MLB Greatest Games #4: 1992 NLCS Game 7

the countdown reaches game number four from october of 1992 it's game seven of the national league championship series we begin where the game ended at the plate tom and bob when you think about great base runners in history you think about lube rock ricky henderson sid breen exactly tom i mean good grief i mean i taught lou and i taught ricky how to slide that's what happened that night for one night sid bream was the most famous base runner in baseball it's coming up next each of these teams have played 168 games for the chance of going to the world series up the middle linki can't get it and the pirates lead two to nothing he dives and makes a great catch the 2-1 pitch fastball line to third caught double play merced to the blade and he is out at home round into the right booted by pendleton a third of the play and it could turn out to be the biggest error of his life as francisco cabrera comes to the place combat for the pitcher he appeared in only 12 games this year for the braves hello everyone and welcome i'm sean mcdonald along with tim mccarver and it's great to have you with us as the pittsburgh pirates try to become just the eighth team in major league history to come from three games to one down and win a postseason series and by forcing a game seven they have another chance for doug drabeck as he goes head-to-head with john smoltz for the third time in the series and as we begin our look at game number four on the countdown we welcome in the pirates andy van slyke gold glover and all-star in that 92 season former pirate sid bream who had been to the postseason with him in 1990 against cincinnati but now has been a member of the braves for a couple of years and mark lemke always an outstanding playoff and world series performer appeared in four world series with the atlanta braves tom there was already a history sean mcdonough alluded to it between these two teams the previous year they had met in the lcs the pirates took a 3-2 lead heading home never scored another run against steve avery and john smoltz as atlanta won game six and seven and this time it's the pirates who are coming back in the series game five and game six they force the game seven by outscoring the braves twenty to five so you're thinking now momentum this year is on the pirates side yeah they roughed up avery and glavin in games five and six and now this game seven is the third matchup between john smoltz and doug draybeck in this series now andy draybeck was your ace but he had not survived the fifth inning in his first two starts and he hadn't often pitched on short rest he started game four on three days he's starting game seven on three days against smoltz who's been lights out well yeah we you know the funny thing is bobby even before we we got to that point like tom mentioned we were down three to one and we just had a sense when we left pittsburgh that uh we were going to end up in a game seven we were going to reverse the roles from the previous year we knew we had a guy like doug draybeck we could handle that we could rely on and even though doug wasn't pitching up like to his side young year that he had we knew that if he got the ball on the opportunity to shut down the braves that he was going to do it but the braves have john smoltz really multiple aces on that step but smoltz you talk about game seven he's mr game seven it's his third game seven that he's pitched and he's just a young guy he's only 25 years old yeah game seven in the 91 nlcs when he beat the pirates that year's world series when he hooked up with jack morris and now here in the nlcs in 92. yeah you could you could almost bet that smolsey was just gonna i mean he was one of those guys that was just lights out i mean in the playoffs especially and uh you know going into that game as well obviously as as we're stating here pittsburgh you know they were they were on they had the momentum shift but uh you know we certainly had somebody coming in here that knew how to throw shutout innings and and we were feeling pretty good as well the momentum may have seemed to be going pittsburgh's way in this little slice of time but in the overview these are franchises going in different directions markets the beginning of a long run of year after year appearances in the postseason for the braves and it's really the beginning of the end for the pirates yeah i think at that time though you didn't really know that and we were a young team of course a lot of the guys on the team looked up to guys like sid coming over and teaching us the winning ways that he had learned with the pirates and uh you know it was a make make yourself believe kind of time you know can we do it again or is this magic over for us not that any of us knew that it was going to continue on for the braves and andy i got to ask you about this game game seven always exciting but as bob mentioned for the pirates there's a lot on the line here 90 91 and 92 you win at least 95 games every year there's no team in pirates history that ever did that three straight years and yet no penance right so knowing that bobby benit is already gone barry bonds doug drabeck probably out the door the day of game seven are you realizing that this window is closing uh yeah i i the realization that uh that that the superstars of the ball club were going to be saying back i think was gone especially when bobby went to new york um barry was offered a contract that didn't meet his superstar status and it was a situation where the pirates financially couldn't keep enough players to keep the level of play in which we were accustomed to seeing for the last three years so yeah we knew that this was probably the last opportunity it was an opportunity which i really felt as a team in an organization we were more relaxed in 92 than we were in 91. i i can't explain it when 90 going into 91 playing the braves we knew that avery and schmoltz had shutout type of pitching but uh we didn't feel comfortable we really did not feel comfortable in game six and seven i felt more comfortable coming back from game uh from being down 3-1 than being up 3-1 so we knew that this was an opportunity and i had no doubt that we were going to walk right through the window and before it shut well when that window shut it was slammed shut here's a team that came within a whisker of the world series three straight years and has not had a single winning season since this game seven in 1992. it's remarkable and i don't think anybody foresaw that i mean you talked andy about knowing the opportunity was closing here but i'm sure and you remain there in pittsburgh that the years were not going to get as lean as they did well you know at some point we're gonna we're gonna probably see me crying like a baby in center field with that uh that slide at home but i really realized that it was over i mean it was really gonna be over and you know talking to the with jim leland and talking with people in pittsburgh you realize that the commitment financial commitment to try to keep up with the bigger franchises was going to be a tough tough thing you didn't have revenue sharing they weren't signing guys back and when that when that foot crossed that plate slid across that plate it was the nail in the coffin well let's begin now by taking a look at the lineups and we start with the visiting pirates this is the lineup that jim leland put together andy you're in the third slot you had well over 300 again that year barry bonds in the cleanup spot and it's impossible to take your eyes off of him and it's impossible not to note the different body type at that point and although he was an emerging hall of fame player in seven seasons with the pirates he hit 275 with 176 home runs that's an average of fewer than 30 home runs a season and he was not a great playoff performer as a pirate 191 in 20 lcs games in this particular lcs he was six for 23 with his lone post season homer as a pirate and six walks so he's on base a lot and there's the rest of the lineup and leland has plenty of flexibility on his bench and will use some of it as will bobby cox as the evening progresses let's take a look at atlanta's lineup bobby cox goes with otis nixon at the top and you see the rest of that group the speedster sid bream hitting behind dave justice and just in front of i'm glad you mentioned that bob and the pitching pairing schmoltz had gotten the better of drebek in both games one and two for the year drayback 15 and 11. era still under three and smoltz beginning to emerge as one of the best pitchers in the national league also a 15-game winner and their era is pretty close okay let's turn to the game john smoltz getting ready as tom mentioned he's already 4-0 as a post-season pitcher and this is his third game seven in the space of a year two of them in october of 91 and this one against the pirates he has been sharp each time out doug drayback pass cy young award winner hasn't gotten past the fifth in games one and four after an alex cole walk j bell is the hitter and damon berryhill with a nice catch on the foul ball that was very typical of the way our offense was if if we had a leadoff guy jim malone always used to bump the guy over gave me an opportunity to hopefully drive on if i didn't do it then obviously we had very bonds but a lot of times you know they would obviously pitch to me and a lot of times end up pitching around barry bonds that's a fair ball past the dive of sid bremen down into the corner fielded by justice hole will be held at third van schleich in a second with a double i can't believe that you hit one past me well you should've been playing the line you know i hooked the ball so a double for andy who hit 324 that year i think being aggressive against john smoltz was was really our game plan as a team to try to get that first fastball and here is barry bonds with a leaner body and also apparently a smaller cranium being intentionally walked which is the right move i mean even though barry wasn't getting the performance that we all expected him to put you know to play at it's the right move you got to take your opportunities and try to walk him when you can and he's got orlando merced behind him not a big power guy good hitter but only a six home run guy during the year yeah i mean you have one out i mean you got you know you got a base open i'm gonna shoot you got a double play opportunity to get out of the inning right here this this is definitely the way to go for sure well hit right field deep enough to get the run in as justice makes the catch in front of the track hole across with the first run of the ball game and the pirates lead one to nothing in the first inning so cole scores and merced delivers the sacrifice fly so andy you've got a game seven on the road right get a run on the board you're first at bat how big is that well it really i think settled us down and i really thought that uh that wasn't going to be the last one we were going to score off of john schmo berry hill and pendleton it's very hill to end the inning the pirates are on the board with one run in the top of the first after half an inning pittsburgh one in atlanta coming up so berryhill with the second put out of the inning could have been worse for smoltz had him loaded with one out and he held them to a single run so now drayback with a run to work with and otis nixon starts it now the 2-2 chico lean throws him out jose lean led national league second baseman and fielding percentage in 1992 which became an ironic stat by the time this game was over yeah it really uh i mean he was really an anchor we had really good defense up the middle of the valley or go glover and with jay bell and lean at second and myself and center i really thought defensively might have been the best club in the national league and a nice play here by king at third base that retires blouser and mark what's the game plan going in against drayback seeing him now a third time in the series well i think you want to try to get on the board early and and the pirates obviously did before us but we're trying to get on doug early maybe get him thinking about his first two starts pull the catch the braves go in order in the first after one in game seven one nothing pittsburgh you know i think the biggest difference between doug in that game in the other games he had total command of his curveball that night it seemed like at any point he could throw his curb on either side of the corner he could throw it right down the middle low which is as a hitter the hardest pitch to lay off is a curveball that's in the middle of play out of strike zone down you don't do anything with it and it seemed like when doug needed a ground ball or throw a curveball away to maybe get a double play he he could do that i think one thing to keep in mind with drayback though he's comes into this game 265 in the third innings a career high hadn't pitched as you mentioned on short rest all year long now this he's doubling up on short rest that is going to become a factor the deeper he gets into well it you know at that point the seasonal time i mean your adrenaline is at its highest level you realize what the stakes are you don't care how many innings you've pitched you don't even care how many pitches you've thrown in that particular game and i really think that's why jim went as long as he did even into the ninth inning with him all right so after an inning in game seven it's one nothing pirates up next why is mark lemke showing bunt with two strikes the answer coming up i can't wait for this i'd like to know either he didn't know there's two strikes that could be the reason we have reason to believe that home plate umpire john mcsherry is not feeling well during the break between innings he took a seat a couple of his fellow umpires came in from the field to check on mcsherry and now they're all conferring with john mcsherry at home plate he does not seem to be feeling well you can imagine that for the umpires this is as exciting an experience as it is for the participants and this has to be personally greatly disappointing that john mcsherry as he heads off well a couple of things about that it was a 70 degree night in atlanta in october not terribly hot but mcsherry complained of dizziness john was a wonderful guy obviously he was greatly out of shape well over 300 pounds and it foreshadowed what happened four years later on opening day in cincinnati when he had a fatal heart attack while working home plate the direct impact on this game is that randy marsh shifted from first base to behind the plate they wound up going with five umpires and ed montague moved from the right field line to first base right and that will come into play later on as the game goes by but john mcsherry one of the top umpires in the game a beloved figure in the game by the players managers all coaches well everybody loved them i think you know uh more so than the switch of umpires or who might uh be behind the plate or where they might uh move i think it was a lot of concern amongst the players for john mcsherry himself all right so now mcsherry has been forced to leave randy marsh is behind the plate doug drabeck back to the mound bottom of the second david justice at the plate tried to check his swing but could not you know doug was one of those players that you know when he was going good he had the sinker that he'd throw away he'd throw a little cutter in on the hands he'd have that curveball he'd have a slurve he'd have a change up see there you go that's the curve i was talking about outside pull it can't do anything with it and i did that a lot in my career i just want you to know that's your highlight though that's my highlight right there and now here's ron gant a one-two pitch line to center on the run vance like he dives and makes a great catch that's why you want all those gold gloves well it's good timing you want to make sure you don't go too fast you want to max out about 80 and then the last two steps get about 95 and make a dive and make it look like you should never left your feet if you just kept running hard so it remains one-nothing pirates bottom of the third again sean mcdonough with the car berry hill drives with a deep center field van slick on the run to the wall gets off the wall he has a long way to go to track it down but berry hill is slow and he stops at second the braves have their first base runner of the night not even you can get that one andy no but you know if you as you see i actually probably misplayed the ball the way it shouldn't have been played i i really thought that any ball that was hitting the outfit that i could catch but um if it had been a faster runner and i played the ball like i did he probably wouldn't end up with a triple you know someone like fast like sibrim i probably would have played it off the wall instead of tried to catch it here you are mark just trying to get barry hill over to third base i'm thinking in this situation and you can see that's that's almost a ball i mean and he called that a strike so we can see already that randy marches have an effect on the game and you'll see why i'll go to another direction or i don't think i'm going to be able to pull that ball okay now you've got two strikes on you you would think the bunt is no longer in order here yeah but i thought i might trick them or i missed a sign one or the other there you know the the the interesting thing is though you got a guy on deck who's a terrific athlete john smalls and and in that situation if john smoltz was on deck i might have mark lemke butting him over if he'd been a bad hitter as a pitcher i would have had him swinging instead he pokes one to third so the runner has to hold as king makes the play and up comes smoltz who hit 160 with a homer for the year and always was a good hitting pitcher and he did have two hits in game four little looper leaned with the leaping grab in shallow right center jim lehm used to like to play the infield in that situation that ball might be a base hit he might have been playing him in a little bit to try to cut off the run at home knowing that it's probably end up being a low scoring game now it's up to otis nixon berry hill still at second now with two out and merced scoops it up and finishes the braves three innings in the books in atlanta one-nothing pirates all right when we come back doug drayback might be in command on the mound but at the plate not so much so it's still a one-nothing game with the pirates leading game seven of the nlcs to the top of the fifth now mike lavagna the catcher for pittsburgh up against smoltz and that's probably the first time we noticed some kind of disagreement either verbally or physically shown towards randy mart's strike zone up to that point i thought he was doing a really good job on the 3-2 pitch lavalier thought he had the walk punched out instead well hit and hooking toward the corner gantt was over in left center field he's a long way to go to retrieve it and chico lean has a one-out double we're in the top of the fifth inning the pirates lead one to nothing doug drapek at the plate with a runner at second base is jose lean struck him on the breaking ball dravik lost the bat doug as you can see he has a really good approach about hitting the guy who throws 95. he's almost out of the box forward for some reason i tried to explain to dougie the further you get back the more time you have to hit he didn't understand that concept so now here's alex cole trying to bring lean home from second with two out [Applause] that's well hit to right justice in front of the track makes the catch halfway through game seven of the national league championship series john smoltz and the braves trail one to nothing i think we were comfortable with the way john smoltz was pitching we were fine with that we're just trying to figure out how we're going to get to doug drayback it's one thing when the guys got four pitches and two of them were working doug dragon had four pitchers he had all four working that night so you know pick your poison you might not even get the pitch you're looking for well let's see how you try to deal with them bottom of the fifth you're up against drayback there's another ground ball bell throws out green i did have a double one against dougie at some point in that that series i knew that but uh you tried to forget about those ground balls huh we have to remind you and look at the drop on that curve ball he just finished gantt with and that brings up barry hill who had doubled his last time lean from the outfield grass and another one two three inning for drayback and a short one which was really important that dougie had short innings that the more we extended doug draybeck the better i felt that we had a chance to win that ball game but the the last time that we had guys warming up with the bullpen i thought we had a better chance to win the ball all right let's look ahead when we come back john smoltz and randy marsh can't see eye to eye you're watching game number four on the countdown of the 20 greatest of the last 50 years so andy vance likes sid bream and mark lemke are here as we review game four on the countdown and i can see viewers at home okay what haven't we gotten to yet what three are left and in what order you gotta stick with us over the next few weeks this is game number four top of the sixth jay bell at the plate sean mcdonough again with the call bell rips one into the left field corner gant will play it off the wall as jade bell pulls in the second with a double hanging slider yeah you can hear small say dang it as soon as he let it go yeah i mean you get two strikes oh two counts on smalls that year hitters were 0.97 yeah so now you got a chance here andy take us through this at bet you know john has great command i know he's either going to come way in or try to do that get me to chase down and then or throw something fastball away and and hopefully not have to be able to hook it so i only got one job to do and that's just to get him over even though i believe with barry bonds on deck there's a likelihood they're going to end up potentially walking in and try to set up the double play i still have to trust the fact that my teammates are going to perform up the middle lenke can't get it bell being waved around and he will score and the pirates lead two to nothing now smoltz had done well against you coming into the series you were a 161 career hitter against it but you went five for 10 against him in the nlcs this year well in that situation i actually got lucky they were they played me where they should have been playing me they were playing me on the right side deep in the hole basically as you saw the ball was not hitting very sharply but it was hit to the right side of the field it just happened to find the middle of the field barry bond the pop-up pendleton takes command one out orlando merced in the air in shallow right center justice the catch jeff king waits grand spike on the run king lifts it and in left center gant has room the braves come up in the bottom of the six trailing two to nothing so bonds popped up orlando merced flied out then jeff king flied out to end the inning so you settle for the one but up two nothing and the way drebeck is throwing that two looks big well it does look big but again i don't think two's enough and and i'm i'm thinking in my mind we got to figure out how to score that third run it's there's a huge difference between a two-nothing lead i in my mind then there's a three-nothing lead when you get a base hit and you get a hanging breaking ball you tie the ball game it's another thing to try to hit three bases together and try to score three runs on one swing so i'm feeling that we got to figure out some way at this at this point forward to score another run all right two nothing pittsburgh going to the bottom of the sixth when we come back mark will try to ignite a rally for the braves mr october the braves are down 2-0 to the pirates as they come up in the bottom of the six mark you're going to lead it off against strayback there's a base hit and that brings the fan to their feet breaking ball that was a piss that i really struggled with off of drebek you know he was getting it over the plate and and i would try to get the one that maybe would he would just keep up a little bit to try to throw for the strike and one of the few mistakes he did actually end up throwing this will be pitch number 73 of the night for draybeck this is jeff treadway hitting for smaltz and he delivers although this is a reluctant move by cox he's got to get smoltz out after just six innings of work well it's a move he has to make obviously being down by two but he's set up pretty well here on that blue hit first and second and nobody out this is the pitching coach ray miller to the mound to talk with drayback as otis nixon is due next and i mean when you look at wayne's pitching i mean he really he hasn't really made a terrible mistake yet it's just that they put two softballs into play and that's just you know the magnification of it shows you just how exciting it can be big play here as nixon's going to try to bunt a high chopping bomb could be a problem base has loaded nobody out yeah and as you know just likes the bun he's a very good bunter i thought it was a bunt situation there was a conference on the mound and you'll see on this replay merced is behind the runner at first base i don't understand that right there i mean because that's i mean you know going into that thing i mean otis is going to bunt to try to get guys over to second to third i mean there's there's just no way a way around that one so i don't understand that with what orlando was doing so the next hitter is jeff blaser with a chance to sustain the rally base it probably ties it and puts you in a position to take the lead drebeck in his toughest jam of the night don't take too big a lead stay close memo to self the 2-1 pitch fastball line to third caught double play right at king was the line drive and he easily doubled off lemke you're in no man's land yep the position you don't want to be in but you know the momentum hadn't had king going towards third base there's nothing i really thought i don't think you know in that situation i don't even know if you're two steps off the base where you get back here's a 2-2 pitch to pendleton trying to salvage the inning and thought ray had him struck out balls right down the middle i mean you know again umpires don't perform sometimes at 11 which we expect them to just like guys like me who choked in the playoffs bonds is there to make the play on pendleton and how deflating is this sid and mark to have the bases loaded with nobody out down two runs you've had to hit for smaltz you come up empty well i think that just as an indication of how doug draybeck was pitching i think normally with the way john smoltz was pitching maybe you don't see bobby cox go to a pinch hitter there but he's thinking hey we got to get some offense going here and pretty quickly against this guy so to to have that to squander that opportunity certainly hurt us a little bit and andy you have to be feeling pretty good i mean you know baseball is a crazy game you get a ground ball single a bloop single a bunt single and the hardest ball hit turns it to two outs right so you're walking off the field thinking you dodged a big bull things are going your way not only did i think we dodged a bullet i thought the the bullets were out of the chamber i really thought that that was such a deflating moment for the braves that i didn't think they had a chance mentally to come back and the way doug was pitching i didn't really see doug having another ending like that like you said you had two bleeders a pop-up bunt that should have been out maybe bleeder were you it was a bleeder it was just like mine mine was a bleeder bleeder's a bleeder but i really felt at that point psychologically that we're in the position we needed to be doug was i don't think was going to have another anything like that and i again being down three to one or being up three to one and feeling that pressure again start to mount i can guarantee you a lot of those guys in the dugout we're thinking i cannot believe we're going to blow this lead when we come back smoltz is out of the game cox has to go to his bullpen and i believe it was in the bylaws of major league baseball for a good portion of the 90s and into the first decade of this century that if you play a post-season kenny lofton has to be in it with one team or another and mike stanton has to be in it with one team or another and he'll be in it for the braves when we come back it's game four on the countdown it's game seven of the nlcs from october of 92 the pirates and the braves and events like sid bream and mark lemke are with us we go to the seventh and as we mentioned earlier mike stanton now on in relief for the braves greeted immediately by the base hit by mike lavalier drebeck gets the bunt down bream has to go to first a lengthy covering trebek bunts with one out leaned had flied out for the first out so now with two down lavaliers at second base and this tells me how much jim leland wants another run because he's going to use his best pinch hitter here who's not going to get a chance to swing the bet and also weaken himself defensively by putting mclennan in the game for call in right field but he wants one more run yeah i i was really feeling like i said earlier i really felt the same way that there it to me there's a big difference i think there's a bigger difference between two and three and there's three and four in the game of baseball so jim i obviously felt the same way so pete smith comes on for stanton and jay bell who doubled his last time up off smoltz is the hitter now the 3-0 pitch ball four he walked him on four pitches that was a breaking ball a breaking ball on a 3-0 count with van schleichen bonds coming up no way mccarver's beside himself that he throws a breaking ball on three and oh four-pitch walk there again i mean you know if you're confident as a pitcher i mean shoot you got a base open and you set up a double play right there cox not happy that he has to use his third pitcher of the inning avery against andy 22 year old steve avery with another one-two pitch fly ball it'll stay in the ball part and otis nixon is there the pirates leave the bases loaded without scoring in the seven seventh inning stretch in game seven the pirates up two to nothing i tell you what um i got an opportunity uh to face avery not at his best in that situation he actually had thrown two balls it was a 2-0 count and like like tom had said earlier i really felt that that particular at-bat when i was had touched first base and missed an opportunity to take a 2-0 fastball right down the middle and do something and put more runs on the board was going to end up hurting us i don't know why but there was something in my heart and something in my mind said that really hurt our chances now i still like the fact that we're up to to i still like the fact that doug was pitching terrific but i really felt that third or fourth run absolutely would have shut the coffin closed well andy you hit in front of barry buns and bobby had mentioned his troubles in the nlcs with pittsburgh how much did that weigh on the pirates and the whole lineup waiting for the big bat in your lineup to get going and it never really did come you know it it's interesting very psychologically was not the same player in the playoffs he was during the regular season barry had this cockiness this willingness to to even brag about how he was going to beat up a pitcher or beat up a a guy coming out of bullpen i remember being on deck and and barry would predict almost sometimes what he was going to do the pitcher coming in the ball game now we got the post season and something happened uh i can remember barry making a statement that really shocked me from the type of superstar he was not only physically but mentally that he just he asked his teammates to get him the world series and he would start performing at a level which we were causing the watching and i went to him turned around said well why don't you start now so we can get there so i mean he was guilty of not performing at a level which we were accustomed to but i was just as guilty because between barry bonds andy van slick and bobinia i don't think we hit 2 200 as three guys as as a trio in 90 and 91. but i think you feel that probably more so yourself than the opposing team we still look at it like we'd like not to see you or bonds or any of those guys up in tight situations i mean they were guys i mean they could take the uh the team on their shoulders i mean and when they were hitting i mean you hoped that there was a base open so you could get them on first base so the pirates leave the bases loaded in the top of the seventh can't improve on a two-nothing lead drebeck back to work in the bottom half facing dave justice lean bobble from i thought that was really interesting and mark you could talk about this as a second baseman when you watch his footwork the way he's not working through the ball here a little bit back on his heels break that down for me well it looked like he he might have let that ball play him a little bit and feels starting to get chopped up a little bit he's used to the turf in in pittsburgh and uh but a guy like lean he's so good here you go sid why is it slicing away from vance lake and in for an extra base hit bream after five knee operations doesn't run very well and it doesn't really matter in this case it's a double all the way for the former pirates sid breen gant at the plate now but as we saw you chug into second base sean mcdonough mentioned the five knee operations you've got a brace on your knee how painful was it for you at that point well i don't know as far as being painful i i just know that i mean at that point in time there were i had to process what i was going to do before i got to a place i mean i couldn't go into home home plate on a a tag situation and not know what i was going to do because i mean i didn't know if my knee was going to hold up to it i mean i couldn't plant and try to avoid a tag i mean because of the weight of my knee how bad my knee was at that point this is a big double though because now you put some stress on drebeck here gant at the plate we know terrific fastball hitter doug's going to throw nine consecutive breaking balls to ron get here so i think now you're starting to tax drayback more than you did the middle innings three foul balls coming up after the count goes full another 3-2 pitch high in the air bonds drifting toward the stands but they're getting them as andy's saying i mean what command to be able to throw crowbar ball after curveball for strikes i mean you know what what an awesome pitching pitching duel right here i mean an awesome pitching event and finally gant works the walk and he kind of throws his bat away triumphantly he earned that walk and the pitch count continues to build for drayback berryhill had a double off him earlier in the game lifts this one to bonds and here again i mean you're looking you know without myself and getting on first base you don't get up to that inning where terry pendleton leads off that inning i mean so those are things to think about as well mark you're due but you're pulled back and lonnie smith comes up yeah well i think bobby now is starting to feel the pressure we need to score some runs and we need to do something when we get an opportunity here and lonnie smith has been a great post-season performer this one really shocked that didn't surprise you mark base hit your last time lonnie hit 226 against right-handers and he's going right on right here no i i think lonnie's come up with big hits and big home runs for us in the past so i could see bobby's thinking there so the braves had the bases loaded in the previous inning they strand two here still nothing to show for it and now you're just six outs away six outs away and the way doug's pitching and again you you mentioned pitch count earlier but i at this point i don't think jim leland is concerned about it ray mill the pitching coach is not concerned i know doug drayback's not gonna give up the ball you're gonna have to pull it out of his hand okay you know doug drayback he's the ultimate competitor like at john smoltz pitch counts out the window but it seems like the braves at least have taxed him that inning he had to throw 17 pitches out of the stretch late in the game with a run-around scoring position at least you're putting some pressure on him getting some chances well we're starting to break through a little bit but we're not getting that big hit but i think i think like sid mentioned earlier there's that feeling on our side that if we can get that opportunity just one more time we can we can come back once again now you're out of the game so you're in the dugout how close are you to bobby cox i'm at the other end of the dugout other end yeah we weren't seeing eye to eye at that moment so i would have been upset sitting sitting here sitting here you're saying reasonable move to pull you and send lonnie up but then i hear you saying you were hot about it no i you know you you want to be the guy in those situations i think you dream about it as a kid i grew up in upstate new york i watch reggie jackson his heroics and you you dream about those situations you want to be that guy if you can't then you're happy for your teammate if he comes through but then he doesn't come through and now there's nothing you can do about it at this point and that becomes the hardest part is when you're a guy on the bench you can't come into the game you're done you know the season could possibly be over for you at that present moment okay up next a hall of famer makes his first appearance that's a football hall of famer back with game seven of the 1992 national league championship series still two-nothing pirates as the top of the eighth begins steve avery is working for the braves barry bonds leads off against steve avery with a base hit you know here's here's something with steve avery i mean you know he's not used to coming into a ball game i mean he's used to starting a ball game so it's a it's a total uh mental shift for him i mean coming into a game like this so i can see why andy talking about not being sharp i mean i can see why he's not doing that blouser gets the lead runner here and that is key as he cuts down bonds merced was a switch hitter batting from the right side against the lefty avery good play by blouser pittsburgh yeah nice play by blaz knew that there was going to be a possibility for a double play but you got to get that out and get the lead runner so now here's jeff king merced is the runner at first now slap down the right field line it is a fair ball right along the line the runner is being weighed around third merced to the plate and he [Music] is think that ball karen off that wall by the bullpen stopping it short of going in the corner was a whole key to that play aggressive move by the third base coach rich donnelly he sends merced with one out here and justice with the throw to the plate to berry hill and they get him the reason that rich donnelly sent merced was because of the guy who's up at bat right now mike lavalier montague made the right call it was a fair ball now the 1-2 pitch softly toward left gant makes the running catch well so again the pirates have lost a chance to add to their lead the pitcher is still doug drabeck and he is still working on a shutout though he's had to work in and out of some jams and look who he faces now in the bottom of the eighth dion sanders who was shuttling between football with the falcons and baseball with the braves throughout this post-season 2-2 pitch struck him out blow him away with a fastball otis nixon bonds on the run into the bullpen area to make the catch two away in the eighth inning jeff blauser struck him out another live fastball from draybeck who works a one two three eighth inning then we go to the ninth the pirates two and the braves nothing treybeck with two strikeouts in the inning as he gets blouser swinging five strikeouts in just one walk for the game a shutout through eight but now tom he's thrown 120 pitches 120 pitches but that's something he did quite often in fact he did it 12 times during the regular season he was the kind of guy as you know andy not only pitched deep into a game but kept his stuff deep into games well i think i think the eighth thing the way he pitched the eighth inning was why jim sent him back out for the ninth and why jim stuck with him as long as he did tonight it would have been a different scenario i think if he had struggled a little bit in the eighth like he did in the seventh but the way he pitched in the eighth he threw fastballs by people in the eighth inning with 120 pitchers that shows me the guy still got his stuff so were you hoping somebody else came out of the pirate bullpen i know i wasn't all right let's head now to the top of the ninth it's jeff reardon coming in as the new pitcher for the braves after jose lean flies out and drebeck staying in the game strikes out lloyd mcclendon is the hitter and the count is three-and-oh and he walks him on four pitches you know it would have been interesting to see if uh if base rain had gotten on in front of doug drayback whether jim leon would have pinched it in that situation probably would have had him bunk i think he'll probably had him bunt but again what if he hits a double does he does he bring a pincher entering so it really it was interesting that jeff got the first two outs strike one to jay bell it shows the confidence as you said that leland had and drebeck even though he'd thrown 120 pitches he'd been in some tough spots he didn't hit for him in the bottom of the eighth no no and i don't i don't think i would have either the way he was pitching at that point in the game he was our best chance to get three outs in the night as reardon uncorks a wild pitch mcclendon advances but pulls something looks like a hamstring as he arrives at second base and now leland has to burn a player he's got to use c celeste b to run for him and at that point in the game uh bobby cox had gone through his roster much more aggressively than jim leland had and we had no more bench players left on the atlanta braves bell down to third pendleton stayed down with it and that ends the inning last call for the atlanta braves pendleton justice and green coming up we go to the bottom of the ninth in game seven of the national league championship series pittsburgh leads two to nothing we still believe i mean i i have no doubt in my mind i mean knowing that team that year we still believe yeah and it's one of those things where now you got to do anything you can we had all kinds of rally things to get things going because we did believe and one of i think the traits of a good comeback team is not allowing those tack on runs all game long that we held held it down held the fort right where it was at and gave us that opportunity to make a comeback so when we come back the braves have their rally caps out in full force this is mlb's 20 greatest games number four on the list welcome back for the bottom of the ninth inning of game seven of the national league championship series the pittsburgh pirates trying to become the first national league team to come from three games to one behind to win the nlcs and to start it for the braves in the bottom of the ninth the hitter is terry pendleton the mvp the year before hit 311 in 92 all for three to this point in this game pendleton pulls it down the right field line hooking toward the corner it is a fair ball pendleton on his way to second with a laid off double now justice who had two home runs the game before off the knuckleballer wakefield is the tying run at the plate after the double by [Applause] grounded to the pendleton booted by pendleton to third on the play and it could turn out to be the biggest error of his life doug makes a good pitch i mean he he gets justice to uh to roll over on on a breaking ball and it was interesting that he backhanded the ball when i think he had an opportunity to actually catch it with an open glove in front of him but i think lean had made six errors the whole year led the league at second base in defense so it was actually shocking to me that he had actually made that play first and third now nobody out here you are sid on four pitches trebek loses you bases loaded yeah doug and i were great friends i mean i've i've joked in the past i mean he knew that the game was over right then if you pitch to me but uh but at the same time that's that's difficult for him at that point in time as belinda comes in you're the winning run you're slow the five knee surgeries he can't run for you because he needs brian hunter he needs to hold him back as a possible pinch hitter yeah but i mean at the same time i still go to the fact we had pitchers on the bench that could run a lot quicker than me and uh so he could have gone through his pictures he could have gone to a pitcher i mean we had you know as the inning unfolded you had brian hunter that came up and hit you had francisco cabrera that either of those guys could have played first base uh you know so why he left me in at that point in time when they he had pitchers over on that bench i don't know but i'm thankful were you looking toward the dugout when you got to first base you know i'm just trying to i'm caught up in the moment now with ron gant the hitter bases loaded nobody out you saw stan belinda trotting in from the bullpen now this is not your normal closer circumstance with belinda nominally he was the closer he's making only his second appearance of the series and his first appearance actually he's pitched only one inning in the previous 10 days and that was in game two you had gotten complete game wins from walk and from wakefield so this isn't like hey our closers getting work every day well we're feeling great and then we got ron gann up there a guy that's come through so many times for us and in so many tight situations they're bringing in a new pitcher and we got what we wanted we got doug dray back out of that ball game so now with the bases loaded belinda faces scan nobody out tying run at second winning run at first gand hits one to left bonds on the track and the wall makes the catch pendleton on to score the first atlanta run of the ball game right there we thought that might have did it yeah so did i bet a lot of people in the stadium did i almost swallowed my glove he did not miss that by much the tying run is justice at second bream a slow runner represents the winning run at first base as pendleton scores the throw to the infield goes to third and keeps the tying run at second with berry hill at the plate and in my opinion this is the biggest at-bat in the ball game and why is that because i know jim liel and the manager felt because because that's the strike that's a strike right there instead of being one and two now it's two and one it's just totally in in the barry hill's favor and and i to me belinda looks very comfortable and he's attacking the strike zone now that's a ball now a stream one but you're going to see here the next few pictures is why a lot of guys including myself felt that the strike zone had changed in this particular situation [Applause] right down the middle i mean there's no other way to explain that ball is right down the middle is it randy march's fault we lost the game no did it change the situation absolutely so you thought both the 1-1 pitch and certainly that one on 3-1 strikes well those are three strikes i mean there's no other way to describe it now this if he has two strikes on him does he swing the bat probably but the fact is with a 3-1 count barry hill is in the driver's seat he doesn't even have to swing the bat we're looking at it like good eye yeah absolutely so now the bases are loaded again the tying run is at third the winning run and the person of sid breem is at second only one out and the pinch hitter is hunter pittsburgh leads two to one one out of the bases loaded to the bottom of the nine hunter little looper lead is there and makes the catch the runner tags but will not try it two down at the bottom of the knife and this this i mean truthfully this is where as a veteran ball player i was sitting out at second base saying we just lost our opportunity right there i mean that that that play right there with brian hunter uh popping up my head kind of i mean my heart kind of went down and i thought man we just lost our chance to at least hide up to go into extra innings and and uh but francisco was coming all right let's stop right there stretch this thing out a little bit coming up do you think francisco cabrera has his moment with the season and the series on the line as francisco cabrera comes to the plate to bat for the pitcher he appeared in only 12 games this year for the braves and batted only 10 times with three hits he's old for one in this series [Applause] well at this point bobby cox has only two choices doesn't have a left-handed bat left on the bench he's got his two reserved catchers javi lopez who eventually would become a star had had only 16 at-bats in 1992. he decides to go with cabrera who had been up for a while in 1991 had a little bit more major league experience had spent much of 92 at triple a richmond brought up to the big club on august 31st so barely eligible for the post season but in his 10 previous at-bats in the regular season he had three hits and two of them were homers he had faced stan belinda once before in his career the year before in 1991 and he homered off now even though he had some pop in his bat and he's a right-handed hitter as the story goes you're out there in center field and you're yelling the bonds move in move in true uh yeah it is true uh in that situation i have a a very aggressive philosophy if i'm going to lose the ball game you're going to have to hit the ball over my head and most of your base hits are in front of you as an outfit anyways and i just felt in this situation that that he's going to have to hit the ball in the gap or other ballpark for us to lose i know one thing i moved in about four steps and i just wanted an opportunity even though sid wasn't the fastest guy in the field you still have to defensively put yourself in a position if the ball's not hit hard enough to get to you to have an opportunity to throw somebody out i looked over at barry i was telling them to move in move in move in because in the pitch count cabrera had actually taken a 2-0 pitch and lined one foul hit it really really hard and at that point i said well it looks to me like he's a dead fastball hitter he's a pull hitter hopefully belinda can can throw a breaking ball maybe to get him out but having said that he's going to hit the ball either to me or he's going to hit at the berry if he hits the ball in the outfield he's certainly not going to hit the ball to right field so i want barry to have the best opportunity also so when i motion them in he turned and looked at me and gave me international peace sign so i said fine you play where you want he gave you the finger well yeah that's one way of saying it all right so the stage has been set game seven the whole deal is on the line base is loaded two outs sid represents the winning run he's at second base cabrera is the hitter belinda's on the mound bonds has flipped vance like off and here we go melinda's first pitch a breaking ball outside and you can see there that's exactly what they want to do they want to make him swing out of breaking ball in the strike zone and this is again i think the lack of pitching really hurt his command i thought this was a key point here it says a lot about bobby cox 2-0 a young kid at the plate go ahead and swing he tells francisco cabrera yeah i like that about bobby he he used to let us hit her swing three and oh two and on the situation i always really respected that about bobby he would trust his players to perform the two open well hit but hooking foul to left he had the green light on 2-0 and hammered it he doesn't want much he walked only 17 times in 300 advance in triple-a this year he hacked at the now the two won line driving just as he scored the tying run green to the plate [Music] save the complaint the braves go to the world series there you go speedster oh boy i was hoping those people in left field were blowing on my back give me some tailwind nice play by levalyer the diving attempted tag you know it's interesting you see mike standing there almost trying to dig sid to slow down not even acting like the ball's coming into play but sid being a veteran knew that there was going to be a play at the plate understood that barry was a good defensive outfielder and ran hard all the way to home plate which i think made the difference of one or two feet of being safe around but you could see how much ground bonds had to cover before he could scoop up the ball and eventually we're going to see you sitting out there dejectedly in center field this would be the last postseason game in which you would ever play i knew that when we when we spoke earlier about that window being shut that my head was in between the window pane and my neck was getting shut with the window that it was over for the pirates as far as being a competitive team in the national league and sid you scored from second base on a single two times all year and in this case we talked about the hunter at bet the second out yeah it was a missed opportunity but as we saw there allowed you to get that secondary lead obviously you're going on contact you got a terrific jump on that ball and i share that all the time i mean it was the best scenario for me i mean two outs i mean sam belinda he wasn't going to try to pick me off a second base i mean i i extended myself as much as i could so i mean i had the best opportunity best scenario for me to be able to come in and beat it by four inches i mean uh you know where other people would have been into the dugout up in the clubhouse i mean i was just coming in and sliding you know that one plate and it was great for me and you know tom you and i were talking about this earlier before we sat down with these three guys if you were shooting a movie and tried to stage the play at the plate you would need a hundred takes to have it come out in that classic fashion the lunge the slide just by a whisker i mean you couldn't stage it any better than that no it was cinematic really that kind of finish and it's the only moment in baseball history where you have a walk-off hit with the team trailing where if he makes an out the series is over the only time think about that where it decided a series flip of a coin yeah one out single grey's win out pirates win the only time it's ever happened in baseball history i gotta know sid and once you you know you're safe you didn't get up people are on you right away what did it feel like at that moment to be underneath everything i mean i i've shared a lot i mean over the years i mean and it's inevitable that whether i'm in pittsburgh or atlanta that play is brought up but and they asked me that question a lot i mean i said at that point in time the adrenaline was running so much i mean there was so much good good feelings i mean and if i wanted to i could have thrown them all off at that point in time uh but i i didn't feel any of the pressure of anybody getting on i've been in fights where i've been in the bottom of the pow and i know what that feels like getting suffocated i didn't feel like i was being suffocated at all that right there where were you how did you react i was on top of sid somewhere i mean i was in the dugout obviously out of the ball game and you know just thinking uh if if they get the hit it's going to be a play at the plate and sids round in third and we're all just everybody's out of the dugout at this moment sid's not even home yet we're going to greet him then when we're we're about halfway there you could see otis nixon jump up in the air he was the first one david justice jumped on top of you oh it was just it was crazy well andy we saw the picture of you in center field there sitting down but as the play was unfolding and you're doing the calculation you know it's going to be close take me through your thoughts as the play unfolds and then especially once you finally do get back to the clubhouse and what that must have been like well my it's interesting how fast your mind can work and yet how slow things can work in the process of a play or even a pitch being uh unfolding in front of you and when this play unfolded in front of me i could tell that barry was going to have an opportunity or a chance to throw out sid from my angle i didn't realize that he had to go as far to his left as he had to go i thought the ball was actually hit right at him from my angle and i thought my first initial thought was man i wish you had moved up i mean that was my first thought but as soon as he caught the ball i could tell sid was maybe a step past third base i still thought barry had a chance even though barry could hit the ball the ballpark run the bases as well as anybody was the best player in the national league the thing that it's interesting that one thing that barry did poorly and i shouldn't say poorly the weakest thing he did on the field was throw a baseball and it ended up being the thing that hurt us and not get us into the world series after the game was there any conversation between the two of you about you urging him to move in no whatsoever matter of fact i kept that uh closed and and in my heart for for many many years it wasn't until i was done playing that i actually had mentioned that so take us into that clubhouse andy and let's also remember in 1990 you lose the last game of that series to cincinnati 2-1 1991 we know about two straight shutout losses and now here in 1992 you're losing on a walk-off in the bottom of the ninth inning jim leland barry bonds did you share anything among those two or anyone in that clubhouse what was it like it was the quietest uh least amount of words spoken that i've ever experienced anywhere i i've been to the funerals that people had more conversations and interaction with there's absolutely nothing you could say to comfort and console your teammate i mean guys were crying i was crying because i knew like we mentioned earlier in the show that this was the door that slammed the pirates shut i didn't realize it was going to be as long as it was going to be but our opportunity as a franchise and as a city and as a fan base to get into the world series and have the potential of winning it was shut that night um andy i just wonder for you you you saw this again i'm sure you've seen it thousands of times does it still hurt to see it again well actually uh it hadn't until i was sitting here today you know i mean i gotten it over you know but when you sometimes when wounds are deep and you open them up again they hurt uh a lot more than you anticipate so sure it hurts because not only on a personal level but it hurts it hurts me even to this day uh to see where the pittsburgh pirates are and and where they used to be and i i almost feel responsible but it was an opportunity that maybe today the pain of what's going on in pittsburgh maybe a little bit less for the fan base and for the people who really appreciate pittsburgh pirate history that that that pain that which they're going through right now might be less than if we went on the world series and potentially had a chance to win it sid we'll leave you with the last word you still live in pittsburgh you have a close to unique perspective here you played for the pirates you were the guy who broke the pirates hearts in this one you still live there your thoughts uh you know being around pittsburgh right now it still lives on i mean i can't go out of the place i can't i can't go out into the community uh without somebody still bringing up the that play and uh you know they have described it as debris and curse now for 18 years i mean it's the green curse now and they wanted me to burn my jersey last year to try to break the green curse but uh you know it was it was still one of those opportunities i mean i i am so thankful that the lord gave me an opportunity to be a part of and uh it has lived on it has given me an opportunity to go out and speak in the community i mean other than that i mean i wasn't an andy van slate in my my days uh or barry bonds or something like that that gave me a platform to be able to go out and share tommy he mentioned that he was in the same breath as little brock and maury wills now we got the curse of the brim along with the curse of the bambino who would have thought and the curse of the billy goat you're right there there's your trifecta there you go andy sid mark thanks for helping us relive the heartbreak of the pirates and the exhilaration of the braves for tom verducci i'm bob costas that's number four on the list three to go see you next time it is [Applause]

Channel: cacable7

Views: 6,739

Rating: 4.9344263 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: 6Y7RT4qKToo

Length: 62min 27sec (3747 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 13 2020