20 years ago (1990), a 5-3 win in Game 4 of the NLCS at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.
Cincinnati
Barry Larkin ss
Billy Hatcher cf
Paul O'Neill rf
Eric Davis lf
Hal Morris 1b
Chris Sabo 3b
Jeff Reed c
Mariano Duncan 2b
Jose Rijo p
Pittsburgh
Wally Backman 3b
Jay Bell ss
Andy Van Slyke cf
Bobby Bonilla rf
Barry Bonds lf
Sid Bream 1b
Mike LaValliere c
Jose Lind 2b
Bob Walk p
WP: Jose Rijo (1-0)
LP: Bob Walk (1-1)
Sv: Rob Dibble (1)
HR: CIN - Paul O'Neill (1), Chris Sabo (1). PIT - Jay Bell (1).
Chris Sabo hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning to give the Reds they wouldn't relinquish, and Rob Dibble pitched a perfect ninth inning to give the Reds a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. The key play took place in the bottom of the eighth inning. After Pirates SS Jay Bell led off the inning with a home run to cut the Reds' lead to 4-3, Lou Piniella brought Randy Myers in to relieve Jose Rijo. Myers retired Andy Van Slyke on a fly out to LF for the first out, but Bobby Bonilla hit a drive over Billy Hatcher's head in CF for a double. The ball took a high hop on the turf after bouncing off the wall, got past Hatcher and bounced back toward the infield. Bonilla then attempted to stretch the double into a triple, but LF Eric Davis miraculously appeared in CF to back up Hatcher and throw out Bonilla at third.
I was at this game--it was the first Reds road game I ever attended. I was a junior at Ohio University at the time, and a guy who I had a math class with told me that he was going to the game. I thought that was really cool. Later, I was talking with a friend of mine (who later was my roommate during my senior year), and I told him about it. He said, "Why don't we go?" (He was from Chicago, and was a Cubs fan, but he liked the idea of going to a playoff game.) I said that we didn't have tickets, but he said that we could scalp some when we got there. I said that the game started in four hours, and he said that he could get us there in time. I thought about it for a minute, and then I said, "What the heck...I haven't done anything stupid in a while." So we climbed into his 1978 Impala along with one other guy and headed for Pittsburgh. We scalped tickets at $40 each (they were $25 face value), and parked in the loading dock of a Kaufmann's department store. We got to our seats just as Bobby Vinton was singing the National Anthem. This is the game in which an obiviously intoxicated Vinton mangled the Anthem, and CBS broadcaster (and longtime Cardinals play-by-play man) Jack Buck stated, "Well, when you're Polish and in Pittsburgh, I guess you can get away with anything." CBS later made Buck apologize. Anyway, I had the time of my life at that game, and I would like to thank my college buddy Karl for making it possible.
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