In 1988, Mitch Poole was a 24-year-old bat boy for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Little did he know he would end up playing a role in a history-making home run.
It was Game 1 of the Dodgers' World Series matchup against the Oakland A's. Poole's job was to stay in the clubhouse and wash uniforms. He was with the injured Kirk Gibson in the training room as he iced his legs.
"Vin Scully came over the air and said we're going to be without services of Kirk Gibson for the series," Poole recaled. "I won't say what Gibson said, but he got up real quick and had me get his uniform."
Dutifully, Poole obliged.
Gibson, determined to get back in the game, then asked Poole for another favor: help him with batting practice. "Kirk goes, 'You know, Mitch, this could be the script,'" Poole said. But before that script could be written, Poole had to first relay a message from Gibson to then-Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda.
"I'm just this low guy on the totem pole and I don't think he took me seriously," Poole remembers thinking, "but he did when I told him, 'Gibby wants to hit.'"
Gibson did hit, delivering a walk-off homer that won the game for the Dodgers and is now legendary.
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Gibson was so grateful to Poole that when it was Kirk Gibson bobblehead night at Dodger Stadium in 2012, he asked Poole to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.
Poole, now the Visiting Clubhouse Manager at Dodger Stadium, knows what he'll be doing during the 2017 World Series.
"I'll be there looking at jocks and shirts and uniforms," he said. And who knows? Maybe he'll be a part of history yet again.
