The Final 9

By Ed Sherman

WATERTOWN, Wis. -- Fred Merkle was born in Watertown, Wis. in 1888, but he spent only one year there before his family moved to Toledo.


Still, that didn't prevent Watertown resident David Stalker from claiming Merkle as the town's very own. He spearheaded an effort to erect a monument in Merkle's honor.

Set in black marble with a baseball perched on top, the monument notes that Merkle was a "potent line-drive hitter and agile first-baseman." It says he was a member of six World Series teams.

However, there is no mention on the monument of the play that earned Merkle a spot in baseball infamy. The inscription boasts of Merkle's "intelligence" on the field, seemingly a contradiction for a player whose nickname was "Bonehead."

"We want the average person to see Fred Merkle for who he really was," Stalker said. "There was much more to his career than just one play."

Yet as Bill Buckner discovered in the cruelest way possible, one play can define a career. Prior to Buckner and the ball-between-the-legs grounder that ended Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, there was Merkle, the goat of goats.

Sadly, one play defined Merkle's career, life....