Sports Break

For reasons that aren't clear to me, the local radio station somehow connected Bruce Sutter's Hall of Fame vote to Ryne Sandberg which caused them to replay the Bob Costas call from the historic 1984 game between the Cubs and Cardinals. For those of you who don't remember (or don't care in which case you can stop reading), the Cubs were down 7-1 at one point and 9-3 at another and managed to get to 9-8 with two outs in the ninth.

Up steps Sandberg and with one swing the game is headed for extra innings. Willie McGee (who hit for the cycle in the game) puts the Cardinals up by two in the 10th or 11th and the game seems to be over. Two outs on the Cubs in the bottom half and, again, up steps Sandberg with a man on and he does it again. A two run shot to tie the game.

Ultimately, the Cubs won the game in the 12th, I believe, but it was the most exciting baseball game I've ever seen. I watched very few Cubs games past about junior high, but for some reason I was watching that one. It cemented Sandberg as one of the greats in my mind and peaked my interest in the Cardinals and Ozzie Smith and Willie McGee.

Three years later I moved to St. Louis and got to see those guys play at Busch Stadium, but it still took about 12 or 13 years for me to switch allegiance from the Cubs to the Cardinals. People take baseball seriously here, so it was a long 12 or 13 years. Sandberg was inducted into the Hall of Fame this last summer and it couldn't have happened to a better guy.