World Series: Did You Know?

By game two of the 1992 Fall Classic, the Atlanta Braves had been involved in three straight games that had been decided by backup catchers. Atlanta went 2-1 in them. But they would not have even made it to the World Series without the first such occurrence.

It was game seven of the NLCS vs. Pittsburgh. And the Pirates, led by Barry Bonds, were looking for their first Fall Classic appearance since 1979. But thirteen years of bad luck was about to be extended...All the way to this very day and 35 consecutive seasons of no World Series appearances.

It had been 2-0 Pittsburgh after eight and a half, but the Braves would not go quietly into the night. A sacrifice fly by Ron Gant made it 2-1. Damon Berryhill, the Braves new regular catcher (With Greg Olson out), drew a walk. But then Brian Hunter popped out. There were runners on second and third. Dave Justice, the tying run, was ninety feet away. So Francisco Cabrera, who'd played just eleven games for Atlanta that season, stepped into the box to face the Pirates' Stan Belinda.

But Cabrera, who had caught only one game all season, was essentially the Braves' new backup catcher now with Olson out. Atlanta's hopes seemed dim with him up there. But he got ahead in the count 2-0. Then he fouled off a pitch.

And then he lined a single to left. Justice scored. Barry Bonds fired home to try and cut off Sid Bream at the plate. But Bream, slow, beat the throw! Atlanta had won the National League pennant in dramatic fashion.

From there, it was off to the Fall Classic, where the Toronto Blue Jays awaited them. Pitching in game one for Atlanta was Tom Glavine. Pitching for the Blue Jays was Jack Morris, who'd beaten them 1-0 in ten innings with the Minnesota Twins in game seven the previous year.

Jack looked tough. A Joe Carter home run gave him a 1-0 lead. Jack had the shutout going through five. In the sixth, he retired Terry Pendleton to start it. Justice went to a full count, and coaxed a walk from Morris. Bream came through with a single that only got Justice to second. Gant hit into a force, but stole second to get the go-ahead into scoring position. The batter was Berryhill.

Morris got ahead in the count two strikes, but then made a mistake with the forkball. Berryhill made him pay for that by taking him out of the park. It was 3-1, Atlanta. Glavine did a great job protecting it and ended up a 3-1 winner.

In game two, Toronto needed a split. They erased a 2-0 lead, only to see the Braves go up 4-2 in the bottom of the fifth. A run by the Blue Jays in the top of the ninth cut it to 4-3, but the Braves were just three outs away from a 2-0 lead in the Fall Classic of 1992. Toronto needed some help.

Pat Borders, who ended up the MVP, lined out to Justice in right. Two more outs. Atlanta had to feel confident. They were ahead. They were at home. And they had Jeff Reardon on the hill. Due up next was shortstop Manuel Lee. But it was Derek Bell who batted.

Reardon and Bell batted to 2-2. Bell fouled off the next pitch to stay alive. Bell had played just 61 games in the regular season. He appeared in just 18 games the season before that. He was playing in his first World Series game and hanging on. Reardon though, looked like he had Bell looking with a high pitch on his next delivery as it was just above the numbers. A ball. A ball called. But it was close as it sank. You couldn't have blamed the umpire for calling strike three. Instead, it was ball three. Bell stayed alive on the next pitch, fouling it off.

And then, if you can believe it, on two pitches, the Jays were ahead 5-4.

Reardon missed badly on the outside corner with his fastball on the next pitch, and Bell was aboard. Now it was Duane Ward's spot to bat. But of course he wouldn't. Ward was the Jays' pitcher when the third out was recorded in the bottom of the eighth. No way does he bat here.

Instead it was Ed Sprague, the Jays backup catcher. But Ed was going in the opposite direction of Bell, at least it seemed like it. Amazingly enough, come the 1993 World Series, it was Sprague still with the Jays, at third base, and making some huge contributions. Bell was traded in the spring.

However, all that was in 1993. Here, we are in game two of the 1992 Fall Classic. Sprague though, seemed like a forgotten man on the team at this point. He'd played 61 games for the Jays in 1991, but mostly at third for Kelly Gruber. He'd caught only two games. '92 saw him get into only 22 games, although 15 were as a catcher. He also played two games of the ALCS vs. Oakland, and batted 1-2 as a pinch hitter.

Only the very first pitch to Sprague, he got a great pitch to hit. It caught too much of the plate, and he hammered it to left. Deion Sanders went back, but it was way over his head. And it found the seats. Toronto 5, Atlanta 4.

The Braves, no strangers to heroics, mounted another comeback attempt in the bottom of the ninth. Tom Henke, the Blue Jay's closer, came on to try and put Atlanta away. He got Mark Lemke out, but then Lonnie Smith, the second batter like Bell in the top of the frame, made it to first. The painful way, as Henke hit him. Otis Nixon gave it quite a ride on the first pitch, but it was just a long out to his counterpart in centre, Devon White. The Braves were down to their last out again.

However, Deion Sanders was the batter. He stayed right in there with Henke, much like Bell had with Reardon. On a 2-2 pitch, Gant, as he had in game one, stole second. A single here and we're tied. Sanders ended up with a walk, but now the winning run was on first. An extra base hit and this game is over.

Terry Pendleton was just the kind of batter to do that. In 1991, he was given the National League's top honour, the MVP. But on the very first pitch from Henke, he popped up to Kelly Gruber at third in foul territory. Kelly put the squeeze on it, and Toronto had a dramatic 5-4 win.

It ended up being quite a Fall Classic. Toronto won, but all four games they triumphed in were decided by just a single run. Atlanta had a dramatic game one win of their own (And a blowout in game five). However, Atlanta pulled out a dramatic comeback in the National League Division Series just to get here, and gave Toronto all they could handle in the final showdown. Each team needed backup to win. Backup catchers.

References

1992 World Series. Performance by Len Cariou, Major League Baseball Productions, 1992. DVD.

Dan Diamond and Associates & Toronto Blue Jays Club. Toronto Blue Jays Official Guide 1987, 1993, 1994. Print.

Gamester, George, and Gerald Hall. On Top of the World: The Toronto Stars Tribute To The '92 Blue Jays. Doubleday Canada, 1992. Print.

Major League Baseball. World Series Official Programs 1992 & 1993. Print.

Sports Reference LLC. Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Statistics and Information. http://www.baseball-reference.com/. Web. 3 Oct. 2015.

Retrosheet. Web. 3 Oct. 2015. <http://www.retrosheet.org/>.

YouTube. Web. 3 Oct. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com>.