For the 14th Legendary Game on Baseballisms we did not have to go very far in the history books.  After one of the greatest days in baseball history (I dare you to not shake your head in wonder), when the baseball viewing audience was jumping from game to game on every device available, we were treated to an equally spectacular Game 6 of the 2011 World Series, as summarized by yesterday’s final scoreboard.

This represents the game winning homerun by the hometown hero David Freese off of righthanded reliever Mark Lowe,.  The at bat prompted Fox announcer Joe Buck to channel his dad and break out his “we’ll see you tomorrow night“.  For all of the Joe Buck criticism out there (he really does like football better), you have to admit that it was a fabulous tip of the cap and anyone would love the chance to have been in his position to pull it off.  It was not contrived or forced, it was meant for that perfect moment.

The call and the blast to center capped a great comeback victory by the Cardinals and actually overshadows the tremendous clutch hitting by Lance Berkman, so we wanted to acknowledge him here on Baseballisms.

Enjoy the game tying moment from the seats:

A game that truly belongs in the pantheon of Legendary Games for all baseball fans.

We hope you enjoy these little games that we present .. tomorrow we start our 15th Legendary Game.  Let us know in the comments if you have any guesses as to which Game we are presenting.  The first to guess correctly gets a Baseballisms t-shirt!

A big thank you and shoutout to friend Greg Hoffman, who provided us with some great baseball cards for this game.  We were sitting at lunch in Roswell Georgia this past summer and when he mentioned his collection of Nolan Ryan cards, Rookie Cards, Mickey Mantles and numerous Chicago Cubs, we knew we had to get them on.  Thanks Greg!  If you have cards you would like to share, please let us know.

We would also like to thank a couple of web sites that are so valuable to pulling these Legendary Games together.  The Baseball Almanac helps us with the rosters and uniform numbers, while the extraordinary Baseball-Reference gives us the play by play accounts of the game. Thanks again for all of your awesome work!

We would love to hear from you. Send a Tweet to @baseballisms with a quick message, send us an email or visit the Your Own Story page.  We look forward to sharing the poetry of the game of baseball!

Baseball scribes made a few references during this postseason to the fact that the last time a visiting team won a Game 7 in a World Series, it was when the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Baltimore Orioles in the 1979 classic.  Of course, we were acutely aware that we were running this daily Scoreboard easter egg on the site, and thought it would be a great coincidence to follow up a Texas Rangers win in St. Louis by finishing our 13th Legendary Game to match.  Alas, the Cardinals took the 2011 Series in stunning fashion, and the We Are Family Pirates remain the holder of this interesting distinction.

As this final scoreboard shows, Kent Tekulve finished off pinch hitter Pat Kelly for the final out, inducing a lazy flyball that landed in the glove of the speedy centerfielder Omar Moreno, and we are left to marvel at the lasting legacy that Chuck Tanner’s club embedded in our brains.

The Black and Gold Bucs had a unique charisma that young fans in that era had rarely seen on the World Series stage, especially coming off back to back years of Yankees vs Dodgers, a matchup of the traditional powerhouses.  It is arguable that if you were to randomly ask fans who were in their formative years at that time to recall their top 5 most memorable teams, these Pirates would appear on a majority of the ballots.

This team had larger than life superstars in Willie “Pops” Stargell and Dave “Cobra” Parker.  There was the stringbean reliever with the glasses and the submarine delivery, Kent Tekulve, who made everyone wonder if their math teacher had somehow found a sinkerball.

Then there were the intangibles that caught the attention of casual fans including the pillbox hats with the “Stargell Stars” to represent good play on the field, multiple uniform variations and of course the theme song, Sister Sledge’s disco hit We Are Family.

It’s a challenge for some to remember that it was an Earl Weaver led Baltimore Orioles team, including Cy Young Award winner Mike Flanagan, that lost both games 6 and 7 at the old Memorial Stadium.  (BTW, this game has played a few times on MLB Network and it’s incredible to see how dark and dingy that place was .. even during a World Series)

But as readers of this site have come to know, these Legendary Games are usually picked because they have a particular personal meaning.  It just so happens that 1979 was the year that my high school buddy Jerry Lyons and I decided to coach a Little League baseball team, and were assigned a team named the Pirates. In a somewhat rash decision one day at school (rash considering I didn’t even have a driver license at the time, so Mom had to drive the coach and a player to games and practices – Thx Mom!), we offered up our services for teaching the finer elements of the game to 11 – 12 year olds.

This is a picture of me with my brother Eric on the left, and my brother Scott on the right who joined the team the following season but coincidentally played for a “P” team called Pawtucket when this picture was taken.

We didn’t have a very successful first campaign, but there are a couple of significant moments that we remember quite well from the experience.  In our first player draft we were obviously overmatched by the adults in the room concerning nepotism and favoritism, but we turned some heads when we made a controversial selection with our first pick. It was a pick that paid big dividends the following season.  We drafted a kid named Joe Walsh, who was big and athletic, but since he was on the young side of the age range would have lasted until later rounds in the draft.  We grabbed him early.  Joe stayed with us through our two seasons and blossomed into an All-Star and dominant force in the league.  Turns out he attended my college Alma Mater 6 years later.

The other prominent experience was a situation that pitted us against a player’s father, and is one of those life’s lesson moments that happen from time to time.  His son had been one of our starting pitchers throughout the season and contributed significantly on the field.  Jerry and I had been nurturing another player along who had become a second reliable starter, not very competitive but he could get the ball over the plate consistently.  As the season wound down circumstances presented us with a need to win the final game (I can’t remember the reasoning now, but it must have been for some seeding purposes or something, it certainly wasn’t for a pennant).  Jerry and I consulted and decided we would give the ball to the second starter.

Dad was not happy.

He confronted us on the field while we were warming up the players and putting them through infield drills.  We calmly told him our reasons for the decision and why we felt like the team was better off going with this lineup.  We were 15 years old, kids ourselves really.  Our style of managing was always about having fun. Didn’t get a hit? That’s ok, at least you ran hard down the baseline.  Cheer on the other guys and recognize the improvement they’ve made over the season!  We weren’t in it for the winning …. we were in it for the love of the game.

The season ended, I can’t even remember the outcome of that game because it really didn’t matter.  Dad removed his son from our team the next season and I used the details of that story to demonstrate how I “handle adversity” during my college interviews.

My brother Scott joined us to drive in some runs at the top of the order, hitting behind my brother Eric leading off as a rare lefty in our lineup.  Joe hit cleanup and mashed some mammoth home runs and our record improved quite a bit.

I got my license and could drive myself to games.

And oh yeah .. our League got us some cool new uniforms that looked like one of the versions from the World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates.   

____________________________________________________

We hope you enjoy these little games that we present .. tomorrow we start our 14th Legendary Game.  Let us know in the comments if you have any guesses as to which Game we are presenting.  The first to guess correctly gets a Baseballisms t-shirt!

We would also like to thank a couple of web sites that are so valuable to pulling these Legendary Games together.  The Baseball Almanac helps us with the rosters and uniform numbers, while the extraordinary Baseball-Reference gives us the play by play accounts of the game. Thanks again for all of your awesome work!

We would love to hear from you. Send a Tweet to @baseballisms with a quick message, send us an email or visit the Your Own Story page.  We look forward to growing a community of fans interested in the poetry of the game of baseball!

As many of you know, we post a daily scoreboard that represents a batter by batter account of a Legendary Game in baseball history.  If you go back to April 7, 2008 on this site, you will find a post with the following quote;

“There are three things in my life which I really love: God, my family, and baseball. The only problem – once baseball season starts, I change the order around a bit.”

-Al Gallagher

The post also contained a graphic of a scoreboard showing the top of the first inning as Guest prepared to bat against Home. Over the course of the next three plus years, we have shown a scoreboard every single day.  We have had alot of fun with these “easter eggs” as they have generated some great comments from the community.

It has also given us a chance to dig a little bit deeper into each of these ballgames, shedding light on the less notable moments that have taken place within the context of these epic games, as well as the crucial at bats. We have reminisced about the players we idolized, and we have reflected on where we were when the games occurred. At other times, these games were well before our time, and have their own special reasons for appearing as part of the Legendary Games Series.

On this occasion we are presenting a game that is considered by some the culmination of the best World Series ever.  It has direct personal connections to our lives and we decided to honor it by recording a podcast.  We hope that you enjoy listening to a couple of Atlanta Braves fans discuss where they were on the night that John Smoltz dueled Jack Morris in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series.

We hope you enjoy these little games that we present .. tomorrow we start our 13th Legendary Game.  Let us know in the comments if you have any guesses as to which Game we are presenting.  The first to guess correctly gets a Baseballisms t-shirt!

We would also like to thank a couple of web sites that are so valuable to pulling these Legendary Games together.  The Baseball Almanac helps us with the rosters and uniform numbers, while the extraordinary Baseball-Reference gives us the play by play accounts of the game. Thanks again for all of your awesome work!

We would love to hear from you. Send a Tweet to @baseballisms with a quick message, send us an email or visit the Your Own Story page.  We look forward to growing a community of fans interested in the poetry of the game of baseball!

As we were choosing a game to present in our eleventh Legendary Game Scoreboard Series here at Baseballisms, we felt that we should honor the passing of Bob Feller, and showcase one of his games.  The Cleveland icon broke into the Major Leagues at the age of 17, and despite four years lost to military service (he enlisted on the day Pearl Harbor was attacked), he racked up 266 career wins and struck out 2,581 hitters.

Thinking of the era that Feller played, you can’t help but imagine some of the classic pitching duels.  He was constantly battling the other team’s ace, guys like the recently departed Robin Roberts, or a Red Ruffing or a Lefty Grove. In the 1948 World Series he would have to take on both Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain of the Boston Braves.  He came up on the short end of both decisions, but this Game 1 showdown with Johnny Sain was a brilliant nailbiter that was won on a single run scored in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Feller allowed only 2 hits, but a walk to Bill Salkeld to lead off the 8th would eventually come around to score the game’s only run.

Sain was equally impressive, striking out six over nine innings including the final punchout, getting Wally Judnich to end the game with the tying run on second base.

It was a quick game, ending in 1 hour and 42 minutes and contained some of the daring base running that you would remember from the 1980′s.  Hall of Fame Managers Billy Southworth of the Braves and Lou Boudreau of the Indians must have realized that they would need to create the scoring opportunities on this day.  The teams sacrificed or stole a base each time a batter reached from the 3rd inning on.

Feller’s Tribe teammate and twenty game winner Bob Lemon would win two of his starts to give the Cleveland Indians the 1948 World Series Championship.

Also notable in this World Series, Game 5 was played in front of a massive Cleveland crowd of 86,288. At the time a single game attendance record.  The game also featured the appearance of Satchel Paige in the top of the 7th for a scoreless 2/3rds of a inning.  It was the first time an African-American pitched in a World Series game.

When you think of this historic World Series, remember that Bob Feller saw Babe Ruth hit, pitched to Lou Gehrig, fanned 15 batters in his first Major League appearance at 17 years old and had already won 109 games by the time he turned 22.

R.I.P. Bob Feller, we hope to see the likes of you around MLB again.

We hope you enjoy these little games that we produce every single day .. tomorrow we start our 12th Legendary Game.  Let us know in the comments if you have any guesses as to which Game we are presenting.  The first to guess correctly gets a Baseballisms t-shirt!

We would also like to thank a couple of web sites which are so valuable to pulling these Legendary Games together.  The great Baseball Almanac helps us with the rosters and uniform numbers, while Baseball-Reference gives us the play by play accounts of the game. Thanks again for all of your awesome work!

We would love to hear from you. Send a Tweet to @baseballisms with a quick message, send us an email or visit our Upload page.  We look forward to growing a community of fans interested in the poetry of the game of baseball!

And with two outs in the bottom of the 11th inning , Game Seven of the 1997 World Series .. Edgar Renteria delivers the game & Series winning hit for the Florida Marlins, beating the Cleveland Indians and wrapping up our Tenth Legendary Game.

This extended game began way back on October 11th of 2010, a total of twenty-one days prior to Renteria becoming the World Series MVP in 2010, with his 7th inning homer off of Cliff Lee, to put the San Fransisco Giants ahead 3 – 0 on their way to the first World Series Championship in over 56 years!

We were amused as we watched the most recent Series results, knowing we had just coincidentally begun our scoreboard countdown to a prior Edgar Renteria moment, that had taken place over a decade ago.  We must have brought him some good karma as we chose this game for our tenth presentation.

Eleven innings in a Game 7 (which created its own dilemma for us as we needed to adjust the amount of space represented on the boards) certainly has some highlight moments.

At first, it seemed like the hero might be the rookie callup sensation Jaret Wright,  pitching on three days rest and departing with a lead after only allowing a Bobby Bonilla home run leading off the 7th.

Then in the bottom of the 9th inning, down by a 2-1 margin, Moises Alou, who had 9 hits, 9 RBI and 20 total bases in the Series, singled to lead off the inning with Indians closer Jose Mesa trying to put them away.  Alou would come around to score as we are introduced for the first time to the strange batting stance of Craig Counsell.

But in the end … Number 41 in the Indians program Charles Nagy gave up a leadoff single to Bonilla and Counsell reached on an error. An intentional walk allowed the Indians to get a forceout at home.  The batter had been Devon White the speedy outfielder, do you remember the drama in that moment as they tried to turn two to get out of the inning?

Finally it was our friend Renteria who bounded a ball up the middle to score the unearned run which gave the Florida Marlins a World Championship in only their fifth year of existence.

We attempt to present a personal angle with each of these Legendary Games, and the only emotion that I recall at the time of this Series was utter disgust that the Marlins could have a Championship while the Red Sox were still in the midst of a massive drought.  Things have changed since then as the Sox have now pocketed two rings but the Marlins were also able to repeat the feat in 2003.  So in regards to paying their dues, they still have a long way to go before getting to the level of Red Sox Nation.

This was also during the great Braves run, having succeeded in winning what would turn out to be their only Championship in 1995. The Marlins had to go through the Braves in the NLCS on their way to this World Series.  It was the great complete game 2 -1 victory for Livan Hernandez over Greg Maddux in Game 5, that catapulted them on their way. I have often thought that the life story of Livan Hernandez would make a great book some day.

We hope you enjoy these little games that we produce every single day .. tomorrow we start our 11th Legendary Game.  Let us know in the comments if you have any guesses as to which Game we are presenting.  The first to guess correctly gets a Baseballisms t-shirt!

We would also like to thank a couple of web sites which are so valuable to pulling these Legendary Games together.  The great Baseball Almanac helps us with the rosters and uniform numbers, while Baseball-Reference gives us the play by play accounts of the game. Thanks again for all of your awesome work!

We would love to hear from you. Send a Tweet to @baseballisms with a quick message, send us an email or visit our Upload page with a video message.  We look forward to growing a community of fans interested in the poetry of the game of baseball!

We have reached the conclusion of the ninth Legendary Game we have presented since 2008. This is the most recent game in which we chronicle, batter by batter, an account of a famous baseball game. We chose this game to honor its appearance in our very first eBook collection, The 2009 Playoff Collection: A True Fan’s Commentary in 140 Characters.

An early clue for Yankee fans as to which team is playing could be found on the very first scoreboard of this game, which appeared on our Cards from the Diamond post on July 1, 2010.  It is the familiar number 2 of Derek Jeter leading off.

The game that we selected was Game 4 of the 2009 World Series between the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies. This 7-4 win by the Yankees was highlighted by a top of the ninth rally by the Bombers, coming back after the Phillies had just tied the game in the 8th when Pedro Feliz homered off Joba Chamberlain.  The visiting team 9th included a run scoring double by Alex Rodriguez followed by a two-rbi single by Jorge Posada.

The final scoreboards of this game reflect the quick dismissal of the Phillies by Mariano Rivera, to earn his 39th postseason save.  It was the third win in a row for the Yankees as they made their way to their 27th Championship banner.

As we were going through the process of developing the book, we were directly experiencing the tension of fans as they expressed themselves on Twitter. It certainly reinforced our belief that a technological revolution was transforming the way we experience live events, in particular baseball. Each high and low, and enduring dramatic moment, brought about exclamations of joy or frustration in our live streams.

One such unique moment was a steal by Johnny Damon in the ninth while the Phillies were in an overshift defensive alignment for Mark Teixeira. Upon arriving at second, Damon realized that no one was covering third and he quickly grabbed that base as well.  There were numerous tweets, including the one below, that caught our attention.

Sharing these moments in our eBook was a tremendous experience for us, and we quickly realized that it increased our enjoyment of watching the games.

The response was so overwhelming that we decided to do it again! We have already published our memorial to Opening Day 2010 with our collection called Hope Springs Eternal: Tales from Opening Day. We are considering other eBook ideas as well, so keep an eye out for those announcements. We would love to get your participation, we are a simple platform for you to share your personal baseball stories with others who share your passion.

We hope you enjoy these little games that we produce every single day .. tomorrow we start our 10th Legendary Game.  Let us know in the comments if you have any guesses as to which Game we are presenting.  The first to guess correctly gets a Baseballisms t-shirt!

We would also like to thank a couple of web sites which are so valuable to pulling these Legendary Games together.  The great Baseball Almanac helps us with the rosters and uniform numbers, while Baseball-Reference gives us the play by play accounts of the game. Thanks again for all of your awesome work!

We would love to hear from you. Send a Tweet to @baseballisms with a quick message, send us an email or visit our Upload page with a video message.  We look forward to growing a community of fans interested in the poetry of the game of baseball!

Sometimes the Legendary Games are thrust in front of us, so it is best to just follow the path to see where they lead.  We first introduced the Baseballisms community to the 1962 World Series during a Cover the Bases podcast with author Cecilia Tan, who wrote about the 7th game in her book The 50 Greatest Yankee Games.  We also received a submission from a fan, Dave Schaub who vividly recalls this game in his story A Yankee Fan Recalls the 1962 World Series.

Finally, we heard about Willie McCovey’s comments regarding his final line drive out when we recorded a podcast with Dan Fost, about his book Giants Past and Present.

With all of these signs pointing us to this moment in baseball history, how could we not include it as part of our Legendary Games Scoreboard series?  Here we see the final scoreboard posting from yesterday’s Card from the Diamond, showing with detached emotion, an unassisted putout by Yankees secondbaseman Bobby Richardson.  Missing from this image is the emotion and intensity that went along with this defining play.

For those who may not remember, this game 7 was a classic pitchers duel between Ralph Terry and Jack Sanford, with the only run coming in the top of the 5th, when Tony Kubek grounded into a double play scoring Moose Skowron who had singled to open the inning.  So not even an RBI!

The rosters for these teams are loaded with Hall of Fame names, as well as many significant contributors recognizable to any baseball fan.  Yankees skipper Ralph Houk could pencil in names like Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Elston Howard on his scoresheet. While Alvin Dark used Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Orlando Cepeda in the 3 – 4- 5 spots on his batting order.

Leading up to the final at bats, the Giants had to work their way out of a bases loaded, no outs top of the 8th. Pitcher Billy O’Dell came on in relief of Jack Sanford, and was able to get Roger Maris to ground into a 4 – 2 force at the plate, followed by a double play ball by Elston Howard to keep the deficit at one run.

The bottom of the ninth inning is the reason that this has become such a well known Legendary Game.  Willie Mays doubled with Matty Alou on first, putting runners on second and third with two outs.  All that the home team fans wished for was a base hit from clean up hitter Willie McCovey to score the tying run, and surely drive the speedy Mays around from second base with the World Series clinching run!

Keep in mind that Ralph Terry is on the mound and Yankees fans everywhere must have been thinking about the 1960 World Series, when Terry gave up Bill Mazeroski’s Series winning homerun for the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Could lightning strike twice or was redemption a possibility?

With the count 1 – 1, the left handed hitting McCovey pulled a line drive rocket at second baseman Richardson, who with a small step and a leaping stab was able to grab the final out for the Yankees.   Giant fans were deflated by the thought that a hit a little bit higher or a little bit wider would have turned the final score in their favor.

We hope you enjoy these little games that we produce every single day .. tomorrow we start our 9th Legendary Game.  Let us know in the comments if you have any guesses as to which Game we are presenting.  The first to guess correctly gets a Baseballisms t-shirt!

We would also like to thank a couple of web sites which are so valuable to pulling these Legendary Games together.  The great Baseball Almanac helps us with the rosters and uniform numbers, while Baseball-Reference gives us the play by play accounts of the game. Thanks again for all of your awesome work!

We would love to hear from you. Send a Tweet to @baseballisms with a quick message, send us an email or visit our Upload page with a video message.  We look forward to growing a community of fans interested in the poetry of the game of baseball!

@AndyNY2, friend of Baseballisms, picked up on this Legendary Game very early as the daily scoreboards were being posted.  Although it pained him to recall, it is the 2001 World Series Game 7, come from behind victory for the Arizona Diamondbacks over the New York Yankees.

In this last moment of the game, Mariano Rivera stands on the mound after surrendering a little flair to Luis Gonzalez over the head of Derek Jeter, driving home Jay Bell with the winning run.

As a fan of the game of baseball, some times rooting interests should be set aside for the bigger picture, and this was one of those moments.  Following the tragedies of 9/11 just a few short weeks prior to this World Series, this was a demonstration of the ability of baseball to bring together a community.  That community, whether it was local such as the City of New York or broad as in the entire country, could find solace in the natural sounds and rhythms of nine men on a diamond seeking safety at home.  I for one was rooting for the Yankees to win this World Series.  As a lifelong Red Sox fan, I set aside the rivalry and openly cheered for a Yankee victory.  It seemed to me that having the great Rivera close out the 9th inning for another Yankee championship banner would bring back some equilibrium.

Alas, not all stories can have magical endings and this one was re-written at the last moment. The expansion Arizona Diamondbacks, a team that had entered the league in 1998, rode the arms of Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling to their first World Series Championship.

However, for many people it is the three wins in Yankee Stadium that has become the legacy of the 2001 World Series …..

We hope you enjoy these little games that we produce every single day .. we have started our Eighth Legendary Game.  Let us know in the comments if you have any guesses as to which Game we are presenting.  The first to guess correctly gets a Baseballisms t-shirt!

We would also like to thank a couple of web sites which are so valuable to pulling these Legendary Games together.  The great Baseball Almanac helps us with the rosters and uniform numbers, while Baseball-Reference gives us the play by play accounts of the game. Thanks again for all of your awesome work!

We would love to hear from you. Send a Tweet to @baseballisms with a quick message, send us an email or visit our Upload page with a video message.  We look forward to growing a community of fans interested in the poetry of the game of baseball!

We have come to the conclusion of our poll where we asked which was the best Legendary Scoreboard Game we have featured.  The votes are in and in a close race the Kirk Gibson walk off home run off of Dennis Eckersley in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series just edged out Don Larsen’s 1956 Perfect Game.

Here is the breakdown:

There might have been some last minute persuasion as a Baseballisms fan, Jim Bawbe, submitted a recollection of actually attending that game …

Thanks to everyone who participated!

Now it’s time to put up a new poll.  There are so many things that would be interesting to know, we had a hard time deciding what to ask.  After some serious brainstorming we have decided to ask your favorite Fan Ballpark Tradition.

So baseball fans, which tradition would you most like to participate in?

Wrigley Field – Cubs Fans throw back an opponent home run ball

Yankee Stadium – Yankee Fans conduct the player Roll Call

Ebbetts Field – Dodger fans march as the Brooklyn Dodger Sym-Phony Band

Fenway Park – Red Sox Royal Rooters sing Tessie

Angel Stadium – Fans break out Rally Monkeys and Thundersticks

Please vote early and vote often in the Poll in the right hand column.  We know there are more that we could have included so please let us know in the comments any others that are worthy of a mention.

Baseball Fan Jim Babwe’s email submission to Baseballisms.com reprinted with permission. Long time fans of this site will remember that this was the first Legendary Game that we highlighted when we launched in 2008.

Saturday, October 15, 1988: World Series, Game 1

At approximately 1:00 PM, I received a phone call from a friend who asked me whether I’d be interested in buying two tickets for that afternoon’s game at Dodger Stadium. He said they were available at face value, but added that I would need to drive to a hotel near Los Angeles International Airport to pick them up.

I said, “Yes, I want the tickets.”

As soon as I hung up the phone, I picked it up again to call a friend who I knew would want to come along. No answer. I left a message on the machine.

I called another friend. No answer. I left a message on the machine.

Another call. Same result.

I don’t recall exactly how many phone calls I made–maybe two or three more. Even though it was a Saturday, nobody was home, and because I didn’t want to be late for the game, I started to leave.

Before I reached the front door, the phone rang.

The caller was a college friend who I hadn’t seen for a few years or so. He had moved to the Midwest, but was in town on business and wanted to get together for lunch or dinner.

I said, “Do you want to go to the game at Dodger Stadium today?”

Knowing  he was (still is) a lifelong baseball fan, I knew the answer before he said yes.

I looked at the clock, knew we’d be cutting it close, so I told him I’d pick up the tickets and meet him at the Stadium.

I drove to LAX, picked up the tickets, drove to Dodger Stadium, met my friend, and on the way to the turnstiles, caught up on general stuff.  I told him the story about not being able to find anyone for the second ticket.

We agreed about the good timing.

1988 World Series–Game 1. Most baseball fans know how this game ended. Gibson hobbles to the plate, hits a 3-2 pitch over the right field wall. Gibson limps around the bases. Dodgers win. People who left in the 7th or 8th inning “to beat the traffic” curse themselves for the rest of their lives.

For me, there’s another unforgettable part of that game’s dramatic conclusion.

As the tension mounted and the count went full, picture a capacity crowd (minus at least a few dozen who got a head start toward the freeways)–shouting, yelling, whistling, screaming, clapping. Oakland’s ace reliever, Dennis Eckersley, delivers the 3-2 pitch. Gibson swings.

One of these days, I’m going to use a stopwatch to see how much time elapsed from the moment of contact–that crack of the bat–and the moment it descended like a crazy dream into some lucky fan’s hands there in the right field pavilion.

However many seconds passed (more than one, maybe close to four) an almost unbelievable silence (quick as it was) replaced the noise. It was as if everyone there–witnessing the almost inconceivable–simultaneously inhaled and wiped the sound away until, just as suddenly, the subsequent release of air launched a collective shout of joyful disbelief that transformed itself into at least a half hour of continuous shouting, yelling, whistling, screaming, clapping, and cheering. As we picked up our programs and left our seats, as we walked down the stairs, out to the parking lot, as we drove onto the freeway, and away from Dodger Stadium that evening, the cheering continued.

Theologians may point out technicalities to dispute the point. Skeptics and pessimists may dismiss the point as trivial or irrelevant in terms of the broader scope of Life on Earth.  But because the memory reminds me how the will to succeed can prevail over seemingly insurmountable obstacles, and that no matter how rarely miracles occur, what I saw in the bottom of the ninth inning on October 15, 1988 showed me that miracles can and do happen. You just have to keep yourself ready for them.  Grab a bat, step into the box, and take your best cut.

Do you have a story like Jim’s? We would love to hear from you! Send a Tweet to @baseballisms with a quick message, send us an email or visit our Upload page with a video message.  We look forward to growing a community of fans interested in the poetry of the game of baseball!

Our Sixth Legendary Scoreboard Game on Baseballisms.com featured two emerging powerhouse teams of the Seventies, The Oakland Athletics and the Cincinnati Reds.   The final scoreboard below, which appeared on yesterdays Cards from the Diamond, was from the Seventh Game of the 1972 World Series, and indicates Rollie Fingers was on the mound for the visiting team getting the last batter to fly out to the left fielder.  We had no correct answers in the comments for this particular game.

Our previous Legendary Scoreboard Games have presented batter by batter; World Series perfect games, great walkoff wins in Toronto and Los Angeles, and tough losses for Braves and Red Sox fans.

We try to pick games that are dramatic to the end, so that we can maintain the mystery as each scoreboard is posted, but most importantly they are chosen because they represent something meaningful to us as fans.  Are you of the age where you remember the beginnings of these two great dynasties, one of which flourished throughout the decade while the other was dismantled?

In this game for the A’s you had names like Campaneris, Rudi, Tenace, Bando, Odom, Hunter and Fingers appearing on your lineup card.  For the Reds you will recognize a core of Rose, Morgan, Bench, Perez, Geronimo, and Concepcion with some pitching help from Billingham, Borbon and Carroll.  All of these names will appear throughout the 1970′s World Series highlight reels.

The choice of a World Series game in which the A’s appeared is also a reflection of some memories that I have playing our version of “stickball” in the driveway growing up. Using a wooden bat and a tennis ball, my brother and I would proceed batter by batter through the lineups of two teams, The Boston Red Sox facing the Oakland Athletics.  The choice of the teams was simple actually.  The Red Sox of course because we grew up as fans of the home town team, and the A’s because we somehow happened to obtain a plastic green and gold batting helmet.

The batter would don his appropriate helmet in order to really get into the feel for the game and take either a righty or lefty stance depending upon the team lineup. Burleson, Remy, Lynn, Rice etc., versus Campy, Rudi, Tenace, Bando etc..  The lineups were mostly a reflection of the 1975 season when the two teams faced off in the American League Championship Series.

We would battle back and forth with the divider between the garage doors acting as the strike zone, but mostly it was a matter of K’s or blasts that settled these high scoring affairs.

High scoring was not the case for most of the ’72 Series, and was not the case for this Legendary Scoreboard Game either, as the big inning for the victorious A’s came on two run producing doubles in the sixth, one by Gene Tenace (my favorite, a catcher and infielder like me, and World Series MVP) and his team captain Sal Bando.

We hope you enjoy these little games that we produce every single day .. check out our Seventh Legendary Game beginning tomorrow, and let us know in the comments if you have any guesses as to which Game we are presenting.  The first to guess correctly (Game Five winner was @Faceyman) gets a Baseballisms t-shirt!

We would also like to thank a couple of web sites which are so valuable to pulling these Legendary Games together.  The great Baseball Almanac helps us with the rosters and uniform numbers, while Baseball-Reference gives us the play by play accounts of the game. Thanks again for all of your awesome work!

We would love to hear from you. Send a Tweet to @baseballisms with a quick message, send us an email or visit our Upload page with a video message.  We look forward to growing a community of fans interested in the poetry of the game of baseball!

Yesterday we reached the conclusion of our fifth Legendary Game, presented batter by batter in the “hidden” scoreboards on the Baseballisms.com web site.

We try to find games that have some emotional meaning, either for us as fans (Gibson’s Homer, Leyritz’ Homer, ‘86 World Series), or we try to put ourselves in the shoes of other fans who may have had their own indelible response to the amazing events (Larsen’s Perfect Game) that took place.

Our fifth Legendary Game took us to The Skydome in Toronto for the 1993 World Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Philadelphia Phillies.  This is the Joe Carter, bottom of the ninth, 3-run home run off of closer Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams game.

We liked some of the names that appeared in this series;  Carter, Molitor, Alomar, Olerud, Morris, Stewart, Stottlemyre and Timlin for the Jays. Daulton, Kruk, Dykstra, Schilling, Greene and Mulholland for the Phils.

Of course, it came down to the very last batter and has a spine tingling broadcast call from Tom Cheek. It all makes for a Legendary Game for certain!

Isn’t this the dream of every Little Leaguer? Didn’t you pretend this happened when you were playing whiffle ball or stick ball in the driveway?  A seventh game, bottom of the ninth inning, no doubt home run to win the World Series! Congratulations Joe Carter, you achieved the ultimate dream of every baseball player….

But here at Baseballisms we also love the personal stories, and for me, this game reminds me of attending my buddy Frank’s wedding, and then migrating over to a bar in downtown Hyannis Ma. called The 19th Tavern.  The Game was on a little TV screen over the far end of the bar where my brother Kevin and I watched with great interest.  We both can recall Sean McDonough’s description over the sound of the crowded pub.

We hope you enjoy these little games that we produce every single day .. check out our Sixth Legendary Game beginning tomorrow, and let us know in the comments if you have any guesses as to which one we are presenting.  The first to guess correctly (Game Five winner @Faceyman) gets a Baseballisms t-shirt!

Also, take some time to vote for you favorite from the Legendary Game we have presented so far.  You can take the poll in the sidebar on the right hand side of the page.

We would also like to thank a couple of web sites which are so valuable to pulling these Legendary Games together.  The great Baseball Almanac helps us with the rosters and uniform numbers, while Baseball-Reference gives us the play by play accounts of the game. Thanks again for all of your awesome work!

We would love to hear from you. Send a Tweet to @baseballisms with a quick message, send us an email or visit our Upload page with a video message.  We look forward to growing a community of fans interested in the poetry of the game of baseball!

Yesterday we reached the conclusion of the fourth Legendary Game we have presented batter by batter in the “hidden” scoreboards on the Baseballisms web site.

We try to find games that have some emotional meaning either for us as fans (Gibson’s Homer, Leyritz’ Homer, ’86 World Series), or we try to put ourselves in the shoes of other fans who may have had their own indelible response to the events that took place.

As our friend Shawn Collins or any other New York Yankee fan could attest, this recent game we highlighted, Don Larsen’s Perfect Game during the 1956 World Series, has to be one of the most remarkable accomplishments in team history.  A remarkable accomplishment in baseball history period!

It is hard to imagine what the media crush might be if this feat were to be repeated in this day and age.  In 1956, the only live coverage would be from the radio & TV stations across the country that happened to pick up this day game broadcast. The analysis and breakdown of the game happened in the daily newspapers .. the following day!

Today it would be a night game so it would go late into the evening, and it would begin to gather some trending topic mentions on Twitter while it was happening.  This would really build up momentum as the unmentionable perfect game was in progress!

Then, I believe that you might begin to see some live cut-ins from ESPN and other sports networks, although they would be restricted from showing actual footage due to the exclusivity of the broadcasting network .. you might still have some anchors beginning to do some spots.

The pressure of the situation would almost be unbearable for fans and players alike (I know I had a hard time watching Randy Johnson’s perfect game against the Braves in ’04).  On the field each player would be starting to realize that they better make all the plays otherwise they might be a victim of seeing themselves in a “Buckner moment” over and over again in the media.

Finally upon successfully completing the perfect game, footage would be transmitted across the globe instantaneously, social networks would be buzzing with posts and comments, the sports networks would be thrashing to get good insights into the player and the moment by interviewing every player, coach, even locker room attendants …. and of course the pitcher would be instantly receiving invitations to appear everywhere from Disney World to a request to post his own Baseballism on this site!

We applaud the amazing accomplishment of Don Larsen and would love to see it happen again.  May it happen to the right guy!

We hope you enjoy these little games that we produce every single day .. check out Our Fifth Legendary Game beginning tomorrow and let us know in the comments if you have any guesses as to which one we are presenting.

And if you have your own personal Baseball story that you would like to share, please visit our Upload page. We look forward to receiving it!

What is a Walkoff?

Tell us in the Comments.

If you have a Baseball story that you would like to share, please visit our Upload page. We look forward to receiving it!

Our reveal of the Easter Egg Game that we’ve been presenting on the site dating back to July 17th, 2008:

For you masochist Braves fans, here it is for you again. Put down the sharp instruments!

Keep an eye on these pages for our next game, give us your guesses in the Comments section of the site.

If you have a Baseball story that you would like to share, please visit our Upload page. We look forward to receiving it!

Today is the first day since the launch of this site at Baseballisms.com that we aren’t posting a Quote and a Scoreboard graphic, because we have finally reached the end of the game!

Kirk Gibson willing a home run off of Dennis Eckersley in the 1988 World Series, Dodgers Win 5 – 4.

Our intention with the scoreboard was to choose an actual game, chronicling the progress batter by batter each and every day since Opening Day (U.S.), then see if we could get some curious site visitor to wonder in the comments about which game we were displaying.  The easter egg would start a dialogue among visitors without too much guidance from us.

It has been great fun putting the game together as we had to relive the entire game, noticing who played well, the underlying stories within the game that ultimately got overshadowed by the ending (Dave Stewart’s 8 innings pitched, Alejandro Pena got the win, Grand Slam by Jose Canseco) … and watching the progress as we got a notice that something was happening, all the way up to the final correct answer.

Traffic to the site is just starting to take off so that provided one challenge, we used the Alt Img Tag on the scoreboard to help someone who might roll over the graphic, we had to use Social Media tools like Twitter to help attract some attention, and finally the use of the actual Daily Wisdom Quotes as a final clue to the game itself.

Our Pal at The Launching Pad right here in Atlanta finally pieced it together after yesterday’s post.

Why did we choose this game?

CoolpapaC and I wanted it to be a game that came down to the very end in order to keep the suspense going.  More importantly, we are both big fans of the stories of baseball that can be passed from generation to generation — that’s what Baseballisms are all about — and this is one of those legacy games that will be remembered among the greatest of all time.

We’re also big fans of the great announcers of the game, and the memorable calls that are attached to these moments.  In this game you have two of the all time best:

Vin Scully’s call still gives me goosebumps whenever I hear it.  Enjoy the tension and drama leading up to it.

And Jack Buck’s immortal “I don’t believe what I just saw!” can be heard on this Radio Hall of Fame page.

We hope you enjoyed this little fun we had … we’re starting again tomorrow with another game under our hat!

If you have a Baseball story that you would like to share, please visit our Upload page. We look forward to receiving it!