RIP Bob Welch

Game 7 of '91 was still the old-school intensity. Anything since?

 

4, 5, 7 of the 2001 Series.

 

Game 6 in 2011.

 

Game 6 in 2002.

 

Greatest Game 7 pitching performance ever.

 

Johnny Podres or Johnny Kucks might dispute that.

 

So would Mickey Lolich

 

Not the World Series, but the 2003 and 2004 ALCS immediately spring to mind. Since the Red Sox have won more than their share over the last decade -- and their fans have gone from lovable, sympathetic losers to insufferable douchebags -- I doubt that rivalry will ever hit that high a level again.

 

Gotta be Podres.

 

It's up there, sure. But if a 36-year-old Lonnie Smith doesn't forget to pick up his third base coach and doesn't let a rookie decoy him at second base, we're not talking about Jack Morris at all.

 

Or if Ron Gant doesn't ground out to first with runners on second and third and no one out.

Or if Sid Bream doesn't ground into a 3-2-3 double play with the bases loaded (after they'd intentionally walked David Justice).

Or if Bobby Cox doesn't use Charlie Leibrandt to face Kirby Puckett (who hit .406 vs lefties that year) in the 11th inning the night before when had he right-handers Jim Clancy and Mark Wohlers in the bullpen.

Or if Otis Nixon doesn't fail a drug test with two weeks left in the regular season.

(i.e., it ain't all Lonnie's fault).

 

This is sad and spiritual and measured in all the right ways — about Bob Welch, but also really about love and longing and growing old. It shares just enough, I think.

http://www.sbnation.com/longform/2014/6/13/5804568/bob-welch-death-remembrance