A Time For Forgiveness

  Even though Tecmo Super Bowl came along in 1991, the year wasn’t all good, all the time.  I debated on writing this one because I still have a little anger pent up about it.  I wrote a term paper on this subject in college and I thought that would be the grand demon exercising I needed.  Well, some 25 years later, I still think of it.  I don’t even know how I remember it so vividly.  Aside from the fact that me and my friends harped on it continuously, a lot of time has passed and a lot of good times replaced it.  Hell, the very next year was one of the greatest plays in Braves history.  But 1991…..I just can’t shake it.  Lonnie Freakin Smith will go with me to my grave.

Let me start by saying that I was raised on Atlanta Braves baseball.  We watched them every night, sometimes at supper, sometimes later when they were on the west coast.  But the Braves were on at the Shiver house religiously.  And they stunk!  For the first 14 years of my life, they were atrocious.  I have seen pictures of us at games from when I was too young to really remember details.  We were sitting right behind the dugout because you could probably pick any seat you wanted in those days. They had one superstar, Dale Murphy.  That was it.  Gerald Perry, Albert Hall, Claudell Washington, Glenn Hubbard, Bob Horner, Rafi Ramirez??  They were our boys but they were role players.  They were our home team though and were broadcast on national television thanks to the owner, Ted Turner, also owning a major television network, TBS.  The only other team I could see on a regular basis was the Cubs.  They didn’t have lights in there stadium in those days so they played all day games when they were at home.  I could only catch them right after school.  And guess what?  They stunk too.  Although, they actually had two superstars – André Dawson and Ryne Sandberg.  There was another tie in between the teams as well with Harry Carey being the broadcaster for the Cubbies and Skip Carey for the Braves.  

  The Braves finished dead last in 1990.  Nothing unusual.  The Reds won the World Series and they were loaded.  Chris Sabo, Eric Davis, Jose Rijo, Barry Larkin.  The Braves?  They had some young talent but it wasn’t enough.  But in 1991, something crazy happened.  The Atlanta Braves found themselves in a pennant race with the LA Dodgers.  It was spectacular.  With an offense that included young stars Ron Gant and David Justice and veterans Sid Bream, Otis Nixon and Terry Pendleton, they were exciting to watch.  But the pitching rotation was strong.  John Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Steve Avery anchored a staff that also included crafty veteran Old Uncle Charlie.  They were the poster child for the saying “Pitching wins championships.”  Those Braves went right down to the wire and edged the a Dodgers by one game the day before the end of the regular season to clinch the division and a playoff spot.  Playoffs?  Are we talking about Playoffs? 

 Something notable would happen in September of that year.  Starting centerfielder and stolen base leader (72 – still a Braves record), Otis Nixon, would be suspended for 60 days thanks to a failed drug test.  Cocaine is a helluva drug.  Because it happened in September, it was bye-bye playoffs for Otis.  We had a backup centerfielder that was pretty good named Deion Sanders but on August 1 of that year, he had to report to the Atlanta Falcons thanks to his dual sport ability.  With Otis and Deion unavailable, that crucial starting slot would be filled by Lonnie “Skates” Smith.  Now, to be clear, Lonnie was a very serviceable player.  He was an all star one year, a 3 time WS champ and had hit over .300 in ’89 and ’90.  But, he was nicknamed Skates for a reason.  He had a bit of a reputation for making some of the silliest looking plays you’d ever see.  He’d lose his footing enough to be compared to an outfielder playing on “skates.”  Not a comparison you want as a baseball player in my estimation. 

Lonnie performed well late in the season and was a key contributor to the playoff run.  Then, in the NLCS, he would contribute a paltry .250 avg.  He was a non factor in that series for the most part.  Something I wish he had been in the World Series.  Because we were such faithful Braves fans, the playoffs turned into party central at our house.  The entire family came over to watch the games.  There was food, baseball and, during boring stretches, a little basketball for me and Coop.  That is until Uncle Lee used the first thing he could find to the rear-end to discuss Adams report card.  That wound that up.  But the excitement for those games will go unmatched for me.  I get excited for games, especially UGA, but the whole family being together put this on another level.

That 1991 World Series between Atlanta and the Minnesota Twins was voted the greatest World Series ever by ESPN.  The seven game series finished with FIVE 1-run games, with four of them being decided in the last at bat and three of them going to extra innings.  The series was loaded with dominant pitching and clutch hitting.  Only one game was a blowout.  You want highlights?  This series provided some classics.  Game 2 was the infamous Ron Gant/Kent Hrbek pile up.  I don’t care what anyone says, to this day I know in my heart of hearts that Hrbek pulled Gant off of the base. 

 Twenty years later, Minnesota was still celebrating that act of cowardice with bobble heads. 

 Shameful…..Minnesota would win that game by 1 run to take a 2-0 lead in the series.  Atlanta would take the next 3 in Atlanta with Lonnie hitting 3 home runs and almost making a highlight play of his own at home plate but Brian Harper somehow miraculously hung on to the ball to keep the game alive at the time for Minny. 

 Minnesota would come back home and win game 6 with the heroics of Kirby Puckett’s extra innings home run.  Puckett was the lone Twin that I liked.  He was a great ball player and played the game the right way.  Unfortunately, he played for the Twins.  Those other guys were thugs.  Kent Hrbek, Dan Gladden, Gary Gaetti…..come on.

So here we are at Game 7.  Series is tied 3-3, the home team has won every game so far.  We have John Smoltz, who had been lights out in the playoffs facing Jack Morris, who had been even more lights out.  For 9 innings, these aces would duel each other masterfully.  At the end of 9, the score was tied 0-0.  It shouldn’t have been.  In all actuality, the game should have ended after 9 innings with the Braves winning 1-0 and taking the Series trophy back to Atlanta.  That’s where Skates steps in.  I can feel my heat rate going up.  In the top of the 8th, Lonnie was on 1st with nobody out and Terry Pendleton at the plate.  TP laces a shot to left center field that clearly was going to score Lonnie, who had solid wheels.  Wait, where is Lonnie?  He’s at 3rd?  What happened?  How?  The replays would show that Lonnie got deeked by that worm of a second baseman Chuck Knoblauch as he was approaching the turn.  Knoblauch faked a toss to 2nd, completely throwing Skates off of his game.  A bush league play in game 7 of the World Series just made our veteran look like a tool. 

 As the ball bounced off the wall, Skates stood motionless at 2nd base for almost 3 solid seconds.  That is a long time on the base path.  He was held up at 3rd.  No run, still 0-0.  Now, an argument can be made that any one of the following batters could have brought Lonnie in as there were no outs when this happened.  But no. I believe in momentum in sports.  We clearly lost it at that moment.  Gant, Justice and Bream were due up after Skates.  A ground out by Gant, an intentional walk to Justice and a double play by Bream sealed our fate.  The Twins would score in the 10th inning to win the World Series and complete the collective smashing of hearts across the south.  But it should have turned out different.  It shouldn’t have ended that way.  

The Braves would go on an unbelievable run of 14 consecutive division titles and multiple World Series appearances, eventually winning one in 1995.  But 1991 will stick in my mind as the one that got away.  There were so many opportunities in that series, it’s almost unfair to pick out just one.  But this one remains in my conciousness like the stench of an old baby bottle left in the car on a hot summer day.  Yeah, it makes me sick.  At times I feel bad for Skates because it turned out that he had his own demons.  I’m sure it isn’t the easiest thing to live with either.  But then I picture him standing still at 2nd base staring into the outfield and I lose all empathy.  I guess I’m selfish about the whole situation.  But we were so close.  So close Skates…..I need this more than you do but I forgive you Lonnie Smith.  What’s done is done.  I just had to get it off my chest one last time.

Joey