Random Box Score: May 4, 1993

When I first set out to write the Random Box Score series, I figured it would be a lot of fun (it is) and relatively easy because there is an abundance of old games from which to choose. It seemed like something I could keep going for a while, always with new stories to tell. But for some reason, I had a lot of trouble finding a game to write about this time around. The first game I landed on seemed like fun one to tackle. The score was a bit lopsided but it featured long-time rivals and illustrated just how hapless one team was that season. Except I had already written about that team already, and was afraid of repeating myself. The next three games I chose had already been covered by other Hardball Times authors, so I obviously had to scrap those. A few others I looked at just didn’t grab me. And then, I found this game. It took nearly two days to find it but boy, am I glad that I did.

The game took place on Tuesday, May 4, 1993. On that day, “Freak Me” by Silk held the number one slot on the Billboard Hot 100. Indecent Proposal was at the top of the box office. And a number of popular primetime series were about to say goodbye to television audiences: Cheers, The Wonder Years, Knots Landing and Designing Women all ended their runs in May 1993.

As for what was actually happening around baseball at that time, May of 1993 was sort of quiet. The only big news was Dale Murphy—who you’ll see later in this piece—calling it quits just two home runs shy of 400. Baseball and the world were only a month away from being introduced to Alex Rodriguez. He would be picked first overall in the 1993 draft by the Seattle Mariners. Other notable draftees that year: Trot Nixon, Billy Wagner, Kevin Millwood, Gary Matthews Jr., Jermaine Dye, Derrek Lee, Torii Hunter, Scott Rolen and John Rocker.

Major League Baseball also welcomed two new expansion teams to the National League in 1993: the Florida Marlins and the Colorado Rockies. Unsurprisingly, neither team was very good that first year, a fact to be expected when your roster is mostly made up of other teams’ leftovers. The Rockies would spend their first two seasons playing their home games in Mile High Stadium, the home of the Denver Broncos. They wouldn’t play in their current home, Coors Field, until the delayed 1995 season started.

…

On May 4, 1993, the Rockies played the Cubs in the first game of a quick two-game weekday series. At the time, the Rockies were in fifth place in the NL West, ahead of the Padres and Reds, while the Cubs were in fourth place, right smack in the middle of the NL East. Remember when the Cubs were in the NL East? It seems like a lifetime ago. I suppose it sort of was.

Starting lineups

Rockies

Eric Young 2B
Alex Cole CF
Dante Bichette RF
Andres Galarraga 1B
Charlie Hayes 3B
Joe Girardi C
Jerald Clark LF
Vinny Castilla SS
Andy Ashby P

Cubs

Dwight Smith CF
Jose Vizcaino SS
Mark Grace 1B
Ryne Sandberg 2B
Derrick May LF
Steve Buechele 3B
Sammy Sosa RF
Rick Wilkins C
Jose Guzman P

The umpires that day were Tom Hallion at home, Jim Quick at first, Jerry Crawford at second and Steve Rippley at third.

Hallion was the second base umpire in the 2008 All-Star at Yankee Stadium, which famously lasted 14 innings. He debuted in June 1985 and is still umpiring today. Quick was a crew member for many milestone games, among them Nolan Ryan’s 3000th career strikeout in 1980. He also was behind the plate for Steve Carlton’s 300th win in 1983. Crawford was a major league umpire from 1977-2010. He appeared in five World Series, 12 League Championship Series and five Division Series. He retired in 2010 for health reasons. Rippley worked as a major league umpire from 1983-2003. He worked in the National League from 1983-1999 and then in both leagues from 2000 until his retirement in 2003.

On the surface, this game doesn’t seem remarkable. Just your ordinary weekday night game in front of a nice-sized crowd in Wrigley Field. But it was more than that. The Colorado Rockies were in their infancy– just a month into their existence!–with the late Don Baylor as their first manager. Rockies fans weren’t expecting much, and at 9-15, they weren’t getting much. But for one game, on an ordinary Tuesday night, they got something special; they got something thrilling.

It started off slowly enough. The teams traded zeros until the top of the fifth inning. Both starters, Jose Guzman and Andy Ashby, did a nice job of keeping men off the bases. The only guys to make it to second were Sammy Sosa, Ryne Sandberg and Dante Bichette, who did it twice, once in the first and once in fourth.

The scoring finally began when Guzman gave up back-to-back first pitch home runs to Joe Girardi and Jerald Clark to open the top of the fifth inning. Nearly a month prior to this game, Guzman had a Wrigley no-hitter broken up by Otis Nixon of the Braves with two outs in the ninth. It was the only hit he’d allow. The Cubs won the game 1-0.

Guzman recovered and got Vinny Castillo to strike out swinging. He then gave up a single to his counterpart Ashby. Eric Young hit a pop fly into foul territory and Ashby somehow got doubled off first to end the inning. Perhaps it isn’t so surprising. After all, he was a pitcher.

Ashby surrendered a single to Sosa but retired the next three batters to end the bottom of the fifth.

Alex Cole led off for the Rockies and hit a double that he tried to stretch into a triple but was nailed at third for the first out. Bichette followed by getting on base for the third time that night with a single. He advanced to second on an Andres Galarraga ground ball to third. Charlie Hayes came up to bat and worked the count to 3-2. On the sixth pitch, he hit a fly ball to deep left field and the Rockies went up 4-0. Girardi and Clark went back-to-back again, this time with singles, and that would be all for Guzman.

Cubs manager Jim Lefebvre then called upon Jose Bautista—no, not that one—to relieve Guzman; he got Castilla to ground out to end the inning. Vinny Castilla was the last player from the Rockies’ inaugural season to retire, playing his last game in September 2006, once more a member of the Rockies after years spent in places like Tampa and Atlanta.

Hayes and Girardi would be teammates again three years later, offering up iconic moments to another franchise. In Game Six of the 1996 World Series, Girardi hit the triple to put the Yankees up for good against the Braves; Hayes caught the last out. Girardi’s hit was pivotal and video of Hayes catching the ball before running toward his teammates, glove outstretched, has been played over and over again in Yankee highlight reels, but you have to think that both men’s ambitions on this May night back in 1993 were more modest.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Cubs finally showed a little life. Jose Vizcaino, another player who would end up winning a World Series ring with the Yankees in 2000, walked to start the inning. Mark Grace, who collected a World Series ring against the Yankees in 2001, came up to the plate and watched as a wild pitch went by and Vizcaino advanced to second. Then Grace singled on the fifth pitch of the at-bat and the Cubs were finally on the board. It was 4-1. That was all they’d get in that inning but at least it was something.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Cubs not only showed some more life, they started doing laps, animated by three straight singles from Buechele, Sosa and Rick Wilkins to load the bases. Rockies manager Don Baylor brought in reliever Jeff Parrett, who faced Willie Wilson, pinch hitting for Bautista in the pitcher’s slot.

Parrett threw one pitch and Wilson sent it through the hole between first and second base. Buechele and Sosa scored, with Wilkins advancing to second base. The Cubs cut the lead to one run. After a Dwight Smith swinging strikeout and a lineout by Vizcaino, Grace came up again with a chance to do something to help his team. And he did. This time he singled to center, allowing both Wilkins and Wilson to score, and just like that the Cubs had the lead, 5-4.

In the top of the eighth, Heathcliff Slocumb came in to pitch for Cubs and Willie Wilson moved from pinch hitter out to centerfield replacing Dwight Smith. Slocumb pitched for eight teams during his 10-year major league career. He was famously involved in what is known as one of the most one-sided trades in major league history. In mid-1997, Slocumb was traded to Seattle from Boston for Derek Lowe and Jason Varitek. To that point, Lowe had pitched inonly 12 games and had an ERA up around seven and Varitek hadn’t even played in the majors. Of course, things ended up working out for Boston. Slocumb helped Seattle make the playoffs in 1997, but his career went downhill after that.

Galarraga opened the frame with a single, which was followed by a Hayes walk. That would be it for Slocumb. Dan Plesac came on in relief to face Girardi. Girardi hit another single, scoring Galarraga and advancing Hayes to second to tie the game at five. Clark hit a sacrifice bunt, advancing Hayes to third and Girardi to second. Plesac intentionally walked Castilla to load the bases, and Dale Murphy came in to pinch hit for Parrett. Murphy hit a fly ball deep enough to centerfield for Hayes to score and for the runners to move up a base. The Rockies went up 6-5 and weren’t done.

Plesac again intentionally walked a batter to load the bases; this time it was Eric Young. Jim Tatum pinch hit for Alex Cole and on the 10th pinch of the at-bat, Cole hit a grand slam to left field. The Rockies went up 10-5. Plesac got Bichette to hit a fly ball to center to end the inning, but the damage was done. Rockies fans shifted in their seats; this was a strange sensation.

In the bottom of the ninth, Scott Fredrickson faced off against Rey Sanchez, pinch hitting for Plesac. Sanchez singled. Vizcaino followed with a single of his own. The Cubs had something going.

Baylor pulled Fredrickson, and brought in lefty Gary Wayne to face Grace. Wayne got Grace to hit a fly ball that wasn’t deep enough for either runner to advance and that was one out. Baylor pulled his LOOGY and replaced him with righty Darren Holmes, who issued a walk to Sandberg to load the bases with one out. Derrick May came up and hit the ball to second. The Rockies were able to get only the out at second and Sanchez scored to cut the lead to 10-6. Their fans registered a familiar feeling.

Buechele came up next and hit a double, which scored Vizcaino and advanced May to third. The lead was cut to 10-7 with two outs. In stepped Sosa, who had been on base three times already. On Holmes’ third offering of the at-bat, Sosa deposited the ball into the left field seats and tied the game at 10. I think the only thing worse for a fan than watching a surefire win turn into a tie in the ninth inning is watching it disappear entirely and turn into a loss, but Rockies fans were spared that. Baylor stuck with Holmes, who got Wilkins swinging to end the inning, and send it to extras.

The teams traded zeroes again in the 10th, and then things got crazy in the 11th.

Reliever Chuck McElroy, who had pitched a scoreless 10th, was still in for the Cubs. Freddie Benavides, who replaced Darren Holmes in the lineup, led off for the Rockies. He hit the third pitch he saw into left for a single. Bichette hit a pop fly foul for the first out. Galarraga hit a first-pitch double to left, which advanced Benevides to third. McElroy intentionally walked Hayes to load the bases, then struck out Girardi for the second out. Then Clark hit a two-run double, scoring Benavides and Galarraga and advancing Hayes to third.

Then the Cubs got sloppy. Castillo reached on an E-6, which reads as a pop fly to deep shortstop-second base according to the boxscore. Both Hayes and Clark scored to put the Rockies up 14-10. Gerald Young, who replaced Murphy in the eighth, ended the inning with a fly ball to center.

In the bottom of the 11th, the Cubs put up a bit of a fight against Rockies reliever Willie Blair. Grace hit a double to left to get things started but Sandberg lined out and May struck out swinging. Down four runs, things were looking bleak for Chicago until Buechele hit a single to score Grace. Then Sosa who, as he so often did, was having himself quite a game, hit his second home run of the day to cut the Rockies lead to 14-13. The next batter, Wilkins, hit a single and was replaced by pinch runner Eric Yielding. Blair then balked while Wilson was up, which advanced Yielding to second. It seemed like the Cubs might salvage a win, but Wilson popped out in foul territory on the third base side to end the game. The Rockies won 14-13 in 11 innings.

…

Until May 4, the Rockies had scored in double digits only twice, on April 21, when they beat St. Louis 11-2 at Busch Stadium and on April 27, when they beat the Cubs 11-2 at Mile High. Other than that, they weren’t scoring a ton of runs, more likely to let their opponent score in bunches, than do so themselves. Before traveling to Chicago, they had just concluded a series against their fellow expansion team, the Marlins. They won the final game, but scored only two runs.

But on this night, Rockies fans weren’t treated to their typical 2-1 fare. Instead, they rode a roller coaster. They watched as their team took the lead, lost it, and built it back up, only to lose it again in the bottom of the ninth when the Cubs tied the score and forced the game into extra innings. Rockies fans, having not yet fully developed the muscle that gives the initiated hope, may have thought a loss loomed, even as the innings stretched and they were granted temporary reprieve. But then they watched as their team took the lead again, only to have it stick, for while the Cubs mounted another comeback attempt, it fell short.

Rockies fans at home no doubt breathed a sigh of relief as they watched their team walk off the field at Wrigley after a hard fought victory. Perhaps they even celebrated with a fist pump or a clap. Maybe they felt hope stir.

That’s the fun part of being a baseball fan: You never know how a game will turn out. You may expect one thing and something completely different happens. Sometimes two aces will match up on national television only to have it turn into a dud because they don’t have their best stuff. Or a first-place team will play a last-place team and lose by five. In the early days of a franchise, you don’t really have expectations. You’re still learning them. I don’t think anyone thought the Rockies would score 14 runs in Wrigley that night but they did. And that’s what makes baseball great, getting the unexpected while you’re still learning what to expect. Getting the chance to be thrilled.

The Rockies finished the 1993 season with a 64-98 record, which was fifth in the six-team NL West. Despite that, they finished first in attendance that season with over four million fans making their way to Mile High Stadium. It proved that Denver and the state of Colorado were ready for major league baseball, and happy to have it no matter how lackluster the product may have been that first year.

Luckily, those fans didn’t have to wait long for things to turn around. It would take the Rockies only two more seasons to reach the playoffs. Colorado won the first-ever National League Wild Card berth in 1995. It was a short-lived celebration; the Rockies lost the NLDS to the eventual World Champion Atlanta Braves. But at the time, it was a record for how quickly an expansion team reached the playoffs. Colorado has reached the playoffs four times, each time as the NL Wild Card. The Rockies reached their only World Series in 2007 but were swept by the Red Sox in four games.

The next afternoon, way back in 1993, the Rockies lost 3-2. But expectations had stirred and the thrill was on.

References and Resources

• Baseball-Reference.com
• Retrosheet
• Wikipedia
• The NumbersThe numbers-Movies released in 1993