By Dejan Kovacevic | 1:56 a.m. Tuesday
Just for fun, here are what I thought were the Pirates' top three games of 2008, in descending order:
3. June 24: Pirates 12, Yankees 5, PNC Park. Maz with the opening pitch. Yankees there for the first time since they last saw Maz. And a crowd so involved that it stunned the home team. ... Later in the year, when the Yankees came back for that rainout makeup, I showed a copy of that night's starting lineup to a New York colleague and asked, "What looks funny to you about this?" He paused, then answered, "Pittsburgh's got the better lineup." Yep. Hideki Matsui was out and, on that night, this was the case. Imagine.
2. July 12: Pirates 12, Cardinals 11, PNC Park. Jason Michaels' 10th-inning home run caps two six-run comebacks, "one of our more amazing games," as Jason Bay put it. And check out, within that story, the offensive numbers for this pre-trade version of the team.
1. August 6: Pirates 2, Diamondbacks 0, Chase Field, Phoenix. You can have your dramatic walkoffs, your wild comebacks. Give me the unreal intensity of witnessing a perfect game in person. Some of this was documented in the live blog from AZ that day, but the entire scene -- from Karstens' poise, to Michaels chasing the ball around center, to the entire dugout standing at the top step with not one of them moving until it ended to Karstens looking positively stunned afterward. ... It was as close as these Pirates came to doing something that truly mattered in 2008, and it was unforgettable.
I could do a bottom three, too, but I'm all out of negativity. Seriously. If you want something lousy, take the absolute low point. All kinds of badness came to a head that night, not the least of which was performing like that on Pittsburgh soil in front of paying customers, but some of it was undone by Doug Mientkiewicz's candor later that night and, of course, the immediate and forceful response the next night.
PHOTOS: Jason Michaels celebration, Peter Diana/Post-Gazette, Jeff Karstens in Phoenix, Associated Press
Posted
Sep 30 2008, 01:56 AM
by
Dejan Kovacevic