Twofer Tuesday, so allow me to plagiarize and bastardize that Dickens fella The Tale of Two Cities by saying “It was the best of ball games, it was the worst of ball games.”
The two 1/2 final innings of Sunday’s Yankees/Orioles game reminded me of a couple of the worst and best Orioles’ memories that I have ever had when attending a sporting event.
As for the best, I was at the 1966 World Series when the Orioles swept the Dodgers in 4 games (click here.) (Note – I have discussed this previously and how it remains my all time greatest sports memory attending a game. However, I wasn’t able to pull it out of the Buzzyblog archives. I will find it eventually. Why are the best memories always so hard to find?)
However, in the top of the ninth inning at this past Sunday’s game, this best memory was nowhere on my mind as I watched the Yankees come from behind to score 3 runs in their 1/2 of the inning and take the lead 5-3.
Yankee Ben Rice had hit a 3 run homer to give them a 2 run lead and my Cousin J.W., seated next to me, asked if I was ready to leave. Fact is, I was so disappointed and stunned at the turn of events where the Orioles had entered the 9th inning up 3-2 that I couldn’t even move nor react. I simply sat there in disbelief and told J.W. to let me think about it.
Actually, I was thinking about how this would be the second worst Orioles’ loss that I had ever witnessed. As I began to think that they were going to lose, I rationalized and consoled myself that “Well, at least this won’t be the worst O’s defeat that I have ever witnessed.”
That “honor” still goes back to having been at the 79 World Series 7th game when the Pirates beat the Orioles. Mickey Bowes, John Garner, Larry Crum and I were able to secure tickets at the last minute to attend that game and witnessed the Pirates “We are family” celebrate beating the O’s to win that Series. I’ll tell you the full story some other time how we obtained the tickets and were able to attend that game.
In that 79 Series the Orioles were up 3 games to 1 in the Series when they lost the 5th game in Pittsburgh. However, they returned home to Baltimore with two chances to secure their third World Series championship.
They lost both games and as stated I was present for the finale. It’s still a painful, painful memory 45 years later. Maybe I won’t rehash telling how we got the tickets and went to that game.
As for the many twos in this past Sunday’s game, I won’t bombard you with too many; but here are a couple. (See what I did there?) For example, Kimbrel and Holmes are supposed to be the two best closers in MLB, and yet both of them blew saves in Sunday’s game. In a weird bit of baseball scoring anomalies, Kimbrel was the pitcher of record when the O’s scored the winning run in the bottom of the inning so he got the Win for the game after he had blown the save in the top of the inning. Go figure that one out.
Kimbrel gave up 2 walks (to the Yankees’ 8th and 9th batters no less) who then went on to score the tying and go ahead runs on Rice’s home run. Yankees’ top reliever Holmes also gave up two walks that eventually led to the Orioles scoring their 3 runs.
The Orioles had 2 hits in the 9th to score their 3 runs. (The Yankees only had one in their 9th but it was a 3 run homer.) The Yankees defensively made two mistakes in the 9th with their shortstop’s unbelievable error and their left fielder misplaying a routine fly ball (photo above and 26:00 mark in video below.)
Game hero Cedric Mullins, who had pinched ran for Santander the previous inning, hit a double to plate the winning runs. Kimbrel was the first Oriole off the bench to greet Cede at second base (25:58 in the video below. It shows the full inning and even with some annoying ads interspersed, it is still worth watching.)
Quick aside here. It was J.W.’s dad Bill Raley who pointed out something to me when he, Buzzy and Dictator took all of us to a ballgame. He noted that the difference in the final score will usually equal the numbers of errors that the losing team committed. Thru the years, I have often checked that stat out and I always think of Bill whenever it proves to be the case as it was in Sunday’s game:
Then again they don’t give errors to outfielders who fall down when trying catch a fly ball (25:45 mark in the following:)
As Herbie, Brian, J.W. and I exited the game Sunday walking down the ramps, amidst O’s fans cheering, high fiving and celebrating, all of a sudden I was 15 again and back in Memorial Stadium laughing and celebrating as Buzzy and I left after the Orioles had beaten the Dodgers. The only difference is back then I was one of the youngest of fans there and Sunday I was now one of the oldest of fans leaving the game. Doesn’t matter, it was still the best of times.
And speaking of two’s, as in duo’s, here is the Boss with Zach Bryan and a tune that marks the first time Bruce has ever had a song appear on Billboard’s Country Music charts (click here for story.)
My thanks to Karen and Chris for minding the Store Sunday and to Pam Birmingham for having her birthday celebration there. Great time all the way around for everyone!