“Booker steals home!”: A home opener for the ages
An oral history of Joel Booker’s walk-off steal of home in Winston-Salem’s home opener at BB&T Ballpark
Up until this season, outfielder Joel Booker spent much of his baseball career under the radar. A 22nd round pick in 2016 out of the University of Iowa, Booker turned heads with his stellar performance in Winston-Salem throughout the first half of the 2018 season.
It all started in early April, when he was thrust into the spotlight because of one spectacular play. In the Dash’s home opener at BB&T Ballpark on April 12, Booker executed a walk-off steal of home to win the game for Winston-Salem in the bottom of the 10th inning. It made headlines, appearing on the SportsCenter’s Top 10 list, and it set the tone for what became an exciting first half for the Dash, who clinched the first-half Southern Division title two months later.
This is the story of how that incredible play unfolded, and the reactions of those involved and surrounding the play.
The build up
After the Carolina Mudcats and the Winston-Salem Dash remained tied at two after nine innings of play, Winston-Salem’s home opener extended into extra innings. The Dash had scored first on an RBI single from Gavin Sheets in the bottom of the third, but Carolina answered with a two-run home run from Ronnie Gideon to take the lead in the top of the sixth. A Ti’Quan Forbes RBI double tied the game at 2–2. Mike Morrison then tossed two scoreless innings to set the stage for what would be an exciting bottom of the 10th.
The steal
Due to Minor League Baseball’s new extra-inning rules, Booker began the inning as a pinch runner placed on second base. After Micker Adolfo struck out and Yermin Mercedes lined out, Yeyson Yrizarri singled to advance Booker to third base, where he met Dash manager Omar Vizquel.
Booker (as told on The Dash of Everything Podcast): “As soon as I got to third, I go and smack Omar’s hand, and he goes, ‘You’re gonna steal home.’ I was like, I’m stealing home…Like, didn’t ask me. And like normally whenever something that big or that’s gonna happen, especially at that point in the game, they’re like, ‘Hey, how do you feel about doing this in this situation?’”
Vizquel: “We had a lefty pitcher on the mound that didn’t really look home when he gets set, and in my mind, I was thinking about if I get a fast guy on third base, maybe we can try to do something different, and try to make him balk. You know, make him do something different that maybe we can score the run. And I had the right guy at third base to do it when Joel Booker got to third, you know, everything was really easy.”
“Probably, there’s two or three guys that you can do that play with. There’s guys that don’t necessarily have to have the speed, but the knowledge, and they know how to read a pitcher. A guy like maybe Mitch Roman…A guy like maybe Basabe, that was also on the team at that time. Maybe Rutherford, maybe. So, you gotta pick your players to do plays like that. You know, you can’t do it with everybody.”
Assistant coach Guillermo Quiroz: “I was at first base, I saw Omar talking to Booker, and I said, wow, here we go. Is this gonna happen, you know?”
Booker: “I was like, you’re telling me to do it? I was like, okay, I’ll do it. Cause like, take this first pitch to get a read on him, wait, and we’re gonna do it with a strike. So I’m sitting here trying to time him.”
Up to bat next was Ti’Quan Forbes, who proceeded to work a walk that loaded the bases and brought Mitch Roman to the plate.
Booker: “Ball one to Ti’Quan. I’m like, alright, ball two, getting my time, ball three, ball four, take a walk. So like, after the walk, I was expecting [Omar] to say, alright, go back, we’re not gonna do it anymore, we’re just gonna play, we’re just gonna let Roman swing and see what happens. [Omar] comes over to me; ‘You’re stealing home again. Wait for a strike.’ I’m just like, ‘oh my goodness, like I have to do it’.”
Vizquel: “I think they called time out, and it gave me time to kind of like walk him through the play before he did it. I asked him if he ever stole home before, he told me no. So I was kind of scared in the beginning, but with the kind of speed that he has, I knew it was like a 60–40 percent that we might score the run.”
Booker: “At this point I’m getting anxious, like, he’s like, wait for a strike. So ball one, and like, I was just like, I had the timing, he told me to wait, cause when the pitcher gets set he drops his head, and he said when he comes set, go…I had the timing, and I just got way too anxious, and I was like, I’m not waiting for a strike. I’m doing it right here.”
Vizquel: “I walked him through the play, watched the pitcher, watched him get set, as soon as he does this, and he buries his head down, you’re gonna take off, and you’re gonna try to slide as soon as you can into home plate. Don’t stop and do anything, just go straight through his legs if the guy doesn’t move. And that’s what happened.”
Booker: “Without a strike, the pitcher came set, dropped his head, and I took off, and the whole time through my head, I’m like, ‘Don’t fall, don’t fall.’ Cause I came in to pinch run, and the last time I had came to pinch run was at Myrtle Beach earlier in the year, and I looked like a brand new baby deer on the base paths, like rumbling and bumbling and stuff and falling. So in my head, I’m just like, ‘Don’t fall, don’t fall.’”
Vizquel: “We were not gonna do it on this pitch, we were gonna do it on the next pitch. But he decided to do it on that particular pitch, and you know, he stole it.”
Booker: “As I’m running, I look over, and I see the pitcher deliver it, and I see he bounced it a little bit, and as soon I see he bounced it, I’m like, I’m there. So then I slide in, see the ump say safe, and the celebration started.”
Roman: “I had no clue that he was stealing home. All I knew was, ‘step off, step off,’ was what the other team was saying, and next thing you know, he’s right in front of me. I was speechless. Kinda went blank. Everything went black, like he just stole home to win the game for us.”
Quiroz: “We got a little bit of luck, whatever, he was safe, we won the game, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game as exciting as that. I mean, you don’t see that every day. We don’t see it on TV nowadays. You can see some people stealing home, but it’s part of, like, a double steal. Now, they used to be able to see a straight steal from third base to home plate, and that’s just awesome. To me, that’s one of the things that is missing from the game, you know, that excitement, nowadays.”
Roman: “It was very special, and just for Joel, just a good guy all around. I can’t say enough nice things about him, just for him to have that moment of him using his speed, one of the fastest guys in this organization. It was good for him, and all I can remember was, he’s jumping up and down, like this dude just stole home, and walked off.”
The significance
A walk-off steal of home is an incredibly rare play in baseball, so for many witnesses, it was likely their first time seeing the play executed. And for it to happen to Booker, a player who has consistently exceeded expectations throughout his career, it meant a lot.
Booker: “I have dreamed of doing it, and like I did it in rec ball when everyone’s talent is like kind of subpar, and then especially on [MLB:] The Show.”
Roman: “I’ve never been a part of someone walking off stealing home. I don’t even know if there’s a situation where a baseball team has ever walked off stealing home plate, which was something I won’t ever forget, to be honest.”
Quiroz: “I saw it once in winter ball. I was on the losing side that time. I started that game, and I got pinch run for in the eighth inning. Well, we ended up playing 12 innings, so the guy that came after me to catch, I guess he didn’t get together with the pitchers, and he kinda got crossed up, and on that particular pitch, it was a breaking ball that was thrown, and it was supposed to be a fastball…we end up losing the game because of that cross up with the pitcher.”
Vizquel: “I tried it myself. I tried six times and I was successful four times. So I’m very familiar with the play. I like doing it because a lot of teams don’t really expect that, especially now in this modern era where guys, the only thing they want to do is hit home runs. And I like to talk a lot about bonding, hit and run, play the old-school game. So that’s my kind of baseball.”
“I think everybody [on the team] is watching little things besides just hitting the ball. They’re always looking at the signs to see if I have a bunt, a squeeze, or a steal, or a hit and run, and when you got guys thinking that way, you get more into the game. And that’s what I want them to do. I want them to prepare so when they go to a higher level, they don’t have to really feel strange or anything on all the plays that we have been trying.”
