Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame: Tony Fernandez for losing the 1997 World Series

So one of my favorite shows was Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame on ESPN Classic. I had written some at one point and so I will be posting them as some of the new sports lists I was talking about using the same format the show used. 1-2 best of the rest reasons and 5 reasons you can't blame.Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Tony Fernandez for losing the 1997 World Series 

Overview: In the bottom of the 12th inning of game 7 of the 1997 World Series Tony Fernandez misplayed a ball. Later in the inning Edgar Renteria would hit a single, Craig Counsell would score and the Marlins would win the world series. Fernandez has often been labeled the goat. 

Best of the rest reasons

1. Jose Mesa and Charles Nagy: Mesa blew a lead in the 9th inning and Nagy still gave up the hit to Renteria. It was not like everyone else was perfect. In the top of the 9th Sandy Alomar also made a weird running error and did not slide.
2. Mike Hargrove: The manager was not perfect either. He left starting pitcher Jaret Wright in for two long. He brought in Mesa as well. Jim Leyland the winning manager got a lot of the credit, so Hargrove needs to get some of the blame.

Okay here are the top 5 reasons

5. Bobby Bonilla and Joe Black: Remember how I said Hargrove left Wright out there for two long. It was really one inning. After being great for 6 innings Wright was clearing becoming tired. Joe Black, a pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers who had the same thing happened to him while pitching to Micky Mantle although the other way of course, told Bonilla to back off the plate. Wright had been hammering him inside but now that he backed off it didn't seem as much inside. One swing and Bonilla hit a home run changed the momentum and tied the game. 

4. Great Series and Great Marlins: This wasn't a normal situation this was the bottom of the 11th inning in a game 7 of a world series. While people might not know, when the Marlins were good that stadium was rocking. This was not a no pressure play. 

3. Manny being Manny: Like with Lonnie Smith this play should not have happened. Manny Ramirez showed an early stage of Manny being Manny. So after Charles Johnson singled the opposite way, something he had done 4 times in the regular season, Ramiriez did not go back to where he was supposed to. But it actually worked. The Indians had been playing Craig Counsell as a opposite field hitter. So when he hit the ball down the line Jim Leylannd thought that they had won the world series. Except Ramirez was standing in a place he should have never been. Also Ramirez missed another ball when it looks like he just whiffed. 

2. Tony Fernandez: There are three parts of this. Fernandez had actually been bench at the end of the season. But by game 7 he was a key part as well as a 4 time gold glove winner there is more. First of all if Mesa had not blown the game in the 9th Fernandez would have had the series winning hit. Also, Fernandez got the Indians to the World Series by hitting a series clinching home run against the Orioles. This was a key player and they might not have even made it that far.

1. Edgar Renteria: He had the game winning hit and this was not the guy that won the World Series MVP in 2010. This was a 21 year old kid who according to some people did something amazing. The first pitch of his at bat Charles Nagy threw a nasty breaking ball and Renteria flinched. He threw almost the same thing on the next pitch where Renteria had the game winning hit. People said that there is no way he could have hit the ball the way he did unless he knew what was coming. Therefore, some people think the flinch was a setup for Nagy to throw the pitch again. 

Thank you for reading this, I will keep making people think about sports. Let me know if you think there is something I should write about. Lastly, a shout out to Tom Verducci, Bob Costas and MLB 20 Greatest Games.