This is just a post about recent baseball and APBA Baseball things that I have noticed over the past week. We are all certainly missing Major League Baseball, but thank god us APBA guys can create our own moments of baseball fantasy, while we can relive baseball history through things like the MLB Network and ESPN that have been re-showing some old classic games.
If there is one great thing that did come out of this pandemic is that we have more classic games being shown than possibly ever. Even in the off-season, I personally felt we never got enough classic games because of the other shows such as MLB Now, Hot Stove, MLB Tonight, and Intentional Talk -- Don't get me wrong, I enjoy these shows, but in the off-season they could be talk of a recent transaction spread over the entire week, and quite frankly regurgitated conversation talk.
I love that we are seeing many of these games now, with the MLB talk shows are limited and can be caught online instead. The other day, I caught the last few innings of the 1992 National League Championship Series, Game 7, between the Atlanta Braves (my beloved National League team) against the Pittsburgh Pirates, in which resulted in the walk-off single by Francisco Cabrera. I watched it, and thanks to DVR, I just rewound that play about 10 times over-and-over, getting that excited feel of yesterday all in one huge rush! It brought back a lot of memories, I was a junior in high school, and the way Doug Drabek was pitching for the Pirates, the game appeared to be done and over. The 9th Inning rally started on a Terry Pendleton double, who was ice cold at the plate, and would end on a game-winning hit by a guy who had 10 at-bats during the regular season.
As a junior, I ended up writing a poem on the Francisco Cabrera game-winning hit, named "Green Light" and I ended up with an A+ for it. I also still have the newspaper tucked in one of my totes or boxes with other baseball merchandise.
A few things that I may have forgotten from the game, were brought to my realization of watching it on the MLB Network's All-Time Games, here they are...
- Doug Drabek threw 129 pitches, and was still pretty sharp early in the 9th, with him possibly being squeezed on a pitch or two, particularly one of them that Pirates catcher Mike LaVaillere wanted badly.
- Braves' reliever Jeff Reardon was currently the all-time Saves leader during that game with 357 Saves; Reardon now sits in 10th with 367.
- The Braves almost blown a 3-1 series lead, which would have made Braves manager Bobby Cox the only manager to have done so in both leagues. Cox's 1985 Toronto Blue Jays blown a 3-1 series lead against the eventual World Champion Kansas City Royals.
- The Braves' right fielder David Justice had an unbelievable assist, gunning down Orlando Merced at home on a close play, to help prevent the Pirates from adding to their 2-0 lead.
- Jose Lind, who would win his lone N.L. Gold Glove that season, made two errors that game, while making only 6 errors all season -- none bigger than his 9th inning error with no outs, booting a grounder to second in which Justice reached safely, advancing Pendleton from second.
- Vinny Castilla, best known for his years as a Colorado Rockie, was a bench player of the Atlanta Braves, with a god-awful mullet.
* * * Game 3 of the 1955 World Series Replay is up next * * *
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