ORLANDO -- John Schneider says that each time he starts to go down a rabbit hole, he finds a new rabbit hole.
He hasn’t watched Game 7 of the World Series yet, only the clips. If he ever does, it will involve a beer or two after his boys have gone to bed so he “can throw a few things at the wall.” Of the million moments in that iconic World Series, there’s one that won’t go away, even if everyone wishes it would.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa being thrown out at home plate in the bottom of the ninth is the image that sticks. With Daulton Varsho at the plate and the bases loaded, he pulled a ground ball to Miguel Rojas at second. Rojas’ throw home beat Kiner-Falefa by an inch -- one haunting inch -- and that overhead camera angle is impossible to shake. Walking the halls of the Winter Meetings, everyone wants to stop and talk to Schneider. They want to relive the Game 7 that he wants to forget. They want to talk about the play. Everyone does.
It’s still so present, nagging and impossible to digest.
“I don't think I ever will, to be honest with you. I think I'll think about it until the day I leave this earth, you know what I mean?” Schneider said. “Unless you get another opportunity to kind of squash that one. There's so many things that … there's plays that get highlighted, right?”
The debate around this play hasn’t settled, even as we sit here nearly six weeks removed from Game 7 at the Winter Meetings, which signals the official turning of the page from one year to the next. Former Blue Jays players have spoken out about it. Don Mattingly has spoken about it. Everyone with a microphone and an internet connection has spoken about it.
“Could we have done a better job of getting him off a little bit? Yeah, another step or two,” Schneider said. “There's a video of [third-base coach] Carlos [Febles] kind of telling him where to go. What's not talked about enough is the fact that Will Smith likes to back-pick to third with left-handed hitters up. It's something we talked about before the Series, something that Carlos reminded Izzy of. I think it finally came out -- I think Max Muncy was talking about it a couple of weeks after the World Series -- that they were actually about to put the play on.”
This play is still so ripe for debate. Was the strategy wrong? Was the reaction wrong? Should Kiner-Falefa have done anything differently? Was it his fault? Is this just a play we’ve come to obsess over because it’s easier to focus on one thing than to step back and look at the hundreds of others?
The first words out of Schneider’s mouth were that he felt bad for Kiner-Falefa, an “unbelievable baseball player” who is beloved and respected in that clubhouse.
“I don't really think he could have done much more. People said, ‘Could he have run through the plate? Could he have slid headfirst?’ I do know from my vantage point, a play like that -- we've all seen it a million times from our view -- in my head, with the way Varsho hit it, I thought one of three things was going to happen.”
Those possibilities spinning through Schneider’s head in the moment were:
1. Rojas would field the ball and fall backwards. Blue Jays win.
2. Rojas fields the ball and throws a worm burner. Blue Jays win.
3. Rojas, off-balance, throws the ball wide of Smith. Blue Jays win.
“So when none of those things happened, I can't tell you what was going through my head or out of my mouth at that time,” Schneider said. “Then to challenge the play, and OK, it stands. Within 10 seconds, those same exact thoughts are going through your head on the ball Ernie [Clement] hit to left.”
Schneider says that he wants to use this moment to make the Blue Jays better, but then catches himself, joking that it sounds “corny” given the stakes. That’s all the Blue Jays can do now, though.
This moment could drive someone mad, but Schneider’s reflection is refreshing and necessary. Time will pull him out of those rabbit holes. Another shot at the World Series is the only cure, though.
“It stings. It hurts. I've seen that video 3,000 times, and 1,500 of them it looks like Will Smith’s off the plate. In the other half, it looks like he's on,” Schneider said. “That's how close it was. That's why details matter.”