While lifting yesterday I was listening to the radio and heard an interview with pitcher Dave Stewart talking about his lifelong friend Rickey Henderson entering the Hall of Fame. Henderson is baseball's all-time leader in lead-off home runs, walks, and runs scored and although he had a reputation as a third-person talker, his induction speech was very elegant. Dave Stewart grew up with Rickey but they also played together and during the course of this particular interview their time in Toronto was discussed. That got me thinking about that team, which participated in one of the more memorable World Series of my youth if not of all-time.
When you step back and look at this team's roster, it is no wonder they were as successful as they were. Much of the team was back from their 1992 World Series victory over the Atlanta Braves but in the off-season they added Paul Molitor and Dave Stewart. Then over the course of the season they traded for shortstop Tony Fernandez and added Rickey Henderson at the trade deadline.
Starting at the top, they were managed by Cito Gaston from 89-97 and is currently their manager. He has over 700 victories in his career and a .529 career post-season win percentage.
The Pitching rotation was headed by Pat Hentgen, who would go 19-9 in '93 and be selected to the all-star game. He would eventually win the 1996 Cy Young award with the Jays. They also had the Jheri Curl wonder before Pedro let his soul glow, Juan Guzman. Many may not remember Juan as he only went 91-79 in his career, but from the early to mid-90s, he was one of the best in baseball. In '93 he went 14-3. The rest of the rotation was Todd Stottlemyre, Stewart, and former World Series MVP Jack Morris. The Jays also had Al Leiter coming out of the pen, and he actually won game 1 of the World Series in '93. Leiter was just coming off arm surgery but contributed. In the closer role, Duane Ward replaced famed closer Tom Henke that year after being his set-up man and saved 45 games.
While the pitching was experienced, it was the offense of Toronto that was so formidable. Jon Olerud and Roberto Alomar were the right side of the infield and hit .363 and .323 respectively. Joe Carter was lead the team in home runs (33) and RBI (121). The acquisition of Paul Molitor did not disappoint as he hit .332 for the Jays. Add speedster Devon White to the top of the lineup and the Blue Jays had a potent scoring machine that was only shut-out once in the regular season. By the time the post-season came around and they had Fernandez and Henderson, it was a difficult line-up to handle. Henderson is the undisputed greatest lead-off hitter of all-time.
It all came together October 23 at the Skydome when the Phillies held a 6-5 ninth inning lead trying to bring the series to seven games. Phillies closer Mitch Williams had to face Henderson, White, Molitor and Carter. Williams, known as "Wild Thing" walked Henderson and then tried to slide step to prevent Rickey from stealing. He got White to fly out but then gave up a single to Molitor(his 12th hit of the series) and the walk-off to Joe Carter. Video of the 9th inning is here, the Carter home run is at 15:30 but the footage of the aftermath is great including the men in early-90s mullets in jubilation, an interview with Phillies manager Jim Fregosi by Jim Gray(lulz) and a melancholic Curt Schilling on the Philly bench. The Blue Jays are the only team besides the Yankees to win back-to-back World Series titles since 1976.
Monday, July 27
Sometimes You Forget: The 1993 Blue Jays
Thursday, October 30
Phillies Win World Series
Bud Selig and Fox can try all they want to dampen the national past time, but baseball is not lousy and is also resilient. Credit goes to the Phillies for ending a long stretch of heartache for a city and an organization. It was also great to ehar Harry Kalas give the call of the final out. Despite the bad judgment in game starting times, letting the players continue playing in muck, the shaky umpire calls, and the ear-splitting commentary of Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, whenever a team captures the crown it is a special moment. The 2008 Phillies will not be remembered for being the greatest of teams or winning the most exciting series, but it will be there on the trophy for years to come. Congrats to the Phillies and their fans, maybe now they can be quiet about being starved for a title.
Series Links:
Deadspin
CBSSportsline
ESPN
The Love of Sports
Sporting News
Tuesday, October 28
The World Series: Bud Selig Strikes Again
The first five and a half innings of game 5 of the World Series made a mockery of baseball. The Phillies and Rays play 162 games just to make the playoffs, defeat all comers, and their reward: on the most important night of the season they play in near-freezing temperatures, with atrocious officiating and a driving rain storm. It was like a reality show, but without the snarky comments of one of the judges (although McCarver tried his best).
The comedy of errors began with the scheduling of the entire postseason. Late starts, AM finishes, trying to compete with college football, allowing Fox to dictate the schedule all pointed to disaster for the ratings and baseball, as a whole. The crescendo of the postseason debacle appeared to be the Saturday night game that ended with people on the West Coast complaining about how late the games went, but oh no. In potentially the series clinching game baseball decided the getting the game in was more important than showcasing the best of the best under optimal conditions. The Commissioner’s Office made a farce of their sport playing in that weather. It’s not hard to imagine a dry Bud Selig sounding like Monty Python’s Black Knight when describing the rain, “Tis but a drizzle. I’ve seen worse.” Watching the players with their hands down their pants, guys in the dugout drinking coffee, and the grounds crew taking every opportunity to attempt to make the infield playable was laughable and painful at the same time. It seemed like baseball was about five minutes from a massive rush order of ShamWows to force the game to continue.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the home plate umpire squeezing pitcher’s in a driving rain, the most ridiculous performance by an ump since Frank Drebin was calling the balls and strikes. The cherry on the top was listening to the dulcet tones of Joe Buck, who would rather have been making a bunt cake watching Paula Dean instead of at a baseball game. He, along with his cohort Tim McCarver have been in attack mode since the Series began. Rest assured Buck won’t be as critical of the league officials when he steps back in the booth to call NFL games. Listening to Buck describe the bad calls sounds like an abusive husband who has no fear of repercussion from his battered wife. Fans should be hoping that the MLB or Fox goes Laura Burney on Buck’s baseball broadcasting responsibilities before next season.
Instead of the World Series being baseball’s showcase and the coronation of an unexpected champ, it’s been turned to a circus. Bud Selig seems more interested in ending the season at the behest of Fox than in providing a grand stage for the young stars. They bended to the whim of Fox in eliminating the team introductions and Fox’s marketing department sees fit to (brought to you by Sprint) interrupt (Drinkability) each pitch (House is grumpy) with advertisements. Major League Baseball has written off attracting young fans with the start times and is content with being a second-rate professional sports league. David Stern would never play a Finals game with an eight foot rim, Roger Godell would never play a Super Bowl with a deflated football, hell even Gery Bettman wouldn’t play the Stanley Cup Finals with melted ice, but that’s exactly what Selig did by undermining both teams by allowing game 5 to continue. The nation’s past time has become a national after thought, and baseball owners have themselves to blame.
Joe Maddon has many faces.
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Here are some World Series look-alikes, fun stuff.
[Only Drink High Life via TBL]
Wednesday, October 22
The Fall Classic is Upon Us
The World Series starts tonight; here is a preview from Deadspin. Word on the street is that the Backstreet Boys will be singing the game 1 national anthem. As Bob Saget once said, "They are back, they are street, they are boys and they are men and they rock my fucking world."
