The story behind the greatest bat flip in World Series history

Tom Lawless was never a slugger. He never hit home runs. He'll tell you that himself, using almost any other possible description for a ballplayer.

"Never a power hitter," Lawless said in a Zoom call. "More of a line-drive hitter, base stealer, scoring runs kind of guy. Middle-infielder. Small guy. Table-setter kind of guy."

The most he ever hit was 13 during a Minor League season in Indianapolis in 1983. He had two over his entire eight-year MLB career. His career slugging percentage was .258. He had 24 total RBIs.

But on one chilly October night in 1987, at the old Busch Stadium, Lawless transformed into a home run legend.

Tied up with the Twins, 1-1, in the fourth inning of Game 4 of the World Series, the mustachioed utility-man from Erie, Pa., connected squarely on a pitch from starter Frank Viola with two men on. The ball shot off his bat, carrying over the left-field wall and ricocheting off the second deck.

It was almost impossible.

A hit the crowd couldn't believe, a moment Lawless only imagined as a kid playing in his backyard. The reaction was fantastic from a man who, at that point, had hit just one MLB home run three years before: A dramatic stare and strut, with a merciless bat flip back toward the on-deck circle.

Lawless wasn't even supposed to really hit for the Cardinals in the postseason. He was a defensive specialist.

But then, during the NLCS, Terry Pendleton got injured.

"Terry Pendleton got hurt in the series against San Francisco," Lawless told me. "He couldn't hit from the right side, he could only hit from the left side. He could only play against the right-handed pitchers, so I played against the left-handed pitchers."

Lawless went 2-for-6 in three NLCS games (much better than his .080 average during the regular season) and then started against Viola in Game 1. Then 30 years old, Lawless went 0-for-3 against Viola with two strikeouts in a 10-1 loss. The Cards lost Game 2 and won Game 3 without Lawless batting. And then Cy Young Award-winning changeup master Viola was back for the Twins for Game 4.

That meant Lawless was also penciled into the lineup.

The third baseman struck out looking in the bottom of the second, leaving two men on in a 0-0 tie.

After both teams scored a run in the third inning and the Twins went scoreless in the top of the fourth, St. Louis made some noise in the bottom half.

Tony Peña walked, Jose Oquendo singled to right and Lawless, coming up in another big spot he wasn't used to delivering in, looked to the team's greatest power hitter for help: Jack "The Ripper" Clark.

"I was sitting on the bench right before that talking to Jack Clark," Lawless remembered. "I was just telling him, 'Hey, give me a game plan here. I can't go up there looking for a changeup because that's just not how I hit, I look for fastballs. And I'm getting changeups in fastball counts.' And that's what you expect in those games: As a hitter you need to make those adjustments."

"He said, 'Go up there and just see the ball and hit it. Make it as simple as that. Be ready to hit the ball when it comes over the plate.'"

"I said, 'Well, isn't that something.'"

Still, right away, when he stepped up with two men on, Lawless expected not to be swinging the bat. There was nobody out. He figured he'd be asked to square around and move the runners over.

"I'm walking up there and I'm looking down to the third-base coach and I'm actually looking for the bunt sign," Lawless said. "I look down there and I get no sign. Uh-oh. No sign. Now, I gotta try to hit the ball the other way to at least get the guy to third base with one out."

Viola got a called strike and then Lawless, still thinking of hitting the ball the opposite way, leaned way back on his right foot, Clark's wise words circling through his brain.

"Be ready to hit the ball when it comes over the plate."

Viola threw a fastball that ran up in the strike zone, and although Lawless put an opposite-field swing on it, the ball soared to left field. He knew he hit it good, but he wasn't sure how good. It was a cold night in St. Louis and hits weren't traveling too far.

Hence, the "strut."

"'Well, let's just watch it and see where it goes,'" Lawless thought at the time. "I see Oquendo tagging up, so he didn't think I could hit it out."

And then, of course, there was The Flip once the ball went over the wall. It's one of the first you'll see caught on video in MLB/World Series history. And for that era in the game, it was an act generally frowned upon.

"I have no recollection of throwing that bat in the air," Lawless said with a laugh. "I know it's the grand stage and everybody is watching, but I have no idea. That is so out of character for me. I'm a laid-back kind of guy. ... And then I see it, and oh my goodness."

It was almost an out-of-body experience for the table-setting middle infielder. A magical sports moment. His teammates were, understandably, ecstatic.

"Everybody's going crazy," Lawless said. "I turn to third base and I see 18 guys standing out on the field by the dugout. Sheesh."

"To give up a three-run bomb to Tom Lawless is not the way I expected things to go down," Viola told ESPN St. Louis a couple years ago.

The Cards took a 4-1 lead and scored two more in the inning to make it 6-1. They ended up winning the game, 7-2, to even up the Series.

St. Louis won Game 5 and lost Game 6 without Lawless getting any at-bats. The Game 4 hero came back for Game 7 against Viola and went 0-for-3 in his team's World Series-deciding loss. The three-run homer would be the only hit for Lawless in 10 Fall Classic at-bats. He never appeared in a postseason game again, hit one more home run in 1988 and retired from baseball in 1990.

Although Viola jokes he would've liked to have faced Lawless again during the regular season so he could "drill" him, he seems mostly happy for Lawless having a moment like he did. Lawless says the two play golf together and there are no hard feelings.

Overall, Lawless sees no problem with bat flips -- even back then, when they were rare and way more taboo.

"I think there's nothing wrong with it in the whole scheme of things," Lawless, now a 66-year-old coach, said. "Especially when you get playoff baseball, because everything is so hyped up and you're so amped up. You're not showing anybody up, you're just excited for yourself and your team. That's all."