I might be the only person on this forum who remembers the old NES game “RBI Baseball”, but I think any baseball fan/gaming geek can appreciate this inspired litttle internet video.
Some dude created a pitch-by-pitch reenactment of one of the most infamous half-innings in World Series history – I won’t say which one, but by the end of this post, you’ll be able to guess – using RBI baseball (a NES game from 1987), and to top it off he’s actually used the sounds of the original game broadcast of that half-inning; yes, that is the voice of the legendary Vin Scully, calling action that plays before your eyes in 8 bit goodness.
Which is a shame, really. Since, as this reenactment helps serve to remind us, Calvin Schiraldi and Bob Stanley are the ones that really blew that game.
EDIT: And then the White Sox won last year. If the Cubs, Indians, and Giants take the next three, we’ll know something’s up.
Yeah, that and the Red Sox had a whole other game in which they could have won the World Series. There was a game 7, people don’t seem to remember that. They blew that game too. Buckner’s 1 error is not to blame for the loss.
But still, if I saw Buckner walking down the street today, I’d probably yell nasty things at him.
And you know, actually, watching the real footage care of the Ken Burns documentary, maybe Bob Stanley’s wild pitch is actually Rich Gedman’s passed ball. Stanley sure seemed to cross him up by going inside instead of outside, but that pitch wasn’t THAT far inside… oh well. But Buckner’s error was the most obvious mistake of that inning, and the last one, so it’s the most memorable.
But at least there’s 2004.
They actually had the lead at one point in game seven, too. But sometimes, psychologically, it is over after game six. It’s the same way I felt in the 02 world series. There’s something backbreaking about being on the wrong end of a last minute comeback like that. The players never say it in interviews, but how could they? If they say it out loud, then they’ll definitely believe it and it’ll certainly come true then. They have to say they’ll be prepared, that they always take it one game at a time, and that they’re still as confident, they’re still only one win away. You gotta at least try to convince yourself of it in order to have a fighting chance, and saying it over and over is as good a way of convincing yourself as any.
Somehow, I knew it was over. Back in 03 I was at school in the student center, watching what would become known as the Bartman game with a Cubs fan, and it was weird. He saw the Bartman moment, and he was pissed, sure, but he was also worried. It was like he knew it was coming. And as the Cubs started letting that batter and the next few get on via error, and walk, and eventually hits, (game SIX again) he knew it was all over, even before the inning was. Even before the Marlins had technically taken the lead. He KNEW. And it wasn’t just pessimism.
Just like when I knew when I left work – Giants up 5-3 (they had been up 5-0, but the bullpen had already started to let it slip away) – and got home just in time to see Troy Percival closing out a 6-5 Angels victory – that game seven was academic. In the hearts and minds of players on both teams and fans of both teams, that was the comeback, and the Angels had already done it.
And if I’d have been old enough to understand these things enough in 1986, I’d probably have known then too.
Baseball’s funny that way.
Or at least the fans of baseball teams, the ones that never quite seem to win it all.
Merl: Yeah, unfortunately the limits imposed by RBI baseball do sorta mess with the wild pitch and the error (the money shots of this half-inning), though I liked the way dude came up with working around them. The Marty Barrett player of the game shot was LOL worthy too. Editing the player sprite into the original broadcast graphic… cute.
