Bream motored through the minors with the Dodgers, posting a .327/.395/.423 slash line in his rookie season at Single-A Vero Beach that year. The following year saw Bream make it all the way to Triple-A, albeit for just three games. Still, Bream posted an .879 OPS in 1982, his first full professional season.
1983 saw Bream back at Triple-A, where he dazzled with a .307/.415/.569 slash line, hitting 23 doubles and 32 home runs in hitter-friendly Albuquerque, leading the Pacific Coast League with 118 RBIs on a team that included future Major Leaguers Orel Hershiser and John Franco. This was enough to earn him a September call-up for the Dodgers, where he went 2x11, though both hits drove in a run.
Despite dominating the PCL in 1983, Bream opened 1984 back in Albuquerque. The Dodgers were cool with Greg Brock and his .722 OPS, I suppose. But this season Bream got two call-ups, 13 games in July where again he struggled to a .436 OPS, and again in September for 14 more games, but could only muster a .184/.263/.245 line across those 27 games. In between he hit .343/.426/.559 for Albuquerque.
1985 was make-or-break in LA for Bream, he broke camp with the Dodgers as the Opening Day 1B and immediately rewarded Tommy Lasorda with an RBI single off of Houston's Nolan Ryan at The Astrodome. That was the only run the Dodgers could muster in a 2-1 loss to the Astros. Three games later Bream went 2x4 and hit his first MLB home run off of Mike Krukow, though again it would be the only run the Dodgers scored in the game. The next 11 games saw Bream go 2x30 (though both hits were home runs), and he returned to Albuquerque.
Bream got sporadic playing time for about six weeks in Los Angeles following a subsequent call-up, and again he struggled to a .132/.230/.302 line when he was sent away from LA for good. He continued to rake in Albuquerque, this time hitting .370/.437/.647.
On August 31, 1985, though seven games up, the Dodgers were in the process of getting swept at home by the Phillies. Looking for an offensive boost, the Dodgers traded for Pittsburgh's Bill Madlock, a four-time NL Batting Champion, who could play 1B/3B. On September 9, the Pirates got the return in that trade - Sid Bream and Cecil Espy. Madlock would go on to hit .360/.422/.447 for the Dodgers, who would eventually lose in six games to the eventual World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals.
Given a fresh start in Pittsbrugh, whose Major League Baseball history begins in 1882, Bream hit .284/.355/.453 in 26 games down the 1985 stretch. Considering that the Pirates' 30-year old 1B, Jason Thompson, had posted a .759 OPS in three years since his third and final All-Star selection, Bream was on deck to take over at 1B in 1986.
Now in his Age 25 season, Bream played 154 games for the Pirates and posted a respectable .791 OPS. The Pirates went 64-98 that season, 44 games behind the New York Mets. But a foundation was being laid in Pittsburgh. Also playing in his first full season at Pittsburgh under first-year manager Jim Leyland was a 21-year old rookie from Arizona State named Barry Bonds, who was drafted 6th overall the previous year. The Pirates acquired Doug Drabek in a trade after the 1986 season. The Pirates' farm director was Branch Rickey III.
The 1987 Pirates improved 16 games over 1986, finishing 80-82, 4th in the NL East. On April 1 of that year, Pittsburgh traded Tony Pena to St. Louis for outfielder Andy Van Slyke, pitcher Mike Dunne and catcher Mike LaValliere. Van Slyke led the Pirates with an .821 OPS while Bonds led the team with 25 home runs.
1988 saw even more improvement as Pittsburgh enjoyed their first winning season in four years and their fourth since winning the 1979 World Series. The 1988 Pirates went 85-75, good enough for 2nd in the NL East, though still 15 games back of the Mets.
1989 was a step back, both for Bream and the Pirates. The Pirates went 74-88-2, 5th in the NL East, and Bream's knee problems limited him to 19 games. His OPS had declined in each year in Pittsburgh, and the Pirates were running out of patience.
Bream rebounded in 1990 with a career season, an .804 OPS in 147 games as the Pirates went 95-67 and won the first of three straight division titles. Barry Bonds led the team with 32 home runs, a .970 OPS, and 52 stolen bases on his way to his first NL MVP title. Bonds, Van Slyke, and Bobby Bonilla combined to hit 82 home runs. Doug Drabek, who along with his wife were godparents to Bream's kids as were the Breams for the Drabeks', went 22-6 and won the NL Cy Young.
Bream went 4x8 with a homer in the 1990 NLCS, but a six-game series decided by a total of ten runs spelled Pittsburgh's defeat to the eventual World Series Champion Cincinnati Reds. Bream's time in Pittsburgh had run its course. The Pirates opted not to extend him in order to make way for Orlando Merced, and Bream was granted free agency after the 1990 season. Bream:
The very next day after we got beat, the management, executives for Pittsburgh, came out in the paper and said, 'Sid Bream is our priority to sign for the 1991 season.' So my wife and I were ecstatic...and through negotiations, they didn't even get close to market price on me, let alone anything more for being their priority. At that point in time, free agency opened up and the Braves gave me a great offer. They said, 'You need to make a decision, because if you don't come here, we've got to go find somebody else.' And so my wife and I decided that evening to go to the Atlanta Braves. We were torn up. We cried most of the night that night, thinking we were leaving the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The 1990 Atlanta Braves were absolutely miserable. Not only did they go 65-97, last in the NL West, and ten games behind the 5th place Astros and Padres, they were last in the National League in attendance, unable to draw a million fans to 81 home games. But there was some hope, despite trading franchise icon Dale Murphy in August to Philadelphia.
Rookie David Justice hit .282/.373/.535 to win the 1990 NL Rookie of the Year. Ron Gant, in his second full season with the Braves, hit 32 home runs and stole 33 bases, getting a few down-ballot MVP votes for the first time in his career. A rookie acquired from Toronto named Francisco Cabrera had a .782 OPS in 63 games. The Braves drafted Larry Wayne "Chipper" Jones with the 1st overall pick in the Draft, and manager Bobby Cox left his role as Atlanta's General Manager to return to the dugout for his second managerial stint with the Braves.
Elsewhere for the 1990 Braves, 23-year old John Smoltz led the NL in walks (90) and wild pitches (14), but posted double-digit wins for the second straight season. Lefty SP Tom Glavine threw over 200 Innings in his fourth season with Atlanta. A 20-year old named Steve Avery made his MLB debut that season, going 3-11 with an ERA over 5.00, but he only allowed seven home runs in 99IP. 1991 could be something special.
And it was. For both the Braves, and the Pirates. The Braves signed free agent Terry Pendleton in December and two days later signed Sid Bream.
On July 7 the Braves went into the All-Star Break 39-40, 9.5 games back of the Dodgers in the NL West, and 9.0 back of the Pirates, who were leading the NL East. On August 21 the 64-54 Braves took on the Cincinnati Reds at Riverfront Stadium and found themselves down 9-5 to open the 7th Inning. Catcher Francisco Cabrera homered in the 7th to make it 9-6, and then hit a three-run homer in the 9th off of Rob Dibble to tie the game, one they would win in 13 innings. They would win 27 of their next 40 games.
The Braves went into the final series of the 1991 season tied with the Dodgers at 92-67. The Braves had gone 53-27 since the All-Star Break. Atlanta hosted the Astros and took the first two games of the series. Los Angeles went to 5th Place San Francisco and lost the first two games of the series. With one game left to play, the Braves had a two-game lead, clinching their first division title since 1982, and their 3rd since relocating from Milwaukee after the 1965 season.
Both teams won their respective divisions, the Pirates with 98 wins - their best win total since the 1979 World Series Championship - and the Braves with 94, the Braves completing a worst-to-first division turnaround.
Back then, the League Championship Series was the first round of the playoffs. Over the course of the 1991 season the Braves took an astonishing nine of twelve from the Pirates, Pittsburgh's lowest win total against any one opponent since going 3-9 against the 1989 Padres.
Back then, the League Championship Series was the first round of the playoffs. Over the course of the 1991 season the Braves took an astonishing nine of twelve from the Pirates, Pittsburgh's lowest win total against any one opponent since going 3-9 against the 1989 Padres.
The 1991 NLCS started out evenly. Pittsburgh won Game 1, 5-1. Sid Bream went 2x4. The Braves scored one run in Game 2, but Steve Avery threw 8.1 innings of shutout baseball before Alejandro Pena needed six pitches to get the final two outs to tie the series up at 1-1. Sid Bream didn't play.
With the series shifting back to Atlanta for Game 3, Pittsburgh's Orlando Merced hit a leadoff homer off of John Smoltz to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead, but Atlanta answered with four runs in the bottom half of the inning to give the Braves a 4-1 lead that they would never relinquish. It was 7-3 Atlanta when Sid Bream hit a 3-run pinch-hit homer to provide the 10-3 final margin of victory.
Games 4 & 5 were nail-biters, the Pirates overcoming a 2-0 1st inning deficit to win 3-2 in 10 innings in Game 4, and then holding the Braves scoreless in Game 5, winning 1-0 on the back of Zane Smith's 7.2 scoreless innings, outdueling Tom Glavine's 8IP of 1-run ball. Pittsburgh had a 3-2 series lead, one win away from their first Pennant and World Series appearance in 12 years.
Game 6 was back in Pittsburgh with Steve Avery on the mound again for the Braves, and Doug Drabek for the Pirates. Drabek had an extra day of rest, having started Game 1, while Avery started (and dominated) Game 2. It 0-0 heading into the 9th Inning. With one out, Ron Gant walked. Sid Bream came to the plate and flied out to deep Left Field for the 2nd out to round out an 0x4 day. Gant stole 2nd base and scored on catcher Gregg Olson's double. The Pirates were down to their final three outs. Pinch-hitter Gary Varsho singled to lead off the inning, Orlando Merced sac bunted him over to 2nd (ahhh 1991). Jay Bell lined out to Right for the 2nd out. Closer Alejandro Pena's second pitch to Andy Van Slyke was wild, and Varsho sprinted to 3rd base. Six pitches later Van Slyke struck out looking to end the game. There would be a Game 7. Steve Avery's 1991 NLCS: 16.1IP, 9H/0ER, 17K:4BB.
Game 7 went quickly and quietly. The Braves staked John Smoltz to a 1st Inning 3-0 lead and coasted to a 4-0 win behind Brian Jordan's 3RBI game and Smoltz's complete game pennant-winning shutout. Barry Bonds hit .148/.207/.185 in the series. In his first two trips to the postseason, Bonds hit .156/.283/.178 with a lone double in 13 games.
The 1991 World Series featured two "Worst-To-First" opponents, with the Twins completing the same feat the Braves did from 1990-1991. Five games were decided by one run. Four games ended on a walkoff hit. Game 7 was a 10-inning 1-0 game as future Hall of Famers Jack Morris and John Smoltz fired scoreless outings, Morris' just happened to throw ten shutout innings. As a result, the Minnesota Twins' seven-game victory made them the first team in baseball history to win the World Series a year after finishing in last place in their division. It was - 2017 aside - maybe the greatest World Series of all-time.
1992 saw the Pirates and Braves both run it back. There were no major additions by the Braves, aside from acquiring reliever Jeff Reardon from Boston on August 30. The Pirates underwent more nuanced transformation. They let Bobby Bonilla sign a free agent deal with the Mets, and then in March 1992 traded lefty All-Star starter John Smiley, who went 20-8 in 1991 and finished 3rd in the Cy Young voting, to Minnesota for Denny Neagle and Midre Cummings. Pirates pitcher Bob Walk:
Our clubhouse was pissed when Smiles got traded. It was not a happy bunch of guys. That was like somebody put a shot over our bow. It was like, 'They think Bonilla is gone, so now we can't win?' Maybe at that point, that's when the team got a little bit closer.
The Pirates, who had just won back-to-back division titles for the first time since 1974-75, knew that time was running out, with Drabek and Bonds destined to test free agency the following offseason. Jim Leyland:
We knew that group was not going to be together much longer, if at all.
Pittsburgh sportstalk host Mark Madden:
Everybody knew it was now or never, because the reality of keeping big-money players in Pittsburgh...it was so evident it wasn't going to happen.
The Pirates started the season hot, going 15-5, but scuffled a little bit, losing 11 of 12 from May 15-27. But by the All-Star Break they were 49-39, 4.5 games up in the NL East, and would go on to comfortably win the division by nine games. Barry Bonds won his 2nd NL MVP in three seasons after hitting 34 home runs to go with 39 stolen bases and a 1.078 OPS. But again they went 5-7 against Atlanta in the regular season.
On May 27, 1992 the Braves woke up with a 20-27 record, in last place, seven games behind the San Francisco Giants. Based solely on percentage points, the Braves were the worst team in the National League. Then: madness. They went 78-37 down the stretch, including a 35-15 record in June and July. The Giants finished from that point with a 47-72 record, ending the 1992 season 26 games behind the Braves. The Braves went 98-64, their highest win total in franchise history since 1898, when they were known as the Boston Beaneaters.
So, a Pirates/Braves NLCS rematch, then. Barry Bonds told his teammates in the Pirates clubhouse prior to the NLCS:
I told them, 'I'll get you to the playoffs. Now they've got to get me through [Atlanta] and I'll see we win the World Series.
Due to their superior record, Games 1, 2, 6, and 7 would be in Atlanta. Game 1 saw the Braves give John Smoltz a 5-0 lead before Pittsburgh got on the board. Atlanta opened with a 1-0 series lead after a 5-1 win.
Atlanta opened Game 2 with a 4-0 lead and then an 8-0 lead after Ron Gant hit a 5th Inning grand slam. The Pirates finally got to their foe Steve Avery, lighting him up for 4ER in the 7th before the Braves answered with five runs in the bottom half of the inning. The Braves won 13-5, having scored 19 runs in seven total games in the 1991 NLCS. Behind the plate was umpire Randy Marsh, whose notoriously small strike zone resulted in eight walks issued by Pirates pitchers in the game.
Back in Pittsburgh for Games 3-5, Pirates pitcher Tim Wakefield threw a complete game as the Pirates held off the Braves for a 3-2 win in Game 3 to avoid going down 3-0. His opponent, Tom Glavine, was 0-3 against Pittsburgh in the postseason between 1991-1992.
In Game 4 the Pirates had a 3-2 lead thanks to an RBI double from Orlando Merced, Sid Bream's Pirates replacement, in the 3rd inning. David Justice chased Doug Drabek in the 5th with a game-tying RBI single, and one batter later Brian Hunter - pinch-hitting for Bream - scored Jeff Blauser on a fielder's choice, giving the Braves the lead back. Two more Braves runs came, and the 9th Inning saw Jeff Reardon (acquired by Atlanta earlier in the season) strike Cecil Espy (who the Pirates acquired with Sid Bream back in 1985) out for the first out of the 9th inning. Reardon closed it out for the save, and a 3-1 series lead. Pittsburgh's Doug Drabek started nine games in his career in the postseason and failed to get a Quality Start in just two of them: Games 1 & 4 of the 1992 NLCS.
Facing elimination, Game 5 saw the Pirates finally light up Steve Avery. After throwing 22.1 scoreless innings in three NLCS starts against the Pirates across 1991-1992, between the 7th Inning of Game 2 and the 1st Inning of Game 5, the Pirates got him for 9H/8ER. 30 pitches into Game 5 and Avery allowed a single and four doubles, allowing Bob Walk to comfortably throw a complete game and send it to Game 6.
...which was over almost before it began. The Pirates knocked Tom Glavine all over Fulton County Stadium, scoring eight runs in a 2nd Inning that finally brought Barry Bonds his first postseason homerun. Glavine's 2nd Inning went as such: homer, single, single, double, fielder's choice, fielder's choice, double, homer. 1IP, 6H/8R (7ER), 0K:0BB. It would be the first of four postseason outings in Glavine's career in which he allowed 7ER. The Pirates, down 3-1 in the series, answered in Games 5/6 with 26 hits and 20 runs to force Game 7 the following night.
After failing to record 15 outs in both Games 1 & 4, again the Pirates turned to Doug Drabek in Game 7. The Braves sent John Smoltz to the mound. In the 1992 regular season, Smoltz had allowed 12 home runs at Fulton County Stadium in 15 games, and just seven in 20 road starts. Smoltz walked leadoff batter Alex Cole to open the game and an Andy Van Slyke double put runners on 2nd/3rd with one out for Barry Bonds. For the first time in a career that featured 21 of them, Bonds was intentionally walked. An Orlando Merced sac fly made it 1-0 Pirates, but Smoltz got Jeff King to pop up behind home plate and end the inning.
Drabek needed 28 pitches to retire the first six Braves in order. A Damon Berryhill leadoff double amounted to nothing as Drabek retired the next nine batters. Drabek:
I threw my curveball a lot. Pitches were working. It wasn't like it was dominating, but defense helped out, and it was basically just trying to throw strikes and try to get outs.
Pittsburgh's Jay Bell doubled to open the 6th inning and Andy Van Slyke singled him home to extend Pittsburgh's lead to 2-0. In the bottom half of the 6th Mark Lemke, Jeff Treadway, and Otis Nixon singled to load the bases with nobody out. Jeff Blauser lined into a double play, and Terry Pendleton lined out to left to end the inning and waste a chance to break the game open.
Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium clubhouse attendant Mike Hill was in the visitors clubhouse. The Braves had 25 cases of champagne in Pittsburgh for Game 5, just in case they won the Pennant. When the series shifted back to Atlanta, they brought the champagne with them. The Braves and Pirates had an agreement that if Pittsburgh won the series, they'd just use that champagne and send a check to Atlanta. Hill:
The game was kind of boring, but it looked like we weren't going to win. We started putting up the plastic [around the Pirates locker room]. CBS is coming in, building their stage, slowly.
In the seventh inning, eighth inning, I was thinking, 'Wow, we are going to lose this game.' We don't have a chance because Drabek was throwing very good. He was untouchable.
With runners on 2nd and 3rd and two outs in the top of the 7th, Bobby Cox turned to Steve Avery to face Andy Van Slyke and keep the game at 2-0. He did, getting Van Slyke to fly out to center. The Braves were able to get two runners on in the bottom half, but again Drabek wriggled out of it with no damage. Barry Bonds singled to open the 8th inning but an Orlando Merced fielder's choice was the first out of the inning. When Jeff King doubled down the right field line, Merced was flying home when a David Justice rocket nailed him at the plate.
Jeff Reardon navigated a walk and a wild pitch to turn it over to Atlanta's final three outs. Pittsburgh's Cecil Espy had pinch-run for Lloyd McClendon, who had apparentely pulled a hamstring running the bases, and moved to Right Field for McClendon for the bottom of the 9th. Drabek was at 120 pitches, but still took the mound for the 9th. Leyland:
Dougie's one of the fiercest competitors you'll ever see. I felt like he could get the job done. I felt like he was the best choice at that particular time.
Terry Pendleton doubled down the right field line to leadoff the 9th, and it's up for debate whether Espy who, if you remember, was traded to Pittsburgh with Bream in 1985, froze or didn't get a good read on the ball. The tying run was at the plate. David Justice grounded to second baseman Jose Lind. Lind, who would win his only career Gold Glove in 1992 thanks to committing just six errors in 745 chances in the regular season, bobbled it, sending Pendleton to third and allowing Justice to reach first. Leyland:
Chico Lind was one of the greatest second basemen in the league, defensively. It was a ball he hadn't missed all year. Just, freaky things happen, and that's what happens when stuff unravels once in a while.
Lind:
In our pregame workouts, Chico took his ground balls like he usually did. [First base coach] Tommy [Sandt] hit him one. He bobbled it. Almost the same play. Tommy said, 'One more.' And [Lind] said, 'No, I'm good.' It's just...you think about that.
The final batter Drabek would face as a Pirate was Sid Bream, and Drabek walked him on four pitches to load the bases.
In came Stan Belinda to face Ron Gant. Belinda appeared in 59 games for the 1992 Pirates, saving 18 games with a 3.15 ERA. But through career seven postseason appearances, Belinda threw 9.2IP, 4H/1ER, 10K:3BB. Gant sent Belinda's second pitch to deep left, it was caught by Bonds against the wall, deep enough to score Pendleton. 2-1 Pirates. Belinda then walked Damon Berryhill to re-load the bases, with Justice on third and Bream on second. It would have been easy for the Pirates to be upset at the walk, because Berryhill could have easily been rung up on strikes on the inside corner, called balls by home plate umpire Randy Marsh - who started the game as the 1B umpire and moved after John McSherry left the game due to illness.
LaValliere, who hilariously screamed profanities at Marsh for his strike zone on October 14, 1992 before a Spring Training game...in 2001:
That pitch was on the inside corner and we didn't get the call. But this doesn't land on Randy Marsh. You miss a pitch here, you miss a pitch there. Umpires are human. Those things happen.
Not a lot of good things happened to us when Randy was behind the plate.
Van Slyke:
The person who choked the most in that game was the umpire behind home plate. When the lights are shining, and it means that much, it just hurts that much more when an umpire can't pull the trigger when he is supposed to.
For his part, Sid Bream couldn't believe he was still standing on second base, expecting to be replaced by Brian Hunter. After all, by that point he'd had five knee surgeries and referred to himself as "the worst possible person to have on base in a situation where you desperately needed a run to score from second." Bream:
I would have been a decent runner without my knee surgeries; but at that point in time, I was slow.
But Cox wanted Hunter to pinch-hit for Rafael Belliard. Hunter:
That's the reason Sid was still running. Unless [Cox] would have went with a pitcher.
Hunter popped up for the second out. Out in the Braves bullpen, the last guy on the bench, was Francisco Cabrera, warming up relievers. Cabrera:
I was just waiting for them to call. I was just mentally preparing, trying to have a plan when I go to the plate.
Cabrera was an easy choice there. That guy, honest to goodness, probably had more power than anybody on our team that year. He had some trouble finding a consistent position on defense, so he only got a handful of at bats that season, but that guy could flat-out hit the baseball.
He got the call. Cabrera played in 12 games for the Braves in the 1992 regular season, but two of his three hits were home runs, and Bobby Cox added him to the postseason roster for his versatility in the field (he could play 1B and also catch) and his ability to pinch-hit. He had pinch-hit in the 9th inning of Game 6, lining out to left fielder Barry Bonds. This was his third career postseason plate appearance. Again, Cabrera:
I was in a situation where I said to myself, 'If I get a hit here, I'm going to be a hero. And if I don't get a hit, it's okay, because nobody knows me. But if I get the hit, I'll be somebody.'
Long-time Pittsburgh sports anchor Bob Pompeani:
Leyland, I guess, thought: I worked this bench down to where I got this guy up. It's a perfect situation. He hasn't batted. He's just their last-ditch effort.
Cabrera got out to a 2-0 count before hooking a fastball just foul of the left field line. Cabrera:
I thought he wouldn't throw me that pitch again. But then I thought, 'Hey, I'm still ahead with two balls and one strike. He's going to throw me the fastball again, and I'm going to be ready this time.'
Andy Van Slyke would tell MLB Network that he motioned for Bonds to move closer to the infield:
I just told him to move in. After Cabrera hit that 2-0 foul...as an outfielder, more balls are hit in front of you than behind you, especially on the ground. So my philosophy was, I'm going to give myself the best opportunity to throw the guy out at home plate, especially with two outs because the guy is going to be running on contact...He ignored me and gave me the 'international peace sign.'
The 4th pitch was lined into left-center field, scoring Justice. Barry Bonds made a circuitous route to the ball but fired the ball home to catcher Mike LaValliere. The throw pulled LaValliere up the first base line, giving the slow-footed Bream a path to the plate. David Justice:
I thought Sid was going to be safe easily. I mean easily. But when that ball was in the air and I saw him running, I'm thinking, 'Oh my God, it's like a piano is on his back.' It was like he was never going to get there.
If it had been one out, I'd have had to freeze to see if the ball would go through or not. I was able to run at the crack of the bat...So I had every intention when the ball was hit to keep on going. I still don't know to this day whether [Braves 3B Coach] Jimy Williams was waving me.
LaValliere grabbed the ball on one hop, and dove back to his left, to the plate. Leyland:
I thought Bonds made a great throw. People can criticize that throw all they want, but it's totally uncalled for...I thought he made a great throw.
It's a tough throw. He was going away from home plate, having to change his momentum. The throw was 6-8 feet off line. It wasn't like it was in the stands. I still was able to kind of capture it and dive. I still think I got him.
Reserve Infielder John Wehner:
Barry moved towards the line [after the foul ball]. He was so close to the foul line. If he is playing him more straight up, he is coming straight in to get that ball. If he is coming straight in, he has a direct path to throw. But he was coming to his left and in. So he is coming across his body, and that's when the ball sailed to the first base line.
Van Slyke:
Barry gets an unfortunate rap. It was only off by two feet. Barry really made a great play. He charged the ball really hard. He had to go to his left, and as a left-handed thrower...it's kind of hard to throw across your body. So he made a terrific play.
Bream had beaten the tag for a walk-off Braves Pennant win. LaValliere:
The only way I can explain it is one of the scenes in the movie 'Saving Private Ryan.' Where there's Tom Hanks and there are these explosions and suddenly you can't hear anything. And it's numbing. That's what it felt like.
Van Slyke:
It was close but he was clearly safe. I'm not particularly sold on the fact that he actually touched the plate...But I think home plate is totally different because you have nothing to slide into. I get it on the bases. But home plate? I think if you break that perpendicular plane, I think you should be safe.
Francisco Cabrera doesn't get enough credit. He did the hard part. He got the hit..in one of the most pressure-packed situations you could ever imagine. All I did was run home without tripping over my feet and make a lousy slide that was somehow just good enough.
Clubhouse attendant Mike Hill had to sprint the 50-60 yards pushing a flatbed dolly loaded with champagne to the home clubhouse:
The champagne that the Braves sprayed and celebrated with when Sid slid was sitting in the Pirates' clubhouse at that very second.
Andy Van Slyke sat in the outfield grass and watched the celebration around Bream at home plate. Van Slyke:
It wasn't just disappointing for me or for the team. I knew Pirates fans were going to suffer for a long time. The writing was on the wall...We all knew what was coming.
And they were right. While the Braves at the beginning of a run of 14-straight postseason appearances that culminated in the 1995 World Series, the Pirates went in the opposite direction. Following the 1992 season, Barry Bonds went to San Francisco and Doug Drabek signed a four-year deal with the Houston Astros. Chico Lind was traded to Kansas City in November 1992. Sid Bream stayed in Atlanta through 1993 before ending his career hitting .344/.429/.426, joining his buddy Drabek in Houston for the strike-shortened season before calling it a career.
The 1993 Pirates went 75-87, starting a string 20 consecutive losing seasons, before finally breaking through and making the playoffs in 2013, where they lost to the Cardinals in the NLDS. Up 2-1 in the Best-of-Five Series, the losing pitchers in Games 4 and 5 were Pittsburgh's Charlie Morton and Gerrit Cole, respectively. Losses in the one-off Wild Card games in 2014 and 2015 (despite a 98-win season in 2015) mean that the Pirates have not won a playoff series since 1979.
Atlanta became synonymous with regular season success and playoff failure. They lost the 1992 World Series to Toronto. Then lost in the NLCS in 1993, despite winning 104 games in the regular season. But they won 90+ games in 13 of 14 seasons between 1991-2005.
Francisco Cabrera played in 70 games for the 1993 Braves, hitting .241/.308/.422 and even hitting a game-tying pinch-hit single in 1993 NLCS Game 5. That was the final at-bat of his Major League career. Cabrera went to play in Japan in 1994 and most recently was the hitting coach for Cleveland's affiliate in the Dominican Summer League in 2014.
