Big Lead Sports Bar

10/15/2007

Happy Anniversary, Francisco Cabrera

I'm a day late on this, but reader "Cecil from Cecil" wanted to remind everyone that October 14 was the 15th anniversary of the last night the Pirates were relevant.

Of course, we're referring to Game Seven of the 1992 National League Championship Series, the infamous "Francisco Cabrera/Stan Belinda/Sid Bream/Barry Bonds" game that could possibly go down as the last playoff game in Pirate history.

I did a little digging and found out that there's a Wikipedia page that delivers an extra-heavy stomach punch to those who dare remember that fateful series. I really didn't need to be reminded that the Pirates went into the bottom of the 9th in Game Seven with a 2-0 lead, but hey, you can't re-write history.

Bonds and Belinda will continue to go down in history as the goats, but as Wiki points out, the rare Chico Lind error in the 9th would prove to be the real backbreaker. Yet somehow Chico skates all these years later. Maybe it was his overall likability. Maybe it was the fact that he forgot to wear pants when driving while intoxicated. But Jose Lind is truly Pittsburgh's own Bill Buckner.

1992 National League Championship Series (Wikipedia)

Lind tries to make new name for himself (PG)

1992 NLCS Game 7 Sid Bream's modern-day "mad dash" wins the pennant for Atlanta (MLB.com Baseball's Best)

5 comments:

CapitolMAN said...

Let's not overlook the eighth inning. Bonds' leadoff single was negated by a Merced groundout. Jeff King then doubled. David Justice threw out Merced at the plate. Spanky then lined out to left field to end the inning.

Unknown said...

I haven't forgotten Jose Lind's error. He was on that roster solely for his defensive play, and when we needed it most, he failed. He is the true goat of that series.

Unknown said...

Kids who will be getting their drivers license in the coming year will have never seen the Buccos have a winning season.

CapitolMAN said...

Brad,

You mean like our mayor?

Anonymous said...

Total choke job by Chico Lind.

Not to get too Seattle on you, but there were some verrrry questionable calls by the home plate ump that led to a walk of Damon Berryhill.

Also of note is that the scheduled home plate ump got sick early in the game (anyone remember this?) and was replaced by the stand-by ump who is on-site for every playoff game in case an ump gets injured.

C'mon, Buccos....only 2 more losing seasons to go and you'll have the all-time MLB record for most consecutive losing seasons.

In fact, I plan to be in attendance for loss #83 of the 2009 season when you break the record!