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| RICK EGLINTON/TORONTO STAR |
| Touch 'em all, Joe. |
Not much trouble finding something for today. Let's go back 13 years, when Mitch Williams was still Wild Thing and Joe Carter was just an ordinary Joe, albeit a rock-steady, 30-HR, 100-RBI fellow with a World Series ring from the previous season.
This is World Series moment No. 1 for any Blue Jays fan aged 21 or so and older, and I'm no different. It was at home. It was as dramatic as it gets, just the second Series-clinching walk-off HR in history. And it gets more sepia-toned with each passing year.
I thought this was going to be the season where the Jays returned to not necessarily a division flag, or even a playoff spot, but something equally elusive for this franchise in recent years: September prominence. They're not there, and until they get back there, the generation that's been growing up since Carter's Series-winning HR has almost no idea what that kind of month is like day to day. There's nothing in a sports fan's experience quite like a pennant race.
This year, anyway, Detroit is the closest to Canada the World Series has been since Carter hit the biggest home run of his career.
Some links: Tom Cheek's radio call of Carter's home run (QT); Retrosheet's Game 6 boxscore and play-by-play; Steve Rushin of Sports Illustrated's report; ESPN ranks it No. 5 on its playoff performance list; Canada's top-grossing movie for the week ended Oct. 22/1993.
So far a decent world series start. As Dave Perkins said in his column not a classic, yet. It sure does have all the makings of a classic though. Rogers was great in game 2, Weaver pitched well. We shall see if LaRussa's move of pulling Weaver early so he can pitch game 5 on three days' rest will make him look like the legendary manager that people say he is. He looked good picking Reyes in game 1.
Posted by: Joe | October 23, 2006 at 02:53 PM
When Joe Carter came to bat, I thought for sure he was going to strike out. I can't remember the exact sequence of pitches, but I'm sure he swung and missed at one or two before cranking the homer. All I remember thinking was "I hope that if Wild Thing throws a pitch out of the zone, it's WELL out of the zone, or Joe's gonna swing and miss." I kinda just wanted him to take a walk and get on for the next batter. Then he hits it out. Amazing. I was in the wood-panelled basement with my father. I was 17 years old...
Posted by: jeeves | October 24, 2006 at 02:56 PM
Does anybody remember who was on deck when Carter hit his? It was Olerud's spot, but he was pulled for a PR (Griffin). I doubt Gaston was going to let Griffin hit with the game on the line.
Posted by: Mark McDonald | October 24, 2006 at 03:57 PM
I doubt anybody would remember that one!
I would love to get my hands on a video of that game. It's too bad we didn't have youtube, dvds or filesharing software back then. Was there ever a set of official VHS tapes made of the WS games? All I've ever seen since is the Joe Carter homerun clip -- I'd like to watch the games again.
Posted by: jeeves | October 26, 2006 at 01:14 AM
I have a VHS copy of that game, but it's on loan at my brother's. Am trying to get it back to answer your question, Mark. I'll advise as soon as I can.
Posted by: cy | October 26, 2006 at 09:31 AM