With the baseball-watching world waiting while the networks reset their rotations, I thought I'd explain a little about MoneyLaw's use of baseball history and imagery. The image above, which appears in MoneyLaw's banner, illustrates an event rated by ESPN as "the greatest moment in League Championship Series history":
1. Francisco Cabrera's single, Game 7, 1992 (Braves vs. Pirates): The most ultimate do-or-die situation in baseball history. The little-used Cabrera (only 10 at-bats in the regular season) pinch-hit with two outs, the bases loaded and Atlanta trailing 2-1. His single to left off Stan Belinda scored David Justice and the sloth-footed Sid Bream, who just beat the throw from Barry Bonds, capping the Braves' three-run rally. For the Pirates, it was the hit that destroyed a franchise: It was their third straight defeat in the NLCS and they haven't finished above .500 since.I wish I could apologize at this moment to Mark Fenster, but I can't. Sorry, Mark. The cosmic collision of Francisco Cabrera, Sid Bream, and B*rry B*nds in October 1992 has brought me so much joy over the years that I will forever keep this image atop MoneyLaw.
I really do love the Sid Bream moment. Not because it portended great things for my beloved Braves. (It didn't -- my team went down in the World Series to the Toronto Blue Jays and would win the Series only once during a 15-year period of dominance that now seems distant and unreal.) Not because it coincided with good times in my life. (Absolutely, positively the contrary was true.) I love Sid Bream's run because no slower man in baseball ever ran harder to greater effect. If only for one one moment, hard work and heart won out, and I was happy.