World Series Game 1

I can think of only two World Series that have piqued my interest as much as the 2004 matchup between the Cardinals and Red Sox. Oh sure, I’ve been interested in all of them and probably have watched every single series since 1978, but I get the feeling that something great is going to happen this season. Maybe it’s because my favorite former Phillie player and manager are involved.

Then again, there is a very real chance that the Red Sox could finally win the World Series. I thought I was going to see it happen back in 1986 as I sat on a reclining chair at my parent’s house on Woods Avenue in Lancaster, Pa., but that life-changing 10th inning of Game 6 unfolded like a bad horror movie.

That game from that anticipated series between the Mets and Red Sox is probably my favorite ever. Yes, I rooted for the Red Sox, but there was so much drama, plot twists and turns and fateful plays that I have rehashed it and re-played it in my head so many times.

I can’t help but think about Bob Costas and Jean Yawkey standing on a makeshift platform every time I walk into the visitor’s clubhouse in Shea Stadium. How surreal must have that been?

I believe there should be a historical plaque marking the spot in the Shea Stadium turf behind first base where the ball skipped through Buckner’s legs. Looking out at that spot from a close vantage point is like examining the crack in the Liberty Bell or something.

More than the 1980 series and the 1993 series, which I attended as an employee of the Phillies, the ’86 series stands out. Forget Buckner, what if Clemens hadn’t got that blister in Game 6? Or what if the manager John McNamara had gone with another reliever instead of Calvin Schiraldi to pitch the ninth? Better yet, what if McNamara had put in Dave Stapleton at first instead of leaving Buckner out there so he could be on the field for the celebration?

Like he wouldn’t be able to hobble out to the pile from the third-base dugout.

What about our friend Pesky? Was he there? Did he see it? What did he think? (Ed. Note: nice touch by the Red Sox for including him in the pre-game introductions. This group of Sox management gets it.)

So many questions. So many answers. It never ends.

Anyway, more on other memorable series’ later. First, however, a note: the Sox and Cards have both gone to the seventh game in all of their recent appearances in the World Series. The Red Sox went to seven in 1986 against the Mets, in 1975 against the Reds, and in 1967 and 1946 against the Cardinals.

For the Cardinals, they went seven games in 1987 against the Twins, in 1985 against the Royals, in 1982 in a win over the Brewers, in 1968 against the Tigers, the winning 1967 season, the breakthrough victory over the Yankees in 1964, and the victory in ’46.

The Red Sox are 5-4 in the World Series, while the Cardinals are 9-6. From 1903 to 1918, the Sox were the Yankees before the Yankees were the Yankees. They won five titles before anyone even knew what the hell the World Series was.

Now, here’s Game 1.

Top of 1
Tim Wakefield has the knuckler knuckling. Edgar Renteria whiffs to start the game, but Wakefield recovers after Larry Walker’s double to the right-field corner by getting Albert Pujols and Scott Rolen to weakly pop up.

I guess Rolen didn’t follow his adage for hitting a knuckle ball. He once told me, “If it’s low let it go – if it’s high let it fly.”

Wakefield gets out of the first on 18 pitches.

Bottom of 1
Johnny Damon pokes a double down the line in left to start it off for the Red Sox on what Tim McCarver called “an exquisite” at-bat. Damon fouled off three 3-2 pitches in a row before dropping his bat head on a low and outside pitch from Woody Williams.

It was “exquisite” indeed. Damon made Williams throw 10 pitches, which gave his teammates a good chance to see Williams’ repertoire.

Orlando Cabrera attempted to bunt Damon to third, but was drilled on a 0-2 pitch that got away from Williams. The fans at Fenway booed, but they’re idiots. The last thing Williams wants to do is put runners on base.

Clearly Williams is rattled. Manny Ramirez lines a screamer toward Pesky’s Pole in right that Walker somehow grabs. Then David Ortiz wrapped one around the pole for a loud and long three-run blast. Before Ortiz could find his seat in the dugout, Kevin Millar pokes one high off the Monster for a double.

Ouch.

As if that wasn’t enough, Bill Mueller laced one inside the third-base bag for an RBI single. Mercifully, Doug Mirabelli – the No. 8 hitter – strikes out to end the inning after four runs, four hits and 28 pitches.

None of those pitches were more important than the 10 Damon saw to set up the inning.

Top of 2
The Red Sox employed the old over shift for left-handed hitting Jim Edmonds, so the slugger dropped a bunt down toward third for a single.

“If he would have bunted it harder he would have had a double,” McCarver quipped.

After Reggie Sanders walked, Tony Womack bunted both runners over to set up Mike Matheny’s sacrifice fly. Talk about a National League run.

Wakefield ends the threat with another strikeout and keeps the 4-1 lead.

Bottom of 2
Mark Bellhorn drops in a flare to left for a single and makes me think that he could turn out to be the wild-card player of the series in the mold of former light-hitting middle infielders. Brian Doyle, Bucky Dent, Mark Lemke, Buddy Biancalana and David Eckstein spring to mind as players who often had a difficult time at the plate but smashed the ball all over the place in the series.

Then there is Marty Barrett, the old Red Sox second baseman who got 12 hits in the 1986 World Series. Maybe Bellhorn will turn out to be Barrett. Then again, maybe he won’t get another hit and give way to Pokey Reese.

Williams gets into some two-out trouble when Ramirez singles and Ortiz walks. Millar comes up and takes a vicious cut with the sacks juiced. Looks like the Sox are on to Williams. No worries though, Millar grounds to Rolen and Tony La Russa gets Danny Haren up in the ‘pen. Then again, he should – Williams has thrown 48 pitches through two frames.

Top of 3
Walker homers around the pole in right to cut the lead in half. It appears as if Walker has figured out Wakefield.

How tough is the Cardinals’ lineup if Larry Walker is hitting in the two-spot?

Wakefield follows the homer by plunking Pujols with a curveball, but Rolen grounds into an around-the-horn double play to end the threat before it even got started.

Bottom of 3
After coaxing a groundout to start the inning, Williams loads the bases on a pair of walks and a single high off the wall in left by Mirabelli.

“He’s in a ton of trouble,” McCarver says.

After Damon’s RBI single, La Russa gives Williams’ trouble to 24-year old Danny Haren. Cabrera greets the kid with a hard single to left, and now the right-hander is knee-deep in the mess. Ramirez grounds sharply into a fielder’s choice to drive home his first run in two weeks. After Ortiz walks on four pitches, Haren got Millar – the ninth hitter of the inning – to ground out.

Fox showed Williams blowing a bubble in the dugout, which is funny because it had already popped.

Geez, it’s 7-2.

Top of 4
Went downstairs to get something to eat so I missed Wakefield walk the bases loaded on 14 pitches. However, I saw Matheny lift a sacrifice fly to right to score Edmonds and Millar’s throwing error on the cut-off to score Sanders. Then I saw So Taguchi hit a chopper to third that Mueller fielded cleanly, but couldn’t get out of his glove in time to throw Womack out at the plate.

Then I saw Wakefield walk Renteria on five pitches, and get the hook before Bronson Arroyo came in to give up a single to right to Walker. Oddly enough, the Cards tacked on three more runs on just Walker’s hit. Wakefield’s four free passes more than Millar’s throwing error helped St. Louis get back in it.

Bottom of 4
Pretty freaking cool… Fox just aired a miked conversation between Sanders and Cabrera where Sanders said: “I know you weren’t trying to throw elbows (on a takeout slide in the third), but it looked like you were trying to throw elbows.”

How’s that for a polite, “Don’t do that shit again, or we are going to come gunning for your scrawny shortstop ass.”

Good work by Fox.

Not so cool, at least as far as the Cards are concerned, was the pair of walks Haren dished out to start the inning. But he got three straight flies, including one snagged by Walker that got hung up in the wind, to wiggle out of trouble.

Top of 5
Hey what happened? Bronson Arroyo is dealing. He retired the side in order with two whiffs, but still looks like he needs a pair of glasses when peering in to see the signals.

Bottom of 5
Haren still in there and throwing OK. The Red Sox are getting some pretty good swings at him, but good pitching comes thanks to good fielding. Where the Cardinals might have the edge in this Series is with the leather – they can really go get it. Rolen, Matheny and Edmonds will win the Gold Glove at their positions, while Renteria and Walker have won a few in they day as well.

Top of 6
It was 49 degrees at game time and it’s starting to get a little windy. During the past few innings, balls hit to right field are a bit of an adventure.

More of an adventure has been Arroyo. Clearly the Cardinals appear to be baffled by his sweeping, high leg kick and breaking pitches. Still, Taguchi beats out a bleeder and takes second when Arroyo’s boneheaded throw to first skips past Millar and into the seats.

Still, Arroyo made Renteria look uncomfortable with his breaking pitches, quickly getting two strikes on the shortstop. But then Arroyo leaves one out over the plate and Renteria, savvy World Series vet that he is, laces it in the gap for a double. Not to be outdone, Walker gets his fourth straight hit and second double to drive home another run.

Suddenly, just like that, it’s tied.

Lucky No. 7 for both clubs.

Bottom of 6
Haren is still in there. In fact, he retired the side in order. Since entering the game with one out in the third, Haren has allowed just a pair of walks and hits. He’s also retired nine of the last 10 hitters he has faced.

I just thought of something: the announcing team of Joe Buck and McCarver has some tight St. Louis ties. Buck, as everyone knows, is the play-by-play man during the season for the Cardinals, while McCarver played for the Cardinals from 1959 to 1969 and then again from 1973 to 1974.

McCarver also played parts of the ’74 and ’75 seasons for the Red Sox so I guess that evens it out.

Top of 7
Mike Timlin relieves Arroyo and faces Rolen to start the inning, who, coincidentally, were traded for one another. Timlin, obviously, got out of Philadelphia after an unhappy half season there. He was very bummed out about being traded from St. Louis to Philly. I think he got into a fight on the street on his first day in town.

Yeah, fun guy.

Either way, he retired the side in order so that Kelly Clarkson could sing “God Bless America.”

Bottom of 7
La Russa yanks Haren after 69 pitches in favor of right-hander Kiko Calero, who immediately walks Bellhorn. Lefty Ray King is warming up in the bullpen, presumably to face Ortiz. The cameras show King (big friendly and chatty guy) standing there with his hands on his hips ready to come in, while Calero walks Cabrera and then allows Ramirez to belt a run-scoring single to center.

Edmonds had a chance to nail Bellhorn with a good throw, but he airmailed it. So with runners on the corners, King finally comes in to face Ortiz, who promptly hits a grounder at Womack at second that takes a weird hop and nails the Cardinal square on the sternum just below his throat.

Womack has to leave the game, they give Ortiz a single and moody Marlon Anderson enters. Had the ball not taken such a nasty bounce, King and the Cardinals would have escaped the inning trailing by just one run. Instead, King had to give way for Cal Eldred after Millar popped out and skipper Terry Francona called for right-hander Gabe Kapler to pinch hit for Trot Nixon.

After Kapler whiffs, Fox shows Ramirez celebrating on his way to first after his hit instead of digging hard for second. What they didn’t say is that it was a typical Manny move. To call Ramirez dumb would be an insult to dumb people.

It’s 9-7 with the bottom third of the lineup coming up for the Cardinals.

Top of 8
Matheny singled with one out and as I was marking it in my book I noticed that he has two sacrifice flies in the game. I bet that’s a World Series record.

From here on out, both managers will be making moves based on matchups. As soon as La Russa sends pitcher Jason Marquis to run for Matheny and Roger Cedeno to hit for Taguchi, Francona pops out of the dugout to hook Timlin and bring in lefty Alan Embree.

Is it me or does Embree not look like a Civil War officer with his droopy mustache and big chaw of tobacco? Either way, Stonewall Embree gives up a flared single to right and exits as quickly as he entered. Interestingly, Francona taps closer Keith Foulke to get the final five outs. Still, if Foulke is going to earn the tough save, he’s going to have to do it against the meat of the Cardinals’ order… with two on, no less.

Nevertheless, Foulke has not allowed a run in his last 11 outings (since Sept. 22), and has only given up five hits over that same span. Still, that doesn’t stop Renteria from slapping a single to left that somehow got Marquis home.

Marquis made it to third easily enough, seemed content to stop there, but then appeared to have run through a stop sign and head home. He would have been out by a step if catcher Jason Varitek had been able to get the tag down.

TV replays didn’t show what happened, but Ramirez was charged with an error on the play.

TV replays did show Ramirez’s next error. As the absent-minded left fielder was attempting to slide to catch a fast-falling fly by Walker, his knee got stuck on the turf causing him to lurch forward as the ball bounced off his glove and toward the corner.

Just like that, it’s all tied again.

Bottom of 8
Julian Tavarez enters and his fastball seems to be moving all over the place. Unfortunately for him, and perhaps a water cooler and bat rack a bit later, he stuck one over the inside portion of the plate and Bellhorn crashed it off the Pesky Pole for a two-run donger. If this series is going to continue to be played this way, there are going to be a lot of nervous and sick people at the end of next week.

Geez. What was it that I wrote about Bellhorn? Am I a sage or what?

Top of 9
Tavarez quietly sat down in the visitor’s dugout at Fenway, but you know he wants to firebomb the place. Instead he gets to sit there and watch Foulke whiff Sanders on three pitches. Moody Marlon’s double to left forced the tying run to the plate, but Foulke got Yadier Molina to pop up and Cedeno to fan to end the game.

The Red Sox are three wins away.

WP: Foulke
LP: Tavarez
HR: Ortiz, Walker, Bellhorn.

Fox just showed that 13 of the last 16 World Series winners have taken the first game and 59 of the 99 World Series winners have taken the first game. What they didn’t show was that the Red Sox have won Game 1 in 1986, 1975 and 1946. They lost all three of those.

The didn’t forget to mention that the 20 runs are the most ever scored in a Game 1, or that Ortiz tied a club record with four RBIs in a World Series game. Carl Yastrzemski drove in four against the Cardinals