Tuesday, September 19, 2006

YOU CAN'T LOSE WITH A WYRICK IN THE STANDS, VOLUME 2

It's less a baseball story and more a human interest piece so don't skip it yet. Just slow your scroll, man.

You might recall last September 7th, my brother drove up to Oakland to see the A's battle the Mariners in a divisional matchup with playoff implications. The A's scored 5 runs in the bottom of the ninth to win it on a bases loaded walk with former Red Sock Jay Payton scoring the winning run. It was the most 9th inning runs scored by an A's team to win it since 1954.

Last night, Bro Bro went to the Dodgers game at the Ravine where they squared up against division rivals, the San Diego Padres--again, with playoff implications. Dodgers are down 5-9 in the bottom of the ninth. Trevor Hoffman, who holds a current streak of 24 consecutive games saved against the Dodgers, comes in to shut them down. Hoffman throws only eight pitches and gives up four solo homers, tying the game at nine each. That would be the first time in over 40 years that has happened--the last time being 1963--and only the fourth time that four consecutive players have hit homers in baseball history. Insanity.

But it's not over.

Padres go up by one in the top of the tenth inning and who would come around in the lineup in the bottom of the frame with one on and a chance to win it?

Nomar.

Former Red Sox shortstop who was traded the year we went and won it all. And what does Nomar do? He cranks a two-run homer to win it. Game over. Nomar, in heroic fashion, lifts his team to victory, possibly to the playoffs just nights after the Red Sox were unofficially eliminated from playoff contention.

It's poetic.

And Bro Bro got to see it all go down. Wyricks are among the few that believe a game ain't over when you're down four runs in the ninth. You don't leave. Now, I could see in those stands that most fans did--lots of yellow showing at Dodger stadium--but Bro Bro wouldn't have it. Now, that's incredible.

Oh and at one point in the game, some monks er something came out and did a martial arts exhibition and some fella shattered a bamboo shoot when his buddy swung it violently down in the middle of his wide open legs. Now, that's Los Angeles.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great story, just one thing I thought maybe Jeff made a mistake in the first sentence when he said "bro bro" (I thought it was a typo typo) but then I kept reading then saw it again again. Sorry not a big fan of the pet names for brotherly love...

TX said...

Anonymous is jealous. You can't mess with brotherly love. Get off your Man Cow.

Just a quick correction. Hoffman only gave up 2 of the 4 consecutive HRs. Adkins came in in the B9 to close it out and gave up the first two jacks.

Regardless, it was freakin' unbelievable. Nice pickup on the A's game last year.

Peep the blog tonight for a full recap.