With sports on pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ll be sharing some personal recommendations from our writers in the weeks ahead. Please feel free to share your own in the comments at the bottom of the page.
I’ve been lucky, you know? I started covering baseball in 1989 as the Montreal Expos beat reporter at The Gazette and have been able to keep my hand in it as a writer and broadcaster ever since. It is the best sport. Period. And as someone who saw, conservatively, 80 per cent of Expos games in person from ’90-’96, while covering more than a dozen World Series and playoffs – then moved on to Toronto – I’ve been witness to a lot of cool stuff.
Here, in order, are my five favourite games that I’ve covered in-person. Not surprisingly given the times, the New York Yankees figure somehow in three of them …
1.The last night of the New York Yankees dynasty: November 4, 2001.
It was post 9/11 and the Yankees for maybe the first time ever were the darlings of the game because of what their city had gone through. It was the best World Series I’ve covered: sitting in the auxiliary press-box high up in the Yankee Stadium stands way behind third base; a wood plank for a desk; shaking hands with the Secret Service agents and a sniper on their way up to the roof three hours before George W. Bush strolled out to the mound and fired a b.b. for the ceremonial first pitch.
This series was all about the Yankees … a city still smouldering … a bit of fear in the air … cops and copters everywhere … Derek Jeter homering just after midnight on the first of November to become the game’s first Mr. November.
But the series was not decided in the Bronx. It was decided in Phoenix with the Yankees losing. Just like that. There we were in Game 7, with Mariano Rivera on the mound in the ninth inning and the Yankees holding a 2-1 lead it was game over. I mean, Mariano Rivera against the 7-8-9 hitters in the Arizona Diamondbacks lineup? All of us on deadline had our stories sent in to our newspapers: the Yankees were going to win their fourth World Series in a row and were going to receive the ticker-tape parade to end all ticket-tape parades down the Canyon of Heroes … except … I remember it became cold suddenly at Bank One Ballpark (the roof was open and it had drizzled earlier on Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling) and the wind picked up and the Yankees infielders had turned their heads and held onto their caps. It was dusty, for a minute or two.
And then it unravelled: single, throwing error by Rivera, bunt, RBI double, hit by pitch – and Luis Gonzalez floating a single just an inch on to the outfield grass behind Jeter. The Diamondbacks were the most forgettable World Series champion until the 2015 Kansas City Royals came along. I called them ‘McChampions.’ The Yankees? Two years later they lost to the Florida Marlins and didn’t win another World Series until 2009. That’s been it. Never seen a team like those Yankees; never seen a season like that. Remarkable.
2.El Perfecto: July 28, 1991
It was Montreal Expos play by play announcer Dave Van Horne who wrapped up Dennis Martinez’s perfect game at Dodger Stadium with the pitch perfect pronouncement “El Presidente … el perfecto!”
Two nights before, the Expos’ Mark Gardner lost a no-hitter on back-to-back singles to open the ninth; then he lost the game when Jeff Fassero came on in relief and gave up a walk-off single to Darryl Strawberry. The following night the Expos lost 7-0, so for Martinez’s start manager Tom Runnells put out a lineup that saw Larry Walker start at first base in place of Gold Glover Andres Galarraga.
Walker would block a a rocket off the bat of Eddie Murray with his right forearm in the fourth, then scoop up a low throw from second baseman Delino DeShields who’d had all manner of defensive issues all season yet had nine assists on this day.
Martinez threw 95 pitches, had three 3-2 counts, and his Dodgers opponent, Mike Morgan, was perfect himself through five. Martinez was easily one of the most complex, proud, delightful, moody and sensitive players I’ve covered. Often forgotten: he appeared to injure himself in the fourth inning, stumbling over a hole created by Morgan’s delivery. It was almost five minutes before Martinez – who pointed to his right hip – finally threw a warmup pitch.
Martinez’s story is the stuff of legend: a recovered alcoholic, he was feted with a week’s national holiday in his native Nicaragua and in 1993 would turn down a trade from the Expos to the Atlanta Braves at the deadline – a move that manager Felipe Alou saw as a vote of confidence. He never forgot El Presidente. Neither will I.
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3.A baseball student tosses a perfect game with royalty in attendance: July 18, 1999
So, yeah: I’ve covered two of the 23 perfect games in MLB history and could you pick two better ballparks? Dodger Stadium and Yankee Stadium, where David Cone beat the Montreal Expos 6-0 in a game that took all of two hours and 16 minutes to play – including a 33-minute rain delay in the third inning.
Even better? It was a day game and it came on Yogi Berra Day, with Don Larsen throwing out the ceremonial first pitch to Yogi – the battery for Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series. This was a huge day for the Yankees; the day Yogi and George Steinbrenner formally kissed and made up and Yogi allowed himself to be welcomed back into the family. I mean, sometimes this stuff writes itself, you know? Cone, who had something like two 2-0 counts against the free-swinging Expos, retired Orlando Cabrera on a foul pop-up to put a bow on it. It was his 88th pitch of the game. Think about that: the number ‘8’ was retired for Berra and there was a big, white ‘8’ painted on the field behind home plate.
The best thing is that Cone was and is a huge baseball fan and understood the moment, being properly deferential to Larsen and Berra after the game. I think Mayor Rudy Giuliani attended the news conference, too, but I know for certain Cone saw the sun rise the next morning after shutting down his favourite bar, Veruka. I’m told some Expos rolled into the place to toast him, too. It was a New York City cop who arrived after his shift and handed Cone a copy of one of the tabloids detailing his exploits.
4.Pedro runs into a Bip en route to perfection
I could have covered three perfect games. Well, actually, I did. Kind of. I mean, I’m still not sure. But I do know this: only Pedro Martinez and Harvey Haddix have thrown perfect games through nine innings … only to blow it in extras. Yes, I was there on June 3, 1995, when Pedro blitzed the San Diego Padres for nine innings only to lose the perfect game when Bip Roberts doubled to open the 10th inning.
Martinez struck out nine; but Joey Hamilton (geezus!!) also had a shut-out through nine innings, walking two and allowing three hits. The Expos took the lead in the top of the 10th against Brian Williams on a Jeff Treadway single and then Pedro took the mound for the 10th. He fell behind 2-0 to Roberts, who lined a clean double into right. Felipe Alou took Pedro out of the game and Mel Rojas kept the lid on, retiring the final out with a man on third. So at least Pedro got the win. Best pitcher I’ve ever seen, and one of the most challenging yet fun people to cover.
5.The home run that made the Rogers Centre shake in 2015 (no, not that one!)
I don’t mean to flip off Jose Bautista here because Lord knows he gave us all a lot of wonderful memories with one swing of the bat and, OK, the bat flip thing against the Texas Rangers was a pretty big deal.
But you know when I realized there was something magical about 2015? It was when Russell Martin – Canada’s own – lined a three-run home run into the left-field seats on Sept. 23 in a 4-0 win over the Yankees that dropped New York 3.5 games back of the Blue Jays. It was the Blue Jays’ 13th win of the season against the Yankees, and Martin had driven in 18 runs (the homer was his fifth of the year against them) in 50 at bats against his former team. He’d driven in basically 25 per cent of his runs against them to that point in 2015. He ended the night with a .230 average, but was hitting .300 against the Yankees.
“That’s the difference in the standings, what they’ve done to us,” manager Joe Girardi told us later. “It’s not mathematically impossible … but we’re going to have to be almost perfect.”
Turns out it was impossible. I know there are about 300,000 Torontonians who swear they were in the Rogers Centre for Bautista’s blast. They’ll tell you how the place shook. But, dammit, I swear it shook as much for Russell’s homer. Plus, it led to this splendid French-language call from Rodger Brulotte and Jacques Doucet. Still gives me chills. “Russell … Russell … Russell … Russell.”
Baseball is always best consumed with a side-order of Yankees.
