March 30, 1960
World Baseball Championship - Dominican Republic Celebrates
With two swings of the bat, Maximo Loaiza showed he knows how to start a party - and how to end one.
He came to bat in the bottom of the 3rd inning of the deciding game with the Dominican Republic already ahead 4-0. He smoked a line drive to left field that had just enough height to get over the wall, giving his team a 6-0 lead and seemingly putting the game to bed.
The next two innings were more like a coronation of the Dominican team. The Korean fans had been quieted and Gene Viveros was tossing a gem. But something sparked in the 6th inning, and the fans began to waken as the Korean team scratched across a run with two outs and then loaded the bases.
Ji-Hoon Choi unloaded them, and unloaded on a Viveros fastball, sending it over the wall and sending the crowd into a frenzy as the lead was cut to 6-5. The lifeless game had been given CPR and surely sent millions around the world back to their radios and televisions to catch the conclusion.
The easygoing smiles in the Dominican dugout turned to tension as they gritted through the next inning, stranding two baserunners. The Koreans further threatened in the 8th but a brilliant throw from rightfielder Lukas Caneda prevented a 1st-and-3rd situation with just one out.
And in the bottom of the 8th, Loaiza returned to the plate with a man aboard. He waited out Byung-Soo Shin, working the count to 3-2 before getting one he could drive, launching his 7th home run of the tournament.
Angel Varela, who had escaped the 8th inning jam, returned for the 9th and calmly closed it out, firing a high fastball past Soo-Il Minh and into the mitt of Yordano Mirano, just as Mirano had promised.
For their efforts, Loaiza and Varela were respectively named Most Outstanding Player and Best Pitcher of the tournament.
