Wednesday, October 10, 2007

"The greatest moment in League Championship Series history"

Sid Bream
With the baseball-watching world waiting while the networks reset their rotations, I thought I'd explain a little about MoneyLaw's use of baseball history and imagery. The image above, which appears in MoneyLaw's banner, illustrates an event rated by ESPN as "the greatest moment in League Championship Series history":
1. Francisco Cabrera's single, Game 7, 1992 (Braves vs. Pirates): The most ultimate do-or-die situation in baseball history. The little-used Cabrera (only 10 at-bats in the regular season) pinch-hit with two outs, the bases loaded and Atlanta trailing 2-1. His single to left off Stan Belinda scored David Justice and the sloth-footed Sid Bream, who just beat the throw from Barry Bonds, capping the Braves' three-run rally. For the Pirates, it was the hit that destroyed a franchise: It was their third straight defeat in the NLCS and they haven't finished above .500 since.
I wish I could apologize at this moment to Mark Fenster, but I can't. Sorry, Mark. The cosmic collision of Francisco Cabrera, Sid Bream, and B*rry B*nds in October 1992 has brought me so much joy over the years that I will forever keep this image atop MoneyLaw.

I really do love the Sid Bream moment. Not because it portended great things for my beloved Braves. (It didn't -- my team went down in the World Series to the Toronto Blue Jays and would win the Series only once during a 15-year period of dominance that now seems distant and unreal.) Not because it coincided with good times in my life. (Absolutely, positively the contrary was true.) I love Sid Bream's run because no slower man in baseball ever ran harder to greater effect. If only for one one moment, hard work and heart won out, and I was happy.

Multimedia bonusTop LCS moments
Mark Fenster, as a special gesture toward you and all other Pittsburgh Pirates fans in this forum's readership, I offer this highlight reel of the Braves' 1991 and 1992 seasons, which concludes with Skip Caray's exuberant call during Francisco Cabrera's most famous plate appearance:

2 Comments:

Blogger Jeffrey Harrison said...

You got that right! As thrilling as it gets.

10/10/2007 8:41 PM  
Blogger Piebut said...

Ack.

But really, I shall take out the smallest violin I can find for your poor Braves' lack of success. Please consider the poor lowly Pirates, who since that game have not only failed to make the playoffs but failed to post a winning record. Setting aside for the moment the fact that the Pirates, beset with poor management, deserve their fate (and of course there's an easy moneyball story to tell here, as any halfway smart Pirate fan can tell you). How about some love for the Pirate fanbase? Still hopeful, after all these years, and with the best darned ballpark in America. And never any player as loathsome as Chipper, either.

I won't mention, however, that Stan Belinda was getting the strike zone squeezed during Cabrera's *&^%$-ing at-bat by blind-as-a-bat umpire [sic] Randy Marsh. Or did I just mention it?

10/10/2007 10:38 PM  

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