Batter Up — Top of the 10th (Extra Innings)
The Greatest World Series Game I Never Saw (But Called the Play-by-Play!)
Just when I thought it was all over, the fat lady had sung her song, the box scores had been filed and my 9-inning saga was complete — I was reminded of another great baseball story that must be told as part of this series. So, I guess it’s into extra innings we go!
We had booked the cruise long before 9/11/2001. It would be our first cruise together, my first time on the open seas since I was a sailor in the U.S. Navy back in the mid-70’s. We were booked to sail on November 3rd, 2001. After our whole world got turned upside down by the events of 9/11, we weren’t sure if the cruise would even still be on, or if we would still be able to fly down to Florida to get to the ship. The world did slowly start to live again and the cruise was still on, so we found our way to the ship, and got ready to set sail.
I never would have imagined that the World Series would still be going on in the beginning of November, but due to the disruption of 9/11, baseball had shut itself down for ten days, then resumed to play its entire schedule, which pushed the postseason back from early October to late October, with Games 5, 6 & 7 of the World Series actually being scheduled for dates in early November — if the series got that far.
The World Series that year pitted the perennial American League champion New York Yankees, winners of 4 of the previous 5 World Series, against the upstart expansion team, the Arizona Diamondbacks, in only their 4th year of existence. The Diamondbacks were giving the Yankees a run for their money, and pushed the series at least to 6 games. With the Yankees up, 3 games to 2, Game 6 was scheduled for the day our ship was to set sail.
I was fully expecting to miss the end of the World Series — that would be the first one I missed since I last sailed, the famous 1976 World Series, in which I was embarked on a cruise to the Mediterranean Sea, my last cruise of my navy days.
The first day out, on our way to the Caribbean Sea, we were sailing around a hurricane that was making its way to the Florida coast, so the seas were really rough. I quickly realized that I still had “sea legs” — the whole time I was in the Navy, I never got sea sick. I actually enjoyed the days we sailed through rough seas — it would break up the monotony of a long cruise. So I was wandering around the ship, checking it all out, while Kathy and JB were hunkered down in our cabin, riding out the storm.
In my wanderings, I discovered an ESPN-Zone sports bar in one of the “stacks”. I wandered in there to see what was going on, when I was delighted to find Game 6 of the World Series on the big screen TV in there. Alright! Randy Johnson was pitching for the D’Backs, who wound up blowing the Yankees out, something like 15–1.
So, there would be a Game 7 the next night, and one of my favorite players, Curt Schilling, would be pitching for Arizona. Curt had previously been the ace of the Philadelphia Phillies when I used to follow them in the early 90’s. In fact, I’d gotten to know his wife when I used to run the imported beer stand at Veterans’ Stadium — she often came by, with their two dogs, to get an import before the game. I’d gotten to know a number of the players’ families when I had that gig.
So, the next night, me and a bunch of other sports fans found ourselves up in the ESPN Zone bar, primed and ready to take in a great Game 7. That’s when we learned the awful news — Game 7 would not be televised! We were beyond the reach of the Venezuelan feed, which had accommodated our being able to watch Game 6. As I sat there nursing my sorrows, sipping a diet coke, a fellow sitting beside me (who worked for the Chicago Cubs) mentioned that if someone had an unlimited on-line account (which we did), they could at least pick up the play-by-play on one of the computers down in the Internet Café. “I have one of those!” I declared. “Let’s go!” he cried.
So, off we trooped, down to the Internet Café a couple levels down at mid-ship. A crowd of baseball fans followed us. It was, after all, Game 7. Back then, you didn’t get on online feed of the game on video, at least not on a ship at sea. What you got was a brief description of each play, that went like this:
Schilling pitches to Jeter. Strike one……Ball one…..Stike two ….. Jeter fouls pitch off….the ball is hit into play…………Gonzales catches the ball for an out.
And so on, like that. So I made the calls as the MLB feed brought in each pitch, each play. The crowd in the Internet Café grew, from 5 to 12 to 20 to 35 — the more it grew, the more folks got curious about what was happening, and word soon spread around the ship — “there’s a guy calling the play-by-play of Game 7 down in the Internet Café”, and it got to where it felt like the whole ship was there, listening to me call the plays. One guy got on the phone to the ESPN Zone, so as I called each play, he would relay the call to all the guys up in the sports bar.
I was plied with all the Diet Cokes I could drink, and I really got into the spirit of the moment, and started emulating my favorite announcer as a kid, Bob Prince, aka “the Gunner” as I made the calls.
It was a terribly exciting game. Schilling was tough, despite pitching on only 2 days’ rest, and the game stayed tight right to the end. When Curt ran into a little trouble in the late innings, in from the bullpen strode the mighty Randy Johnson, who had just pitched a complete game the night before! Randy shut those Yankees down, but they entered the bottom of the ninth leading the D’Backs by a run.
The Yankees brought in their closer, all-time great Mariana Rivera, to shut down the Diamondbacks and preserve a 2–1 Yankee victory, which would have given the Yanks their 4th straight World Series championship and send the Diamondbacks home disappointed. But, it didn’t play out that way. A utility player got a key hit, a light hitting infielder hit a run-scoring double, tying it all up, and then the Diamondbacks’ best hitter strode to the plate.
At this point, it felt like the entire ship was hanging onto my every call. As I would read the feed then get ready to make the next call, a hush fell over the entire crowd now completely surrounding the Internet Café and beyond, as I raised my voice and delivered the call with my best “gunner” cadence. It all came down to one pitch, when the computer read, “Rivera pitches to Gonzales — ball in play……. Single to shallow center field. Jay Bell scores run….game over.” My call went like this, “Yankee closer Mariano Rivera, pitching from the stretch, sends a cut fastball in on Luis Gonzales’ fists, Gonzales gets around on it, and sends a dying quail up the middle — Soriano and Jeter both pursue the ball with gloves out-stretched, but neither can make the play, the ball falls in for a single, and here comes Jay Bell around third, charging down the third-base line towards home, he slides in and…..HE’s SAFE!!! The Diamondbacks win — THE DIAMONDBACKS WIN — THE ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS ARE the WORLD CHAMPIONS OF BASEBALL!!!! HOW SWEET IT IS!!!!” While there was smattering of cheers from the crowd, most of them were Yankees fans, so a collective groan went up, as everyone slowly made their way back to whatever other shipboard activities they had planned.
For the rest of that cruise, wherever I went on that ship, I was recognized as “the announcer dude”. I was a shipboard celebrity on my first ever cruise! I even had a few people request to get my autograph! I ate that shit right up, and enjoyed my newfound celebrity, while it lasted.
And that, my friends, was my entire career as a baseball announcer — the greatest World Series game I never saw!
That’s all for the top of the 10th — stay tuned for the bottom of the 10th…I am sure another story will come to me that I haven’t relayed yet …. The ball is in play……
