The day after the Los Angeles Dodgers lost the 2018 World Series to the Boston Red Sox, I was in a window seat on a plane headed homeward and someone on the other side of the aisle called my name. It was Kirk Gibson, who wore the biggest, happiest grin as he held out a baseball housed in a clear plastic box.
"Check this out," he said, handing over a ball with two distinct signatures. One was Gibson's, and the other was that of Dennis Eckersley, who threw the pitch that Gibson clubbed into the right-field stands on Oct. 15, 1988, to generate one of the most extraordinary moments in World Series history. I don't believe what I just saw, Jack Buck said, and any baseball fan watching at that moment agreed. Eckersley and Gibson had shared in the pregame ceremonies at the 2018 World Series to commemorate the 30th anniversary of that home run, and given the gregarious nature of both men, they swapped thoughts and signed baseballs, and the joy in that connection radiated from Gibson in Row 5 of that flight the next morning.
Gibson is in the conversation as one of the greatest World Series performers of all time, not only for that staggering game-winning home run in his only plate appearance in the 1988 World Series. In 1984, Gibson hit .333 in the Tigers' five-game rout of the San Diego Padres, including a couple of home runs -- the last an upper-deck blast off Goose Gossage that punctuated Detroit's dominance that year, following a famous exchange with his manager, Sparky Anderson, captured by cameras. Gibson's World Series record: seven hits in 19 at-bats, with three homers, a 1.342 OPS -- and two indelible moments.
What follows is a list of the 10 best World Series performers of all time, and in searching for ways to define the greatest World Series performers, I decided to eliminate the players whose Fall Classic legacy is built on one great game. Don Larsen, the architect of a perfect game in the 1956 World Series, is one example. David Freese, who contributed the biggest hits in arguably the best World Series game ever -- Game 6 of the 2011 World Series -- is another. I built this list instead on players who thrived in multiple opportunities on baseball's most important stage.
1. Reggie Jackson
He has gone down in history as Mr. October, and interestingly, his World Series legacy began with a Fall Classic noteworthy for him because he couldn't play. Part of the Oakland Athletics, Jackson was injured in the last game of the 1972 American League Championship Series and was unable to participate against the Reds. When he got his first opportunity the next fall, against the Mets, Jackson went 4-for-8 in Games 6 and 7, hitting a homer and driving in four runs.
But his legend was made in the 1977 World Series, when he bashed five homers against the Dodgers, including three in the clinching Game 6 -- on three swings, the last of which drove a ball into the center-field seats in old Yankee Stadium. In one of the biggest moments of the 1978 World Series, he struck out against the Dodgers' Bob Welch, but then he got his revenge to culminate a Yankees comeback by homering off Welch in Game 6.
Think about Reggie Jackson's numbers in the World Series: seven doubles, a triple and 10 homers in 27 games, a 1.212 OPS -- with a .755 slugging percentage. In the biggest games, against the best teams, on the biggest stage.
Bruce Bochy managed Bumgarner in all of the left-hander's World Series appearances, and in a conversation the other day, Bochy recalled a news-conference response from Bumgarner that encapsulated the left-hander's perspective about postseason pressure. Bumgarner was asked about the magnitude of the 2014 wild-card game, the extraordinary win-or-go-home stakes. "Does the other guy know?" Bumgarner asked, referring to the Pirates' Edinson Volquez.
To Bumgarner, pressure is something that affects other players. Not him. And his World Series results are absurd: A 0.25 ERA in five games spread over the Giants' championships in 2010, 2012 and 2014. Thirty-six innings, one run allowed. One. Four starts and his remarkable five-inning scoreless relief performance in Kansas City just three days after he shut out the Royals with 117 pitches in Game 5.
Bumgarner made his first World Series appearance in Game 4 of the 2010 World Series, shutting out the Texas Rangers for eight innings at age 21, and as he compiled postseason accomplishments, Bochy believes, Bumgarner constructed an indestructible belief in his own ability to handle anything.
"The postseason just put him in a maniacal focus that was unreal," Bochy said. "The bigger the game, the better the good players are, and that was certainly the case with him."
3. Babe Ruth
He played in the World Series 10 times, compiling 167 plate appearances, 15 homers and a .470 on-base percentage. And his performance was even more extraordinary as a pitcher -- a 0.87 ERA in three games started in the 1916 and 1918 World Series. A Ruth decision caused the ignominious end of the 1926 World Series, with the slugger getting thrown out on a stolen-base attempt. But Ruth pitched all 14 innings of a win in the '16 World Series, blasted three homers in the 1923 World Series, set a record by hitting four homers in '26 and three more in '28, and of course, he either did or didn't call his shot (I say he didn't) in the Yankees' obliteration of the Cubs in the 1932 World Series. Ruth did what stars are supposed to do.
4. Bob Gibson
He threw a complete game in Game 7 of the 1964 World Series and won. Three years later, he again started Game 7, against the Red Sox -- and again won with a complete game, the third of his three victories for the Cardinals in that World Series. In Game 1 of the 1968 World Series, he set a record by striking out 17 Tigers.
Gibson's postseason experience was limited to World Series games, and in nine starts, he went 7-2 with a 1.89 ERA.
5. Sandy Koufax
He was the best pitcher in the sport for a span of five years, and part of that standing was built on what he did in the World Series. In the 1963 World Series, he set a single-game record for strikeouts, whiffing 15 -- the record that Gibson would break in the '68 World Series -- and followed that with a series-clinching showing in Game 4. In the 1965 World Series, Dodgers manager Walter Alston opted to start Koufax over Don Drysdale for Game 7 against the Twins, despite the fact that Koufax was taking the mound on two days' rest, and Koufax won. In eight World Series outings, he had an 0.95 ERA, with 11 walks and 61 strikeouts in 57 innings at a time when very few pitchers averaged a strikeout per inning.
6. Christy Mathewson
He pitched in the dead ball era and at a time when the sport was segregated, important distinctions. But Mathewson's performance for the New York Giants in the 1905 World Series became the standard against which all postseason pitchers are measured: Three starts, three shutouts, one walk in 27 innings. In 11 World Series starts in his career, Mathewson had an 0.97 ERA.
7. Kirk Gibson
8. Mickey Mantle
He blasted 18 homers in 65 World Series games, repeatedly getting opportunities to compile numbers. What he lacked were those signature moments like Jackson and Gibson enjoyed.
9. David Ortiz
He played in three World Series, in 2004, 2007 and 2013, and in those, he compiled an OPS of 1.372, with six doubles and three homers in 44 at-bats. He batted .455. Think about this: He had 14 walks and five strikeouts in World Series play. Hitters live with constant failure in baseball, but in the World Series, Ortiz dominated pitchers.
"He was smarter as a hitter than people realize," said Terry Francona, his former manager. "He knew what pitchers wanted to do versus him. And the bigger the moment, the better the hitter he was. Some guys shy away from those situations. He relished them.
"When he was right, he was just awesome -- he just seemed like he could hit everything. When he would spit on his gloves and clap them together, I got fired up."
10. Roberto Clemente
He got a hit in each of the 14 World Series games in which he played, batting .362 through the Pirates' championships in 1960 and 1971. Clemente treated the '71 Series, which he played at age 37, as if it were his own personal time capsule: He left behind extraordinary moments of defense and speed and power, and as the Pirates won Game 7, it was Clemente who gave them the lead, with a fourth-inning home run, they would not relinquish.
Honorable mention
Jack Morris: He went 4-2 with a 2.96 ERA in the World Series, generating one of the best Game 7 performances ever in 1991, when he shut out the Braves in a 10-inning Game 7.
Randy Johnson: He's the only player on this list who appeared in just one World Series, but consider what he did in 2001. He started and won Games 2 and 6, and then in Game 7, the next day, he came out of the Diamondbacks' bullpen to get four outs, holding Arizona close with a 2-1 deficit. When Luis Gonzalez flared a game-winning single in the bottom of the ninth, Johnson was the winning pitcher for the third time in that World Series.
Rollie Fingers: He had a 1.35 ERA while pitching in 16 games over three World Series.