![]() by Julian Spivey Monday, Oct. 26 was the 20th anniversary of the day I fell in love with baseball – the greatest sport America will ever know. It was game six of the 1995 World Series between the Atlanta Braves and the Cleveland Indians from Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium and I frankly don’t remember a whole lot about the game besides the final out, the celebration and the fact that I immediately fell in love with both baseball and the Braves. I was eight years old watching that game in 1995. My family had just moved to middle of nowhere north-central Arkansas that summer from central Florida and we didn’t even have a house or an apartment. For at least the first little while (I don’t quite remember how long) we lived in a tent. But, we still had television via an antenna that could bring in some of the local affiliates out of Springfield, Mo. So, we tuned in that night to NBC to watch what ended up proving to be the final game of the series. My parents were Braves fans having both grown up in Georgia and I guess that made me destined to become a Braves fan myself, but who knows had the Indians won the title I might be an Indians fan to this day as most kids who don’t really have a regional reason to follow a specific team tend to fall for the first team they see win. I have no remembrance of the sport of baseball before October 26, 1995 – despite the fact that I’m sure my parents occasionally had games on television and my dad had taken me to Spring Training games while living in Florida. And, even though game six of the World Series to this day is my favorite game ever personally I don’t remember a whole lot. For some reason I seem to have fewer memories of my childhood than most of my family and friends tend to have. I don’t know if this means I lived a particularly uneventful early childhood or if all of the vast knowledge I’ve gained since my childhood has simply pushed lesser memories out. Twenty years later I’ve never seen that game in its entirety; I have seen an abridged version once a few years back on ESPN Classic. Thanks to MLB.tv having an array of classic games I’m able to catch that entire game just after the 20th anniversary of it on a slightly smaller screen on an iPad, but at least I’m not sitting outside in the cool October evening beside a tent that I called my home, but in the comfortable confines of my apartment living room. It’s fun seeing faces and legends you haven’t seen play in a decade or almost two, but especially seeing a young faced Chipper Jones manning third in his rookie season. There were multiple Hall of Famers in the game, including Eddie Murray and Tom Glavine, who would go on to pitch the greatest game of his career, and a couple of almost certain future Hall of Famers in Jones and Jim Thome (whom it’s hard to imagine ever played third base). There’s also a player who I will argue to my dying day deserves to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame – Fred McGriff. The Braves also had three Hall of Famers on the bench that day in pitchers Greg Maddux and John Smoltz and manager Bobby Cox. I hadn’t remembered this, but there was some sort of controversy very early on it that game when in the bottom of the first inning Braves veteran second baseman Mark Lemke, who always played better than he actually was when it came to the postseason, singled and was called out trying to steal second base though instant replay showed he had clearly swiped the bag – unfortunately this was almost two decades before Major League Baseball instituted replay on the field. Chipper Jones would single on the very next pitch, which would’ve scored Lemke and given the Braves an early lead. The Indians had a killer lineup that season led by Albert Belle (who hit 50 homers in 143 games), Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome. The Indians won 100 games that season, which was remarkable given the fact that 12 games were wiped out by the 1994 player’s strike lasting until the spring of 1995. The ’95 Indians will always be one of the greatest teams to not win a World Series, something they still haven’t done as a franchise since 1948. David Justice had been the Braves best offensive player for years, but when he came up for his first at-bat in the second inning of game six Braves fans rained boos down upon him. It wasn’t anything to do with his play, but his comments before the game about how Braves fans weren’t necessarily cheering on the team the way he felt they should have been. One fan held a sign up early in the game reading: “Hey Justice, I hope your bat is as big as your mouth.” It was no way for Braves fans to treat one of their own and best, but it would come into play even more so in the sixth inning. Re-watching this game reminds me how much I miss watching Omar Vizquel play defense. He started a beautiful double play for the Indians in the second inning of game six and few, if any, have ever played the position of shortstop as well and beautifully as Vizquel. The Braves have a guy on their team right not in Andrelton Simmons who might be able to rival Vizquel, though. I mentioned Chipper Jones and Jim Thome as future Hall of Famers earlier and Vizquel really has a chance to make it too, but some voters don’t pay enough attention to defense for a defensive-minded player to make it. Indians 40-year old starter Dennis Martinez got into some major trouble in the bottom of the fourth inning loading the bases with a double to David Justice, intentional walk to left fielder Ryan Klesko and walk to catcher Javy Lopez. This brought up the light hitting shortstop Rafael Belliard who Cox liked to use for defensive purposes. The NBC announcing crew of Bob Costas, Joe Morgan and Bob Uecker immediately began to wonder whether or not Cox should pinch hit for Belliard to give the Braves a better opportunity to score and possibly win the game. Cox opted to keep Belliard in the game for his defense. He flied out to Indians center fielder Kenny Lofton. We already know the result of game six of the 1995 World Series so I don’t feel the need to be coy about moments or results. Glavine no-hit the Indians through the first five innings of the game and struck out seven hitters, again this was the scariest offense in baseball that led the game in homers, and Glavine wasn’t even really a strikeout pitcher, but one who typically pitched to contact. We all know that Glavine wouldn’t go on to throw a no-hitter as Don Larsen for the Yankees in the 1956 World Series is the only man to ever do so in World Series history (and it was a perfect game to boot). In the bottom of the fifth inning Indians pitcher Dennis Martinez got into some trouble again and Indians manager Mike Hargrove would bring in reliever Jim Poole to get out of the mess, which he did. Poole, a 29-year old lefty reliever, would have to hit in the top of the sixth because Hargrove wanted the lefty to face Braves left-handed hitters Justice and Klesko. It was an odd decision. Veteran Indians catcher Tony Pena would lead off the top half of the sixth with a bloop single into the outfield to break up Glavine’s no-hitter – again, this happened 20 years ago and I’m not spoiling much – it would be the only hit Glavine would give up in the game during a masterful performance that would be the best of his Hall of Fame career. Pena’s hit meant that reliever Poole could try to sacrifice him over to second instead of actually having to swing the bat. He tried to bunt three consecutive times and popped out doing so on the third chance. The Indians, of course, would not score the run. Poole had been kept in the game specifically to pitch to Justice, the very guy Braves fans had been angered by at the beginning of the game. Justice had only hit .211 for the series thus far, but had managed a double in his previous at-bat of the game. On a 2-0 count Justice hit a long drive to right field for a solo home run to give the Braves a 1-0 lead. Those fans who had been booing him at the beginning of the game had nothing but cheers for him now as Justice put the Braves just three innings away from the first championship for the team since it moved to Atlanta from Milwaukee in 1966. Glavine would continue to be in complete control over the best offense in baseball shutting them down for two more innings. The Braves would take their 1-0 lead into the ninth inning. Mark Wohlers was the Braves closer and he was one of the best in the game at the time. But, the way Glavine had been pitching it seemed like a risk for Bobby Cox to go to his bullpen at the time in a one-run ballgame. He did it anyway. Wohlers would face the fastest man in baseball Kenny Lofton to lead off the ninth inning. Lofton, to this day is one of the most exciting players I’ve ever seen play, and allowing him on base would’ve been a game-changer. He was almost impossible to stop from stealing a base. Luckily for the Braves and their fan base, Lofton would hit a bloop into foul territory and Belliard ran a mile to make a fantastic catch – exactly why Cox had left him in the game so many innings before. Belliard was in the middle of a three year stretch where he only had one error in each season. He couldn’t hit a lick, but his play at shortstop was a game saver. Hargrove would send up the hard-hitting Paul Sorrento in Vizquel’s place to try to tie the game with one swing of the bat. Sorrento had hit a pinch hit double off of Wohlers in the fourth game of the series. Here Wohlers would get the best of Sorrento getting him to fly out to Braves center fielder Marquis Grissom for the second out. The Braves were one out away from winning the World Series and this is the exact moment where my memory kicks back in from being that eight-year old watching it on a small television on a cool October evening outside of a tent we called home. Indians second baseman Carlos Baerga would step to the plate as the Indians last chance. Wohlers wound up and threw his pitch to a first ball swinging Baerga. Baerga sent the ball into the air to left-center field where Grissom was on his horse, got underneath it and secured the ball. Bob Costas said, “The team of the ‘90s has its World Championship,” and the players and coaches with wide smiles on every face ran into the arms of each other and dogpiled in the center of the infield. It’s the moment I fell in love with baseball and thus a moment I could never forget, even when most memories from childhood have since faded away. Tom Glavine had thrown a one-hit shutout over eight innings and with a 2-0 record in the World Series would be named series MVP. Justice, who had been hated more than even any of the rival Indians players at the beginning of the game, would join Glavine as the heroes of the game with his solo shot in the sixth inning providing the only run of the deciding game. Glavine and Justice would instantly become my favorite players on my new favorite team – more importantly a lifelong love and relationship would be formed.
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