I just had occasion to look at the Cleon Jones shoe polish incident that arose here as an addendum to the article I wrote a month ago
www.billjamesonline.com/tracing_the_tracer-master/ on the subject of Jerry Koosman accusing Gil Hodges of managing like an idiot, and specifically of Hodges faking the shoe-polish ball that nailed the 1969 Orioles' coffin shut.
www.youtube.com/watch That last thing was a link to a Youtube clip of the incident (that I'll give here too, since links usually don't work here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpo8FYFHjuE&fbclid=IwAR3AbtmwZ8Im1vtx1-0XwKKMeqZI9ig7MGGPSOmvbMciOZ3XnXeB9ZywfLY ) --it kinda blew me away, looking at it again.
Simply, if you look at the first few seconds of the clip, it's practically stupid how obvious it should have been that the ball caromed off Jones' foot. I had forgotten how the play LOOKED, rather than relying on the description of it I'd read so many times over the past 50 years.
In case neither link works, I'll describe what I mean (and you can just Google "Cleon 1969 shoe polish" or some such): the pitch (a curve, I think, by Dave McNally) arguably bounces in the dirt near Jones' foot BUT instead of bouncing randomly as it would off the ground, it INSTANTLY shoots off in the opposite direction of McNally's pitch. It couldn't have possibly hit anything other than Jones' shoe. Just look at the first five seconds of the clip, and explain how a ball bounces that way WITHOUT hitting Jones' foot.
You don't even have to couple it with Jones' immediately trotting down to first base. Maybe Jones was the quickest thinker since Aristotle and the greatest actor since Edmund Kean (though anyone who followed his thinking and articulating on Kiner's Corner would dispute either characterization). Just look at the angle of that ball, and the only question you'll have is how could ump Lou Dimuro have hesititated even a few seconds before seeing the light? It's kind of silly that this play was controversial, or that the whole shoe polish thing even had to be introduced. If Jones didn't get awarded a base on that play, it would have been one of the worst calls in Series history.
Kinda makes you glad we have replay now, don't it?