So, you may know what happened then. The 999,999th run scored, and everyone was listening carefully to what was happening in San Francisco. Second inning in the first game of a doubleheader, and the Astros had runners on first and second. Milt May was at the plate … a clean single would score the millionth run. But May didn’t take any chances. He homered. And the man on second — Bob Watson — came all the way around to score. And he ran full speed the last few steps so that he would score the one millionth run.
Like I say, you may know that. But what you may not know is that at almost precisely the same time in CIncinnati, Dave Concepcion came up to face Phil Niekro. And Concepcion had this weird feeling that he was going to score the one millionth run. When he saw that the 999,999th run had scored, he just wanted to get to the plate. He just wanted a chance. He saw a Niekro knuckler, and he swung from the heels. And he hit it out. Home run. Concepcion sprinted around the bases — “I never ran so fast in my entire life,” he would say — and he touched home plate and everyone mobbed him and he believed, really believed, that he had scored the millionth run.
Back in New York, it was mayhem. The guy in San Francisco shouted that Bob Watson had touched home plate. Four seconds later, the guy on the phone to Cincinnati said, “Concepcion just touched home plate.” … Well, now what? Four seconds difference. But Watson had his run announced by the guy live on the scene while Concepcion had his run RELAYED from the guy on the scene to the guy on the phone to the group. Sackler would say that they actually replayed the tape a few times to make an official judgment.
And the official judgment as you know: Bob Watson scored the one-millionth run in baseball history.
“I’m glad to hear he’s a clean-living athlete,” Richard Harshman said about Watson on behalf of Tootsie Rolls. “We have to keep the image — good for kids, good for Tootsie Rolls. I know he’s not blond and blue eyed, but he’s my idea of an All-American.”
Yes, 1975 was like that too. Watson reluctantly gave his shoes to the Hall of Fame (“I had just broken them in,” he said) and he gave the money and Tootsie Rolls to charity. And in a classic line, he said that his fan-mail doubled … from four to eight. Dave Concepcion said that missing out broke his heart, but he survived. “Tell them to send me a Toosie Roll anyway,” he said. “I come so close.”