Baseball. It's a sport like no other. There's no running clock, very few high-speed collisions, no breakaways or two-on-ones. Very rarely does the flow of the game leave your heart pounding or your palms sweating, frankly it doesn't have the flow of say hockey, soccer or basketball. In fact, many people argue that there's too much waiting in baseball, but the way I see it, the wait is what it's all about.
In my eyes, the beauty of every great moment in baseball is defined by its build-up more so than it's culmination. The moments I remember most vividly don't stand out because of the play itself, but the wait that led up to it, and the legendary tale that follows a result.
Can it be monotonous? Sure it can. More often than not rallies are shut down, runners are stranded and a loud crack off the bat is just a fly out.
I can't argue the fact that baseball fans spend a good chunk of their viewing time waiting. But why do they spend so much time waiting when there are so many fast-paced high intensity sports out there to watch? They wait for the potential of that moment when they'll see something they'll tell their grandkids about. That moment when everything they've been waiting for comes to fruition, for better or worse. When a single pitch or swing of the bat can make history.
To celebrate the road to the Major League Baseball post season, over the next three issues I will be retelling my top three moments over the past 20 years of professional baseball.
The moment when 162 games worth of waiting came down to a series of single swings, and as it is with all sports, it ended with triumphant jubilation and devastating heartbreak, but on a scale I've never witnessed before. The night marked what is now commonly referred to in baseball as the “Best. Night. Ever."
Four teams battled it out for two wild card spots in four separate games. So much happened on that night that I can't even begin to cover it all, but there was one moment, one swing of the bat, that stands out in my memory like a shining plaque on the wall.
At the start of September, the Boston Red Sox held a nine-game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays for the American League Wild Card spot, a lead that was shockingly erased to zero heading into the final games, where Boston took on the Baltimore Orioles, who had already been ruled out of the playoffs, and Tampa squared off against the New York Yankees, who had already clinched the AL East.
The impact of each game rested solely on the outcome of the other. If either the Red Sox or Rays won while the other lost, they would be awarded with the wild card. If both won or lost, however, they would be forced into a one-game playoff with the winning team advancing. Amazingly, no one-game playoff could have ever been more intense than what unfolded on that night.
The Red Sox jumped to a 3-2 lead over the Orioles in the top of the fifth inning on a Dustin Pedroia home run, just as Yankee Mark Teixeira blasted a grand slam off David Price to give New York a commanding 6-0 lead over the Rays in the second, one that was later extended to 7-0 in the fifth.
Then things suddenly changed. The Orioles refused to just call it a season despite an 85 minute rain delay at Camden Yards, and the Yankees began to unravel at Tropicana Field.
With no out and the bases loaded, Luis Ayala was brought to the mound for the Yankees, and walked the first batter to score Johnny Damon, 7-1. Ayala then beaned the next batter, 7-2. After Desmond Jennings struck out swinging, B.J. Upton hit a sacrifice fly into left field, scoring Casey Kotchman, 7-3.
Longoria then stepped to the plate and blasted a three-run home run out of the yard over the left field wall, cutting the deficit from seven runs to only one to enter the ninth inning.
Red Sox left fielder Carl Crawford blasted a double deep into into the outfield. Marco Scutaro took off for home from first base attempting to extend the Sox lead to two runs, but had trouble rounding third and was just beat to the plate on a cut-off throw, still 3-2 Boston.
Down to their last out, the Rays sent unlikely hero Dan Johnson to the plate. Hitting an abysmal .108 on the season, Johnson was selected to pinch hit for Sam Fuld as the Rays' last-ditch effort for the season, and delivered the biggest hit of his career with a solo shot over the right field fence, forcing extra innings (Fun fact: Johnson's home run hit a male Ray's fan square in the groin).
After back to back strikeouts from Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon, Chris Davis doubled to right field, and Reimold followed it up with a ground rule double to deep center, tying the game and bringing up Robert Andino.
Andino hit a blooper into shallow left field. With Reimold taking off from second base, Crawford made a sliding attempt to snag the ball, but it escaped his glove. His Hail Mary attempt to catch Reimold at the plate was off the mark, and the Baltimore Orioles clinched a 4-3 victory to put the Red Sox on the brink.
Seconds after the Red Sox loss, the score of the game went up on the board in Tampa Bay. The crowd ignited, knowing a single swing of the bat could send the Rays to the post-season without a wild card playoff.
Only four minutes after Andino's walk-off single in Baltimore, and six pitches after the score went up in Tampa Bay, Longoria gave the crowd that swing, sending a line drive over the 315-foot marker in left field to propel the Rays into the post season, and send the Red Sox packing in the single worst September collapse in MLB history.
Best. Night. Ever.
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