Been thinking about the great baseball trip of 1992 that my friend Eric and I took, starting 33 years ago today. Previously posted, here is an epilogue recapping the trip...
What a trip it was! Looking back over the entire trip, it really is amazing the things we experienced (links included below). Over the course of those two weeks in June of 1992, we saw...
Unfortunately, we also had some crazy bad luck when it came to seeing Hall of Famers. In our leadoff game, we missed out on seeing the greatest leadoff hitter ever, because Rickey Henderson was injured. We also missed out on a trio of Hall of Fame middle infielders, because Ozzie Smith, Alan Trammell, and Roberto Alomar were all out with injuries when we saw their teams play, as was the Indians' young third baseman, Jim Thome.
Last time we checked in, I was on vacation in St. Louis, where my grandmother gave me her autograph book. Today I want to share the autographs that were waiting for me when I returned home:
As I've mentioned before, I already had Greg Brock's Dodgers card from the regular set thanks to my friend Alex Hyde, but Brock also had a Brewers card in the Traded set. I figured I might as well send off one of the Dodgers cards with it to have available for trade if nothing else. Brock spent his ten-year career split evenly between the Dodgers and Brewers, but had his best success in LA where he was a decent power hitting first baseman, hitting a home run every 21 at bats on average.
I remember back in the mid 80s when Rick Schu seemed to be the heir apparent to Mike Schmidt at the hot corner in Philadelphia. In 1985, Schmidt was even moved to first base to give Schu the job at third. Schu only hit .252 with 7 HR and 24 RBIs. Schmidt was moved back to third and Schu became a part-time player, which hewas for the remainder of his nine-year career. He currently serves as the hitting coach for the Washington Nationals, a position he has held since 2013.
Among the returns I got while on vacation were two from Hall of Famers. The first of these was from Tony LaRussa. After managing the White Sox to an AL West championship in 1983, he led the A's to three straight AL Pennants (1988-90) and won the 1989 World Series. It was during the second half of his career that I became a huge fan of LaRussa's though. In his 16 years with the Cardinals, he won seven division titles, three NL pennants (2004, 2006 & 2011) and two World Series (2006 & 2011). He finished his career as the third winningest manager in MLB history (and the winningest of anyone to begin their managerial career after 1900).And to top it all off, he and I share a birthday!
My other Hall of Fame return was from Wade Boggs. A five-time batting champ and twelve-time All Star, Boggs retired with a career average of .328. As good as that is, it pales in comparison to the first eight seasons of his career. As the 1980s came to a close, he had a career average of .352 and an OBP of .443. He would finish his career with eight Silver Sluggers, two Gold Gloves, and 3,010 base hits, the 3,000th of which came on a home run, making him the first player to have such a designation.
After a relaxing day at the Mahoneys' we returned to Fenway. While New York might have a reputation for drivers that are aggressively rude, Boston it would seem had drivers that are irrationally unpredictable. Take this experience we had on our way to the game as a "for instance" of what I mean:
As we drove through the stop-and-go traffic on the surface roads approaching Fenway, it was taking us forever. Creep forward, wait. Creep forward, wait. Then, all of the sudden, we noticed the driver of the car in front of us jump out of his car, run over to a pay phone on the side of the road, and make a call. When it came time to creep forward some more, we could do no creeping, because there was a driverless car in front of us and in 1992 driverless cars did not move.
Celebrating once more!
We had planned to get there very early, so when we eventually made it to the game, we still had plenty of time. The teams were still taking batting practice as we approached the stadium on foot, having parked our car for the second straight night at Boston University. As we passed by the backside of The Green Monster, a ball came flying over it and bounced across the street. I gave chase as it bounded down a stairwell, only to be just beaten by another individual, narrowly missing out on a souvenir.
Once we got inside, we went to our seats in right field. Before the game, Reardon was honored for his record-breaking performance the night before. We were thrilled to have witnessed it when it occurred, and now we were thrilled to celebrate it once again.
It was great to have seats tonight (as opposed to last night when we
stood) not only because it provided rest for our feet, but more
importantly because it afforded us with the opportunity to move around
the stadium, checking different things out, with the confidence that
when we returned, we'd still have a place from which to watch the game!
The Fenway Press Box, as viewed from our seats
At one point during the game, as we were walking around behind home plate, Yankee Mel Hall hit a foul ball off the famous Fenway press box. It caromed directly toward me as I walked the aisle in front of the second section of seats. I reached up my hands to grab it only to have them cut off by another pair of hands belonging to a spectator elevated in the seats just next to me. He intercepted the foul ball and for the second time tonight, I was one person away from a souvenir!
As for the game itself, for the second straight night, it was a thriller, and for the second time on our trip, we would get to see Roger Clemens pitch. The Red Sox broke on top in the first when Jody Reed, Herm Winningham and future Hall of Famer Wade Boggs all singled to start the game. Boston scored a second run when former Cardinal (and favorite of ours) Jack Clark hit a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0.
In the last year of his 18-year career, Clark was no longer the player he had once been. The two of us though (and Cardinal fans everywhere) will always remember Clark as the guy that hit the two-out, three-run, ninth inning off home run Tom Niedenfuer to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in game six of the 1985 NLCS, putting the Cardinals in the World Series. After an injury-plagued season in 1986, he returned in 1987 to put up MVP numbers in the first half of the season. His production dropped off in the second half of that season, but he was still the biggest (only?) power threat in the Cardinals' lineup until what was essentially a season-ending ankle injury on September 9th. Thanks in large part to Clark's absence, the Cardinals would fall to the Twins in seven games that year, making it to but losing the Series for the second time in Clark's three years as a Cardinal.
This gives you an idea of how big a deal Clark was in St. Louis: After the season, he would join the Yankees as a free agent (before later moving to the Padres and eventually the Red Sox). That was the same winter that the St. Louis Cardinals football team of the NFL announced they were moving to Arizona. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran a reader poll asking which was the greater loss. Clark won overwhelmingly.
Anyway, back to the game in Boston...
The Yankees got one back in the third on an RBI single by Dion James. That would be the only run Clemens would allow in 7 innings pitched , over which he struck out ten. Greg Harris pitched a shutout eighth, and Reardon came on once more for the save. He could not extend his record though as Kevin Maas (whom Reardon had struck out last night for the save) got a one-out double, and Randy Velarde singled home pinch runner Pat Kelly to tie the game at two. New York wasn't done there though, as Andy Stankiewicz would later get a two out, RBI single to put them on top, and Reardon stood to get the loss.
If last night's pitching hero couldn't get the job done for Boston, then their hitting hero would have to go to work. The only run last night had been on Phil Plantier's fifth inning home run, and when he led off the ninth tonight with another dramatic game-tying homer, he cemented his place on my list of favorite players. And in the bottom of the tenth, Boston turned two walks, a hit batsman, and an RBI single by Ellis Burks into their second dramatic win in as many nights.
Leading up to the trip, I expected Boston to be our most memorable stop. As I look back at the trip all these years later, one thing is certain: historic Fenway did not disappoint!
Miles Driven Today: 64
Total Miles Driven: 2,160
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