Here we are again: Part 3 of “Sports Moments That Live Rent-Free In My Head.” This has been a truly enjoyable series to share with all of you. Sports are a unifying force in a world that is so divided in every other way. With every big shot, every game-winning touchdown, every game-saving catch, not only do those moments stay with us for the excitement they give us on the field or the court, but they’re forever attached to positive personal memories as well. Celebrating big moments with friends, family, or perfect strangers can make otherwise ordinary moments that much sweeter. If you’ve been with us up to this point, and you’ve read Part 1 and Part 2 (as well as moments I have in mind for future posts), you’ll know that not all the moments I bring up are from Super Bowls or other “big games”, they’re simply just moments that leave the most indelible impact. So, with that being said, let’s get to a few more moments!

Randy Johson’s Perfect Game

Like many of these memories, I was 12 years old and staying with my grandparents for the summer. This was when all of the Braves games were still televised on TBS. I definitely tried to watch as many games as I could already, because I was even more baseball obsessed than I am now, but on this night, I was definitely tuned in because the Braves were facing the Diamondbacks and Randy Johnson was on the mound, and back in the days before On-Demand and MLB.TV, you didn’t always get to see the best pitchers pitch as it happened, so I was zoned in…..I remember distinctly, the game got to a point where I stopped wishing for the Braves to win. I understood, even then, what I was witnessing. I was rooting for the moment.

Simply put, that’s a mindset I hold today: if a pitcher has a chance at a no-hitter or a perfect game, it doesn’t matter where my rooting interests lie, I root for the moment, the milestone. When you have a chance to see a future Hall-of-Famer pitch in an era where it wasn’t readily attainable, you take it. There isn’t much more I can say about this moment. It was incredible to watch, even if it was at the expense of my childhood team. In addition to that milestone, Johnson also threw a no-hitter in 1990, but this was The Big Unit’s lone perfect game. At 40 years old, Johnson became the oldest pitcher ever to throw a perfect game.

The Diamondbacks won the game 2-0, and Randy nabbed his 4th win of the season. He tallied 13 strikeouts and Robbie Hammock, the Diamondbacks catcher that night had this to say about Johnson’s perfecto:

Every time you catch [Johnson], you feel that something like this has a chance to happen…He’s so intense, and it’s something he has out there on the mound that makes me that much better.

Hammock said it best. Johnson has gone down as one of the most lethal pitchers in baseball, finishing with the second most strikeouts in MLB history. His 6’10 frame and sidearm delivery made Johnson truly one of the most unhittable pitchers ever. If you got a chance to watch Randy Johnson, you took it, and I’m so glad that I witnessed that moment.

Aaron Boone’s ALCS Walk-Off Home Run

I’ve said in previous installments of this blog series that I suffered through an ill-conceived Yankees phase when I was little. Well, on October 16, 2003, I was still smack dab in the middle of it. I remember that night so clearly: It was a Thursday night, and my grandparents had come in from out of town to attend the Homecoming football game at the school where my dad was the band director. The game was the following night, and the Homecoming halftime show was the biggest of the year, so my grandparents wanted to see it.

As was customary when my grandparents came to town, we went to eat a Perkins. My grandparents loved it, they didn’t have one in their town, and we had one down the street, so whenever they came, it was a forgone conclusion that we’d end up there for dinner. I didn’t care for Perkins as a kid, but we went anyway.

So, we’re at Perkins, the meal was finished, and we were just sitting around shouting the breeze. I heard someone at the table behind me shout, “The Yankees just tied it up in the bottom of the 8th!” I whipped around and begged my parents that we had to leave. We got home just in time for the start of extra innings, and I practically cannonballed onto the couch. Then, in the 11th inning, Aaron Boone came to the plate against Tim Wakefield (RIP) and that dreaded knuckleball. The thing about the knuckleball is: when it’s thrown well, it can be completely knee-buckling, making even the most experienced hitters look foolish. But when it’s not thrown well, when the wind doesn’t catch it the right way, it can be nothing more than a batting practice fastball. Well, for Wakefield, this flip of the coin came up “batting practice” and the knuckler came out flat…and Aaron Boone did not miss. With a now-iconic swing, Boone drove the ball down the left field line to send the Yanks to the World Series. Though they would go on to lose to the FLORIDA Marlins, Boone’s walk-off homer become the lasting image of that Postseason run.

Tyler Matzek in Game 6 of 2021 NLCS

This moment not only lives in my head, but it’s bought property, moved in all of the furniture, received all of its Amazon packages, and is thinking about starting a family. Okay…that metaphor kind of got away from me, but basically, this moment defines “living in my head.”

Simply put: this has gone down as one of the best relief appearances in MLB history. The Braves bullpen had been the team’s strong point in a regular season where the offense struggled in the first half. Ronald Acuna went down with his first ACL tear and the team struggled with an offensive identity. Then, GM Alex Anthopoulos goes out and signs Joc Pederson, Eddie Rosario and Jorge Soler – three outfielders who had played big roles for teams before, but in the moment, struggled to find their places. But from the moment the trio joined the lineup, it was a jolt of life to a fair-weather offense.

The term “team of destiny” is thrown around a lot these days, but this Braves team got hot, went 44-28 in the second half and won a weak NL East at 88-73. The reason why this team seemed like the team of destiny is because Braves legend Hank Aaron had passed away in the offseason. The team played the 2021 season with “44” in the outfield, they won 44 games in the first half and 44 games in the second half. It seemed like Hank Aaron was the team’s guardian angel as they entered the Postseason with the lowest win total among any team.

The Braves powered their way to the NLCS against the rival Dodgers and jumped out to a 2-0 series lead with a pair of walk-off wins. The Dodgers fought back, and the series reached a pivotal Game 6 in Atlanta with the home team up 3-2 in the series. By the time the game reached the top of the 7th inning, the Braves had a 4-2 lead thanks in large part to a 3-run homer by eventual NLCS MVP Eddie Rosario in the 4th inning (to this day, that is the loudest I’ve ever heard a stadium get). But in the 7th inning, Luke Jackson was on the mound in relief for the Braves. He struggled to retire a batter and left the game with runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Even with a series lead in a close out game, I remember that this moment felt like a turning point. If the Dodgers had been able to force a Game 7 after falling into an 0-2 series hole, this series probably would’ve ended much differently. Enter Matzek.

As I mentioned above, the Braves bullpen had been among baseball’s best in 2021, and Matzek was a huge part of it. He appeared in 69 games in the regular season, sporting a 2.57 ERA and 77 strikeouts. But in this moment, Matzek had a tall task ahead of him. Two runners in scoring position, no outs, and 3 right-handed hitters – Pujols, Souza and Betts – coming up. Matzek would go on to strike out the side on 11 pitches, ending with a high fastball to Betts. The Truist Park crowd erupted. The way the Matzek leapt off the mound and fist pumped still fires me up. I have a Matzek bobblehead modeled after that moment on the desk in the studio.

As Iconic as the 7th inning was, let’s not forget that Matzek came back out for the 8th and retired the side in order again, tallying another strikeout in the process. Matzek became a Braves legend that night and earned a place in the annals of postseason history.

On the back of Matzek’s epic run, the Braves would close out the Dodgers, advance to the World Series against the Astros, and win the title with relative ease, becoming the team with the lowest season win total to ever win the World Series. Looking back, even three years after the Braves title run, the series win against the Dodgers was a bigger deal for me as a fan than defeating the Astros in the World Series. The pressure was higher. The Dodgers had defeated the Braves in this spot a year before. It was a revenge tour. For many fans, including myself, after dispatching of the Dodgers, it seemed like the hard part was done. Braves fans had already won. The Braves had slayed their dragon…and it may not have happened without Tyler Matzek.

Pedro Martinez Throws Down Don Zimmer

For the second time in this post, I want to revisit the 2003 ALCS. In my opinion, because I group up with the mid-200s battles, I believe that the MLB Postseason is better when the Yankees and Rod Sox are both in it. That may not be very controversial, but rivalries always spice up already tense postseason games. And the 2003 ALCS was about as spicy as it gets.

Admittedly, I don’t remember all of the details of this moment off the top of my head. Unlike the rest of these moments, it doesn’t live there as an experience frozen in time, but I’m not exaggerating when I say that 21 years after the fact, the image of Pedro Martinez throwing the late Don Zimmer to the ground pops into my head at least once a month. To fill in the blanks, it was Game 3 of the ALCS. Pedro Martinez was on the mound against Roger Clemens, a pitching matchup for the ages. But on this particular night, Pedro struggled early, and the score was 4-2 Yankees in the top of the 4th inning.

Clearly frustrated, Pedro hit Karim Garcia in the back and tempers began to flare. Pedro exchanged words with Garcia, then Garcia took his base. That’s when Jorge Posada and the rest of the Yankees dugout (including bench coach Don Zimmer) got involved. Pedro and Posada jawed back and forth, resulting in Pedro repeatedly pointing at his head, then pointing at Jorge. In the years since Game 3, Pedro has told conflicting stories as to what was said in that exchange, but in the moment, the Yankees believed that Pedro was telling Posada that he was the next one to get hit.

Retaliation came in the bottom of the 4th when Manny Ramirez came to the plate against Clemens. Clemens threw a 1-2 pitch high, and Manny ducked out of the way. Now, this pitch was definitely high and out of the zone, but it wasn’t anywhere close to hitting Manny, but Ramirez and the Red Sox were looking for a reason to fight. Manny charged towards Clemens before the umpires and Posada stepped in. The benches cleared and the 72-year-old Don Zimmer made a beeline for Martinez. On the broadcast, you can see Pedro talking to the oncoming Zimmer, before throwing Zimmer to the ground. You could see that Zimmer approached Pedro with his hands raised, intending to hit him. Instinctively, Pedro grabbed Zimmer on both sides of his head and tossed him aside.

Following the incident, Zimmer took responsibility for the altercation and apologized for his role in it. Even though Zimmer passed in 2014, and I had to look up some of the details of the moments leading up to the brawl as a refresher, the image of Don Zimmer hitting the ground remains framed and hung on the wall in the hallway of my mind.

Okay, so the metaphors have gotten a little out of hand in this post, so I’ll stop here before I lead us off of an imagery cliff, but I honestly get excited reliving some of these moments; the excitement, the nostalgia, and the personal stories that accompany them. I hope you’re enjoying these posts and continue to share your stories and memories with us! Until next time, it’s a good day to go 1-0!