Baseball term used to describe
the home team
winning the game in its final at bat forcing the loosing team to ‘walkoff’
the field. Most prominently and dramatically used along with homeruns but can be used along with any event(homerun, double, single, walk, balk…) that concludes the game.
David Ortiz hit a walkoff homerun in the bottom of the 12th inning to beat the Yankees in game 4 of the ALCS, and the rest was history.
History:
Apparently the term was first coined by Dennis Eckersley after
giving up a “walk off piece” to Kirk Gibson in game one of the 1988
World Series. While the initial usage was considered negatively toward the loosing team (especially the pitcher) it is more prominently used in a celebratory fashion for the hitter.