With kudos to Connie Wolski, who for whatever reason, is on the same wave length as I am, responded to "The Dream" post with a "The Nightmare" post possibility. Yes, I had this lying in wait and was going to do the opposite of "The Dream". So, here it goes. Unlike "The Dream" you can cite an actual nightmare, either as a witness; there live or via media; or as a participant. There have been many "Nightmares" in this championship depraved town, and the list could go on for pages. But one and only one is to be listed; the most agonizing, gut wrenching, "I can't believe what I just saw (thanks Jack Buck)" moment. This may take awhile since there have been so many. Here is mine.
As I recalled in "The Dream", "The Nightmare" is the exact opposite and I saw it unfold once and will not see it ever again. You know what I mean. The Jose Mesa debacle (thanks LaBron). Sitting at home, at 1:00 AM going into the bottom of the ninth inning of the seventh game of the '97 World Series. Series tied at 3-3. Tribe up by one run, and the closer Jose Mesa comes in. Not a clean inning to begin with, but finally two outs and one out away from the first WS win since, oh my birth year, 1948. Johnson the batter. Mesa blows two strikes by him, with absolutely no effort from Johnson. Sandy Alomar calles for the heater-but wait! Mesa shakes him off! Again fastball called, with Mesa shaking off the pitch again. Finally Mesa shakes his head and throws...A SLIDER?!?!?!?!? Or was it A CHANGE-UP/!?!?!?!?!?!? Whatever the pitch, I see it foating into RF and the tying run scores. Sadly the rest is history. Tribe the first team in WS history to take a lead into the last inning of the last game of a WS and LOSE!!!!!! All because of six inches! Yep, the six inches between the left ear and right ear of Jose Mesa. He is not to think on the mound, he is to pitch on the mound. Once he started thinking, that was it. To this day, I have not watched any replay of the seventh game of that series, same a Mike Hargrove. That does not feel good, it still hurts!
On the bright side, who were some of the stars on that Tribe team? Was Paul O'Neill there at that time?
ReplyDeletePAUL O'NEILL!!!!!! he of the Reds and Yankees!!!!!! OHHHHH that hurts. I need to go home!
ReplyDeleteI must apologize to Tribe fans. From way out west here, I saw a great player go from an Ohio team to the despised Yankees. I am very sorry I thought he played for Cleveland. There is a bright side to my error, however. I was forced to go back and look at the Indians' rosters through the '90's. What a ride! You guys must have had a "ball" watching those guys play from day to day!
ReplyDeleteThat is was, that it was. Even during games that had rain delays, no one left when game game back. Ah the good old days, 1994-2000! LOL
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