I really can't add anything at all to the superb commentary by irish, save to add that what sometimes gets forgotten is that McGraw never held a resentment towards Merkle afterward, and that Merkle, who was really just a kid at this time, went on to have a long and productive career which ended in the late 20's.

. . .ahh. ..I can still hear my little league coach yelling at me to touch all the bases. . .

Immense impact on what was perhaps the greatest pennant race of all time. Merkle has been historically excoriated for a bonehead play (not touching second base on a base hit that drove in the winning run). What is all but forgotten now is that Merkle's actions were the norm at the time, and generally ignored by umpires and opponents alike. Fans in the period would swarm the field at the last out, or winning hit, and players fled the field for the clubhouse, particularly in enemy ball-parks. A few games before the famous incident, the same thing happened between the Cubs and the Pirates, and Cub infielder Evers argued vociferously and unsuccessfully that a final force out should be recorded and the winning run not score. While his protest at the time failed, umpires took note, and when this happened in a crucial game between the Cubs and Giants, an out was recorded resulting in a tie, and ultimately in the first playoff in Major League history. The Cubs won the playoff, and Merkle's somewhat unjust place in history was secured. Among the fall-out from this was the suicide of the National league president, Harry Pulliam, and several serious injuries and at least one death among the fans at the play-off game. I've always thought that this was a huge mistake, in that it is a serious flaw to have rules on the books which are not enforced. The rule (that no run can be scored when the third out of an inning is a force play) had always been there, but as mentioned above, seldom if ever enforced. Enforcing it suddenly, under the circumstances at the time was dubious logic at best.