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1) using profanity or any euphemisms for profanity
2) personally attacking other commenters
3) baiting other commenters
4) arguing for the sake of arguing
5) discussing politics
6) using hyperbole when something less will suffice
7) using sarcasm in a way that can be misinterpreted negatively
8) making the same point over and over again
9) typing "no-hitter" or "perfect game" to describe either in progress
10) being annoyed by the existence of this list
11) commenting under the obvious influence
12) claiming your opinion isn't allowed when it's just being disagreed with
Originally published September 11, 2003
Twenty years ago today, Dodger Stadium hosted its greatest game.
It began swathed in bright blue skies and triple-digit temperatures. When it ended, 228 crazy brilliant minutes later, shadows palmed most of the playing field, and every Dodger fan who witnessed the spectacle found themselves near joyous collapse.
The game was between the Dodgers of Steve Sax and Pedro Guerrero, of Greg Brock and Mike Marshall ... and the Braves of Dale Murphy, of Bruce Benedict, of Brad Komminsk.
In the end, however, it came down to one man. A rookie named R.J. Reynolds.
A Brave Battle
Los Angeles entered the game with a two-game lead in the National League Western Division over Atlanta. Their battle for the division crown came a year after a near-epic contest in which the Dodgers rallied from a 10 1/2-game deficit to the Braves in 12 days and took the lead, only to falter and have a home run by the Giants' Joe Morgan off Terry Forster knock them out on the final day of the season.
On September 11, 1983, coming off an extra-inning loss to Atlanta the night before, Los Angeles took the field behind starting pitcher Rick Honeycutt, making his fifth start for the team since being acquired from Texas in exchange for Dave Stewart, a player to be named later and $200,000. (Supplementary information in this article courtesy of Retrosheet.)
After a scoreless first inning, the Dodgers tallied two runs in the second off Braves starter Len Barker. With two out, catcher Jack Fimple, near the height of his brief but shining heyday as a fan favorite, doubled home Brock and Marshall.
Murphy brickwalled the Dodger momentum in the next inning, displaying the form that left his contemporaries certain he would become a Hall of Famer. In the top of the inning, Murphy hit a three-run home run, his 32nd of the season. In the bottom of the inning, he crashed into the center-field wall, glove extended above and beyond it, to rob Guerrero of a two-run homer.
Stunned at the end of the third, the crowd had no idea that the frenzy was only beginning.
Four on the Floor
With the kind of mathematical symmetry normally found in Schoolhouse Rock cartoons, the Dodgers used four pitchers in the fourth.
Honeycutt got the first two batters out in the top of the fourth, but then gave up back-to-back singles to Jerry Royster and Rafael Ramirez. Having seen his starting pitcher allow seven hits, two walks and a hit batsman in 3 2/3 innings, and with Murphy again at the plate, Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda brought in Pat Zachry.
Ramirez stole second base, and then Zachry walked Murphy.
With the bases loaded, Lasorda made another move, bringing lefthander Rich Rodas - in his second major league game - to face Chris Chambliss with the bases loaded.
Rodas walked Chambliss to force in the Braves' fourth run, then allowed a two-run single to Komminsk that made the score 6-2 Braves.
The fourth Dodger pitcher of the inning came in ... a young, young-looking guy by the name of Orel Hershiser. Compared to Rodas, Hershiser was a veteran. This was the Bulldog-to-be's third major-league game. To the naked eye, Lasorda was trying to win the way Buttermaker relied on Ogilvie and Miguel in The Bad News Bears.
Hershiser loaded the bases again with a walk to Benedict. The ninth batter of the inning, third baseman (no-not-that) Randy Johnson, came up with a chance to bury the Dodgers, but popped out to his hot corner counterpart Guerrero to end the top of the fourth.
The score stayed at 6-2 for two more innings. Marshall and Brock, who combined to reach base seven times in this game, led off the bottom of the fourth with singles. Reynolds, however, grounded into a double play. Fimple followed with a walk off Barker, but future Braves hero Sid Bream grounded out batting for Hershiser.
Burt Hooton, a longtime Dodger starter who went to the bullpen shortly after the acquisition of Honeycutt, became the team's fifth pitcher in the fifth. The teams gave the fans a breather with an uneventful inning, and Hooton retired the Braves in order in the top of the sixth.
Then the surreal moment arrived.
No, You're Not Even Warm
After Marshall flew out to open the bottom of the sixth, Brock walked, Reynolds singled him to second, and the Midas behind the recent Yankee dynasty, Atlanta manager Joe Torre, replaced Barker with Tommy Boggs.
Rick Monday, his heroic days behind him, batted for Fimple and was called out on strikes for the second out. But Ken Landreaux, the Dodgers' regular center fielder, pinch-hit for Hooton and walked to load the bases.
Torre went to the mound and signaled for a pitcher to replace Boggs. None other than Terry Forster - the fall guy of 1982 - emerged from the right-field bullpen.
But then a strange thing happened. Torre signaled again - for a right-handed pitcher.
The strange thing was not that Torre wanted a righty to face Sax. It was that he wanted a righty when none had been warming up.
On the telecast, Vin Scully reported that Tony Brizzolara had warmed up earlier in the game, but in this inning, it had clearly been Forster who was backing up Boggs. Brizzolara had been cooling off for some time.
As a puzzled Forster stood on the edge of the warning track and the outfield grass, looking back and forth between the mound and the bullpen, Torre insisted that Brizzolara come in to face Sax.
In Brizzolara came. He threw four pitches to Sax - in the dirt, low, low and high. In the Dodgers' third run came, and out went Torre to replace Brizzolara with Forster.
Atlanta was rattled, a thespian who had forgotten his lines on Broadway, but Los Angeles got the minimum out of the comedy, as shortstop Bill Russell struck out against Forster and left the bases loaded.
Joe Beckwith, the losing pitcher in the previous night's game, laid anchor for the Dodger bullpen, throwing three innings and scattering two singles and a walk. Meanwhile, the mythic Donnie Moore provided a dose of calm for the Braves, retiring the Dodger side in order in the seventh and the eighth.
And then came the bottom of the ninth.
With a Flick of the Wrists, It Begins
Jose Morales, 38 years and 116 pinch hits old, led off, batting for Beckwith. Against a change from Moore, Morales' off-balance swing, arms well behind his hips, wrists trailing his arms, presaged Kirk Gibson's flick at the backdoor slider from Dennis Eckersley five years and one month later. Morales' ball flew into the left-field corner, and Morales easily won a battle of his old legs and Brett Butler's weak arm, cruising into second with a stand-up double, and giving the master improvisationalist, Scully, his modest opening line ...
He just kind of felt for the ball.
Dave Anderson entered the game to run for Morales. As Sax batted (with S. Sax on the back of his uniform, to distinguish himself from his brother Dave for the easily confused), the television camera found a much-in-need-of-SlimFast Lasorda, sitting near Dodger coach Monty Basgall.
Lasorda, Basgall dying a little bit in the Dodger dugout. Tommy's not feeling well anyway. He's got a cold for about a month.
Gene Garber, sporting the kind of beard you just don't see ballplayers wear anymore, was warming up in the bullpen as Moore went 3-1 to Sax. One inside pitch later, Torre was out of the dugout with a hook for Moore. As Moore, the victim of a devastating playoff home run in October 1986, left the game, Tom Niedenfuer, his October 1983 counterpart, began warming up for in the Dodger bullpen for the 10th inning.
Russell, sporting the kind of physique you just don't see ballplayers compete with anymore, then struck out in his second consecutive critical at-bat.
Dusty Baker, in his last season with the Dodgers before his acrimonious departure, was the batter with one out and two on. Even Baker, with more than 200 career home runs, was thin back then.
Baker swung and missed at Garber's sidearm delivery, then took one low and outside. On the 1-1 pitch, Baker hit a pop fly that fell between second baseman Royster and right-fielder Claudell Washington, a defensive replacement for Komminsk. The bases were loaded with the tying runs.
This crowd is on its feet and pleading. They're all getting up. It is that time of day. Never mind the seventh-inning stretch. This is the wire.
Cecil Espy came in to run for Baker, and Guerrero came up to the plate. His at-bat took more than six minutes.
'This Is Hanging Time'
Guerrero swung and missed at the first pitch, took one low and outside, then hit a grounder just foul.
Boy, what an exhausting finish to a long afternoon at the ballpark. Well, it figured the Dodgers and the Braves are gonna put you through the ringer, right down to the last day. So naturally, they do it right down to the last minute.
Guerrero took one low, evening the count, 2-2. Then he grounded one by third base, just foul.
The table is set and the big man is in the chair.
Pitch No. 6 of the at-bat was six inches off the ground, outside - and still fouled off by Guerrero.
Boy, he was late. He just did get a piece of that. After you get that palmball trickery of Garber ... it was almost in Benedict's mitt.
No. 7: another grounder, just foul.
And the tension remains ...
With Garber about to throw the eighth pitch, Guerrero stepped out at the last moment and called time. Vinny, laughing:
Oh yeah, these are tough to take, I tell you what. Guerrero just had to back out. I mean, this is hanging time. Woo!
Garber bounced the resin bag back and forth on the front and back of his right hand. Guerrero stepped back in, and Garber threw. Low - ball three.
It is almost too much to take ...
Guerrero went back in for the ninth pitch of the at-bat, then called time again.
You can just imagine the pressure - you'd have to be a block of wood not to feel it.
Here came the pitch. Two feet outside. Guerrero flung the bat away backhanded and strutted to first base.
Anderson scored the first run of the inning, cutting the Braves' lead to 6-4. The ballpark shadows have just reached Garber. Third-base coach Joe Amalfitano counseled the next batter, Marshall.
Garber slipped on his right foot in delivering the first pitch outside for ball one. The next pitch was outside as well.
Marshall then hit a long drive to right. Washington, with his glove on his right hand, went toward the wall with his back to the right-field stands. But the ball was slicing behind him, and Washington turned his body 180 degrees to try to find and catch the ball in the late-afternoon sun.
It didn't take. The drive landed right at the base of the wall. Murphy, coming over to back up the play, nearly collided with Washington as the latter threw the ball back. Two runs scored on Marshall's double - tying the game at 6 - but Guerrero was held at third. On-deck hitter Brock stood near home plate, raising his hands behind his head like he thought Guerrero could have scored, but the replay showed that Amalfitano probably was wise to hold Guerrero.
With the winning run on third and first base open, Brock was walked intentionally - the first wide one barely snagged by a staggering Benedict.
The batter will be the kid, R.J. Reynolds, with a chance to win it.
Holding Back to the Last Second
Reynolds stood at home, looking at Amalfitano, and stretched the bat over both his shoulders.
And now, with the bases loaded, the infield is up, the outfield looks like a softball game, and the batter is R.J. Reynolds.
The first pitch is outside. Reynolds looked at Amalfitano again.
Gene Garber is battling to stay afloat.
If this was a game of Bad News Bears moments, this was Ahmad's.
Reynolds didn't give it away. In slow motion, the bat doesn't even start to come off Reynolds' shoulder until Garber's pitching arm is all the way back.
But then ... Reynolds' left hand finds the barrel of the bat. He lays the bat forward, relaxedly, at a slight downward diagonal pointing below his waist, then corrects it to a straight horizontal line to meet the ball.
Reynolds pauses a millisecond to watch. Garber's follow-through carries him toward the third-base side of the mound, but the bunt rolls toward the first base side.
The SQUEEZE! And here comes the run!!
By the time Garber reverses field and lunges for the ball, Guerrero is 15 feet away from home plate. Before Garber is even upright, Guerrero touches home, banging his hands together in exultation.
He squeezed it in!
Backs of jerseys from our past - Yeager, Thomas, Maldonado, Landestoy, Rivera - come out to rain congratulations on Guerrero. Lasorda risks smothering Reynolds in a headlock.
By the way, if you are keeping score in this madhouse, not only did R.J. squeeze, he got a base hit and an RBI. And Guerrero brought the winning run home. BEDLAM at Dodger Stadium.
Replays and images of celebrations pass in front of us for several seconds, without comentary - you know this is Vinny's way, to let the moment be the moment. We catch Ross Porter, in short-sleeved shirt and tie, is in the dugout to prepare to interview Reynolds.
Finally, Vin is ready to speak again.
The pictures told it all. There isn't any way I could improve on the picture. What a story. The squeeze in the ninth. The Dodgers score four times and pull it out and beat the Braves, 7 to 6. They show the squeeze on Diamond Vision and the crowd, EUPHORIC in its joy, roars again.
R.J. Reynolds has put the Dodgers in the right direction.
And so he had. The victory put the Dodgers three games up in the NL West, and three games up in the NL West is how the Dodgers finished the 1983 season.
Reynolds was a hero. A baseball hero, at least.
And a game for the ages, a game worth remembering, I hope, even on the saddest of anniversaries, was over.
"Aybar, who doubled and singled, is not considered a strong defensive player, and his presence in the lineup illustrates how little confidence Tracy has in Perez at third base. In fact, Tracy said he would not use Perez at third with sinkerball specialist Derek Lowe pitching, even though Perez's .316 batting average leads the team."
Very poor piece of writing by Henson by making a false assumption. That comment just knocked him down a notch in my book. I think his obvious hatred for Tracy is getting in the way of his writing.
Wonderful account. The original Non-RDGC perhaps?
Peaceful 9-11 to all as we dig out from our worst national tragedy since 9-11.
I wonder why Henson would say something like that. Weird.
Perhaps he got it from Tracy. In which case, Tracy's philosophy would seem to be: if you're a good hitter, you cannot possibly be a good defensive player.
BP says: "In the field, he's looked pretty good at both second and third base."
Dayn Perry, Fox Sports' prospect maven, says "he's an excellent defender."
On the other hand, Jerry Royster a couple of weeks ago perhaps provided Henson with fodder:
"'His offense has been pretty steady all year, right around the .300 mark, and his defense needed to catch up. To his credit, he has really stepped it up.'
Royster said Aybar has developed better work habits the last two months. He is going through daily agility drills with strength coach Demathdian Tate to fine-tune his footwork and expand his range in the infield.
'He's going after balls that he had shied away from before, and he has improved dramatically,' Royster said. 'He's got to be able to play defense like he's playing now.' "
Tim Brown's has the following bizarre passage:
"Milton Bradley needs more help, according to George Anderson, a Los Angeles-based psychotherapist who specializes in anger-management issues.
'It's not the anger that's the issue,' Anderson said. 'It's the behavior that follows the anger. And that's aggression, right?
'If I were Milton, I'd wish that somebody in the world would offer to help me.'"
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While Anderson may ultimately prove correct, I'd be wary of any quack willing to make diagnoses based on what he sees on TV....
The irony is that in accusing Henson of making a false assumption, Miltie, you make your own false assumption that he must hate Tracy.
I may not agree with it, and the man is still a lunatic, but it's an interesting column.
Considering that they gave the no-hitter all of one sentence, I'm not surprised the final game got nary a mention.
The Dodgers might (and shouldn't) even be on the front page then.
"I told them both that these two guys are key for us next year. We've got to build our pitching staff around guys like these two guys," the Hall of Fame manager said.
"I don't know what the Dodgers are going to do when the Suns' playoffs are over, but if they want someone who can really help, they should move up."
http://tinyurl.com/7r5t2
"Dodgers: It sure sounds as if owner Frank McCourt has started to second-guess himself for entrusting boy wonder Paul DePodesta as his GM. Just about every deal and signing DePodesta made undermined the Dodgers' success last season and the team is subsequently a mess of dysfuntional personalities with Jeff Kent, Milton Bradley, J.D. Drew, Odalis Perez, Derek Lowe and Jason Phillips. How to undo all of this? Jim Tracy, one of the best and brightest managers in the game, deserved far better."
You're right, though. Vin is Jon's secret weapon here. In a strange way, it's sort of like employing the original author's own voice in a reading. Scully may not actually author Dodger games, but sometimes it sure feels like he does.
But the defense still falls short. I'm not sure that "Oscar Robles' gleeful dash after Wednesday's win" is sufficient evidence that that Tracy keeps his players more motivated than the average manager, as Brown implies. Do players really play harder for Tracy?
If Brown's psychological analysis of Tracy is right (that after this many years in charge, Tracy "remains a guy trying to convince everyone he can manage a baseball team"), it would seem to belie Brown's argument that Tracy is good at his job.
and this year the dodgers got unlucky,injuries to key players gagne,drew,bradley ect.
also whats the harm in offering bradley arbitration to try to keep him next year.
Brown also points out that "Paul Lo Duca [...] has a chronically sore right hamstring and has batted .174 over the last four weeks."
Now let me check my calendar...yep, it's September, all right.
"If the Yankees win today, they can cut the lead to just three games and then they can make up just a game a week."
Michael Kay followed with the stat that the Yankees have overcome a 4-game deficit this late in the year nor have the Red Sox wasted a deficit this large at this point in the year.
And then there are guys like Larry Bowa who thinks that the Giants can catch the Padres because Barry Bonds will be playing again. Does everyone just assume that teams in first place are going to horribly collapse? It doesn't happen that often.
The only second place team in the majors now that has a respectable chance of finishing in first is Oakland.
Yeah, I felt like that was a stretch as well. I think any 29-year-old rookie who has had to spend his career playing for pesos in Mexico would be really excited about hitting a game tying HR off a premier closer in the bottom of the ninth even if Gary Coleman was managing the team.
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By my observation, they certainly do. But YMMV.
I was impressed that he didn't deal out prospects for year end drivel. Next year might be the year to say good bye to some prospects if we are in a better position to win a title but this year it would have been a wasted effort. It is not like the West is all of the sudden going to get much better. Barry will be a year older as will all the old Giants, SD might lose two key players in Giles and Hernandez, Arizona will get better and I expect them to be our competition going forward.
Your mileage may vary
Which it clearly was... for Seattle.
Although if anyone deserves to have their name misspelled, it's him...
The only player I can recall comparing the way players play under Tracy vs. the way they play for another manager is Karros. He, of course, compared Tracy unfavorably to Baker, whom he said made a huge difference in the way a team played. (I recall Karros also saying that Jim Tracy was probably "too nice.")
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Just simple observation, like I said. Everyone seems to hustle for Tracy. Since he's been manager it's been my distinct impression that the Dodgers "try" much harder than their opponents do. Since there is only one player (Goggles) who has been around for Tracy's entire tenure, I can only conclude that this has something to do with the manager rather than the specific players involved.
The way the Dodger players approach the game now is 180 degrees removed from the way we played during the Russell-Hoffman-Johnson era. And I don't think it's because of the talent level. Even this year, in a dismal season, the Dodgers have played with much more fire than a losing team usually does.
I have a feeling Tracy will be around next year, and I'm so sick of being sick of his decisions that I'm ready to concentrate on silver linings whenever possible.
I'm hoping that the recent mentions of Depo talking with Tracy about Choi/Perez issues is a sign that Tracy might be at least nudged next year towards a slightly different approach.
Why does Plaschke have to add snide remarks like that in an otherwise decent article?
It's one thing to be snide about McCourt being cheap. I don't think he's really been that cheap and I hope that one day I can be cheap and broke to the tune of an $88 million payroll.
He's right about DePo having growing pains. He doesn't give any evidence of the growing pains, but hey, at least Bill's slam wasn't too far from the truth.
Then he has to go and make the Beltre comment. Is there any way to say in all honesty that Beltre would be a better player in LA than he is in Seattle? Nevermind that Beltre's numbers this year are pretty close to his career averages.
Our best hope to recapture that is to give the Evans/DePodesta plan time to work. It's not merely "cheaper" to wait for the next generation to arise, it's the plan with the best odds of reviving the sense of hometown stakes that Dodger fans of the 60s - 80s took for granted. I hope to be an old man when players like Billingsley and Guzman retire, in Dodger uniforms, fingers full of rings. From that persepective, if Kent wants to be traded to a 'win-now' team, fine. Send him the misery of Yankee Stadium. We could give Robinson Cano a whirl, and watch Kent and Sheffield stare each other to death in '06.
Nothing against Kent; I love watching the guy play and would miss him. But if DePo panics as a result of his comments, and tries to build a WS champ in 2006, it will only demonstrate he does not have the courage of his convictions.
P.S. Not to nitpick, but shouldn't this sentence read: "As Moore, the victim of a devastating playoff home run in October 1986, left the game, Tom Niedenfuer, his October 1985 counterpart..." Unless I'm forgetting that Niedenfuer also blew the '83 playoffs against Philly.
But by the way, to a Dodger fan in 1983, who was R.J. Reynolds? Who was Jose Morales? Who was Rick Honeycutt? You always had to pay attention, even then.
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Not to trample all over one's mother's memories, but I'm going to call BS here. People have done analysis on the movement of players from team to team, and have found that players do not move around more than they used to. This is all in fans' imaginations. It's part of the natural "grass is greener" psychology, believing that everything was better back in the good old days, etc. It wasn't.
"The good old days when tradition mattered" is, to put it blunty, a bunch of hooey. Duke Snider and Jackie Robinson ended their careers as property of the Giants, for chrissakes. And Juan Marichal ended his as a Dodger. It has always been thus, and always thus shall be.
Sax was a good replacement for Lopes although he didn't quite have the power of Lopes. Guerrero was a third baseman in that sometimes he was given a glove and told to stand in the vicinity of third base.
After Bill Russell, we had guys like Dave Anderson, Jose Vizcaino, Jose Offerman, Mariano Duncan, and Alfredo Griffin. It was not a pretty sight. That bunch made you think that Greg Gagne was Miguel Tejada.
Offerman wasn't that bad. Or at least, he was twice the hitter those other guys were.
Of course, depending upon your philosophical and religious bent, she may still be rooting for the team. Or she may already know how this season ends.
Was that the series when Galarraga pulled his crap against Jody Reed? I know that happened in the Rockies' first year of existence.
I don't recall exactly. I think most of the problems the Dodgers and Rockies had in 1993 happened in Denver.
Andres Galarraga took every HBP in his career as a personal affront.
http://www.dodgerblues.com/content/features_fights.html#rockies
You were right; it was Denver.
By the way, the Jeff Kent mouse-over photo on Dodger Blues is a must.
Fortunately, someone talked Cox out of that because I think that if a manager had, in effect, put out a contract on Dreifort's head, he would have been suspended for a long time.
But isn't the promise of the Suns' generation of players--the very reason half the posts on this site now refer to those players--that we might have developed another core of quality players who will emerge at the same time, stay together, and win?
My Mom is not a lifelong Dodger fan or even much of a baseball fan. But if you lived in LA in the 70s and 80s, you absorbed the Dodgers by osmosis, and got interested in them just because they were always doing something worth paying attention to. Everyone knew who Steve Garvey and Fernando Valenzuela were, not just die hard baseball fans.
It's not necessary to have a long-time core of great players to get into the World Series. But some of the most succesful teams are like that-- the late 90s/early 00s Yankees being the best example, especially when it was Jeter, Willaims, Martinez, Brosius, Pettite and Rivera--all of them from the Yankee system, I believe. The A's under LaRussa were another team like that.
Nice post; I better understand your point now. I would only point out that in baseball, situations like that are the exception rather than the rule, and always have been. Of course, they're nice when they do happen.
Brosius/Martinez came from other teams, FWIW.
The LaRussa A's of course had Canseco and McGwire, but the pitching almost all came from somewhere else (Stewart, Eckersley, Welch, Honeycutt, Moore, et al.) The A's of that era also had a predilection for making late season acquisitions, such as Willie McGee and Harold Baines.
Really?
;)
Although what you say is true, it is false that Robinson retired rather than play for the Giants. He had already decided to retire -- and signed a lucrative deal with Look magazine for the exclusive announcement thereof -- when the Giants trade was made. He was retiring anyway, trade or no trade.
It's a myth, although one of those myths I wish were true because it would make a nice story if it were.
It makes me wonder, where is RJ Reynolds today? What is he doing, is he happy, and does he know that that one play will live in our memories forever?
Funny. The Nationals and Redskins both played simultaneous home games yesterday and both ended 9-7. So who's gonna tell me when the last time a baseball and football game were played on the same day in the same city and ended with the same score . . .
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