As the time to watch the sport of baseball has been cut short, and with the 2020 MLB regular season being pushed off as the spread of COVID-19 runs rampant throughout the entire globe, people everywhere are being forced to change their daily habits, some of which incorporated sports into them.
With all sports being pushed off of the table at this point, including March Madness and Spring Training, people are in scramble mode to try and figure out how they are going to fill their time, waiting out everything that is going on outside and remaining inside the confines of their comfy home bases. The sport of baseball is comfort food to a lot of its fan base, and without it, people, just like me, feel very empty without being able to look at the calendar and count down the days until Opening Day is upon us.
But have no fear, the archives of MLB historical annals are here. And we are starting off with baseball from the turn of the current century up until 2005.
Baseball has made a lot of changes in how it is run, how it is played, and how it is broadcasted to its fan base, but the overall goal and message of the sport has remained the same. With that in mind, take a look at some throwback games that could interest you in this time of self-quarantine and in-home days spent lounging around and potentially recovering.
2006
October 19, 2006
St. Louis Cardinals vs. New York Mets
MLB National League Championship Series, Game 7
Even though it may have been just a blip on the radar that did not change the outcome of the game and who won, Endy Chavez was almost the hero of this night for the New York Mets.
His incredible highway robbery of third baseman Scott Rolen’s long drive to left field that saw him leap up and almost lose his glove over the wall as he robbed the St. Louis Cardinals’ slugger of a home run is probably the most polaroid moment of that game – well, except for when Carlos Beltran struck out with the bases loaded to send the Cardinals onto the World Series.
In an unlikely pitching duel between Jeff Suppan of the Redbirds and Oliver Perez of the Mets, scoring became hard to come by in this heated postseason contest, which the winner was then to go on and face the Detroit Tigers. The Mets, who had won 14 more games than the Cardinals in the regular season, were hosting the game and had the rowdy Mets fans roaring in the cold Queens night.
Both starters went at least six innings (Suppan pitching seven complete), allowed a total of six hits, one earned run apiece, but struck out only six batters, a very jumbled stat line that underplays their dominance.
The Mets struck first in the bottom of the opening frame, the Cardinals countered in their next at-bat, and both teams played scoreless ball until the top of the ninth inning produced some fireworks by St. Louis.
Aaron Heilman served up a two-run tater to Yadier Molina, and even though the Mets loaded the bases in the bottom of that same frame and brought Beltran up to the plate against current closer Adam Wainright, the Mets’ season was ended prematurely, while the Cardinals advanced and went on to secure the World Series title in five games.
2007
October 1, 2007
San Diego Padres vs. Colorado Rockies
MLB National League Wild Card Tiebreaker
In a battle of two teams in the NL West division to determine who moved farther into the playoffs and who went home, it was two teams that were very familiar with each other facing off in what was a huge turning point for the victor.
Between the San Diego Padres and the Colorado Rockies, nine innings was not even close to being enough to determine a victor, so they decided that it would take 13 frames to figure out who was the best team in this two-team race. But with the type of pitching staff that the Friars put out there on the first day of October, you would have thought the game was easily one-sided.
Jake Peavy started the game for SD but was roughed up across 6.1 innings, allowing six runs and 10 hits, including long balls to both catcher Yorvit Torrealba and first baseman Todd Helton, which both came in the second and third innings, respectively. On the other side, the Rockies sent Josh Fogg to the mound, who only lasted four innings and was equally roughed up, giving up five earned runs and one home run to slugger and first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, a three-run bomb to right field.
Playing baseball in Colorado provokes a sense of offensive urgency, as does the climate and the air and distance above sea level, but that night proved that baseball can produce all of the wacky things that can happen, just in one game.
Ultimately won by the Rockies in the bottom of the 13th inning, they had to put up three runs off of Hall of Fame closer Trevor Hoffman after the Padres had put up two runs of their own in the top half of the frame. Two doubles preceded Matt Holliday’s game-tying triple, and he was brought around to score on a sacrifice fly that he scored on with a memorable face-first slide.
After this victory, which was Colorado’s 14th in their past 15 games, they went on to win the franchise’s first pennant, showcasing their talent and determination along the way, something that could have been stopped short in the Wild Card tiebreaker.
2008
July 4, 2008
Florida Marlins vs. Colorado Rockies
Teams are lucky to be able to put up 35 runs across one week’s worth of MLB games, much less combine to put up that many in one game. Yet, the fireworks after the game were not the only explosions going on at Coors Field in 2008.
Between the Florida Marlins and the Rockies, their 35-run explosion was something that kept fans interested in this game for the long haul, even if the Rockies were 15 games under .500 and the Marlins were treading water at two games above the Mendoza line.
The Marlins scored in four frame, putting up crooked numbers in the first (5 runs), second (2), fourth (6), and the seventh (4) innings, while Colorado took the gradual approach and scored in every single inning except for the eight frame.
35 runs, 43 hits (22 by the Marlins), and one nine-inning game that saw the Rockies pull it out in the bottom half of the ninth inning, pushing themselves to victory after knocking four singles. For Florida, Mike Jacobs was on base all six times (two walks, 4-4) and center fielder Cody Ross drove in five runs in six appearances, while both Ryan Spilborghs and Matt Holiday combined for two long balls, apiece.
It is suggested that if you have a soft spot for pitchers in the MLB, that you should not look at the box score (especially the one for Rockies’ starter Greg Reynolds).
2009
October 6, 2009
Detroit Tigers vs. Minnesota Twins
MLB American League Central Tiebreaker
Even if the season did end for the winning team after they won the AL Central tiebreaker, their win in this game may have actually made things perfectly fine.
Between the Detroit Tigers and the Minnesota Twins, the Twins came out victorious over their divisional counterparts but needed 12 hard-fought innings to make that happen. And with the win, it extended the lifetime of the Metrodome, even if it was short-lived.
The Tigers jumped out to a quick three-run lead on the back of a long ball by Miggy Cabrera, but the Twins began to chip away, starting in the bottom of that same frame. Having taken the lead finally in the bottom of the seventh, the Tigers roared back and tied the game in the top of the eighth, and while Detroit scored once more in the top of the 10th inning, it would be the final run that they scored in 2009.
Detroit loaded the bases in the top of the 12th, but after being held scoreless, the Twins finally pushed across that final run to push them through to the next round, where they got swept at the hands of the New York Yankees. Substitutions Alexi Casilla and Carlos Gomez both were important parts of the winning efforts in that inning, knocking singles to drive in the winning run.
2010
June 2, 2010
Cleveland Indians vs. Detroit Tigers
Taken away from him was the game of a lifetime, yet Armando Galarraga seemed to bear lessons in forgiveness more than resentment the next day.
In a game where umpire Jim Joyce falsely called a baserunner safe and took a sure-fire perfect game away from Galarraga, the Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers played in a game that was one-sided from the first pitch.
Detroit was fresh off of a disappointing end to their 2009 season at the hands of the Twins, and yet this outcome was almost a bit more frustrating. Galarraga, who up to that point had not produced a ton as a member of the Tigers pitching staff, mowed through the first 26 hitters that he faced, until he faced Jason Donald.
On a ground ball to first base that forced Galarraga to cover the bag while Miguel Cabrera tracked down the weak ground ball, Joyce thought that Donald beat the feed to the bag, which was immensely wrong and cost Galarraga a chance at MLB history. While the number of upset fans in that stadium easily outweighed any sort of reason that night, Joyce’s actions were heavily crucified the remainder of that season and were chalked up to an umpire trying to make a name for himself and insert himself too far into a situation.
Outside of that incident, watching Galarraga pitch was a thing of beauty, even if it was coming at the hands of the hapless Indians. He was running up and down that lineup with ease, showing that maybe he was a mainstay on that roster and not just a one-game wonder that got cheated out of what was rightfully his.
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