You know it when it happens.
Many of you watched Game One of the World Series, a classic game that ended when the Dodgers Freddie Freeman slammed a walk-off grand slam home run with two outs in the bottom of the tenth inning. Freeman’s game-winning blast overshadowed a fantastic catch by New York left fielder Alex Verdugo on a Shohei Ohtani fly ball that drifted into the stands. Tough break for Verdugo, whose catch will forever be forgotten, much like Bernie Carbo’s Game Six eighth-inning, pinch-hit three-run home run in the 1975 Series, which was eclipsed by Carlton Fisk’ hand-waving heroics in the twelfth. Both games were classics in a true sense, and whoever was lucky enough to witness them will remember them forever.
In the movie Man on Fire, Christoper Walken’s character, Rayburn, is talking to the Mexican police Investigator and said, “A man can be an artist in anything, food, whatever. It depends on how good he is at it. Creasy’s art is death. He’s about to paint his masterpiece.”
I’ve always loved that quote. We often think of art in a literal sense. Van Gogh for example. Or Steely Dan music. But a person can be an artist in anything, including baseball.
A few years ago, we went to a concert by the band Brit Floyd. They’re a Pink Floyd tribute band and I didn’t know quite what to expect from them. Turns out, they were fabulous. Better than fabulous. It was the best concert I’ve ever been to in my life, and I’ve been to dozens, including some big names like the Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger and Billy Joel. Towards the end of the show, the band started playing Great Gig in the Sky. The band had three young ladies doing backup vocals. One of the women, a Spanish opera singer named Angela Cervantes handled the vocals on Gig. The song doesn’t really have any words. I would describe the vocals more as a deeply emotional wailing. You can find a clip of her singing this on YouTube. A minute and a half into the song, I noticed I had goosebumps. Two minutes in, people in the arena started to spontaneously stand. No clapping or cheering, lest we disturb the moment, just standing as you realized that you were witnessing something extraordinary. When she finished the arena erupted. It was truly a religious experience. It was real-time, real-life art. And it was powerful.
Sporting events can deliver the same experience. All of us remember the best game we’ve ever attended. For many of you, it might be the Wild Card game of 2014. For some, it would be Game Six of the 1985 World Series. Or maybe it was Game One of the 2015 World Series. All those games were classics. Sometimes, like Brit Floyd, the best happens when you least expect it.
All this thought about excellence got me thinking, what was the best game I’ve ever attended?
It easily could have been my first, which occurred in August of 1973. The frst-place Royals were playing the Boston Red Sox in a brand, spanking new stadium. George Brett had been called up a few days before, but didn’t play in this game – no problem since we didn’t know who he was yet. My favorite Royal at the time, Dirty Kurt Bevacqua did play. Hal McRae hit a triple, and the longest home run I’ve ever seen hit in the stadium. Steve Busby was his excellent self and the recently departed Doug Bird picked up the save in a 3-2 Royals victory. Carl Yastrzemski stiffed my request for an autograph which triggered my mom to drop the F-bomb on Yaz, the only time in my life I’ve heard her do that. My dad and uncle Larry were drinking Hamm’s like their lives depended on it. I thought I might have to drive the crew home, but I’d only been driving for a few weeks. In a pinch, I probably could have done it, but I was only 12. Damn good times.
Sometimes the best happens when you least expect it. When George was elected to the Hall of Fame, the Royals hosted a George Brett Day at the K. I ordered tickets for the five of us plus my parents. The game was held on Sunday, July 25, 1999, the same day that Brett, Nolan Ryan, Robin Yount, and Orlando Cepeda were inducted. Those 1999 Royals were some kind of bad. They finished the season at 64-97, good for fourth place in the AL Central. Somehow the Minnesota Twins were a half-game worse. Pythagorean predicted the Royals to finish at 75-86. They blew that out of the water.
That team had plenty of offensive firepower. Mike Sweeney, Joe Randa, and Johnny Damon all hit over .300. Jermaine Dye, Rey Sanchez and soon-to-be Rookie of the Year Carlos Beltran nearly hit .300. Beltran, Dye, and Sweeney all drove in more than a hundred runs. They had the third-best team batting average in the league. Hitting was not the problem. The pitching staff was as putrid as a piece of week-old fish. The staff finished last in almost every major category.
The Royals’ opponent that Sunday was the Oakland A’s. Art Howe somehow managed to squeeze 87 wins out of a team that finished near the bottom of the league in most hitting categories. They did lead the league in walks and finished fourth in runs scored, so maybe that Moneyball stuff does work. Jason Giambi was a bona fide star. John Jaha and Matt Stairs had career years and hit a lot of home runs. Other than a young Tim Hudson, their pitching staff was uninspiring
The day was what you would expect in late July in Kansas City. Near 100 at game time and not a cloud in the sky. Fortunately, our seats were under the overhang on the first base side, so we had some shade. I’m not sure how people sitting in the sun survived.
The Royals started Dan Reichert while the A’s countered with soon-to-be Royal Blake Stein. The teams traded runs in each of the first two innings before the A’s busted it open in the third. The A’s sent eight men to the plate against Reichert, tagging him for three runs on just one hit, a double by Stairs. The inning included three walks, a hit batsman, a wild pitch, and a passed ball. That sequence must be some kind of record. The Royals got it back in the bottom of the inning in a more conventional fashion, sending nine men to the plate. They tallied four hits and two walks, the big blow being a three-run home run by The Joker, Joe Randa. Stein retired to the showers after 87 pitches, having recorded only eight outs.
Reichert walked the first three batters he faced in the fourth, ending his day at 77 pitches. He recorded nine outs, gave up six walks and eight runs, and his ERA for the game ended at a nifty 20.00. Manager Tony Muser called on Brian Barber, who wasted little time in allowing a run-scoring sacrifice fly, reloaded the bases with another walk, then unloaded them when Jaha crushed what resembled a fastball, deep into the left field seats. Mr. Barber pulled himself together enough to get out of the fourth with the Royals trailing 10-5. Neither the A’s nor the Royals scored in the fifth. Barber went to the showers while Matt Whisenant came on. Baseball can be kind of a cruel game. Barber would make two more appearances in 1999, but after pitching two innings on August 1, his major league career was over at the age of 26. Strange things started happening in the sixth. Scott Pose, (remember him?) came on to replace Beltran. I don’t recall if Carlos hurt himself or if he started melting in the heat.
Jaha cranked his second homer of the day in the sixth inning, to give the A’s a seemingly insurmountable 11-5 lead. There was some family discussion about leaving and heading to the hotel pool, but we gave the Royals one more at bat. Things kept getting interesting. Damon drew a walk. Carlos Febles singled. Pose hit a single, scoring Damon. Mike Sweeney ripped a double, scoring Febles and Pose. Now we got a party going. 11-to-8, Oakland. My daughter, who was only six at the time, and my mom fell victim to the heat in the seventh, retiring to the car, blasting the AC at full tilt. The heat was flat-out brutal. The rest of us sucked it up and stayed. The score held until the bottom of the ninth.
Oakland brought on a guy named Billy Taylor to close things out. Jermaine Dye led off the inning with a solid double. Randa, still feeling it, blasted his second home run of the day to pull the Royals within one and send what remained of the crowd into hysterics. Our Giambi, Jeremy, singled. Manager Tony Muser decided to play for the loss and had catcher Tim Spehr bunt. Crazy things started to happen. The bunt was perfect and Spehr beat it out. Two on, no outs. For the first time we thought we might win this thing.
Spehr was a great story. He was a hometown boy, born in Excelsior Springs. He had three stints with the Royals with 1999 being the last. His major league career ended after the 1999 season. His last hit in the big leagues was a home run against Seattle on September 21. Spehr never had a ton of speed. He stole nine bases in eight seasons, so that tells you how good that bunt was. He never got caught stealing either, nine for nine.
Now the crowd was going nuts. Probably heat delirium. Muser, still angling for the loss, had Rey Sanchez bunt the runners over. This was just an insanely stupid move. Nobody out, runners on first and second, the crowd and your team going nuts…and you have one of your best hitters bunt into a sure out. Sanchez could handle the bat. The man hit .294 in 1999 over 479 at-bats. Let. Him. Hit. After that out, the A’s gave Johnny Damon an intentional pass. That brought Carlos Febles to the plate. He did exactly what you didn’t want him to do, looking at a third strike right down the middle. Karma for the bunt. Bases loaded, two outs, down by one. Scott Pose came to the plate and bailed out Muser with a single to center. Pinch-runner Jed Hansen scored to tie it, but pinch-runner Steve Scarsone was thrown out at home in a close play to end the inning. The crowd was still going bananas.
Scott Service, who came on in the eighth, set the A’s down in order in the tenth. The A’s brought in rookie Chad Harville. Sweeney greeted him with a sharp single. When Sweeney was healthy, he was some kind of hitter. This brought Jermaine Dye to the plate. Thankfully Muser let him hit. Dye had finally turned into the player the Royals envisioned when they got him from Atlanta. He hit .294 with 27 home runs and 119 RBI in 1999. He would make his first All-Star team in 2000. Harville got two quick strikes on Dye before he tried to slip some cheese past him. The moment the ball came off the bat, I knew it was gone. So did the crowd. Each of the 20,454 who were still in the stadium knew it too and were on their feet before the ball cleared the right field fence. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a crowd that loud before in my life. Royals 13, A’s 11. Just crazy. How often do the Royals ever rally from a six-run, late-inning deficit to win?
It remains the most exciting game I’ve ever attended. It was great that the Royals got the win on George Brett Day. Afterward, no one wanted to leave. A lot of the fans stood around talking about what had just happened. The stadium was buzzing. Even though we sat in the shade all day, four hours inside of a concrete bowl left all of us sunburned. Who were the heroes for the Royals? Dye of course, and Randa. Sweeney, Dye, and Giambi each had three hits. Randa drove in five. Damon drew four walks in the game! That might have been the only time I’ve ever seen a player draw four walks. Service threw three innings of one-hit ball and stuck out five. Service was a big right-hander from Cincinnati. He made his debut as a 21-year-old in 1988 with the Phillies and pitched for nine teams in 12 seasons with some of his best work coming in the three years he spent in Royals uniform.
Pose got two hits in three at-bats. Pose, from Davenport, Iowa, hit .285 in 86 games in 1999. He looked like he might be a great 4th outfielder to complement the Royals trifecta of Damon, Beltran, and Dye. Unfortunately, Pose was also already 32. He clocked 47 more games for Kansas City in 2000. He kicked around AAA for the next two seasons before retiring after the 2002 year. But on this day, he was the man.
It was one of the first games I took my children to, and the last game I ever attended with my parents. A lot of times we don’t recognize the significance of those things when they’re happening. Yes, anyone can create good art, even the 1999 Royals.