Baseball Thread Rated X -- Mature Audiences Only

I can't believe he isn't here to bask in the moment.

 

Ha! I was at that game!

First WS game I ever attended. My dad bought scalped tickets for $75 a pop that put us *behind* the center-field video screen in the upper deck. That's where most of the Yankee fans were, too. "Let's Go Yank-ees!" was very vocal up there in the middle innings.

In the eighth, we went down to the concourse and snuck into a box behind the third-base dugout. Saw Leyritz's home run off that awful slider from Wohlers (saw A. Jones juuuuust come up short from bringing it back from the LF wall.) Saw defensive replacement Klesko lose a short "pop-up" in the lights at first base in extra innings.

Saw the Braves' fortunes for the next decade turn in a matter of minutes, before my very eyes.

Yes, wish I could have that one back, too.

 

My first Series game didn't come until 1999, by which time the Braves -- in terms of postseason performance -- already were past their prime.

It's amazing how many conversations I've had with buddies about 1996. One thing I vividly recall is not even being able to think about baseball during the offseason without getting mad. Things never were the same again: NLCS losses in '97 and '98, World Series sweep in '99 and Division Series flameouts in five of the last six years. Before 1996, the Braves won four NL pennants in five (completed) seasons. Since Leyritz, they've only won one. I just hope I'm still alive when/if the Braves get back to the Fall Classic and finally win a game again (at last check, they'd lost eight straight -- all to the stinkin' Yankees).

Hey, let's go find a Pirates' fan to pick on

 

What Trey said.

 

Enjoy.

 

SP's a Cleveland sports fan; isn't the guy due a little good luck?

Of course, none of it will help the Browns, Indians, Cavs, Rockers, Drew Carey's receding hairline, etc...

 

Doc, I owe you a cold one for that one! Brought back some good memories of a packed dorm room my senior year in college. We just about brought the house down when Sid slid home. A buddy in Charleston, of all places, told me later that he could hear neighbors screaming when the Braves won. As I recall, they had to shut down Peachtree that night. Braves fans got complacent later on, but back then the fever was still white-hot.

 

Hell, prhack, the complacency started with Leyritz, too.

The Chop was alive and well all the way through the 1996 playoffs. After that hanging goddamn slider, then with the unforgivable trade of Justice (who didn't want to leave) and the move to Turner Field before the 1997 season (just can't replace the "Launching Pad"), then Time Warner strangling Schuerholz every year at the trading deadline (which was the true reason for the Braves' decline) ... that's when the fanaticism started to scale back.

But you can trace it right back to Leyritz. And that fucking slider. Dammit, Mark, why didn't you just blow the goddamn ball past him?

 

And another great, great video: <a href="

">Braves clinch 1991 division title</a> (watch for an almost-unrecognizably young Bobby Cox at the 5:40 mark.)

(Remember the Braves sticking around on the infield in Atlanta to watch the Giants beat the Dodgers on the big screen? Good times. ... And two years later, the Dodgers beat the Giants in the final series of the season to return the favor in '93. Good, good times.)

Finally, one last video to recommend: <a href="

">Pretty good amateur montage of the last 14 years</a> (5:14, with the last minute mostly personal photos of the chick who made it and her brothers, posing with various Braves.)

 

Royals players Runelvys Hernandez and John Buck exchanged punches during last night's win against the Indians. It was the culmination of a long-standing feud between the two, apparently over who sucked worse.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=260912105

Even when this team fights, nobody wins (Hi Oz!).

 

14 in a row is much more impressive than a WS title... even two... to me.

 

Buck, I think you're right about the whole Leyritz thing. The wind went out of the sails that night, and they never really unfurled again. Coming into that night, the Braves were 35-25 in postseason play during the decade of the '90s. Since that ball cleared the left-field wall at Turner Field, the record is 28-37. I also think you're right about the Justice/Grissom trade -- ranks right up there with the infamous Len Barker deal if you ask me. As I once wrote in a column, why is it the Braves' worst trades always seem to involve the Cleveland Indians?

Thanks for posting the links, though. I'm looking forward to taking a trip down memory lane a little later in the morning.