Touch 'em all Joe

Where were you the night Joe Carter his "the home run" to win the 1993 World Series?

I was doing random Wikipedia searches the other day and decided to search a couple of sports heroes (according to yours truly). Doug Gilmour, Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan... then one shot into my mind - Joe Carter. If you ask anyone that grew up in the TO area in the early 90's they will tell you the Jays were the shit, and watching them win those 2 world series' was an awesome sight. 1992 was amazing, but 1993... that was ridiculous.

I still remember it. My dad told me to tape the game (we hadn't taped any of the other ones, but he told me to tape that one). So i set the VCR and press record for 3hours or so. This would come back to haunt me, but more on that later. I watched the majority of the game in the kitchen. Growing up we always watched Jays games during dinner, since they came on around 7PM. This time, instead of going downstairs after watching, we all stayed in the kitchen. Talk about family bonding - sports will do that. Jays are down 6-5, bottom of the 9th, 2 man on (Rickey Henderson and Paul Molitor), and 2 out and who walks up but Joe Carter.

Carter was a popular player, but by no means was he AMAZING like someone like Albert Pujols or Alex Rodriguez is today. He was a great run producer with a decent average. I guess for the day he was the man though in terms of driving in runs. Carter had not done much vs. Williams, in fact - i have a screen shot to prove it :)

Every fan was nervous as hell.. i mean it's the bottom of the 9th. If the Jays lost, they'd have to go back to Philly, and nobody wants to go to Philly, especially not for a Game 7. Also, despite Joe's ability to hit clutch RBI's, he had a tendency to swing for balls low and away, and down and in so striking out was a real scenario as well. But Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams left a pitch more over the plate than he should have, and Carter golfed that pitch into the sky. AT first I wasn't sure if it was going to be out - it looked like a double, but my Dad shouted right away.. and i watched in disbelief as the ball kept going.. and going... and going ... GONE. In fact you can see the moment when 50,000 people in the skydome have a civic orgasm and just go buck wild. Had this been the 60's i'm sure there would have been thousands of people on the field too. I stared in disbelief and screamed and jumped up and down the kitchen and the hallway, ran upstairs, then ran down, then ran outside and shouted some more. I couldn't believe what I saw.

I celebrated as good as a 12 year old could.. I can't imagine how crazy it would have been to be in university or college watching that. Or being at a bar downtown in TO. Thousands of people got laid that night I'm sure. They should do a statistic and see how many babies were born between 8-9 months of that day. I bet there would be a huge spike - just like i'm sure there was 9 months after June 1967 when the Leafs won the cup last.

To this date the only other series-winning HR in the World Series was hit in 1960 by Bill Maseroski. Joe Carter's homerun was the first come-from-behind homer to win a World Series so this indeed was history in the making. Good thing I got it on tape right? I go downstairs, and what do i find.. the TV is on, and they are showing the team mobbing him on the field, but the video stopped. I couldn't believe it. I rewound a bit and pressed play, and I shit you not, the tape stopped the very pitch before Joe Carter hit the home run. Guess I should have recorded for an extra 30 mins ... fuck

Now I can't even find that tape, shame too because I'd like to watch it again. I pressed record after to get the post-game, trophy presentation and all that.. I got plenty of highlights of the homer, but not the homer itself. It still bugs me - a little bit. :)



Click the pic to watch Joe hit the home run.