[WilliamTheIrish]

My thought are in italics.


Charlie Liebrandt vs Danny Cox. Cox pitched well but had worked in and out of trouble the entire game. In 7 innings Cox surrendered 7 hits and 1 BB.

Liebrandt went 7 2/3 gave up 4 hits and 2 BB's. He was THE hard luck pitcher in that post season. He had pitched beautifully in his 4 starts and never got a win. Mainly due to zero run support. Since everything really happened in the 8th, we might as well fast forward to that inning. Score some f'ing runs for this guy FF'sS.

Tito Landrum hit a soft fly ball to CF. Pendleton singles to RF and immediately there are nothing but hangnails on every Royals fan. Caesar Cedeno draws a BB and Pendleton moves to 2nd. Two on 1 out. Porter strikes out looking. Two on two out. F me. This can't happen now. Not THIS time.

Brian Harper is sent in to PH for Danny Cox (P) Everybody on earth is waiting for Howser to bring in Quiz. But he doesn't. And I'm ready to kick Dick Howser in the teeth when Brian Harper hits a bloop single to CF to score Pendleton and move Cedeno to 3b. 1-0 Cards. The dream is dead.

"BRIAN HARPER? BRIAN ****ING HARPER"??? This journeyman utility **** is going to send me to my grave with a stake through my heart? Brian Harper? Give me a ****ing break. If the baseball gods hate me that much, at least let it be a guy has some kind of history. BRIAN F'ING HARPER? It was the same bloop that fell in front of AO off Paul Blair's bat that caused me 6 weeks of illness in the 1977 ALCS. And now, 8 years later it had happened again.

At this point, I'm dead. The stadium is dead. Howser is dead to me. FINALLY Dick Howser comes out to get Charlie. Quiz enters the game and retires a Magee on a 4-6 force.

The 8th is Ken Daley pitching for the Cards and other a BB to Wilson, Daley K's Smith and Brett and gets Frank on fly to CF.

Three outs left in the season and then I'll be forced to watch the Cards and The White Rat celebrate in our stadium. It makes me ill to this day just thinking about it.

Top of the 9th Quiz gives up a single to Landrum after a K and a groundout to 1st. Quiz gets out of it by coaxing Pendleton to fly out to Wilson in CF.

Only three outs stood between the Cardinals and another WS title. Three outs. Todd Worrell is called on to bring it home.

Jorge Orta, PH'ing for Darrell Motley, and down 0-2, hits a little tapper toward first. Worrell covers the bag and accepts the ball from Clark and Orta is out. 2 outs to go. But wait! It's a close play and Don Denkinger calls Orta safe. Whitey is livid. Rightfully so. But too bad you ****. You'll win anyway. Sit down you ****.

The stadium is now ALIVE. And Steve Balboni is now at the plate. Down 0-1, Balboni skies a pop up in front of the Royals dugout. Clark, a below average defensive 1B moves all over and when he eventually puts his glove out the ball falls to the ground 4 feet away. (I stood in that exact spot in early March of 86 when the 1986 team had a Grand Opening. I did my best Jack Clark. It's a polaroid in my closet somewhere.) The stadium is now as loud as I've ever heard it (Game 3 1980 ALCS) and it is also now officially a rally.

On the next pitch (0-2) Bones reached out and drove a single to LF. 2 on nobody out. Holy F!!! Can this be happening? It can't. We're the Royals, the long cousin of the A's. It can't really be happening. That kind of miracle only happens to other teams.

Worrell is rattled, Clark is in pieces, and the rest of the Cardinals are on the brink of collapse. Sundberg is up and he lays down a bunt, but Worrell makes a nice play and wheels to 3rd and gets Orta, leaving runners at 2nd and 1st.

Now it's Mcrae chance to shine. On the 1st pitch to Hal, Porter gives up a passed ball and the runners move up. HOLY SHIT!!! IT'S REALLY HAPPENING! THE CARDS ARE COMING APART AT THE SEAMS. Who's going to hit here? The pitcher spot is due up. Who do we have? Who is our LH hitter off the bench?

Whitey is now forced to intentionally walk Mac to load the bases and set up the force. Jack Leyton announces "Hitting in the pitcher's spot is Dane Iorge".

The stadium is now rocking as the chance to exorcise the ghosts of failures past is now upon the entire city. All those close losses to the Yankees. The HR by Chambliss. The 9th inning letdown in 77, the inability of Quiz to pick up the line drive by Manny Trillo in game 5 in 1980 allowing the wining to score for Philly.... all those failures can be put on hold, if Dane Iorge can get Onix home from 3rd. Just get him home and let Quiz pitch 4 more innings. We'll get those bastards in extra innings.

And then it happened: 10:17pm. On a 1-0 pitch from Todd Worrell. Dane Iorge swung and there was a brief total silence from 42,000 people until that ball touched the turf in RF. The call from the Royals radio booth:

And the pitch from Worrell, swung on and there's a looping liner into RF!!!! BASE HIT!!! One run is home and here comes Sundberg!!!.... Here's the throw from Van Slyke!!!.... SAFE!!!!! ROYALS WIN!!! ROYALS WIN!!!!

There was still work to be done. But the Cardinals knew they were done. The Royals knew the Cardinals were done.

It's an incredible feeling to be a fan of a team that pulls a comeback like that. On the biggest stage. It was one of the greatest sporting moments of my life. What must it be like for a guy like Dane Iorge? He's in his 60's now. But if I saw him today I'd want to hug the guy.