Every walk-off clinch in World Series history

It's a scenario that has been reenacted ad infinitum by baseball-playing youngsters around the globe -- coming to bat with the championship on the line and delivering the hit that wins it all. A select group of players actually got to live out that fantasy on baseball's biggest stage.

There have been 11 title-clinching walk-off victories in World Series history, including nine hits and two home runs. Here is a look back at these memorable moments, beginning with the most recent.

Luis Gonzalez, D-backs (single)
2001 World Series Game 7 vs. Yankees

Just four years after joining the Majors as an expansion club in 1998, the D-backs triumphed over the mighty Yankees in one of the most memorable Fall Classics ever. After withstanding stunning comeback wins by New York in Games 4 and 5 at Yankee Stadium, Arizona won in a rout back home in Game 6 to force a winner-take-all Game 7.

In the deciding contest, a solo homer by Alfonso Soriano off Curt Schilling in the top of the eighth gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead, and they called upon legendary closer Mariano Rivera to clinch their fourth straight World Series title. However, the D-backs rallied and tied the game on a double by Tony Womack, and after Rivera hit Craig Counsell with a pitch to load the bases, Gonzalez blooped a ball over the Yankees' drawn-in infield to score Jay Bell as Arizona walked off to a title.

Edgar Renteria, Marlins (single)
1997 World Series Game 7 vs. Cleveland

The 1997 Fall Classic truly was a seesaw affair, as the teams traded wins over the first six games of the series. Looking for a second straight victory in South Florida to clinch their first title since 1948, Cleveland had Florida down to its final two outs in Game 7 when Counsell (yep, him again), then a rookie, plated the tying run with a sacrifice fly off Jose Mesa.

Two innings later, Counsell found himself on third base, representing the winning run with two outs and Renteria at bat. Renteria lined a ball that barely eluded pitcher Charles Nagy's glove and squeaked past second baseman Tony Fernandez, rolling into center field as Counsell trotted home. The Marlins became the quickest expansion team to win a World Series, doing so in their fifth year of existence, but they wouldn't hold that record for long, thanks to the Arizona club mentioned above.

Joe Carter, Blue Jays (home run)
1993 World Series Game 6 vs. Phillies

After winning the first World Series championship in franchise history the previous season, the Blue Jays had a chance to clinch their second straight title in Game 5 of the 1993 Fall Classic, but the Phillies staved off elimination and sent the series back to Toronto with a 2-0 win. Philadelphia was resilient again in Game 6, rallying from a 5-1 deficit to take a one-run lead in the top of the seventh inning. However, closer Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams was anything but automatic, especially during the 1993 postseason.

Handed a one-run lead in the bottom of the ninth, Williams walked Rickey Henderson to start the inning and allowed a one-out single to Paul Molitor, putting the tying run on second base for Carter. The Blue Jays slugger then socked Williams' 2-2 pitch to deep left field, bringing Toronto another crown with the second World Series-ending home run in baseball history and eliciting an all-time great call from Tom Cheek: "Touch em' all, Joe! You'll never hit a bigger home run in your life!"

Gene Larkin, Twins (single)
1991 World Series Game 7 vs. Braves

A series best remembered for Kirby Puckett's walk-off homer in Game 6 and an incredible pitchers' duel between John Smoltz and Jack Morris in Game 7 ended on Larkin's pinch-hit, walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th. In that seventh game, Smoltz and Morris traded zeroes until the Braves starter exited with one out in the eighth inning. Morris kept it going through 10, and in the bottom of the inning, the Twins loaded the bases with one out on Dan Gladden's double, Chuck Knoblauch's sac bunt and two intentional walks off Alejandro Peña.

Larkin then pinch-hit for Jarvis Brown, who had entered as a pinch-runner for Chili Davis in the ninth. Larkin had been just 4-for-25 as a pinch-hitter in 1991 (including the postseason), but he came through when it mattered most, lofting a deep fly ball that got over the head of left fielder Brian Hunter and allowed Gladden to trot home.

Bill Mazeroski, Pirates (home run)
1960 World Series Game 7 vs. Yankees

Thirty-three years before Carter's big blast, the Pirates gave the Yankees -- a team that had won seven of the previous 11 World Series titles -- all they could handle in the Fall Classic. The Yanks actually outscored the Pirates, 55-27, and New York second baseman Bobby Richardson was named World Series MVP, but Pittsburgh won four close games to topple a juggernaut.

The two clubs went back and forth in a thrilling Game 7 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, with the Yankees rallying from a 4-0 deficit to take the lead and the Pirates doing the same after falling behind 7-4. The Yanks scored two times in the top of the ninth to tie the game, setting the stage for one of the most iconic home runs in baseball history as Mazeroski, a second baseman known more for his glove than his bat, blasted a leadoff shot to left field in the bottom of the frame. Mazeroski's homer remains the only walk-off big fly in a winner-take-all World Series game.

• The boy who caught (and lost) Maz's HR ball

Billy Martin, Yankees (single)
1953 World Series Game 6 vs. Dodgers

You might be more familiar with Martin from his managerial career, which included stints with five different teams and multiple tumultuous tenures in the Bronx, where he won the 1977 World Series. But before any of that, Martin spent 11 seasons as a Major League infielder, including seven with the Yankees, winning five rings.

One of those came in 1953, when the Yankees defeated the crosstown Dodgers in the Fall Classic for the fifth time in 13 years. New York jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in Game 6, but Brooklyn tied things up in the top of the ninth, setting up Martin's heroics. With runners on first and second and one out, Martin bounced a pitch from Clem Labine up the middle, and Hank Bauer raced around to score.

Goose Goslin, Tigers (single)
1935 World Series Game 6 vs. Cubs

The Tigers lost in seven games to the Cardinals in the 1934 Fall Classic, but they made it back in 1935 and faced the Cubs. Game 6 went to the bottom of the ninth inning tied at 3-3, and with one out, Mickey Cochrane singled and moved to second on a Charlie Gehringer groundout.

That brought up Goslin -- like the two preceding hitters, a future Hall of Famer. Playing in his 32nd and final World Series across five different seasons, Goslin delivered against Cubs starter Larry French. His single scored Cochrane and brought Detroit its first World Series title in five trips.

Bing Miller, Athletics (double)
1929 World Series Game 5 vs. Cubs

Cubs starter Pat Malone was two outs away from a 2-0 shutout that would have forced Game 6 when Mule Haas slugged a game-tying homer in the bottom of the ninth. One out later, following an Al Simmons double, the Cubs opted to intentionally walk the great Jimmie Foxx -- then a budding superstar at age 21 -- and go after Miller. The 34-year-old fell behind 1-2 before hitting a line drive to right field that easily scored Simmons for Philadelphia's first of back-to-back championships.

Earle Combs, Yankees (scored on wild pitch)
1927 World Series Game 4 vs. Pirates

The World Series ending on a wild pitch? It really did happen in 1927, and so Combs is the only baserunner who makes this list. That famously hard-hitting Yankees team stormed out to a 3-0 series lead against the Pirates that year and led Game 4 by a 3-1 score before Pittsburgh pulled even in the seventh. In the bottom of the ninth, though, the Pirates' Johnny Miljus quickly loaded the bases on a walk, a bunt single, a wild pitch and an intentional walk (to Babe Ruth). Yet he nearly escaped unscathed, recovering to strike out Lou Gehrig and Bob Meusel. That brought Hall of Fame second baseman Tony Lazzeri to the plate, and after a foul ball, Miljus uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Combs to dash home and complete the sweep.

Earl McNeely, Senators (double)
1924 World Series Game 7 vs. Giants

McNeely notched the first title-clinching hit in World Series history and ended the longest Game 7 (in terms of innings) in postseason history with his double in the bottom of the 12th. The game had been tied at 3-3 since the eighth, when Bucky Harris smacked a two-run single. Walter Johnson's four innings of scoreless relief kept Washington in the game, and in the 12th, a double and two errors (one on a foul pop) brought up leadoff man McNeely (0-for-5 to that point). McNeely's hard grounder to third got past the Giants' Freddie Lindstrom -- exactly how is up for debate -- and Muddy Ruel brought home the walk-off run.

Larry Gardner, Red Sox (sacrifice fly)
1912 World Series Game 8 vs. Giants

There was a Game 8 in 1912 because Game 2 ended in a tie on account of darkness, and the Red Sox had to battle Giants ace Christy Mathewson in that decisive contest. It went into extra innings, with New York pushing across a run in the top of the 10th at Fenway Park. In the bottom half, Boston tied the game against Mathewson on an error, a walk and Tris Speaker's one-out RBI single. A throwing error on that play put runners on second and third, and an intentional walk loaded the bases. That's when Gardner, one of Boston's leading hitters that season, lifted a fly ball to right field, deep enough to score Steve Yerkes for the walk-off win.