Random Box Score: July 26, 1997

Craig Biggio had a three-hit day, but Sean Berry was the hero. (via eschipu)

Craig Biggio had a three-hit day, but Sean Berry was the hero. (via eschipu)

The fun thing about writing this random box score series is that there are so many games from which to choose. So far we’ve visited the early 1990s, the mid ’80s, and the late ’70s. This time, I relied on two things: the date upon which this piece would be published and the music I listen to when making my choice of years. So while not exactly random to me, it’s random to you, which is another fun aspect of this series.

Some writers prefer silence or white noise to music, but I do not. My mother constantly had music playing while I was growing up, and it affected how I like to work. I insisted on having music playing when I was working full-time, and there even was one time in high school when a teacher allowed me to listen to a mix tape on my Walkman—remember those?—while I took an exam in his class. I was acing the quarter, and it was his reward for me. So now I find it impossible to write without music, and the cheesier the music, the more prolific my word counts become.

It may seem odd to some, but other writers will tell you that we all have our quirks and we go with what works. I decided, “I will pick a box score from the year of the first song that plays.” The first song was from 1977 so I scrapped that idea because my last piece was about 1977. The second song also was from 1977, which, while amusing, was slightly annoying. The third tape of my skip forward button happened to be the charm because “Butterfly” by Mariah Carey began to play, and I clapped my hands together excitedly because I would be writing about 1997.

In the summer of 1997, “I’ll Be Missing You” by Puff Daddy and Faith Evans featuring 112 dominated the music charts; it was No. 1 for most of July and August. If you went to the movies, you probably saw Men In Black, Con Air, Face/Off, Contact or Air Force One, which was released on July 25, 1997, otherwise known as Alex Rodriguez’s 20th birthday. At that point in his career, he was in his second full season with the Seattle Mariners and had already made the All-Star team twice. On TV, most primetime shows were on hiatus, but Seinfeld was about to start its ninth and final season that fall. And we were just a month away from Princess Diana’s untimely death in a car crash.

In other baseball news, 1997 was the first year of interleague play, and the first regular-season interleague game was played on June 12 when the Texas Rangers hosted the San Francisco Giants; the Giants won, 4-3. On June 28, David Wells of the New York Yankees got into some trouble for wearing a $35,000 hat that once belonged Babe Ruth. He pitched a scoreless top of the first after donning the 1934 cap, but manager Joe Torre made Wells remove it between innings because it wasn’t a regulation cap, and Wells ended up blowing a 3-0 lead, giving up five runs in a short, three-inning stint. And five days after the game we’re about to explore, on July 31, 1997, Mark McGwire was traded from the Oakland A’s to the St Louis Cardinals for Eric Ludwick, T.J. Mathews, and Blake Stein.

On July 26, 1997, the Houston Astros were hosting the Montreal Expos in the Astrodome for the third game of a four-game series. The Astros were in first place in the National League Central and riding a five-game winning streak that actually began the previous weekend, interestingly enough when they had swept the Expos in Montreal. So Montreal was looking for a bit of payback in this series in Houston.

Starting lineups

Expos

  1. F.P. Santangelo RF
  2. Mike Lansing 2B
  3. Rondell White CF
  4. Jose Vidro 3B
  5. Henry Rodriguez LF
  6. Mark Grudzielanek SS
  7. Ryan McGuire 1B
  8. Chris Widger C
  9. Dustin Hermanson P

Astros

  1. Craig Biggio 2B
  2. Thomas Howard CF
  3. Jeff Bagwell 1B
  4. Luis Gonzalez LF
  5. Derek Bell RF
  6. Sean Berry 3B
  7. Brad Ausmus C
  8. Tim Bogar SS
  9. Ramon Garcia P

The umpires that day were Mike Winters at home, “Cowboy” Joe West at first, Bruce Dreckman at second, and Jerry Layne at third.

Things didn’t start off so great for the home team in this game. Starter Ramon Garcia got into almost immediate trouble when he plunked the lead off man, F.P. Santangelo, with an 0-2 pitch. Santangelo is now a broadcaster with Mid-Atlantic Sports Network and calls games for the Washington Nationals. Second baseman Mike Lansing came up to bat and didn’t waste any time, depositing the first pitch he saw from Garcia into deep left-center field for a two-run home run. Rondell White followed that up with a single, then stole second and advanced to third on a ground out by Jose Vidro.

Vidro, who is a day younger than me—born August 27, 1974—never officially retired from baseball but has not played since 2008. He remained with Montreal through their transition to the Nationals and ended his career with the Seattle Mariners. Henry Rodriguez singled White home to make it 3-0, and Garcia settled down a bit, getting Mark Grudzielanek to pop out to short and striking out Ryan McGuire looking.

The Astros got the bottom half of the first inning started against Expos’ starter Dustin Hermanson with a double by future Hall of Famer Craig Biggio. Thomas Howard grounded to short, with Biggio advancing to third. His fellow Killer B, Jeff Bagwell, who is still eligible for the Hall of Fame but hasn’t been elected as of 2016, grounded out to first, but Biggio scored to put the Astros on the board. Luis Gonzalez, future one-time World Series champion and five-time All-Star, struck out swinging to end the inning.

In the top of the second, Garcia settled down and set down Chris Widger, Hermanson, and Santangelo in order on a fly ball to left-center, a grounder to third and a strikeout looking, respectively.

The Astros struck back in the bottom of the second against Hermanson with back-to-back doubles by Derek Bell and Sean Berry—Bell’s was a regular double, and Berry’s was a ground-rule one. Future Detroit Tigers’ manager and current dreamboat, Brad Ausmus then hit an RBI single to score Berry and tie the game at three. But they weren’t done. Tim Bogar hit a single, advancing to Ausmus to second, Garcia sacrificed them over one base on a bunt groundout to second, and Rodriguez knocked in two runs with a double to left.

Hermanson’s day was over after surrendering five runs on six hits in 1-⅓ innings of work. He only threw 32 pitches—23 for strikes. Hermanson, who played with the Expos from 1997-2000, made his last major league appearance in Sept., 2006, as a member of the Chicago White Sox. Manager Felipe Alou brought in Steve Falteisek, who induced a line-drive double play by Howard to end the inning.

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

Howard played 11 seasons in the majors but was only with Houston in 1997. He finished his career with St. Louis in 2000.

Lansing singled to open up the top portion of the third inning, because it seems neither one of these teams wanted to lose that day. White, who played with the Expos from 1993-2000, then repeated Lansing’s first-inning feat by hitting the first pitch of the at-bat into the seats for a two-run home run. The game was tied again. After giving up back-to-back singles to Vidro and Rodriguez, Garcia’s day also was over. Manager Larry Dierker had seen enough from his starter, as well, and brought in Jose Lima for relief duties. Garcia had pitched two innings and given up five runs on seven hits. He threw 42 pitches, 27 for strikes.

Lima, like his counterpart Falteisek, also limited the damage by inducing a groundball double play and striking out McGuire to end the inning. Lima would stay with Houston until 2001. After that, he played with five more major league teams and finished his career in Korea with the Kia Tigers. Lima passed away tragically in 2010 after suffering a heart attack at the age of 37.

In the top of the fourth, following a clean 1-2-3 bottom of the third by Falteisek, the Expos scored a run off Lima to go up, 6-5. Widger opened the inning with a double and Falteisek, who seemed to do it all that day, bunted him over to third. Santangelo then joined the sacrifice bunt party with one of his own to score Widger.

Then, beginning with the bottom of the fourth and continuing all the way until the top of the ninth, neither team scored. The Astros had a chance in the bottom of the sixth with men on second and third with two outs, but Bogar grounded to second to end the inning.

Now just because there wasn’t any scoring during those innings doesn’t mean there weren’t about a million substitutions. In the bottom of the fourth, Ricky Gutierrez pinch hit for Lima and then was replaced by Mike Magnante, who took his place in the lineup and pitched the the top of the fifth. In the bottom of the fifth, Marc Valdes replaced Falteisek.

In the seventh, Dierker and Alou went to town with their mixing and matching. Doug Strange replaced Vidro at third base and in the lineup, Chuck Carr pinch hit for Magnante, Rick DeHart took over for Valdes pitching, James Mouton pinch hit for Howard, and then DeHart was replaced after facing one batter (Mouton) and striking him out. Dave Veres came on to get Bagwell to fly out to end the inning.

A few years ago, I wanted to keep score at games again. My father taught me how to do it as a kid because he wanted me to keep score while he coached his Little League team, but I had taken a long hiatus from the practice of keeping score at a ballgame—close to 30 years. And instead of easing my way back into it, with an easy, no-frills American League game, I chose to keep score at a Dodgers-Mets game in Citi Field.

Picture being afraid of roller coasters and choosing to ride the tallest one in the world for your first time. The number of substitutions they made in that game turned my scorebook into a mess and made my head spin. But I did it, and I brought that book everywhere with me that day and kept track of every move. If I were in the Astrodome on July 26, 1997, I may have thrown my scorebook out, or I would have had to use another page in order to fit all the moves in.

In the top of the ninth, with the score still 6-5 in favor of the Expos, Russ Springer got Joe Orsulak, who had replaced Veres, to fly out on the first pitch. Santangelo followed that up with a fly out of his own for out No. 2, and it looked like the Astros would come to bat with a chance to make a one-run comeback in the bottom of the ninth. Not so fast said Lansing, who walked after a six-pitch at-bat. In stepped White, who had homered way back in the top of the third and, well, he sent the third pitch he saw from Springer down the left-field line and into the stands for a two-run home run to make it 8-5, Montreal. Maybe the Expos would finally snap their losing streak against the Astros.

Springer, who made his debut with the New York Yankees in 1992, played with a total of 11 teams during his career and had multiple stints with both the Arizona Diamondbacks and the St. Louis Cardinals. He made his last appearance in Aug., 2010, with the Cincinnati Reds.

Bill Spiers pinch hit for Bogar to start the bottom of the ninth inning and reached on an E6. Carr, who, if you recall, pinch hit for Magnante in the seventh inning, singled to right and put runners on first and second with no outs. Ugueth Urbina, who entered the game in the bottom of the eighth, struck out Biggio for the first out of the inning. Dierker then brought in J.R. Phillips to pinch hit for Springer, and because this particular contest wouldn’t have it any other way, he hit a three-run home run to tie the game. Phillips, who spent two seasons with the Astros, played in the majors until 1999 and finished his baseball career with the Hyundai Unicorns in Korea in 2001.

The Astros had a chance to win in the bottom of the ninth with Bagwell on second—he reached base on an E5 and stole second—but Urbina struck out Bell to end the threat.

Bell, who was in his third season with the Astros, is one of 11 players to play in both the Little League World Series and Major League Baseball World Series. He won his ring with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1992. He had an acrimonious end to his stint with the Astros in 1999.

Bell’s performance had slipped a bit that season, and on the day Dierker was making his return to the Astros’ dugout after a near-fatal grand-mal seizure, Bell criticized and confronted Dierker for dropping him in the lineup. This rubbed fans and management the wrong way, and after the 1999 season ended, Bell was traded to the New York Mets along with pitcher Mike Hampton. Bell made his last major league appearance as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates on July 3, 2001.

Urbina, whose full name is Ugueth Urtaín Urbina Villarreal, is, to this day, the only MLB player to have the initials UU. In Oct., 2005, after the baseball season ended, Urbina attacked five workers on his farm in Venezuela and was arrested and charged with attempted murder in Nov., 2005. He was later convicted in 2007 and sentenced to over 14 years in prison. In 2012, he was released after serving half his sentence.

Billy Wagner, who at the time was only in his third season in the majors, came in to pitch the top of the tenth for the Astros, and he set down the Expos in order on a strikeout, a line out and another strikeout. Wagner would go on to play 16 seasons in the majors and saved 422 games for the Astros, Phillies, Mets and Braves. Wagner was traded from New York to Boston in 2009, and he made 15 appearances with the Red Sox but didn’t pick up any saves during his limited time there. His career came to an end in 2010 with the Braves when he suffered an oblique injury during Game Two of the National League Division Series against the San Francisco Giants, who would go on to win the World Series.

In the bottom of the tenth, Alou left Urbina in, and it turned out to be a mistake because, on the second pitch of the inning, Houston third baseman Sean Berry launched a home run to left to win the game. The Astros’ winning streak would remain intact, and the poor Expos would remain winless against Houston that weekend.

The Houston Astros went on to win the National League Central division title that season and made the playoffs for the first time in 11 years. They were swept out of the National League Division Series by the Atlanta Braves, but 1997 started Houston’s three-year run of division titles from 1997 to 1999—they also won the Central in 2001—and from 1997 through 2006, they finished lower than second place in the Central division only one time (2000). Houston made the NLCS in 2004, losing in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals, and made the World Series in 2005 but was swept by the Chicago White Sox.

The Montreal Expos finished the 1997 season in fourth place in the National League East. Manager Felipe Alou remained with the Expos until 2001, when he was replaced by Jeff Torborg after a 21-32 start to the season. The Expos’ last season in Montreal was in 2004. They went 67-95 and finished in last place in the National League East. In 2005, they became the Washington Nationals. It was as the Nationals that the franchise made the playoffs in 2012 for the first time since 1981. They have won the NL East twice in the last four seasons, but they have yet to make it out of the first round of the playoffs.

References & Resources

  • Baseball-reference
  • Baseball Almanac
  • YouTube


Stacey Gotsulias is a freelance writer whose work has appeared on ESPN.com, USA Today online and FanRag Sports. She currently writes for Baseball Prospectus and is an author of The Hardball Times. Follow her on Twitter @StaceGots.
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87 Cards
7 years ago

Wow, this takes me back to deep personal places. Indulge me….

For most of July 26, 1997, my wife was in the hospital working on getting our first-born child from scoring position to home plate (the obstetrician was even in the catcher’s squat managing the situation, the labor-and-delivery nurse was waving our daughter home). In the tenth-hour, my wife rallied and scored a girl while suffering a slight injury in the process (sheepishly, I say it was “slight” from my seat).

After the nurses gently ejected me from the premises, I drove home listening to this Expos/ Astros game on radio as described by Milo Hamilton (I live in Astros’ broadcast territory); I was stunned Milo did not break from the on-field action and announce that Earth would be forever different after the big labor event of the night. Once home, I made all the appropriate phone calls to the fans of the project. Then, tired and in a dump-soup of new-parent emotions, I settled into bed not-all-the-way ready to sleep so I watched innings nine and ten of this game on Home Sports Entertainment.

Though a Cardinals’ fan from childhood to present, I have adopted the Astros and Rangers as “my teams on the side” since I moved to Texas 20-plus years ago. Berry’s HR capped a day of roller-coaster emotions for this father/fan.

Stacey
7 years ago
Reply to  87 Cards

I love this story so much and I’m glad the piece brought back a very special memory for you. Thanks for reading!

hscer
7 years ago

Haha, Santangelo leading off the game in an 0-2 hole and getting hit is classic him.

John G.
7 years ago

Fun article, as usual for this series. It’s interesting what strikes a chord with various readers. For me, I did a double-take seeing Jose Vidro listed as batting 4th. It turns out that was the only game in 1997 that Vidro started as the Expos’ clean-up hitter. If Baseball-Reference is accurate, out of 1,289 career MLB starts (“so far”), Vidro began only 37 games batting 4th.

Jacob
7 years ago

Ha! Both Dustin Hermanson (as closer until dethroned by Bobby Jenks, then late relief) and Chris Widger (who was recruited out of retirement to be AJ Pierzynski’s backup) were signed by the 2005 White Sox and got a ring with them.