It could be worse. We could be down 3 games to none, trailing in the 8th inning of Game 4 of the LCS, a mere 3 outs away from being swept by our biggest rival and facing the greatest closer in the game. Sometimes, something small can happen. Sometimes that something small can turn into something big and sometimes that something small can make the impossible possible.
We all know about a 1988 Los Angeles Dodgers (94-68) team that won the World Series against the heavily favored Oakland A’s team that won 104 games fielding a lineup that looked so physically intimidating, the great Vin Scully said when they took the field “you’d think the Chicago Bears just arrived”. See: David v Goliath. It’s a pivotal moment in LA sports history. You don’t even have to be a Dodger fan to know what I’m referring to. When I watch footage whether it be the original broadcast on VHS (Kids: feel free to google that) or countless diamond vision and new hd video board reruns when we’ve trailed in the 9th, or even MLB Network or ESPN Classic, we see the same footage. The hobbled Kirk Gibson using his bat as a cane for just a second after fouling off another pitch to stay alive. Stepping out of the box, asking for time with the count 3-2 against the best closer in the game. Gibson said he smiled as he remembered the advance scout Mel Didier’s words about a the 3-2 backdoor slider before hitting the one-handed, game-winning 2-run homer that landed in the history books. The advice would later be immortalized on the wall next to the batting cage under the Dodger Stadiums stands.
But do you remember what happened earlier in the game?
Cy Young award winner Orel Hershiser couldn’t start Game 1 because he had already been used 4 times in the NLCS. So the Dodgers started Tim Belcher. A rookie who was so frazzled he couldn’t throw anything but fastballs for the first 2 innings. Belcher loaded the bases in the opening frame on a single, a hit batter and walk, and had Vin Scully checking the bullpen to see if there was someone throwing for the Dodgers…in the first inning of a World Series game…no big deal. But we got out of it without giving up a run.
When the Dodgers came up to bat in the bottom of the first, Oakland starter Dave Stewart wasted no time retaliating for Belcher hitting Jose Canseco by plunking leadoff man Steve Sax on the first pitch. The home plate umpire immediately warned Oakland. Dodger Outfielder Mickey Hatcher who had hit 1 home run all year-long, hit a 2-run round tripper to get the Dodgers off to 2-0 lead in the 1st inning. The rarity was not lost on him as he sprinted around the bases in only 15.84 seconds. Yes I broke out the stop watch.
(I finally got sleepy last night so I paused here, only to wake up on the 25th anniversary of this game.)
A common saying in baseball is that the worst Major League hitter can still hit a fastball and the Oakland lineup featured some of the best hitters, including AL MVP Jose Canseco, the first player ever in the 40-40 club. (42 HR, 40 SB) With Belcher abandoning his secondary pitches (and control), Canseco had the good fortune of coming up with the bases loaded in the second inning and proceeded to hit one of those fastballs so hard for a Grand Slam, that when it landed over the outfield wall, it actually left a dent in the center field camera.
It’s early in October but consider back then you only had the LCS and the World Series, when 8 postseason victories made you champion, changes in 1994 and 2012 have pushed the required win total to 11. 12 if you are a wild card “winner”.
I have a feeling there will be much made of the anniversary and there will no doubt be retellings covering a certain fist pump, and I won’t talk about the 9th other than to say it is one the greatest things I’ve ever seen on tv. That’s just the point though. I want to see that as an adult and in person. I want to open my season ticket book and see “World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers” on the front. I can take solace in the new ownership and their plan to get the Dodgers back to being a perennial powerhouse franchise and to right so many wrongs of the past 2 ownerships.
It is a crime that it has been so long since our last World Series win that an entire generation of Dodger fans have grown up only hearing about some magical night a quarter century ago.
A definitive moment for the ages. Sometimes people throw that term around but this time it applies. My proof? It’s 25 years later and for one night, it seemed almost everyone involved in tonight’s game from Dodger fans watching on TV or in person, to analysts on ESPN, TBS, and MLB Networks were still talking about the night Dodger’s MVP “Tinkerbell moved aside for Kirk Gibson” to will himself off a trainer’s table and make the “impossible” happen.
We may not win this NLCS. We need 3 wins in 3 games to avoid elimination and go to the World Series and unless Dee Gordon reenacts the stolen base heard round the world, we will be home for Halloween instead of playing in Game #7 of the Fall Classic.
Our backs are against the wall and our playoff run may come to an end with our best player trying to play through a severe injury. This may sound familiar but these are different times. Our ace isn’t pitching 4 times in 7 games and on a night when Kirk Gibson’s feat was mentioned before, during, and after the game we watched our best hitter strike out 3 times before finally bowing out to the pain of a fractured rib after the 6th inning. Regardless of what happens this series, I am proud of my team and excited for the future. In fact, on a night that saw many fringe Dodger fans take out their anger with ill-intended words on forums online, many of us defended our boys while they were down. I looked at the glossy folder The Dodgers sent me on my desk. Inside of it was an invoice for 2014 Season tickets. I called when we were down 3-0 on the chance the ticket offices might stay open an hour longer than usual while we were in the NLCS. I was right, and spoke to an agent named David and about 5 minutes later, I had renewed my Season Tickets for next year. It was a small gesture but the equivalent of me renewing my vows to the team I love. I’ll have to wait until March 2014 to receive the book and it may not say “World Champions” on it this time but it will have tickets to see a team that has been through fights, a broken collar-bone, a broken thumb, pulled hamstrings, season ending shoulder and elbow injuries, a manager (well we’ll get to that story in another entry) trades, pickups, let downs, a south korean rookie sensation, a cuban rookie sensation, a historic 42-8 run, a division title, an impromptu pool party, an NLDS win, and an NLCS that put a spotlight on 2 pressing needs. Sometimes that just what you need to find out what will get you over the top. Maybe It’s a second baseman from Cuba or New york. Maybe its a 3rd starter from Tampa Bay. Maybe it’s a free agent catcher addition. Maybe it’s a future promotion for a 1st round pick at 3rd base. Maybe it’s a strengthened bench.
We are not the Cardinals, who have played 42 playoff games since last we met them in 2009. In game #41, our Game #4 starter Ricky Nolasco, pitching for a new contract, threw a 91 MPH slider that didn’t slide and Matt Holiday hit it so high and far, you could almost hear flight attendants asking that trays be returned to their original upright position.
Everything is going to be ok. I’m not worried. Although I wish Puig were batting 2nd and not 6th (There is a reason Mike Trout has the chance to put up the numbers he does) I think the Dodgers win today, I think they could win tomorrow too. It could come down to a Game 7 where we’ll we’ll throw Ryu, Wilson, Jansen, and if necessary, the kitchen sink at the Cardinals who will be throwing 3 very good pitchers as well. It would be great if we could win with back to back Cy Young winners. We could lose on a mental error like another crucial double play or getting picked off a base. You could argue with that already having happened, the scales of balance are due to tip in our favor, and if for some reason they don’t in the next 4 days. That although painful, will be ok too.
We are the Los Angeles Dodgers and we are building something. I can’t use the word dynasty because you have to win a championship, at least 2 actually, before you can say something like that but you have to like the direction in which we are trending.
2011:82-79/.509
2012:86-76/.531
2013:92-70/.568 +3NLDS +1 NLCS = 96 WINS
Upward and we have many reasons to be excited.
Like barring injury, full years from Yasiel Puig, Hanley Ramirez, Matt Kemp, Adrian Gonzalez, and Zack Greinke.
The Dodgers will address the pitching staff. (Extension for Clayton Kershaw and possibly, resigning Brian Wilson, 4th starter)
Just a crazy thought…
Rotation: LHP Kershaw, RHP Greinke, LHP Price, LHP Ryu, RHP Billingsley/Beckett
Lineup: LF Crawford, RF Puig, SS Ramirez, 1B Gonzalez, 2B Cano, CF Kemp, 3B FA/Uribe/Seager, C Ellis/FedEX/McCann
We could be scary good.
I know it sounds crazy, maybe even impossible but hey…
…sometimes the impossible happens.
You need more proof? Fine.
Google these 4 words…
Dave Roberts steals second.
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