Remembering When...

One of my fonder memories of a baseball game came with my Dad and my Grandfather in attendance. I was there just hoping to catch a few glimpses of Frank Thomas (Apparently I have a thing for large black men who play first base). We scored these tickets for a Wednesday night as General Admisison, but at the time we had an in with a a couple of dudes on the gate staff (an Uncle and another Grandfather), so we immediately scored some sweet seats down just above the overhang of the 2nd deck at the Vet.

The team was pretty bad, but the weather was even worse. Interleague Play was still only 5 or so years old and if I'm not mistaken, this was the first series the White Sox had been to town. Rain poured down on us for more than an hour delaying the start time. By the time it slowed to a point they could play, there were probably about 10,000 people left in attendance. Our sweet seats got even sweeter because we had pretty much free run of the park.

Admittedly, the game was pretty boring. Jeff Liefler hit one of his career 31 homeruns that night and noted juicer, Jeremy "The Wrong" Giambi had one of his very rare successes for the Phillies with a HR of his own. Otherwise, it was a pitchers duel. Vicente Padilla mowed down 7 including Frank Thomas, much to my dismay.

It was pushing midnight by the 9th inning ans my dad was getting pretty wrestles about leaving. We were drenched, sweating and miserable, but even at that age I knew you don't leave a tie game early! The White Sox scored 2 in the top of the 9th and things looked pretty bad. The crowd of 10,000 all but vanished and there were probably more concession workers left than fans. Naturally, I had use Baseball-Reference to confirm names and happenings, but as I remember it,  Pat Burrell and Giambi got on base. Then Mike Lieberthal ripped a double to the wall. One run scored and as excited as I was, my dad's eyes were telling me you're walking home if you want to stay for extra innings. My grandfather might have already been asleep. 2nd and 3rd, 1 out and they walk our superstar first baseman, Travis Lee. A Tomas Perez single scored pinch runner Doug Glanville and it was a tie game with the bases loaded. Jason Michaels stepped to the plate and took the ball for a ride to the gap. Phils win on a walkoff!

Great finish to a game and great memories...