Gossage Pitches to Gibson

October 14, 1984, Game 5 at Tiger Stadium. Detroit led the Series three games to one and the game, 5–4, in the bottom of the eighth. Lance Parrish had homered off Rich Gossage in the seventh. Kurt Bevacqua had homered off Willie Hernández in the eighth to bring San Diego within a run. Marty Castillo and Lou Whitaker were on base when Kirk Gibson came up, and first base was open. The next hitter was Parrish.

Dick Williams came to the mound. The account from the dugout, and from Gibson, is that Williams wanted the intentional walk, a left-handed hitter put on so Gossage could face the right-handed Parrish. Gossage talked him out of it. Sparky Anderson held up four fingers in the Detroit dugout. Gibson said he held up ten fingers and bet Anderson ten dollars he would hit it out. He hit a three-run homer into the right-field stands. The Tigers led, 8–4, and won the Series when Hernández finished the ninth.

Williams changed his mind on the mound, in public, at the urging of his closer. That is a managerial decision with a name on it, the same shape as pitching to a dangerous hitter with a base open. Gibson earned the swing. The entry is the conversation that let him have it.