wstera,
Just saw this and thought of you. Enjoy:
post-gazette.com
Gene Therapy: The top 15 moments in baseball history
Friday, October 25, 2002
So here, without further fondue, are the 15 most memorable baseball moments -- the corrected version. An earlier version, seen on TV before Game 4 of the World Series, dimwittedly displayed laughable oversights, plus even more laughable inclusions.
A Nolan Ryan no-hitter and Cal Ripken's amazing habit of showing up for work made the Top 10, but Maz's homer, Joe Carter's homer, Bobby Thomson's homer, Babe Ruth's called shot, and Lee Mazzilli poster day did not.
Such were the results of fan balloting, but as Howard Cosell once yipped while giving blow by blow on a heavyweight fight, "Don't listen to the crowd; they know nothing."
Here is the bulk of what is stuck at least in my memory, beginning with my early days as a 19th century Kansas farm boy.
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1935 -- Babe Ruth's final three homers, coming within nine Sunday innings at Forbes Field.
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1960 -- Oct. 13. In the penultimate baseball David and Goliath climax, Bill Mazer-oski jacks Ralph Terry's 1-0 fastball over the wall in left to beat the Damn Yankees. The all-time No. 1, no matter what anybody says.
1965 -- Mets broadcaster Lindsey Nelson, doing play by play from Philadelphia, after warning that Phillies slugger Richie Allen could end things with one swing as Allen stepped to the plate in the bottom of ninth of a tied game, says, "Here's the pitch; Allen swings and we'll be back with the final totals and recap after this."
1974 -- Ten-cent beer night in Cleveland. Completely self-explanatory, save for the trivia mavens who remember that 25,134 on hand drank more than 60,000 brews. Lost in the ensuing riot was the irony that the fans who made it so memorable can't remember it.
1977 -- A very Reggie World Series. Reggie Jackson, deciding game, three homers on three consecutive pitches off three different pitchers wearing Hated Dodger Blue.
1978 -- Myron Cope, in a press tent at a golf tournament of all things, upon hearing through his bad ear the news that Pope Paul I is dead, squawks, "Boog Powell is dead?"
1979 -- Baltimore Orioles Manager Earl Weaver, explaining the process of setting up his pitching rotation for the World Series against the Pirates, makes this comment about the possible impact of bad weather:
"If it bleepin' rains, we're bleepin' bleeped." It's a World Series record that still stands: Most 'f' words deployed in a seven-word sentence.
1980 -- Pete Rose and teammate Ron Reid nearly come to blows on a Phillies charter flight to Houston. As a callow beat man for the Philadelphia Journal and a guest on the charter, I ask veteran Philadelphia Daily News baseball writer Bill Conlin if I can write about it. He takes me aside and puts his arm around my shoulders and says, "Son, you're right; you're their guest. You can't write this. The best you can do is put it in your mental file, and if there is ever a similar instance that might have a negative impact on team chemistry down the line, then you can pull it out." I thanked him profusely for that sage guidance. The next day, the Rose-Reid dustup is all over the Philadelphia Daily News. Let that be a lesson to me.
1983 -- Chuck Tanner, the night after Pirates pitcher John Candelaria hit a grounder to third and forgot to run (an incident so embarrassing the club issued an official press release on the matter), making everything all right again by telling reporters, "Don't worry, he's still the Candyman."
1986 -- The ball going between Buck-ner's legs. One hundred percent unforgettable.
1987 -- Pirates third baseman Jim Morrison makes two errors on one play, causing esteemed baseball writer Jayson Stark to ask, on the spot, "Yeah, Jim Morrison -- Glove Me Two Times."
1997 -- Tom Stinson, sitting in the Three Rivers Stadium press box typing against a brutish Atlanta Constitution deadline, takes a foil-wrapped hot dog shot from the Parrot's CO2 gun right off the forehead.
That ever happen to Cal Ripken? Of course not. |
