{"id":5336,"date":"2010-05-29T18:35:25","date_gmt":"2010-05-30T01:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seamheads.com\/?p=5336"},"modified":"2010-05-29T19:10:30","modified_gmt":"2010-05-30T02:10:30","slug":"these-are-a-few-of-my-fav-o-rite-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/29\/these-are-a-few-of-my-fav-o-rite-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"These Are a Few of My Fav-o-rite Teams"},"content":{"rendered":"

Don’t worry, there will be no singing during the writing or reading of this article; Julie Andrews I’m not.<\/em><\/p>\n

As a card-carrying member of Red Sox Nation you’d think my favorite teams are all Carmine Hose, but that’s far from being the case.\u00c2\u00a0 Of course, my favorite team of all-time is the 1977 Red Sox squad that finished in a second-place tie with Baltimore, 2 1\/2 games behind the Yankees, mostly because as an impressionable 10-year-old, I loved the pyrotechnics display the Sox laid down on opposing pitchers on a daily and nightly basis.\u00c2\u00a0 Led by Jim Rice’s 39 circuit clouts, my boys blasted 213 homers that season, far more than any other team in baseball.\u00c2\u00a0 They had five players with at least 25 homers\u00e2\u20ac\u201dRice, George “Boomer” Scott (33), Butch Hobson (30), Yaz (28), and Carlton Fisk (26)\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand two players\u00e2\u20ac\u201dBernie Carbo (15) and Dewey Evans (14)\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwho split time and belted 29 between them in only 458 at-bats.\u00c2\u00a0 They most likely would have had a sixth 20+ homer man in Fred Lynn, but Lynn was sidelined for the first month of the season with a severely sprained ankle and hit only 18 the rest of the year.<\/p>\n

They scored more than 5.3 runs a game, led the majors with a .465 slugging percentage, and posted the only OPS above .800 at .810.\u00c2\u00a0 I was always bigger than most kids my age and even those who were older, and I wanted to grow up to be just like George Scott, blasting long taters into the night then slowly trotting around the bases to the adulation of my hometown fans.\u00c2\u00a0 It didn’t quite happen that way, though.<\/p>\n

Don’t get me wrong, I grew up to be a strapping young man, standing 6’2″ tall and weighing in at a solid 215 pounds, and my glove work was Scott-like, as was my power.\u00c2\u00a0 I once belted a 415-foot shot in batting practice that almost cleared the tennis courts and landed in my high school’s parking lot, and, in a summer league game, I launched a 425-foot shot to left that almost cleared the rocks that separated the field from the parking lot.\u00c2\u00a0 Alas, there was no fence and I had already homered and tripled earlier in the same game, so the left fielder was playing so far back at that point that he actually caught my drive for an out.\u00c2\u00a0 The first base umpire told me that that was the farthest he’d ever seen anyone hit a ball.\u00c2\u00a0 But I couldn’t translate that ability enough in games or past high school so here I sit writing and waxing nostalgic about what might have been.<\/p>\n

But I digress.\u00c2\u00a0 Other than the obvious Red Sox teams of the past that hold a special place in my heart (I’m talking to you 2004 and ’07 squads), here’s a list of teams I most enjoyed rooting for over the years.<\/p>\n

In chronological order<\/em>:<\/p>\n

1979 Pittsburgh Pirates<\/strong>:\u00c2\u00a0 Somewhere along the way, I decided to adopt a National League team as my very own.\u00c2\u00a0 Some would do it scientifically and study the numbers, while others may choose based on geography, or familiarity with a specific player.\u00c2\u00a0 But I was only eight years old in 1975 when I discovered a Pirates seat cushion in the cellar of the duplex in which my family lived in Framingham, Massachusetts, and it was then that I became a Pirates fan.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t ask me what a Pirates seat cushion was doing in a Massachusetts cellar, but there it was in all of its black and gold glory.<\/p>\n

I couldn’t name one player on the Pirates at that time, but I recall being upset that the Red Sox chose to play the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series that year.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn’t until my father explained the playoff system that I realized my Sox didn’t have a choice and that the Reds earned the right to be in the Fall Classic.\u00c2\u00a0 When Cincinnati beat my beloved Carmines, it made me dislike them even more.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to 1977, the first season that I recall being a diehard, obsessed baseball fan\u00e2\u20ac\u201dI remember going to Fenway Park in 1975; Luis Tiant, Yaz, Freddie Lynn; the Oakland A’s, Nolan Ryan, Reggie Jackson; Jackson going to the Orioles in ’76 and Bowie “F***ing” Kuhn voiding the deal that would have brought Rollie Fingers and Joe Rudi to Boston.\u00c2\u00a0 I remember Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito and debating with my best friend who was better; hating the Montreal Canadiens even more than the Yankees; and hoping Foreman would knock Ali on his ass in Zaire in ’74.\u00c2\u00a0 But it wasn’t until ’77 that I was a fully functioning baseballaholic.<\/p>\n

From 1977-1979 I had the best of both worlds but still lacked a championship.\u00c2\u00a0 The Sox averaged just shy of 96 wins a year but had only two seconds and a third to show for it.\u00c2\u00a0 The Pirates averaged 94 wins a season and finally broke through in 1979 with a stunning come-from-behind victory in that year’s Fall Classic.<\/p>\n

There are several things I remember about that season\u00e2\u20ac\u201d”We Are Family” by Sister Sledge, Willie Stargell’s “Stargell Stars,” the pillbox caps and seemingly infinite number of uniform combinations, and the Bucs’ comeback in the World Series from a three-games-to-one deficit.\u00c2\u00a0 I loved that Stargell wore the same number as my favorite player, Carl Yastrzemski, and he became my favorite N.L. player for a while.\u00c2\u00a0 The ’79 Pirates are also one of those teams whose lineup I can recite off the top of my head; Stargell, Dave Parker, Bill Madlock, Bill Robinson, Omar Moreno, and Phil Garner particularly stand out (don’t worry Ed Ott, Tim Foli, Rennie Stennett, and John Milner, I remember you too).<\/p>\n

Amazingly the team’s leading winner was John Candelaria with only 14 victories, but they also boasted five other hurlers who won 10, including closer Kent Tekulve, who went 10-8 with 31 saves that year (and also looked like he should have been teaching chemistry at the local high school).<\/p>\n

Up to that point in my young life, that was the most fun I’d had watching a team.\u00c2\u00a0 Thanks, “Pops!”<\/p>\n

1980 Houston Astros<\/strong>: No sooner had the Pirates won the ’79 Fall Classic than I jumped off their bandwagon.\u00c2\u00a0 They clearly no longer needed my mojo, or so I thought (sorry Pirates fans; who knew they wouldn’t win another World Series since?), so I adopted the Houston Astros in 1980.\u00c2\u00a0 I honestly don’t remember if I claimed them as my own before the season started or once I realized how good they were going to be.<\/p>\n

The Astros were the antithesis of a team I’d typically root for\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthey played in a spacious domed stadium on fake grass that neutralized home run hitters and all but demanded they play small ball, and they wore uniforms that an Emerald City munchkin wouldn’t be caught dead in.\u00c2\u00a0 But what Houston lacked in power at the plate\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthey finished 10th in homers with only 75 and eighth in slugging at .367\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthey more than made up for on the mound with Nolan Ryan and J.R. Richard.\u00c2\u00a0 Joe Niekro and his knuckleball led the squad with 20 wins but he fanned only 127 in 256 innings.\u00c2\u00a0 Ryan, on the other hand, went only 11-10 but fanned 200 in 233 2\/3 innings; and Richard was outstanding, going 10-4 with a 1.90 ERA and 119 whiffs in 113 2\/3 innings before suffering a stroke in July that ended what could and should have been a fantastic career.<\/p>\n

Regardless of their lack of explosiveness, the Astros were fun to watch.\u00c2\u00a0 They stole 194 bases, good for fourth in the league, and were led by Cesar Cedeno with 48, and five others who stole at least 20\u00e2\u20ac\u201dJose Cruz (36), Terry Puhl (27), Joe Morgan (24), Rafael Landestoy (23), and Enos Cabell (21).\u00c2\u00a0 Thanks to Ryan and Richard, Houston led the majors in strikeouts with 929, and their bullpen-by-committee led by Joe Sambito (17 saves, 2.19 ERA), Frank LaCorte (11, 2.82), and Dave Smith (10, 1.93) saved 41 games, good for third in the N.L.<\/p>\n

Alas, they lost against the Phillies in heartbreaking fashion in the NLCS, dropping Game 5 at home when the Phils scored five runs in the eighth and one in the 10th for an 8-7 victory.\u00c2\u00a0 As an historian I should have been happy that the Phillies won their first championship in franchise history, but I was only 13 in 1980 and was very disappointed that the ‘stros didn’t go to the World Series that year.<\/p>\n

1981 Montreal Expos<\/strong>: If I was disappointed in the Astros in 1980, I was about to be crushed by the Montreal Expos in 1981 (or at least by Rick Monday).\u00c2\u00a0 By the time ’81 rolled around, Gary Carter had usurped Stargell as my favorite N.L. player, and looking back on it it makes perfect sense.\u00c2\u00a0 Carter wore number 8 like Yaz and Stargell and was a catcher, the same position I’d been playing since I was 12.<\/p>\n

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Gary Carter tags out Jim Rice during the 1986 World Series. Little did I know my former favorite NL player would eventually become the enemy. (Getty Images\/T.G. Higgins)<\/p><\/div>\n

At first glance, it doesn’t look like the Expos had the power I so craved\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthey hit only 81 homers as a team and boasted only two players, Andre Dawson (24) and Carter (16), who hit more than 10 round-trippers\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut 1981 was a strike season and the ‘spos played only 108 games that season.\u00c2\u00a0 In actuality their 81 four-baggers were good for second in the league. They also boasted speed and paced the senior circuit in steals with 138, thanks mostly to Tim Raines’ league-leading 71 thefts.<\/p>\n

The Expos were also solid on the mound and in the field, finishing with a 3.30 ERA that ranked fourth in the N.L. and a .981 fielding percentage that was tied for first.\u00c2\u00a0 Only one hurler, Steve Rogers (12), won more than nine games but the rest of the rotation\u00e2\u20ac\u201d Bill Gullickson, Scott Sanderson, Ray Burris, and Charlie Lea\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwas very good, posting a 3.21 ERA in just over 655 innings.\u00c2\u00a0 And the bullpen was mostly outstanding, led by Woodie Fryman (7 saves, 1.88 ERA), Jeff Reardon (6, 1.30), Bill “Spaceman” Lee (6, 2.94), and Elias Sosa (3, 3.66).<\/p>\n

Those of us who are old enough to remember 1981 also remember the debacle that transpired when it was announced that the season would be split into two halves (although it sort of foreshadowed what the wild card would bring to the postseason 15 years later).\u00c2\u00a0 The Expos finished in third place in the first half and took first in the second.\u00c2\u00a0 The Phillies did the opposite and also landed in the postseason.\u00c2\u00a0 In the N.L. West, the Dodgers made the playoffs on the strength of a major league best .632 first half winning percentage, even though they finished fourth in the second half, and the Astros advanced to the playoffs when they took first in the second half.\u00c2\u00a0 Meanwhile the Cincinnati Reds, who finished with the best winning percentage in all of baseball at .611, got screwed because they failed to take first place in either half, finishing second both times.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the format, the N.L. playoffs were exciting all the way around; the Astros took a two-games-to-none lead against the Dodgers in the division series, but Los Angeles roared back and won the next three to advance to the NLCS.\u00c2\u00a0 The Expos also took a two-game lead over the Phillies before the Phils won Games 3 and 4 to force a Game 5 won by Montreal behind a six-hit shutout by Rogers.\u00c2\u00a0 The NLCS proved to be a seesaw battle\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe Dodgers took Game 1, 5-1; Montreal won Games 2 and 3 behind a five-hit shutout by Ray Burris, and a one-run gem by Rogers; L.A took Game 4, 7-1, and set up a thrilling Game 5 in Montreal.<\/p>\n

The Expos “jumped on” eventual Cy Young Award winner and Rookie of the Year Fernando Valenzuela in the first and plated a run courtesy of a Raines lead-off double, a bunt, and a run-scoring double play grounder by Dawson.\u00c2\u00a0 But Valenzuela settled down and allowed only two hits the rest of the way.\u00c2\u00a0 Burris was almost as good, allowing only two hits through four before surrendering a run in the top of the fifth on two hits, a wild pitch, and a Valenzuela ground out to tie the game at 1-1.<\/p>\n

Both pitchers buckled down and left the contest in the hands of relievers in the ninth.\u00c2\u00a0 Jim Fanning, who led Montreal to a 16-11 finish after replacing Dick Williams, who was fired after leading the team to a 44-37 mark, tabbed his ace Steve Rogers to pitch the top of the ninth.\u00c2\u00a0 Rogers had no relief appearances that year and only two in 289 games to that point in his career, but the Expos bullpen had been awful against the Dodgers, having allowed 7 earned runs in only 2 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n

Fanning looked like a genius when Rogers retired Steve Garvey on a popup to second base and Ron Cey on a long drive that Raines corralled in the left field corner, but Monday took Rogers deep for the go-ahead run before he struck out Pedro Guerrero to end the frame.\u00c2\u00a0 Valenzuela issued consecutive two-out walks to Carter and Larry Parrish in the bottom of the ninth before Bob Welch came in and coaxed Jerry White to ground out to Davey Lopes at second.<\/p>\n

Even though the Astros lost in 1980, it was the first time a non-Red Sox team had broken my heart and it still stings to this day.<\/p>\n

1984 Chicago Cubs<\/strong>: 1979, 2004, and 2007 notwithstanding, the 1984 season was and still is my favorite.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually it all began a year earlier when we got cable television for the first time.\u00c2\u00a0 My dad pulled me aside and asked a simple question: “Braves or Cubs?”\u00c2\u00a0 Had I given it much thought, I probably would have gone with the Braves due to their long history in Boston, but the Braves were boring and being a Red Sox fan, the lovable loser Cubs seemed to be the obvious choice\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthey played day games in Wrigley Field and had Harry Caray.\u00c2\u00a0 Besides, I’m a glutton for punishment.<\/p>\n

But it all paid off in 1984 when the Cubs won 96 games and posted their best winning percentage since 1945.\u00c2\u00a0 What made it so fun was that my friends also adopted the Cubs and we hung out all summer and at the start of the school year watching our Cubbies march toward the postseason.\u00c2\u00a0 In fact, I remember skipping classes to watch them play on the TV in my films class.\u00c2\u00a0 Ryne Sandberg, who formed the second half of the “Daily Double” with Bob Dernier, became my new favorite player.\u00c2\u00a0 Their lineup of Jody Davis, Leon Durham, Sandberg, Ron Cey, Larry Bowa, “Sarge” Mathews, Dernier, and Keith Moreland was a blast to watch and it seemed like one of them was always coming up in the late innings with a chance to win the game.<\/p>\n

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Rick Sutcliffe went 16-1 for the Cubs in 1984 and won the NL Cy Young Award. (Newscom\/mark Cowan)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Cubs were already playing well through June 12, winning at a .576 clip, but they improved even more with the acquisition of righthander Rick Sutcliffe on June 13.\u00c2\u00a0 Sutcliffe went 16-1 for the Cubs, his only loss coming in his third start.\u00c2\u00a0 After that he reeled off 14 straight wins, then took Game 1 of the NLCS with a convincing 13-0 win over the Padres.\u00c2\u00a0 He also homered in that game, along with teammates Cey, Dernier, and Mathews, who belted two.<\/p>\n

It looked like the series with San Diego was over by the fifth inning of Game 1, then when Steve Trout beat the Pads, 4-2, in Game 2, my friends and I started making plans for a Cubs\/Tigers World Series, a rematch of the 1945 Fall Classic.\u00c2\u00a0 But the Padres won Game 3, 7-1, behind Ed Whitson, and held a 5-3 lead going into the eighth inning of Game 4, before the Cubs tied it on two singles and a Jody Davis double off Goose Gossage.\u00c2\u00a0 Jim Frey brought closer Lee Smith into the game and he survived a single and a Sandberg error to escape the bottom of the eighth.\u00c2\u00a0 Unfortunately the bottom of the ninth was a different story.<\/p>\n

Craig Lefferts loaded the bases in the top of the ninth, but Cey grounded out to second to end the threat.\u00c2\u00a0 That set up a dramatic finish that I’ll never forget.\u00c2\u00a0 Smith fanned Alan Wiggins to lead off the inning then gave up a single to Tony Gwynn, bringing up Steve Garvey.\u00c2\u00a0 Garvey was one of my best friends’ favorite players and, frankly, I couldn’t stand him.\u00c2\u00a0 So what happened next was even more painful.\u00c2\u00a0 Garvey drove Smith’s second pitch over the right field wall for a game-winning two-run homer to tie the series at two games apiece.<\/p>\n

Still my buddies and I were hopeful going into Game 5, especially knowing Sutcliffe would be taking the bump.\u00c2\u00a0 When the Cubs jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead on a Durham two-run shot in the first and a solo blast by Jody Davis in the second, we started counting down the innings.\u00c2\u00a0 But Sutcliffe finally wavered in the sixth and the Padres cut the lead to 3-2.\u00c2\u00a0 Then Durham gave back the runs he’d earned with his first-inning four-bagger with shoddy defense in the seventh that led to four Padres runs.\u00c2\u00a0 With runners at first and second, pinch hitter Tim Flannery bounced a grounder to first that scooted between Durham’s legs and into right field.\u00c2\u00a0 Martinez scored to tie the game at 3-3, then Wiggins, Gwynn, and Garvey followed with hits that plated three more to give San Diego a 6-3 lead that they’d never relinquish.<\/p>\n

Of course, something similar would happen to Boston first baseman Bill Buckner in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, forcing me to suffer through two crucial E3’s in two years.\u00c2\u00a0 The ’84 playoff loss by the Cubs still remains the most painful non-Red Sox postseason meltdown of my life and I wonder how much better a Cubs\/Tigers Fall Classic would have been than the dreck the ’84 Series actually was.<\/p>\n

1987 Minnesota Twins<\/strong>: The ’87 Twins are the only team on this list that I didn’t adopt prior to the season for obvious reasons\u00e2\u20ac\u201dI’m a Red Sox fan; the Twins are an A.L. team; and after the Sox came within one strike of beating the Mets in the ’86 Series, I had no reason to believe they wouldn’t be in the postseason again the next year.\u00c2\u00a0 Boy, was I wrong.\u00c2\u00a0 The Sox finished with a .481 winning percentage, only the second time they’d finished under .500 since 1966.\u00c2\u00a0 Still it wasn’t until the playoffs rolled around that I decided to jump on the Twins’ bandwagon.<\/p>\n

Of course, the decision was a no-brainer\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe Twins were a junior circuit club that didn’t play in the A.L. East (I just can’t root for division rivals); they had three 30-homer guys and one, Kirby Puckett, who just missed with 28; they finished third in the league in slugging at .430; and they were charismatic, featuring a roster that included Puckett, Kent Hrbek, Gary Gaetti, Tom Brunansky, Bert Blyleven, Frank Viola, Joe Niekro, and Jeff Reardon.<\/p>\n

The Twins were the antithesis of teams that win championships, finishing 10th in ERA at 4.63, and boasting only two pitchers\u00e2\u20ac\u201dViola (17) and Blyleven (15)\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwith double-digit win totals.\u00c2\u00a0 Minnesota’s third starter, Les Straker, went 8-10, and the remaining starters went 10-24 with a 6.43 ERA.\u00c2\u00a0 So much for the old axiom that good pitching beats good hitting.<\/p>\n

Sticking with the theme of rooting for players who wore number 8, I gravitated toward third baseman Gary Gaetti and my allegiance paid off when Gaetti went off during the postseason, belting three homers with nine RBIs and a .574 slugging percentage in 12 games and winning the ALCS MVP award.\u00c2\u00a0 And even though the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome goes against everything I believe a stadium should be, it played a large role in the Series and caused rumors of unsportsmanlike conduct when opponents accused Twins management of using the dome’s ventilation system to their advantage, having the fans blow out to the outfield when the Twins were at bat, then having them blow in towards the plate when opponents batted.<\/p>\n

In 2003, Dick Ericson, former Metrodome superintendent, admitted to manipulating the ventilation system<\/a> and insisted the fans were blowing out when Kirby Puckett hit his 11th-inning, game-winning\u00c2\u00a0 home run off Braves hurler Charlie Leibrandt in Game 6 of the 1991 World Series.\u00c2\u00a0 Whether the ventilation fans actually had an impact or not is debatable, but what isn’t debatable is how the human fans motivated the Twins with their ear-shattering crowd noise and “Homer Hankies” frantically waving all throughout the dome.<\/p>\n

During the regular season, the Twins won more than 69% of their home games (56-25), but won only 36% of their games on the road (29-52).\u00c2\u00a0 That trend continued during the postseason when the Twins went 6-0 at the Metrodome but only 2-4 on the road.\u00c2\u00a0 When they fell behind three games to two after Game 5, I wasn’t worried because I had confidence that the Twins would win Games 6 and 7 at home, and I was right.\u00c2\u00a0 They took Game 6, 11-5, then won Game 7, 4-2, to cop their first championship since moving to Minnesota in 1961 and first in Washington\/Minnesota franchise history since the Walter Johnson\/Goose Goslin-led Senators beat John McGraw’s New York Giants in 1924.\u00c2\u00a0 Not quite as good as an ’86 title would have meant to me, my Red Sox and the city of Boston, but still a lot of fun to watch.<\/p>\n

1993 Philadelphia Phillies<\/strong>: This is the one team on this list that I adopted not so much because I liked them but because I expected them to win.\u00c2\u00a0 Of course, I came to love them, and I was right about them winning, although they lost a heartbreaker to the Blue Jays in that year’s World Series.\u00c2\u00a0 Prior to the season, a friend called and asked who I was picking to win the Series.\u00c2\u00a0 When I told him I was riding the Phillies from beginning to end, he was shocked and accused me of bailing on the Red Sox.<\/p>\n

I wasn’t bailing on the Sox as much as I was confident that the Phils would have a breakout season.\u00c2\u00a0 Looking back on it, there was little reason to believe that a team who’d suffered through six straight losing seasons would be any better in 1993.\u00c2\u00a0 In fact, The Sporting News<\/em>, Sports Illustrated<\/em>, and All-Star Baseball<\/em> had the Phils finishing in sixth place, mainly because that’s where they finished in 1992 with a 70-92 record.\u00c2\u00a0 Only Baseball Illustrated<\/em>, among my collection of baseball preview magazines, had Philadelphia finishing anywhere near the top of the division (third place).<\/p>\n

SI<\/em> called Philly’s offseason acquisitions of outfielder Pete Incaviglia and pitcher Danny Jackson “insufficient” and “infinitesimal,” yet Inky led the team with 24 homers (tied with Darren Daulton) and a .530 slugging percentage, and Jackson won 12 games and posted a solid 3.77 ERA in 32 starts.\u00c2\u00a0 The rest of the team was made up of castoffs and misfits, like Darren Daulton, John Kruk, Lenny Dykstra, Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams, and Jim Eisenreich, who batted .290 in a 15-year career despite suffering from Tourette syndrome.<\/p>\n

Dykstra predicted he’d win the N.L. batting title, but fell 65 points short of Andres Galarraga.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, he led the league in at-bats, plate appearances, runs, walks and hits, and was arguably the senior circuit’s second best player behind only Barry Bonds.<\/p>\n

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Curt Schilling posted a 2.59 ERA in the 1993 postseason en route to becoming perhaps the greatest pitcher in postseason history. (Getty Images\/Craig Melvin)<\/p><\/div>\n

Daulton drove in 105 runs and walked 117 times, and finished seventh in MVP voting; Kruk hit .316 with 14 homers, 85 RBIs, and 111 walks, and made his third straight All-Star team; third baseman Dave Hollins drove in a career-best 93 runs and earned his only All-Star berth; and Eisenreich batted .318.\u00c2\u00a0 The pitching staff was led by future Red Sox hero and friend Curt Schilling, who won 16 games in the regular season, then sliced and diced the Braves in the NLCS to the tune of a 1.69 ERA and 19 strikeouts in 16 innings.\u00c2\u00a0 Former Braves prospect Tommy Greene went 16-4 with a very good 3.42 ERA.\u00c2\u00a0 Southpaw Terry Mulholland led the staff with a career-best 3.25 ERA, and Williams saved a career-high 43 games while taking manager Jim Fregosi on a nightly, hair-raising roller coaster ride, getting himself into jams with his 6.4 walks per nine innings before getting himself out of them.<\/p>\n

The Braves and Phillies locked horns in an NLCS that featured three one-run games, two of which went 10 innings, before Philadelphia put Atlanta away with a 6-3 win in Game 6.\u00c2\u00a0 Schilling was named series MVP thanks to his dominance over Atlanta’s batters, and Dykstra and Hollins led the Phillies with two homers each.\u00c2\u00a0 Meanwhile the Blue Jays took out the White Sox in six games to reach their second straight World Series.<\/p>\n

The Jays and Phils split the first two World Series games before the Jays spanked Philadelphia in Game 3, 10-3, then took a thrilling seesaw battle in Game 4 that featured 29 runs, 32 hits, and a six-run Toronto eighth inning that took the Blue Jays from a 14-9 deficit to a 15-14 win.\u00c2\u00a0 Williams was saddled with his third blown save of the postseason and things wouldn’t get better from there.\u00c2\u00a0 Schilling was brilliant in Game 5, tossing a five-hit shutout to pull the Phils to within one game, but “Wild Thing” blew his fourth save in historic fashion in Game 6 when he lost a 6-5 ninth-inning lead on a walk to Rickey Henderson, a single by Paul Molitor and a three-run, game and Series-winning blast by Joe Carter that barely cleared the left field wall on a line.<\/p>\n

It was only the second time in World Series history that the Fall Classic ended with a home run, the first being in 1960 when Bill Mazeroski’s homer defeated the Yankees.\u00c2\u00a0 Williams went 0-2 with two blown saves and a 20.25 ERA in three appearances.<\/p>\n

I wasn’t as devastated about the ’93 Phils’ World Series loss as I was about the Expos and Cubs’ playoff losses, but I was really hoping I’d be able to brag about my preseason prediction for the rest of my life.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh well, they still made it farther than most experts expected and I was ahead of the curve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don’t worry, there will be no singing during the writing or reading of this article; Julie Andrews I’m not. As a card-carrying member of Red Sox Nation you’d think my favorite teams are all Carmine Hose, but that’s far from being the case.\u00c2\u00a0 Of course, my favorite team of all-time is the 1977 Red Sox […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[117,857,7558,1930,7552,3527,1933,7560,500,7561,1936,7550,2674,7555,7553,7554,259,556,1612,7562],"class_list":["post-5336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-adulation","tag-batting-practice","tag-bernie-carbo","tag-carlton-fisk","tag-carmine","tag-favorite-team","tag-fred-lynn","tag-homer-man","tag-homers","tag-hometown-fans","tag-jim-rice","tag-julie-andrews","tag-league-game","tag-nightly-basis","tag-place-tie","tag-pyrotechnics-display","tag-red-sox-nation","tag-slugging-percentage","tag-summer-league","tag-taters"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t