35 years ago tonight.

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

There should be a thread for SJ posts that read like the start of a Penthouse Forum letter, but ...... aren't even close.

Usually end with "I watched the end of the game on a 13" black and white with a bunch of dudes. "

Haha OK but @qtlaw WAS with a girl for G1 in '88!

My best letdown of Penthouse Forum letter revolving around a big event would be the OJ chase. Me and my HS buddies were hanging out with a bunch of girls a couple years younger than us at one of our buddies' cottages on the lake...all watching the OJ chase on a Watchman. Maybe some of them got lucky later that night, but I sure didn't!

 

[qtlaw]

Haha OK but @qtlaw WAS with a girl for G1 in '88!

My best letdown of Penthouse Forum letter revolving around a big event would be the OJ chase. Me and my HS buddies were hanging out with a bunch of girls a couple years younger than us at one of our buddies' cottages on the lake...all watching the OJ chase on a Watchman. Maybe some of them got lucky later that night, but I sure didn't!

Keyboard Players Club Member baby!!

 

[UPChip]

There's been a decent amount of walk-off HRs in the World Series in my lifetime, including Joe Carter's Series-clincher. I know Gibson was hobbled, but I've never understood why a Game 1 home run has had so much reverence.

The famous calls associated with the HR, both Vin Scully and Jack Buck, aren't that great either I don't think. Both have had much-better calls.

Here's all of them. https://youtu.be/i7Afucy7M6g?si=iEx7yRlB4-J_9xkg

That big, confident grin Sparky gives Gibson while telling him to go after it had to be a great booster shot for Gibby in the moment.

The tremendously low number of forks Sparky gave (having two World Championships in his pocket probably helped) was a major part of his appeal. Also, he was 50 in this clip and 41 when he won his first Series. He died at 76, which was basically what he looked like for 40 years.

 

[MileHigh]

There's been a decent amount of walk-off HRs in the World Series in my lifetime, including Joe Carter's Series-clincher. I know Gibson was hobbled, but I've never understood why a Game 1 home run has had so much reverence.

The famous calls associated with the HR, both Vin Scully and Jack Buck, aren't that great either I don't think. Both have had much-better calls.

I was in a newsroom 60 miles to the east as a young pup in the business when it happened. It was pretty amazing, actually. The A's were supposed to win in four, the Dodgers had no business being there. And for many years it was voted by LAT readers as the greatest sports moment in L.A. history.

I like the Buck call better than Scully's, but felt both were pretty good.

 

[qtlaw]

I was in a newsroom 60 miles to the east as a young pup in the business when it happened. It was pretty amazing, actually. The A's were supposed to win in four, the Dodgers had no business being there. And for many years it was voted by LAT readers as the greatest sports moment in L.A. history.

I like the Buck call better than Scully's, but felt both were pretty good.

Scully's best comment came in the 1st inning when Mickey Hatcher was batting cleanup and he said "this may be the worst lineup in WS history" (IIRC).

 

[Jesus_Muscatel]

Tell us the rest of your letter to Penthouse.

I wish! ... although it did involve a taxi back to the Meadowlands at 1 in the morning. (Oh my!)

 

[Jesus_Muscatel]

I was in a newsroom 60 miles to the east as a young pup in the business when it happened. It was pretty amazing, actually. The A's were supposed to win in four, the Dodgers had no business being there. And for many years it was voted by LAT readers as the greatest sports moment in L.A. history.

I like the Buck call better than Scully's, but felt both were pretty good.

I'm wondering, did Buck let the crowd reax tell the story for more than a few seconds, like Scully did?

 

[doctorquant]

No forking way. Really? (To that couple seeing two triple plays, not the two triple plays--I knew that)

Yep ... nice folks, but they know not (much) of sports.

 

[MileHigh]

I'm wondering, did Buck let the crowd reax tell the story for more than a few seconds, like Scully did?

No. Go to 6:40, but the whole thing is here.



"I don't believe what I just saw!

 

[BTExpress]

Buck was doing it on radio. Sure, I guess some were listening to him while watching the game (would the sync have even been right?).

But crowd/players reaction just isn't all that important when you don't have pictures to tell the story.

 

[ChrisLong]

I covered a UCLA football game at Cal. As I was packing up to leave the press box, they had the baseball game on TV, I saw that the A's had the game well in hand. Got to my rental car and found the game on the radio. For some reason, my hotel was in Concord. I was on some freeway and transitioning to another freeway. The transition was a lengthy curve and that's where I was when Gibson connected. I almost drove off the road. Amazing.

 

[UPChip]

I was talking about World Series walkoffs with a coworker yesterday and I strongly believe that Game 6 of the 2011 World Series is right up there with this one, with Carlton Fisk, and some of the other most incredible games in baseball history. Twelve years seems a long time for it to be recency bias, so it probably has to do with the fact that baseball had long since ceded the national spotlight (or because Joe Buck's botched hair plug situation screwed up the audio). Four lead changes in the first nine innings, the Cardinals down to their last strike, the series-winning ball for the Rangers literally being in the air (and potentially caught by a better outfielder than Nelson Cruz), Josh Hamilton un-tying the game, the Cardinals being down to their last strike AGAIN and tying it AGAIN, and then a walk-off homer from David Freese in the 11th.

That has to be easily one of the 3-5 best games in World Series history and it doesn't even have a nickname.