Rookie right-handed pitcher Landon Knack of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitched in Game 4 of the World Series on Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.
Meanwhile, back in Northeast Tennessee his father watched it all unfold on television.
“Just felt so overwhelmingly grateful and humbled to see him achieve a dream of his,” John Knack said. “He’s worked harder than anyone else I know of to be in the position he’s put himself in. Once he came out of the game the nerves were fine and I just felt so proud of him.”
A former star at Science Hill High School, Walters State Community College and East Tennessee State University, Knack tossed four-innings of one run-ball for the Dodgers in their 11-4 loss to the New York Yankees.
Knack allowed two hits, walked one and struck out two while throwing 56 pitches.
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Taking over on the mound for Daniel Hudson (a Virginia native who played at Old Dominion University) and the Dodgers trailing 5-2, Knack delivered a quality outing.
He allowed a single to the first batter he faced, Alex Verdugo, but Gleyber Torres followed by grounding into a 4-6-3 double play.
Knack’s strikeout victims were powerful sluggers Giancarlo Stanton and Juan Soto and after surrendering a home run to Austin Wells to begin the sixth inning, retired the final six batters he faced.
He was relieved by Brent Honeywell, who like Knack, attended Walters State Community College in Morristown, Tennessee.
It marked the second straight year that a Northeast Tennessean has played in the World Series as outfielder Evan Carter (Elizabethton) played a starring role in 2023 as the Texas Rangers won it all.
Knack is another local guy getting to showcase his skills on the big stage.
The very first World Series game was won by a pitcher born in Southwest Virginia and 121 years later a Northeast Tennessean was on the mound in the Fall Classic.
It was Rural Retreat, Virginia, native Deacon Phillippe of the Pittsburgh Pirates who spun a complete-game, six-hit gem in Game 1 of the 1903 World Series, outpitching Cy Young of the homestanding Boston Americans in a 7-3 victory at spacious Huntington Avenue Grounds.
The following is a look at the experiences of other guys from this area who participated in the event:
Evan Carter
Texas Rangers (2023)
Evan Carter, right, of the Texas Rangers celebrates with Mitch Garver (18) after scoring against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 1 of the 2023 World Series.
The rookie outfielder who was just three years removed from starring for the Elizabethton High School Cyclones hit .286 (6-for-21) with three doubles and an RBI as Texas topped the Arizona Diamondbacks in five games to win the World Series a year ago.
It capped a prominent postseason for Carter, who reached base in all 17 playoff games as Texas surprised everybody by taking the title.
Justin Grimm
Chicago Cubs (2016)
The Virginia High graduate pitched in Games 1, 3 and 4 of the 2016 World Series for the Chicago Cubs, who wound up beating the Cleveland Indians in seven games to win their first championship since 1908.
Grimm had an 18.00 ERA over his two innings of work in the Fall Classic and the highlight occurred in the fifth inning of Game 3.
Taking over for Kyle Hendricks with one out and the bases loaded in a scoreless tie, Grimm got Francisco Lindor to hit into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play as Wrigley Field erupted in cheers. The video is on YouTube and appears in many of the highlight packages of that World Series.
Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo, left, and relief pitcher Justin Grimm (Virginia High) react after a double play during the fifth inning of Game 3 of the 2016 World Series.
“The feeling you get when walking out of that bullpen during a World Series is pure electric,” Grimm told the Bristol Herald Courier last year. “It’s about as uplifting of a feeling that you can get. I immediately was telling myself to remain calm. It’s almost like a buzz just going through the air. It’s just a different feeling mostly because it means everything. It’s the ultimate dance… It is why you play.”
Grimm was warming up in the bullpen in Cleveland when fellow Cubs reliever Mike Montgomery recorded the title-clinching out in Game 7 by getting Michael Martinez on a grounder to third baseman Kris Bryant.
“If Montgomery didn’t get that guy out, I had the next hitter,” Grimm said in 2016.
Atlee Hammaker
San Francisco Giants (1989)
The ex-East Tennessee State University star pitched in two games for San Francisco in the 1989 World Series and had mixed results.
“The big difference is the pressure and it’s much more magnified,” Hammaker told this newspaper in 2023. “In a short series of seven games, it’s kind of do it now or never type of thing. Your goal is to get there. … It’s a great feeling and at the same time it’s pressure-packed. A once in a lifetime type of opportunity.”
In Game 1, he tossed 1 2/3 scoreless innings of relief and notched strikeouts of Oakland’s Dave Parker and Walt Weiss.
He didn’t fare so well in Game 3 as six of the eight batters he faced in the eighth inning reached base and four of them scored.
Those outings came 12 days apart as the series – won by Oakland in four games – was interrupted by an earthquake.
“That was my only opportunity and I treasure that even though we got swept,” Hammaker said.
Ed Whitson
San Diego Padres (1984)
The fierce competitor from Unicoi County High School started on the mound for San Diego in Game 2 of the 1984 World Series and his outing against the Detroit Tigers did not go well.
San Diego Padres pitcher Ed Whitson (Unicoi County) pitched in the 1984 World Series for the San Diego Padres.
His final line: 2/3 I.P., 5 hits, 3 runs, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts. He faced seven batters and threw just 17 pitches in what would be the only World Series appearance of his lengthy career.
“For Ed Whitson, the dream of pitching in a World Series turned into a nightmare,” the velvet-voiced Vin Scully said on the NBC broadcast.
He got a no-decision, however, as the Padres rallied for a 5-3 victory in a series they lost to Detroit in five games. The game Whitson started remains the only World Series win in franchise history for San Diego.
Ed Goodson
Los Angeles Dodgers (1977)
The country boy from Fries, Virginia, who later starred at East Tennessee State University, appeared in one of the most famous World Series games ever played.
Entering as a pinch-hitter for L.A. in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series, Goodson struck out on a 1-2 pitch from Mike Torrez of the New York Yankees to end the seventh inning.
That is the same game Reggie Jackson homered three times in helping New York notch an 8-4 title-clinching victory.
Goodson has vivid memories of his own October moment at Yankee Stadium as he was summoned to hit for relief pitcher Doug Rau.
“In batting practice I had scorched some balls into the upper deck at Yankee Stadium and was hoping to get a chance,” Goodson told the Bristol Herald Courier in 2020. “[Third baseman Ron] Cey and [first baseman Steve] Garvey never did take days off, so my job that year was as a pinch-hitter. So the opportunity comes and [manager Tommy Lasorda] tells me to get in there and hit.”
Catcher Thurman Munson of the Yankees and Goodson exchanged a couple of congenial words, prompting ABC’s Howard Cosell to ask his partners in the booth, Keith Jackson and Tom Seaver, “Was Goodson smiling or grimacing?”
He was smiling.
“I step in the box and Thurman Munson says, ‘Ed Goodson, I’ve heard a lot about you. You have some pretty good power.’ I’m getting ready to hit and I step out of the box and look at him,” Goodson said. “He then said, ‘Here’s what we’re gonna do. I’m going to tell [Torrez] to give you a fastball right down the middle belt-high and you have to make a decision. I know you have the take sign, so you can either take or you can swing.’
“I just started laughing and thinking, ‘What the crap is this guy doing?’ Here it comes, my one chance and of course I’ve got the take sign and it was a fastball belt-high right down the middle for a strike. Ol’ Thurman says, ‘That was it. You’re on your own now big boy.’ I ended up striking out and I always think about what if I would have just gone ahead and swung and took my chances. I should’ve done it. But that was what that little bit of grinning and laughing was about.”
Willie Horton
Detroit Tigers (1968)
Horton was born in Arno, Virginia, a coal mining community in Wise County, but his family moved to Detroit when he was 5-years-old.
He would eventually reach the majors with his hometown Tigers and hit .304 (7-for-23) in helping Detroit defeat St. Louis in seven games in the 1968 World Series.
He homered off Nelson Briles of the Cardinals in Game 2.
Ernie Ferrell Bowman
San Francisco Giants (1962)
The Science Hill High School graduate appeared in two games for the San Francisco Giants during their seven-game setback to the New York Yankees in the ’62 Series.
He was inserted as a pinch-runner and scored on a seventh-inning grand slam by Chuck Hiller in San Francisco’s 7-3 triumph in Game 4. He was a defensive replacement in Game 7.
Jim Mooney
St. Louis Cardinals (1934)
The lone World Series appearance for the ex-East Tennessee State University standout lasted one inning for the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 4 of the ’34 Fall Classic.
He worked a scoreless ninth in a 10-4 setback to the Detroit Tigers. St. Louis won the championship in seven games.
Monte Weaver
Washington Senators (1933)
Weaver’s only appearance in the World Series resulted in a tough-luck loss for the pitcher from Emory & Henry College.
Squaring off against Carl Hubbell of the New York Giants in Game 4, Weaver was good, but Hubbell was better.
Weaver’s line in the Washington Senators’ 2-1 extra-inning defeat: 10 1/3 I.P., 11 hits, 2 runs, 4 walks, 3 strikeouts.
The Senators lost the series in five games.
Clarence “Tillie” Walker
Boston Red Sox (1916)
Telford, Tennessee native Clarence “Tillie” Walker was 3-for-11 in three games for the Boston Red Sox, which defeated Brooklyn Robins to win the 1916 World Series.
The Telford, Tennessee, native hit .273 (3-for-11) in three games for the Boston Red Sox in the 1916 World Series against Brooklyn.
Walker’s teammate, George Herman “Babe” Ruth, got most of the headlines as Boston won the series in five games.
Deacon Phillippe
Pittsburgh Pirates (1903, 1909)
Born in Wythe County, Virginia, Phillippe was a workhorse in the very first World Series for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
While Pittsburgh lost to Boston five games to three in the best-of-nine series, Phillippe was 3-2 with a 3.07 ERA.
Rural Retreat native Deacon Phillippe picked up the first win in World Series history, pitching the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 7-3 win over the Boston Americans in Game 1 in 1903.
“Deacon would pitch five complete games over a stretch of 13 days,” said Robert Peyton Wiggins, the author of The Deacon and the Schoolmaster: Phillippe and Leever, Pittsburgh’s Great Turn-of-the-Century Pitchers. “After winning the first and third games with only one day off, two travel days and three postponements due to weather allowed Phillippe to pitch three more times. For his efforts, Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss awarded Deacon ten shares of stock in a trolley car company in Pittsburgh.”
Phillippe would be on a championship team six years later as he contributed six scoreless innings of relief over two outings to Pittsburgh’s 1909 World Series triumph over the Detroit Tigers.
Phil Garner
Pittsburgh Pirates (1979); Houston Astros (2005)
Garner could be considered a pseudo local in the pros. Local-ish so to speak.
The Tennessean was born in Jefferson City and raised in Rutledge before enrolling at Bearden High School in Knoxville and later starring at the University of Tennessee.
Garner’s final high school game was a regional tournament loss to eventual state champion Tennessee High in 1967.
He fared better in the postseason as a pro.
A second baseman, Garner hit .500 (12-for-24) with five RBIs in the 1979 World Series for the Pittsburgh Pirates as they beat Baltimore in seven games.
He managed the Houston Astros to the 2005 World Series, but his club was swept by the Chicago White Sox.
Umpire (1986, 1997)
The Jonesborough, Tennessee, native umpired 14 games in the two World Series he worked as both were seven-game classics: the New York Mets beating the Boston Red Sox in 1986 and the Florida Marlins edging the Cleveland Indians in 1997.
Former MLB umpire Dale Ford keeps an eye on a 2021 game between Science Hill and Tennessee High.
Ford was the home-plate umpire for the memorable Game 6 in ’86 when a groundball off the bat of the Mets’ Mookie Wilson went between Boston first baseman Bill Buckner’s legs to give New York a dramatic win.
He was working first base in Game 7 of 1997 when the Marlins won on Edgar Renteria’s walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the 11th inning.
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