Quote:
Originally Posted by Max H
How soon we forget 1988.
A friend of mine and I won two tickets to the 1988 opener at a bar the night before the game. We both blew off work the next afternoon and headed up to Memorial Stadium on a gorgeous early April day.
The game started out normally with Teddy Higuera and Mike Boddicker settling into what most anticipated as a pitchers duel between the two staff aces from the prior year.
Mid game Boddicker began to struggle. In the 5th inning with Paul Molitor on 3rd, Boddicker chose to intentionally walk a Brewers batter whose name escapes me. With runners on 1st and 3rd with 2 outs and an 0-2 count to strikeout maker Rob Deer, the Brewers executed a double steal with Molitor racing home. The level of incompetence that the Orioles showed on this play is the primary reason I remember it 22 years later.
The team unravelled at this point and went on to lose 12-0 and begin a stretch of historic futility. Everything that a bush league team does was on display that day from weak hitting, poor baserunning, indecisive defense and an incompetent bullpen. For some reason I felt that this one play, though, in what was still a close game was the spark that pushed a vulnerable team over the edge.
