Playoffs. Wild Thing. Extra Innings.

Atlanta Braves v Philadelphia Phillies, Game 1 NLCS 1993

Veterans Stadium, Sec 743 Row 3

Deep center field 700 level seats. Playoff fever was rampant in Philadelphia leading up to the start of this series. 10 years since the team's last playoff appearance.

62,012 were on hand to watch Curt Schilling take on Steve Avery.

After striking out the first 3 Braves in the top of the 1st, Lenny Dykstra led off the bottom of the 1st with a double and Mariano Duncan single set up a John Kruk groundout that scored Dykstra.

Schilling started the 2nd with 2 more strikeouts before a Terry Pendleton groundout ended the inning. Otis Nixon doubled in pitcher Steve Avery in the 3rd to tie the ballgame up. Dave Justice sacraficed in Ron Gant in the 4th.

Pete Incaviglia hit a solo home run to tie things up in the bottom of the 4th. Kruk, Dave Hollins and Darren Daulton were on base in the 5th when a wild pitch from Avery to Incaviglia scored Kruk for a Phils 3-2 lead.

Mitch Wild Thing Williams was brought in the top of the 9th to close out the game. Kim Batiste was put on third to replace Dave Hollins. In typical Wild Thing fashion he walked the lead off batter. A Mark Lemke grounder to Batiste resulted in a throwing error which lead to a man on first and third with no outs. Rafeal Beliard bunted to the 1st base side sacraficing pinch runner Tony Tarasco to 2nd. An Otis Nixon grounder scored Brian Pecota to tie the game up.

The Phils were unable to finish things off in the bottom of the 9th sending the game into extra innings. In the bottom of the 10th John Kruk doubled with one out. With Kruk on second, replacement Kim Batiste, with a 2-1 count, doubled to left field off releiver Greg McMichaels, giving the Phillies the win and a 1-0 lead in the NLCS.

Erie Panthers v Richmond Renegades, October 10, 1995

Richmond Coliseum, Section 18U Row F

Some of these minor league games are going to be hard to research.

The Renegades finished the season first in their division in the 95-96 season but were eliminated in the 2nd round of the playoffs.

I post this video of ex Renegade Trevor Senn because he is now a bartender in town where I now live. I usually use the $1 per beer tip method when in a bar. I tend to throw a few more to Trevor out of respect. And fear.

Where's The Cooler?

Los Angeles Raiders v New England Patriots, October 9, 1994

Foxboro Stadium Section 23 Row 12

A bus trip from a bar in Peabody. Plenty of beer on the bus for the trip down. Plenty of beer for the tailgate. And a special plenty of beer cooler the size of a small fishing vessel reserved for the after game tailgate party.

Drew Bledsoe versus Jeff Hostetler. Nothing in the 1st. A 24 yard FG by the Patriots Matt Bahr (Penn State) put the Pats up in the 2nd quarter. Shortly after Bahr's FG, the Raiders Terry McDaniel picked off a Drew Bledsoe pass and ran for a 14 yard touchdown.

Still in the 2nd, Bledsoe connected with Kevin Turner for a 7 yard TD pass. Bledsoe also dumped a 3 yard TD pass to Leroy Thompson to put the Pats up 17-7.

But the 1st half wasn't over yet. The Raiders responded with a Hostetler 27 yard TD pass to Harvey Williams just before the half ended.

Hostetler ran one in during the 3rd period putting the Raiders up for good 21-17.

In a losing cause the Patriots Drew Bledsoe was 23 for 55, 321 yards passed and 2 TDs.

Even thought the home team lost there was a boat sized cooler of chilled beers waiting for us at the bus. With 40 guys milling around the bus the fishing cooler of beer was brought off the bus and we all dove in. A while later someone asked where the cooler was. It was no where to be found. It was stolen. The thing was the size of a coffin. In the middle of 40 guys, someone (or two) walked off with a cooler the size of a coffin. And no one saw it happen. Genius.

So we are beer-less for 2 hours (bus planned on waiting 2 hours after game's end so we wouldn't have to sit in traffic.) plus the trip back to Peabody. Others began scrambling getting money together to buy single beers off other tailgaters. It was proving to be a slow and expensive process. So I walked onto an RV with Ontario tags, pleaded my case to our neighbor's to the North and the guys broke out a full 12 pack of Molson XXX and gave it to me. It didn't even cost me any of that Monopoly looking Canadian dollars. Can't beat that.

Be nice to a Canadian the next time you are in a bar. They are always looking out for us.

No School Today Either

Los Angeles Dodgers v Philadelphia Phillies, 1978 NLCS Game 2

Veterans Stadium, Sec 714 Row 5

Same teams one year later. Same section as I went with an aunt who was a season ticket holder.

How ironic was it that Tommy John would end up needing Tommy John surgery? John was the Dodgers starting pitcher going against the Phils Dick Ruthven.

Davy Lopes homered off Ruthven to start off the 4th. And in the 5th, the same thorn in the side to the Phils. Dusty Baker doubled to get things going for the Dodgers. Davy Lopes singled both Baker and Steve Yeager in for a 3-0 lead for the Dodgers.

Lopes also tripled in the 7th to score Rick Monday and put Los Angeles ahead 4-0.

The series would move to LA with the Dodgers up 2-0 in the best of 5 series. The Dodgers would go onto the World Series to face the New York Yankees.

No School Today

Los Angeles Dodgers v Philadelphia Phillies, 1977 NLCS Game 3

Veterans Stadium, Sec 714 Row 7

Any day you get pulled out of school to go to a ballgame is a good day.

Back in the day before Big Network greed baseball was played during the day. I wasn't the only one not in school or not working this afternoon, 63,719 were skipping something.

To start the game, 6 batters from both sides stepped up and 6 batters were sat down. Names like Davey Lopes, Larry Bowa and Mike Schmidt. It wasn't until the a Dusty Baker double to center with Ron Cey on first was there any activity on the basepads. The Dodgers Steve Yeager singled in Baker for a 2-0 lead.

In the 3rd the Phils put some runs on the board in an unorthodox way. With Bob Boone, Richie Hebner and Ted Seizemore on base, Dodgers pitcher Burt Hooten walked in Phillies starting pitcher Larry Christenson. Hooten went on to walk Bake McBride and Larry Bowa, forcing in 2 more runs and making it necessary for manager Tommy Lasorda to make a call to the bullpen.
With bases still loaded and releiver Rick Rhoden on the mound, Mike Schmidt stepped up and worked a dramatic full count before popping out to the centerfielder Rick Monday.

Dusty Baker drove in Cey for another Dodger run in the 4th to tie the game up at 3-3.

The bottom of the 8th turned exciting with a lead off Richie Hebner double. Gary Maddox singled in Hebner and reached third on a throwing error. Then Bob Boone reached 1st courtesy of a Ron Cey throwing error as Maddox scored.

With a 5-3 lead going into the 9th, the Phils Gene Garber got both Baker and Monday to ground out and put the team with one out of a victory a 2-1 lead in the best of 5 series.

But a player I never heard of or remember, Vic Davalillo, bunted safely in a pinch hit situation. Davalillo was born in 1936! A Manny Mota double followed by a Lopes and Bill Russell singles put the Dodgers ahead 6-5 going into the bottom of the 9th.

With Bowa, Schmidt and Greg Luzinski slated to hit, there was still some optimism in the stadium. Bowa popped one up to short and Schmidt flied out to right. Luzinski was hit by a pitch and represented the tying run until Richie Hebner grounded out to end the ball game.

Spiders v Blue Hens

University of Delaware v University of Richmond, October 7, 2000

University of Richmond Stadium, Section East F

The home Spiders jumped to a 1st quarter 10-0 lead on the 25 yard TD run from Gustus and a 27 yard FG from kicker Kirchner. The Spiders also struck again the 2nd with a 52 pass from QB Ouden to Gustus.

But it was all Blue Hens after that. Penecale caught a 17 yard pass from Nagy followed by an O'Neal 6 yard TD a Collins 27 yard FG and and 83 yard pass to Elliott.

The visiting Hens beat Richmond 24-17