dwight Gooden (Mets starting pitcher): I remember warming up a couple times and stopping. The third time I was warming up in the bullpen, when they finally moved the tarps off, there was a great big puddle. All the mud was on me. The start of the game was delayed an hour and 24 minutes by rain. Rick Mahler threw the first pitch to Lenny Dykstra at 9:04 p.m. The Mets were starting Gooden, in the midst of his transcendent 1985 season, on three days' rest for the first time in his career. The hope was to sneak in one extra start for Gooden before the All-Star break the following week. Gooden: I remember Davey Johnson coming to me on the bus asking if I wanted another start before the All-Star break. I'd had a couple drinks. I said, “Sure.” Gooden wasn't sharp out of the gate, walking three Braves in the first inning. https://theathletic.com/1915000/2020/07/09/the-greatest-game-ever-played-the-night-the-mets-and-braves-broke-baseball/

batmagadanleadoff Jul 09 2020 11:37 AM Re: Who the hell is Gorfax?

Murphy: As soon as the rain started, you're pulling for something that would get [Gooden] out of there. In the bottom of the third, the game was interrupted by more rain. The delay of 41 minutes prompted Johnson to remove Gooden from the game. The ace had recorded seven outs. Gooden: I didn't even shower. Davey said that was it and I was pissed. I had the clubhouse kid get a cab and went back to the hotel and had a few more drinks. Davey Johnson (Mets manager): I always had a lot of rules I learned from (Earl Weaver and George Bamberger) to save pitchers. If a starter had thrown some pitches and then we had a long delay, you don't bring him back. That's just critical for an arm injury. https://theathletic.com/1915000/2020/07/09/the-greatest-game-ever-played-the-night-the-mets-and-braves-broke-baseball/

batmagadanleadoff Jul 09 2020 12:11 PM Re: Who the hell is Gorfax?

With a runner on first in a 1-1 game, Johnson turned to one of his primary set-up men: Roger McDowell. Roger McDowell (Mets relief pitcher): Davey only thought this game was going to go five innings and get washed after that. Obviously, that didn't happen. McDowell allowed the inherited runner and an additional one to score in the inning, then headed for the clubhouse for the remainder of the night. The Mets came back the next inning to take the lead, and the game was still in the sixth inning at midnight. New York led 7-4 going into the bottom of the eighth. In the midst of a difficult season, Jesse Orosco loaded the bases and walked in a run. With Murphy, far and away Atlanta's best hitter, coming up, and the game on the line, Johnson turned to Doug Sisk. Although Sisk's numbers that season were subpar, he had held Murphy hitless in seven career at-bats against him. Doug Sisk (Mets relief pitcher): Murph to me was just a guy that I could get out. I remember when I was traded to the Atlanta Braves (in 1990), he was the first man to shake my hand when I got to the field: “It's about damn time. I'm so tired of facing you.” Murphy: I didn't like facing him. Hard sinker in, and I didn't like that. I didn't know exactly what I'd done against him, but I knew I didn't do that much. Murphy ripped a 1-0 pitch to left-center to clear the bases and give the Braves an 8-7 lead. Murphy: I happened to get a pitch to hit that time. https://theathletic.com/1915000/2020/07/09/the-greatest-game-ever-played-the-night-the-mets-and-braves-broke-baseball/

Johnny Lunchbucket Jul 09 2020 12:27 PM Re: Who the hell is Gorfax?

I think Keith used Gorfax in his IF AT FIRST book

batmagadanleadoff Jul 09 2020 12:54 PM Re: Who the hell is Gorfax?

The Mets tied the game in the top of the ninth off Bruce Sutter — already the sixth blown save in 21 tries for the Hall of Fame closer that season. In the top of the 13th, Howard Johnson — who came off the bench to spark the rally in the ninth — hit a two-run homer to put New York ahead. Tom Gorman replaced Sisk in the bottom of the inning, working around a leadoff single to get two outs and to 0-2 on Terry Harper. John Sterling (Braves broadcaster): When Terry Harper hit that home run, that really made it something. Keith Hernandez (Mets first baseman): I don't remember Harper's home run. I don't have any recollection of it. I can't picture it or put it in any context to the game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43tPvi1Jb_M&t=5691s Harper's HR is at the 1:34:30 mark. The game moved to the 14th inning. It was 2 a.m. Paul Zuvella (Braves infielder): I think we all thought this game's never going to end. McDowell: Once it goes dark, it's dark. And then you just continue to play the game. Murphy: Everyone's reminding each other: Don't try to end this game with one swing. But that's the hard thing, because in the back of your mind you're thinking it'd be pretty cool to hit a walk-off home run. Howard Johnson (Mets infielder): Our motto was, “Hey, we're here. Might as well win.” Zuvella: The longer you go in a game like that, you'd think we'd just want to get this game over with. But it doesn't work that way with professional athletes. You don't want to give an inch. Hernandez: That was one of maybe a handful of games that I was just exhausted before the game was over. My last at-bat, (Gene Garber) put one right down the middle and it was just a pitch I should rip. I rolled it over to second base and I didn't even run to first base. I had no legs. Zuvella: That was one of those games where it just kind of kept going. Murphy: How did that happen that we just kept going? [FIMG=444]https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2020/07/07145133/0706-WTH.jpg[/FIMG] https://theathletic.com/1915000/2020/07/09/the-greatest-game-ever-played-the-night-the-mets-and-braves-broke-baseball/

batmagadanleadoff Jul 09 2020 01:35 PM Re: Who the hell is Gorfax?

Meanwhile, in the Mets' clubhouse … John Holland (Braves visiting clubhouse manager): That was when I first met Roger McDowell. He ate seven cheeseburgers before that game was over. McDowell: I have a propensity to eat cheeseburgers. I kind of like them. Sisk: Roger could eat, man. That guy, for as skinny as he was, he could eat. McDowell: At that time there wasn't the food that is present nowadays in clubhouses. So we just got hungry, and as the hours passed, you send out the clubhouse guys to go get food. Holland: He came out early in the game, and he just started eating and kept going. These had the lettuce and the tomato, they were full-blown cheeseburgers. They weren't the little bitty Krystal things. Sisk: By the time this game is getting to the later innings, half our team is in the clubhouse drinking beer. All of us were in there watching this thing, cheering the team on, going crazy. Holland: They came in, they were waiting for the game to be over sitting there around in their underwear, drinking beer and watching the game on this itty-bitty television. Howard Johnson: Some of the pitchers that were out of the game and kind of hammered were walking down to the dugout. It was hilarious. Sisk: We went through a keg of beer. A keg of beer is 142 beers — and there was probably 10 or 12 people in that clubhouse. That's a lot of freaking beer going down. Holland: It might not have been a full keg. But we had to change the keg. Sisk: We ran out. It was a dry clubhouse, which was not good for us. I think we ended up stealing some of the beer from the other clubhouse. Murphy: I've never heard that before. But it wouldn't surprise me with the Mets. https://theathletic.com/1915000/2020/07/09/the-greatest-game-ever-played-the-night-the-mets-and-braves-broke-baseball/

batmagadanleadoff Jul 09 2020 05:14 PM Re: Who the hell is Gorfax?

Neither team really threatened for the next four innings. Gorman was cruising for New York, Garber and Rick Camp mowing down a tiring Mets lineup for Atlanta. Darryl Strawberry and Davey Johnson were both ejected by home-plate ump Terry Tata in the top of the 17th for arguing balls and strikes. It was 2:55 in the morning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43tPvi1Jb_M&t=8947s 17th inning Strawberry at-bat and ensuing ejections -- 2:28:08 mark Camp, who had warmed up in the bullpen in the first inning of the game nearly six hours earlier, had entered in the 17th as part of a curious double-switch: He replaced Ken Oberkfell in the sixth spot in the order, even though that was due up two batters sooner than the pitcher spot. Remember this. https://theathletic.com/1915000/2020/07/09/the-greatest-game-ever-played-the-night-the-mets-and-braves-broke-baseball/

batmagadanleadoff Jul 09 2020 08:53 PM Re: Who the hell is Gorfax?

In the top of the 18th, the Mets scrounged out a run on a Johnson single, a Camp error and Lenny Dykstra's sacrifice fly. In the bottom of the inning, Gorman quickly retired Gerald Perry and Harper. Because of the double switch and an absence of bench players, the Braves' chances with two outs and nobody on rested on Camp. At that point, the pitcher had 10 hits in 167 career at-bats. He'd struck out 83 times — one more and it'd be an even 50 percent of his at-bats. It was 3:20 a.m. Sterling: Who's up? Rick Camp — thought of and reputed to be the worst-hitting pitcher in all of baseball. Zuvella: When Rick Camp comes in, I mean, Rick Camp was not a hitter. Murphy: Oh, no confidence at all. No. No. Rick wasn't a very good hitter, with all due respect. He never did anything in batting practice. Sterling: At some point during the year, I had used, “As Russ Hodges would say, anyone's dangerous up there at bat swinging the shillelagh.” And Skip (Caray) said, “Obviously he's never seen Rick Camp.” Zuvella: I think Rick Camp was the only guy in the world who thought he could do something to change the outcome of this game. We all thought we were done, that they finally got us. Murphy: You never think it's over until that last out is made, but you also have to be realistic. It's like that movie (“Dumb and Dumber”): “So you're saying there's still a chance?” On the broadcast, Sterling did a little foreshadowing: “If he hits a home run to tie this game, this game will be certified as absolutely the nuttiest in the history of baseball.” As with Harper, Gorman got to 0-2. https://theathletic.com/1915000/2020/07/09/the-greatest-game-ever-played-the-night-the-mets-and-braves-broke-baseball/

Edgy MD Jul 09 2020 09:38 PM Re: Who the hell is Gorfax?

Strange that the Camp homer is so memorable that the Harper homer is mostly forgotten. I had to be reminded of it too. In fact, you mention "Terry Harper of the Braves" and my mind immediately summons Terry Forster and has a hard time putting him aside, but I know there weren't two game-tying homers hit by relievers.

batmagadanleadoff Jul 10 2020 06:57 AM Re: Who the hell is Gorfax?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVpjWNfnHww Howard Johnson: When he hit that ball, I'm thinking it's got a chance. Here's Sterling's call from the broadcast: “Holy cow! Oh my goodness! I don't believe it! I don't believe it! Rick Camp! Rick Camp! I don't believe it! That certifies this game as the wackiest, wildest, most improbable game in history! … That's the most amazing thing that's ever happened in baseball. Mind-boggling.” Davey Johnson: That killed us all. Darling: It was almost, “This totally makes sense.” This totally makes sense that Rick Camp, who had never hit a home run, who we all knew as a really bad hitting pitcher — one of the worst in baseball if you look at his numbers — and it was an 0-2 pitch. All of those things together, it was like, “We're never getting out of here.” Murphy: That smile on Rick's face as he was running around the bases, it was just part of the great thing about this game: the unexpected. Zuvella: When he hits a homer with two outs to tie the game, it's like we're meant to win this game. Murphy: How can we lose this game? The Mets' body language wasn't subtle. Ray Knight threw up his hands once the ball left Camp's bat. Johnson at short crouched to his knees. Danny Heep's disbelief in left field is unforgettable. [FIMG=555]https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2020/07/07145342/0706-Camp-Knight-HoJo.jpg[/FIMG] [FIMG=555]https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2020/07/07145351/0706-Camp-Heep.jpg[/FIMG] McDowell: The despair of Danny Heep's body language as the ball travels over his head was priceless. Hernandez: The first thing that comes to mind is the look on Tom Gorman's face. He looked over at me and I looked at him like, “What the?” His face was red and flushed, and it was like he shrugged: “I didn't mean to do it on purpose!” Sisk: I swear Danny Heep was going to kill Tom Gorman when Gorfax gave up that home run to Camp. Gorfax, he was shell-shocked. Absolutely shell-shocked at that point. Sisk explained one of the great nicknames in Mets history: “We called him Gorfax because he thought he was Sandy Koufax.” Clint Hurdle (Mets catcher): A pitcher! 0-2! Two outs! Sisk: If we gave up an 0-2 base hit, anything, we'd get fined. It went into the pool for our party. That was automatic. 0-2, I don't give a shit if you throw the ball 45 feet, you better not give up a hit. He gave up an 0-2 home run to Camp. And he hit it well! Darling: Everyone was all over Tom Gorman. “Hey Tom, how'd you hold that pitch to Camp?” Hurdle: We kept busting Tommy for the rest of the year about “the 0-2 from you-know-who.” Holland: They gave him holy hell. McDowell: That was the point where you're going, “This is actually kind of funny.” That put the icing on top of the cake of that game. Howard Johnson: You're just numb to it at that point. You're mildly entertained. I was. I was like, “This is the greatest thing I've ever seen!” Darling: That game is probably not remembered if Camp doesn't hit the ball out of the ballpark. https://theathletic.com/1915000/2020/07/09/the-greatest-game-ever-played-the-night-the-mets-and-braves-broke-baseball/

batmagadanleadoff Jul 10 2020 10:48 AM Re: Who the hell is Gorfax?

When Camp took the mound again in the 19th, the Mets pounced. New York scored five times in the inning, taking the lead on Ray Knight's double to the gap at 3:32 in the morning. Ron Darling, who was scheduled to start on Saturday, July 6, came in for the bottom of the 19th, the Mets leading 16-11. Darling: I'm so happy I got in that game. In the days when it was important to be in a box score, I'm happy I'm in that box score. Davey Johnson: I definitely didn't want to put somebody like a position player out there after that happened. I sent Darling in the game. I didn't want to take a chance on losing the game with a player after we'd been there all night long. Darling: I was extremely nervous. Even if it was four in the morning, there was a difference pitching that inning than pitching the 12th with the game tied. I was very nervous, and it resulted in a couple walks. Holland: We kept bringing the food out every inning anticipating the end of the game. And my assistant, Fred Stone, was bringing the food out (in the 19th inning). Davey looked at him and said, “If you bring that food back out here one more time, I'm gonna kick your ass.” Darling picked up two outs around a rare Hernandez error, then walked Murphy and Perry before Harper hit a two-run single. The tying run came to the plate with two outs again. It was Rick Camp. Murphy: Oh my gosh, seriously? Howard Johnson: You just can't write that stuff. It was crazy. Murphy: Well, the odds were astronomical for him to do it again. But then he hit that loud foul ball, and you're like, “You've got to be kidding me!” Zuvella: You get to a point where, what can possibly happen next? Darling: Luckily Camp was up. I figured I could handle him. Thank God I did. Darling struck out Camp at 3:55 a.m. — at that point, the latest local time a major-league game had ever finished. (It has since been surpassed by the second game of a July 2, 1993, Phillies-Padres doubleheader at Veterans Stadium. That game began at 1:28 a.m. and ended at 4:40 a.m.) The Mets entered a clubhouse that Darling called “a sea of Bud Lite cans and Chick-fil-A wrappers.” https://theathletic.com/1915000/2020/07/09/the-greatest-game-ever-played-the-night-the-mets-and-braves-broke-baseball/

A Boy Named Seo Jul 10 2020 02:23 PM Re: Who the hell is Gorfax?

Subscribe to the Athletic. It's great. I love how all the guys out of the game were just getting sloshed the whole time. Killed a keg of beer during this damn game!

batmagadanleadoff Jul 10 2020 03:50 PM Re: Who the hell is Gorfax?

Darling: Everyone who was I'm sure feeling no pain, they were so excited and so emotional. There was cheering you wouldn't hear after a regular-season game because we'd all gone through this silly little game. Guys were coming up hugging and half-kissing you. It was like we had won the pennant. Hurdle: There's relief and just some silly joy that you were in it for that long, that you fought through it. Six minutes after the game ended, at 4:01 a.m., there was one more surprise for the evening. Murphy: It was just kind of an odd relief and then wonder: How did all that happen? It was just kind of a weird questioning of just what went on over the last few hours. And then we started hearing the fireworks go off. McDowell: There were postgame fireworks at four in the morning. Murphy: I kind of forgot it was July 4 — because it was July 5! Sterling: The ballpark was really in a neighborhood. Imagine you're sleeping at 4:30 in the morning and the fireworks go off. Sisk: They let the fireworks off right after the game, and all hell broke loose. We had no idea that was going to happen. Hurdle: People reported it. They thought they were involved in some sort of bombing in the middle of Atlanta. The night wasn't quite over for the Mets. Hernandez: There was a Shriners Convention all weekend in the hotel, and the Shriners were staying up late and carousing and hooting and hollering. I remember Danny Heep said, “Let's go home and wake up the Shriners!” Nothing was open, but we went up and down our hallway screaming and yelling and waking everybody up. For the Mets, the night was a springboard. The win got them to 41-35 on the season. Starting that Thursday night, New York won 11 of its next 12 games and 28 of its next 35 to leap from third into first. The Mets won an even two-thirds of their games from that night forward the rest of the season to finish with 98 wins — still three shy of the Cardinals in the division. They won an even two-thirds of their games through 162 the next season for a franchise-best 108 wins and an eventual World Series title. Darling: That's when we started to feel special. It didn't matter. We're going to go nine, we're going to go 18, we're going to beat you. Howard Johnson: When you play those kinds of games and persevere that long and win, you feel like you've really conquered something. It reminds me of the playoffs in Houston (in 1986). You figure out how to win. Nobody gets it overnight. Our team was building in '85, and in '86 it just came to fruition. For the Braves, 1985 was the first of six straight seasons spent near the bottom of the NL West, before Bobby Cox led their revival in 1991. Camp retired in 1986, with just the one career home run. He passed away in 2013 at the age of 59. Thirty-five years later, that game remains one of the most compelling in either franchise's history. McDowell: Every July 4th, it's part of the lore of baseball, the history of baseball. There used to be a July 4th, 19th-inning club. I've still got the button somewhere. Sisk: I used to get buttons that the Braves used to send commemorating the game. Zuvella: Everything strange that can happen seemed to happen in that game. Sterling: You knew you were a part of something unbelievable. Murphy: Now I'm 64 years old and we're still talking about it. Sterling: You can't predict baseball. And that game proves it. https://theathletic.com/1915000/2020/07/09/the-greatest-game-ever-played-the-night-the-mets-and-braves-broke-baseball/

Edgy MD Jul 10 2020 05:00 PM Re: Who the hell is Gorfax?

Two things from If at First [list] [*]Hernandez has a slightly different take on the origin of Gorman's nickname. He said folks called him that because he was a lefty who brought it as slow as Koufax brought it fast. [*]For like seven years, the Braves had two closers — Camp and Gene Garber. One would would get the bulk of the save opportunities in one year, and the other would get the lion's share the next, so they were easy to conflate. I mean, it's understandable that fans might do that, but Hernandez reported that after the homer, when he came to the mound, a shell-shocked Gorman said, "I had no idea that Gene Garber had that kind of power!" [/list]

batmagadanleadoff Jul 10 2020 09:18 PM Re: Who the hell is Gorfax?

Keith's explanation of the "Gorfax" nickname makes much more sense than Sisk's.

batmagadanleadoff Jul 11 2020 12:54 PM Re: Who the hell is Gorfax?

Anybody here actually see this marathon game live and in real time? I'd guess most of youse here that were old enough, this being a forum of hard-core Mets fans. I was over at my girlfriend's (parents) house for the 4th of July weekend that year. I caught maybe the first two or three innings of the game and then me and my girlfriend went out to catch a movie. I even remember what movie that was -- The Goonies. After the movie, we went out to eat or something. We got back home and it was after one in the morning. I put on the TV and began channel surfing and stumbled onto the Mets game without expecting to. I couldn't believe the game was still being played and was really overjoyed to be able to watch the Mets. I watched the rest of that game, all the way to its nutty end.

Frayed Knot Jul 11 2020 01:14 PM Re: Who the hell is Gorfax?

Missed the entire thing. Was out all afternoon (there may have been some alcohol involved) then came home and crashed before the game ever kicked off.

Johnny Lunchbucket Jul 11 2020 02:20 PM Re: Who the hell is Gorfax?

I missed it too. Don't recall the circumstances but I had just turned 19 in the summer of '85 and then, it was okay for 19 year olds to go to bars in NY. On New Year's Eve I'd have to wait another 18 months.

G-Fafif Jul 11 2020 03:01 PM Re: Who the hell is Gorfax?

Watched or listened to all of it. Closed down a bar (for the only time in my life) before the game ended. Wrote about the game and experience on the 20th anniversary here. I enjoyed the oral history, but regarding the debris in the clubhouse, it's not Bud Lite. It's Bud Light. Britton's editor presumably wouldn't let “David Rite“ get by.

Edgy MD Jul 12 2020 06:28 AM Re: Who the hell is Gorfax?

The funny thing is that the whole point of their wildly successful mid-80s campaign of "Gimme a light ... a Bud Light" was to distinguish the beer from "Lite Beer" or "Lite Beer from Miller." Miller owned the syllable Lite/Light in the beer world and Budweiser needed to wrest it back into neutral territory if their beer was going to have a chance. It was training the customer but also training the bartender and the liquor store clerk that the word "Light" did not have to mean "Lite Beer." And they were successful. Miller was forced to sort of rebrand "Lite Beer" as "Miller Lite." Just another low-cal offering in the marketplace, and no longer THE low-cal offering. But they weren't as successful at teaching the world that the two spellings meant two different things, and 35 years later, Athletic editors are letting "Bud Lite" just fly by. My takeaway from the oral history above is that, by mid-1985, Dwight Gooden was well on his way to an addiction problem.

G-Fafif Jul 12 2020 07:32 AM Re: Who the hell is Gorfax?

I'd check in on McDowell and his cheeseburger jones, too.