3 balls 2 strikes. 2 outs. Runners on first and second, bottom of the sixth inning. I’m up to bat in the championship game with over 200 fans watching. My hands are sweating and I have to call timeout to step out of the box to wipe them down.
The next pitch is fired in and I foul it off. I breathe a big sigh of relief and then step back to into the batter’s box.
The pitch is coming in and I hit the ball in between first and second for a base hit. One run scores and now we are only down three runs.
My buddy Eric comes up next and hits a double, scoring two runs to make it a one run game.
One more out and we lose the championship (since it’s a six-inning game). A couple mo
re hits and we pull off the upset.
The next kid up, Lance, strikes out in four pitches and our rally comes up short.
The championship game and our magical run through the playoffs is what my buddy Eric and I talked about.
It was one of our favorite childhood sports memories. We played on the Cubs, a .500 team throughout the regular season which resulted in a pretty crappy seed.
It was our last year together (since we were in 8th grade) and no one thought we were going to make a run for the championship.
We slaughtered our first round opponent and then upset the #2 seed before playing the #5 seed Dodgers in the semifinals.
We were down 5-2 in the bottom of the fifth inning before rallying for four runs to take a 6-5 lead into the last inning. Eric came on to close the game and left the bases loaded and we escaped.
We moved on to the championship game to play the Tigers, who slaughtered the Giants in the other semifinal.
Eric and I both talked about how lucky we were to be a part of such a great ride and if we only could have won the championship it would have been that much sweeter.
“This definitely was my greatest sports memory growing up,” Eric said.
I couldn’t agree more.
We specifically talked about how nervous Lance was when he was “in the hole.” (meaning two batters away for you non-baseball people).
I could tell he didn’t want to come up to bat because he was going to shit his pants.
When he came up to the plate the crowd was going wild and I was hoping for a hit but new deep inside it wasn’t too be.
Eric was on second base and saw him swing and miss three times.
“It was awful,” Eric said. “He wasn’t even close to making contact.”
And that’s how our season ended. A great run for a mediocre team.
At least we made it farther than the real Cubs have the past two years, getting in the first round. Embarrassing!
The next pitch is fired in and I foul it off. I breathe a big sigh of relief and then step back to into the batter’s box.
The pitch is coming in and I hit the ball in between first and second for a base hit. One run scores and now we are only down three runs.
My buddy Eric comes up next and hits a double, scoring two runs to make it a one run game.
One more out and we lose the championship (since it’s a six-inning game). A couple mo
re hits and we pull off the upset.The next kid up, Lance, strikes out in four pitches and our rally comes up short.
The championship game and our magical run through the playoffs is what my buddy Eric and I talked about.
It was one of our favorite childhood sports memories. We played on the Cubs, a .500 team throughout the regular season which resulted in a pretty crappy seed.
It was our last year together (since we were in 8th grade) and no one thought we were going to make a run for the championship.
We slaughtered our first round opponent and then upset the #2 seed before playing the #5 seed Dodgers in the semifinals.
We were down 5-2 in the bottom of the fifth inning before rallying for four runs to take a 6-5 lead into the last inning. Eric came on to close the game and left the bases loaded and we escaped.
We moved on to the championship game to play the Tigers, who slaughtered the Giants in the other semifinal.
Eric and I both talked about how lucky we were to be a part of such a great ride and if we only could have won the championship it would have been that much sweeter.
“This definitely was my greatest sports memory growing up,” Eric said.
I couldn’t agree more.
We specifically talked about how nervous Lance was when he was “in the hole.” (meaning two batters away for you non-baseball people).
I could tell he didn’t want to come up to bat because he was going to shit his pants.
When he came up to the plate the crowd was going wild and I was hoping for a hit but new deep inside it wasn’t too be.
Eric was on second base and saw him swing and miss three times.
“It was awful,” Eric said. “He wasn’t even close to making contact.”
And that’s how our season ended. A great run for a mediocre team.
At least we made it farther than the real Cubs have the past two years, getting in the first round. Embarrassing!
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