There is too permanent a place in forlorn Philadelphia sports history for a moment like thatīut the parallels between then and last night do exist: In both Chapman and Williams' cases, a tired, 28-year-old, left-handed closer who probably shouldn’t have been out there had been called upon one more time to try and wrap things up with a vulnerable city’s hearts and minds on the line. Too many of us were just children who watched Carter hit the walk-off home run that ended a magical, improbable World Series for the Phillies, sending many of the players spiraling into insanity. Hieroglyphics of Joe Carter beating Mitch Williams in Game 6 of the ‘93 series have been etched somewhere into every building of this city since the early nineties. You thought it was over, didn’t you? You thought, after we were freed from the even-year Giants, that the Phillies could move forward? This isn't Mitch Williams in 1993 World Series Game 6 bad. There was Martinez, there was a Ben Zobrist moment that wasn’t snuffed out by Jayson Werth this time, and there was the aforementioned weather-related hold-up that was so easily connected to that magical 2008 sleet storm.īut then, there was the part in which someone failed, which of course brought on the Phillies references: The Cubs’ despicable closer Aroldis Chapman, who we are happy blew the lead and left the game in tears, couldn’t just fail he had to fail while reminding people of another World Series failure that just had to involve the Phillies. With two of the country's most downtrodden sports bases watching, their hearts about to explode or deflate, Philadelphia watched as well, finding countless aspects of the game on which to latch. So, that could have been funny in a 'bird dying in mid-air' sort of way, but for the first time all night, the predictable thing happened, and Martinez grounded out to become the answer to Chicago sports bar trivia questions for eons to come. But in a moment that made total sense when you consider that baseball, especially post season baseball, makes zero sense, up strolled to the plate for the Indians a familiar face with the chance to immortalize himself as a Cleveland sports icon. Other times, it’s Mitch Williams pretending to be alive for one more inning. Sometimes, it’s Eric Hinske, weakly whiffing and disappearing forever. Smith taking his shirt off a silent, mic’d up David Ross trotting around the bases while Joe Buck complimented the sound of his footsteps a massively blown Aroldis Chapman save, and the greatest Game 7 in recent memory hinging on a Rajai Davis at-bat the World Series came down to, as it always does, one final plate appearance. Following the worst rain delay of all time the Cleveland Cavaliers’ J.R.

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