BY DEREK CARSON – FAN FUEL BLOGGER
As we look back on another year gone by, it’s time to curl up on the couch with a good blog and reflect on the best moments in sports for 2011.
My pick: the greatest day in baseball.
It was actually a Wednesday night. September 28, 2011. In Ottawa, my buddies and I were out on the town for some reason I can no longer remember. Maybe it was for my friend’s birthday? That sounds right.
Anyway, the stage had been set for one of the biggest nights in baseball history. It was the final day of the regular season and both wildcard playoff spots were tied, something that had never happened before. All four teams in the two races were playing that night – the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays for the National League wildcard spot and the St. Louis Cardinals and the Atlanta Braves for the American League spot.
No one seems to care about how St. Louis got in. It wasn’t as dramatic as what happened between Boston and Tampa, but still, the Cards only clinched their wildcard spot when the Braves lost their game in the 13th inning. Pretty intense if you’re a St. Louis fan but only the tip of the iceberg. A footnote in the greatest night of baseball.
That fateful night, the baseball gods looked down on the east coast of America and watched two teams battle for the playoffs, a thousand miles apart. Boston was playing the lowly Baltimore Orioles while Tampa was playing the Goliath New York Yankees. Neither the O’s nor the Yanks had anything at stake except honour and pride. This was all about the Red Sox and the Rays.
In Baltimore, Boston went up 3-2 in the fifth inning while back in Tampa, the Rays went down 7-0 to the mighty Yanks. Things were looking good for Boston and it was then my friends, it was then that the baseball gods chose to intervene.
Rain came down in Baltimore in the middle of the seventh inning. It delayed the game by about an hour and a half and halted the Red Sox’s momentum. During that time, a thousand miles away, Tampa started to mount a comeback.
Tampa scored six runs against the Yanks in the eighth inning to make it a 7-6 game. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Tampa tied the game with a solo home run by unlikely hero Dan Johnson. It was only his second home run of the year. Suddenly, everything was happening, all at once and miles apart. The baseball gods, having done their part, sat back down to watch.
The rain stopped coming down in Baltimore and play resumed. Tampa and New York entered extra innings while Boston and Baltimore got back to the game, eventually getting all the way to two outs in the bottom of the ninth with Boston still up 3-2. One more out and Boston would win. One more out and Boston would go to the playoffs while a thousand miles away, Tampa was helpless to do anything about it.
Two outs, bottom of the ninth, with Baltimore’s Kyle Hudson on second base, Nolan Reimold hit a ground rule double off Boston’s closer Jonathan Papelbon, scoring Hudson to tie the game. The O’s had life! Boston was on the ropes. A season hung in the balance. The game was tied, Reimold was on second, but one more out and Boston could still get out of the inning in control of their own destiny.
Robert Andino walked up to the plate. A strike and a ball were thrown. Then, on the next pitch, Andino hit a single into the left-field gap that Carl Crawford couldn’t catch and brought home Reimold to win the game for the O’s! For Baltimore, they felt like they were the ones who got in the playoffs that night.
Boston may have lost the game but they were still alive in the war for the wildcard spot. At that very moment, Tampa was battling with the Yankees in the bottom of the 12th inning. If Tampa lost, Boston could play them for a tie breaker.
As the Boston players walked into their locker room, just minutes after they had lost, they saw on the television in the room the Rays’ Evan Longoria hit a walk-off solo home run that sent the Rays to the playoffs and ended the year for the Boston players. That walk-off home run capped one of the greatest comebacks in baseball history.
Everything had happened mere minutes apart but miles away.
Like I said, I was out with my buddies possibly celebrating a birthday, but I remember watching it all on the big screen at the pub.
The greatest night in the history of baseball.