It’s a WHYGAVS edition of Monday morning links.
18: Prologue
WHYGAVS
Pat Lackey
It’s also a baseball game that I’ve never seen. I know I’ve told the story here before; I went to bed in the middle of the game with the Pirates leading 1-0, and woke up only to be told that they’d blown it. I know how it ended and I’ve seen all or almost all of the ninth inning. I’ve seen Pendelton’s double, Lind’s error, Gant’s sac fly, and Hunter’s pop-up. I’ve certainly seen The Play That Ended Pirate Baseball As We Know It more times than I can count. But I’ve never seen it all.
18: Peak
WHYGAVS
Pat Lackey
The truth is that the Pittsburgh Pirates of the early 90s weren’t perfect; they were good and sometimes they were even great, but they were never good enough when it mattered and that’s the only reason anyone outside of Pittsburgh will remember them at all in 50 years. That doesn’t matter; they’ll always be my favorite baseball team and they always will be and that might not change even if the Pirates win the World Series sometime during my life.
18: Valley
WHYGAVS
Pat Lackey
Two days after I initially intended to, I watched Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS (or at least the iTunes store’s bowdlerized version of it, which chopped out the second, top of the third, fourth, fifth, bottom of the eighth, and top of the ninth innings). It was, in some ways, an absolute joy to watch for 80 minutes. It’s the only real way to see my favorite Pirates in real game action. There are always highlights and bloopers and clip shows, but nothing really captures the true joy or genius of baseball the way a live game does.
