Leading-Changing, Game-Ending Plays Involving Cal Alums in Sept. 2021
During the 2021 season, Cal alum Marcus Semien set the all-time record for most home runs
in a season by a second baseman with forty-five. One of those forty-five home runs was
this walkoff home run against
the Oakland A's. The A's were leading the Toronto Blue Jays 10-8, when Semien hit a three-run
home run in the bottom of the 9th inning to give the Blue Jays a 11-10 win. That victory
occurred in September.
Semien was the first of two Cal alums that month to contribute to a lead-changing three-point
play on the last play of the game to defeat a Bay Area professional sports team. Later that month,
the Green Bay Packers were trailing the San Francisco 49ers 28-27 with the ball on their own
25-yard line and thirty-seven seconds left and no timeouts. Quarterback
and Cal alum Aaron Rodgers led the Packers down the field and Mason Crosby kicked a game-winning 51-yard field
goal as time expired to win the game 30-28.
One big difference between Semien and Rodgers is that Semien once played for the team he helped defeat while
Rodgers didn't. The
49ers
had an opportunity to draft Rodgers in 2005 but chose not to and also reportedly tried to
trade
for him the previous off-season.