I know Dante Bichette has about as much chance of getting into the baseball Hall of Fame as I do of getting a cover of Vogue, but nonetheless in a nice honor, Bichette was put on the ballot for what will likely be both his first and last time. I thought it would be keen to do a little reminiscing.
I'm going to start with one of my most exciting moments as a Rockies fan, and one that long time fans all remember, from opening day in our 1995 playoff season when the Rockies and Mets had an epic battle to christen Coors Field. Despite the cold temperatures, it wound up a typical Coors Field nightmare for pitchers. The Rockies raced to an early five to one lead but a Todd Hundley Grand Slam off Bill Swift tied it in the sixth. The teams then exchanged a couple of runs before the Mets took a lead in the ninth and brought in Juan Franco to close it out. Larry Walker came through, however with a clutch two out double that plated Walt Weiss from first to tie the game. I was screaming, I was so happy. Then, we went to extras. The tenth, eleventh and twelfth innings passed without a score. In the thirteenth, the Mets grabbed another one run lead, but Mike Kingery was able to get home and tie it in the bottom half. In the fourteenth, the Mets again scored, once again putting the pressure on the Rockies offense to answer.
Joe Girardi led off with a single up the middle and Walker struck out bringing the Big Cat to the plate. Galarraga then grounded into what should have been a game ending double play, but Bobby Bonilla's defensive replacement, Tim Bogar flubbed it and both runners were safe. That brought up Bichette, I was so nervous I couldn't watch and then when he hit that line drive deep into the left field stands.., pandemonium! Everything was crazy, my dad was just sitting there saying, "will you look at that, will you look at that!" and I was screaming I was excited, my brother and sister were excited, my mom was like "who cares?" but it was so wild. Anyway, congrats Dante!