Archive for Days of Yore
Revisiting an almost-trade of Mariano Rivera
Posted by: | CommentsI can’t imagine the New York Yankees without Mariano Rivera for the last 15 seasons. Since he came up as a 25-year-old and wowed the crowd during the 1995 ALCS, he has always been there. In 1996, he helped shorten the games, and in 1997, he closed them. Five hundred saves later, he’s still going strong.
But what if? What if the Yankees had traded Mariano in 1995? Don’t laugh; it almost happened.
Today, as part of the Week of Rivera coverage in the New York papers, John Harper of the Daily News checked in with current Yankee adviser and one-time GM Gene Michael. The Stick was heading up the Yankee Front Office when Rivera first made his Bronx debut, and Michael reminisced about the time he almost traded Mo. Harper writes:
Michael had his own ‘What if?’ moment a few years later, in 1995, when he considered trading Rivera to the Tigers for David Wells. At the time Rivera was still trying to make it as a starter, still throwing in the low 90s, and when Michael asked the Tigers what they would want in a deal for Wells, Rivera was one of the names they put on a list.
“I never said yes,” Michael said with a chuckle Monday. “And right about that time, Mariano’s velocity in the minors jumped to 95-96. I didn’t believe it when I saw our report, but I checked it out with scouts from other teams who were there, and it was true. At that point there was no way I was trading him.”
As Gene says, after Rivera’s velocity jumped, there was no way he would trade him, but that would not be the end of the Mariano Rivera trade rumors. In the hunt for some confirmation from 1995, I stumbled across a Hot Stove article from December of that season. The Yanks had wanted to acquire Wells for the 1996 season, and while he landed in Baltimore following a stint in Cincinnati, the Bombers came close. Murray Chass reported then:
The Yankees, who last Thursday beat Baltimore to David Cone, wanted Wells for their rotation, but a weekend bid by George Steinbrenner fell short. Given this latest turn of events, the Yankees may feel compelled to become serious about signing one of two free-agent left-handers, Kenny Rogers or Chuck Finley.
[GM Bob] Watson acknowledged that he and Gene Michael, his predecessor, who remains active in personnel matters, had spoken with the Reds, most recently the middle of last week. “The asking price was too high,” he said. “They wanted two of our top minor leaguers. That’s why we backed off. We couldn’t do that.”
Jim Bowden, the Reds’ general manager, declined to discuss the Yankees’ involvement, but an official familiar with the Wells talks said Steinbrenner called Bowden Saturday night and offered pitcher Mariano Rivera and catcher Jorge Posada.
Bowden, looking to cut his payroll, obviously decided he preferred [Curtis] Goodwin, a 23-year-old left-handed hitter, who in 87 games with the Orioles last season batted .263 and had 22 stolen bases in 26 attempts.
Curtis Goodwin would go on to become a very forgettable baseball player with a career OPS of .609. The story, meanwhile, begs a question: Do we believe Watson on the record or Chass’ anonymous sources? The Yankees’ baseball people didn’t want to trade Jorge and Mo while George was reportedly willing to offer them up for David Wells, a player he had long coveted. Considering the year, I wouldn’t be surprised if Steinbrenner was a hair’s breadth away from sending Posada and Rivera to Cincinnati.
As we reflect on the Hall of Fame career of Rivera, we should appreciate it for happening in the Bronx. Imagine how different life would have been with Rivera in a Reds or Tigers uniform for the last 14 seasons.
Yanks 2003 rotation really something else
Posted by: | CommentsWhen the Yankees signed CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett to complement Chien-Ming Wang, Joba Chamberlain, and Andy Pettitte, I said that they had assembled their best rotation since 2003. That statement, however, is more an indictment of the 2004 rotation than anything. The 2003 rotation was pretty damn solid, and even the 2009 squad doesn’t appear to approach its greatness. TusconRoyal at Beyond the Boxscore takes a look at that team in terms of how good they were at the time, and then at their careers.
The analysis uses the increasingly-popular WAR, or Wins Above Replacement. You can get an idea of how to calculate WAR from the inimitable Tom Tango. Mike Mussina was lights out that season, and it’s highly unlikely that even CC Sabathia touches his WAR from that season — and “highly unlikely” is an understatement at this point. There’s quite a gap between Moose and the second-highest-rated Yank, David Wells, but he still posted an excellent season.
The top five starters for the Yanks that year — Moose, Wells, Clemens, Pettitte, and Contreras — posted WARs of 6.3, 4.6, 4.1, 3.4, and 1.9. This year’s top five — CC, Pettitte, Joba, Burnett, and Hughes — have posted WARs of 1.9, 0.8, 0.8, 0.5, and 0.2. It’s not really fair to extrapolate that to cover a whole season, since performances will obviously vary over the next three and a half months, but that would put the Yanks’ starters at 3.1, 2.1, 2.1, 0.8, and 0.3. The 2003 rotation that is not.
In fact, the extrapolated data wouldn’t even put this 2009 rotation ahead of its 2004 counterpart. The top five starters on that team — Jon Lieber, Mike Mussina, Kevin Brown, Javy Vazquez, and El Duque — posted WARs of 4.0, 3.3, 2.5, 2.2, and 1.7 (though the last, Duque, pitched only 84.2 innings). In other words, the Yanks rotation will have to show quite an improvement if they’re going to live up to the billing of best rotation since 2003. As it stands now, they’re falling a bit short (though, again, the method for projecting their WAR isn’t exactly the most scientific).
To take some of the attention off the current team, the BtB post also notes the careers of the 2003 rotation and where they stand relative to the average HOFer and a Replacement HOFer (though I’m not really sure what that means). Clemens stands far, far above the pack. Mussina, it appears, deserves a nod to the Hall given its current standards. His WAR in his best season matches up with that of an average HOFer, and 10th through 17th best WAR seasons stand well above those of an average HOFer. I believe the Hall’s standards have sunken considerably, and given that you can make a strong case for Moose. However, if baseball held the Hall to the loftier standards it deserves, the only one of that crew who would get the nod would be Clemens.
So check out the post and remember the 2003 pitching staff. Perhaps it will relieve some of the frustration caused by the 2009 version.
Remembering a lost first-round draft pick
Posted by: | CommentsToday is a big day in our RAB-centric baseball world. As A.J. Burnett and Josh Beckett gear up for a showdown in Fenway with first place on the line, the Major League Baseball amateur draft will kick off an hour earlier. While Mike will have coverage all day on RAB, I want to take a trip in the Wayback Machine.
The 1990 Yankees, one of the first teams in my life I remember on a day-to-day basis, were singularly bad. They scored just 603 runs while allowing 749 and finished in seventh place. They were 67-95, 21 games behind the Red Sox. It is now impossible to finish in seventh place.
To understand just how bad that team was, let’s look at their triple slash numbers. As a whole, the Yankees hit .241/.300/.366 that year, good for last in the AL in all three categories. The only bright spots were Jesse Barfield, Roberto Kelly and a flash-in-the-pan Kevin Maas filling in for an injured Don Mattingly.
The pitching staff was equally bad. Tim Leary lost 19 games, and Andy Hawkins carried a 5.37 ERA over 30 starts. The bullpen, anchored by Dave Righetti and featuring Lee Gutterman and Eric Plunk, wasn’t awful. That’s the most charitable assessment of it at least.
Out of that bad, though, came the good. For just the second time in franchise history, the Yankees were able to secure the number one pick in the 1991 June amateur draft. It would be a draft stocked with talent as Shawn Green, Manny Ramirez, Cliff Floyd and Dmitri Young all went in the top 16 picks. For the Yankees, though, it would be a draft of lost opportunity.
With their number one pick, the Yankees opted for a fireball-throwing left-hander out of East Carteret High School in Beaufort, North Carolina. The Times called Brien Taylor “overpowering” and cited his senior year stats. He threw 84 innings and allowed 18 hits and 24 walks while striking out 203. The Yankees, not known for their patience developing players, cited their willingness to wait on Taylor’s development. “If it takes a year or two years or three years, we’ll do it that way,” Brian Sabean, then the Yanks’ VP for player development and scouting, said.
The night before the draft, Taylor was tossing 98-mile-per-hour fastballs but fell on his left shoulder at one point. It would be an ugly omen of things to come.
Signing Taylor was not easy, but in the end, it would result in a historic accord. Over the summer, the dealings turned rancorous. Advised by Scott Boras, Taylor’s family accused Yanks’ GM Gene Michael of disrespecting their son, and Michael defended himself. With Taylor on the verge of attending college, the Yanks swooped in with a record-setting $1.55 million offer, and Taylor signed.
Outside of the money, the signing was controversial. Rumors swirled that the then-suspended George Steinbrenner had inserted himself into the negotiations, and then Steinbrenner, in absentia, took shots at his GM. It was business as usual for the early-1990s Yankees.
For two years, Taylor was as good as advertised. Through his first 54 minor league starts, he had thrown 324 innings with 337 strike outs, 168 walks and a 3.02 ERA. Despite the walks, he was regarded as baseball’s top pitching prospect and seemed to be on the fast track to New York.
Disaster struck on December 18, 1993, when Taylor destroyed his shoulder in a fight outside a North Carolina trailer park. Noted surgeon Frank Jobe called it, in the words of Scott Boras, “one of the worst shoulder injuries” he had ever seen. Taylor would never be the same, and now, at 37, he has avoided any sort of baseball spotlight.
Boras still calls Taylor the best high school arm he had ever seen. It’s hard to tell if that’s just Scott Boras being Scott Boras, but it’s high praise nonetheless. As we sit on the edge of another draft, we can only wonder what might have happened in Yankee history had Brien Taylor stayed healthy and really been as good as he could have been.
Smoltz, like Maddux, turned down Yankee dollars
Posted by: | CommentsAt this point it’s common knowledge that Greg Maddux turned down Yankee money to sign with the Braves. The Yankees had offered five years at $34 million in the winter of 1992-93, the year after Maddux had won the Cy Young award with the Cubs. Instead he signed a five-year, $28 million deal with Atlanta. That’s $6 million, or 18 percent, less than what the Yankees offered. This would be akin to CC Sabathia having signed with the Giants for seven years and $132 million.
These types of stories are the types you don’t hear often. After all, it’s about the money, stupid. Yet yesterday, via MLBTR, we learned of one more such incidence. This involved another Brave, John Smoltz, who turned down $53 million Yankee dollars to sign with the Braves for $30 million. Looking through Cot’s, it appears Smoltz refers to the three-year, $30 million contract he signed after the 2001 season. It’s understandable why the Yankees would have wanted him at that point.
Then again, it’s easy to forget that Smoltz had been having trouble with his shoulder in 2001 and had been moved to the bullpen. He started just five games that year and finished 20, logging just 59 innings in the process. Perhaps the Yankees wanted to give Smoltz another try in the rotation. That would be the only way this would have made sense. The Yankees already had the best closer in baseball, who was coming off yet another sub-1.00 WHIP season. Smoltz would have gotten a chance to close, as Mariano missed some stretches, including from August 15 to September 15. Obviously, no one could have known that at the time, which is why Smoltz turning down the money made sense. That is, if the plan was for him to pitch in the bullpen.
Instead, the Yankees signed David Wells to shore up their rotation, and were rewarded by him going 19-7 with a 3.75 ERA. They also nabbed Steve Karsay, who pitched well in his first season and wound up being the one filling in for Mo. That, however, was essentially it for Karsay’s career.
Smoltz had a $12 million club option for 2005, which the Braves were apparently going to decline. Did the Yankees come knocking again? I’m sure they did. That was the winter of Carl Pavano and Randy Johnson. Smoltz wound up signing a two-year, $20 million contract with an $8 million option for 2007. The Yankees surely could have, and more than likely would have, topped that. That year Smoltz transitioned back to the rotation and pitched 229 innings of 3.06 ERA ball. The Yanks sure could have used that in 2005.
What makes this story odder is that Smoltz turned down less money from the Braves, $2 million, to pitch for the Red Sox and their $5 million this year. Why the change of heart? Was Smoltz finally fed up with taking the ATL discount? Or did he not see the Braves making much noise this year? Dude’s 42 years old. Surely he wants one more crack at the title. It’s a shame he didn’t come to New York when he had the opportunity. He might have brought home another one a bit earlier.
2009 Blue Jays reminiscent of recent AL East team
Posted by: | CommentsThe story of the young 2009 season has been the Toronto Blue Jays. With the powerhouse Rays, Red Sox, and Yankees in the division most pundits wrote off the Jays chances this season — and that was before they sustained a number of pitching injuries, including the loss of Jesse Litsch, who started the season second to Roy Halladay in the rotation. Yet the Jays have soared out of the gates and on May 12 lead the AL East with a 22-12 record. The question everyone now asks is, are they for real?
ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick thinks that the Jays could continue their winning ways. He notes their impressive win totals over the past year (impressive in relation to the competition), including their record since Cito Gaston took over as manager last year. They also have a number of pitchers out with injuries, and when they return the team could have the favorable problem of not having enough innings for everyone. Combine this with a league-leading offense, and Crasnick believes the Jays could have some sustainable success.
The 2009 Blue Jays, for me, conjure up memories of 2005. At some point around now-ish that year I had a conversation with a friend who thought the Orioles could be for real. That scared him, since the Yankees were off to a putrid start (they would soon be resurrected by Tino Martinez, however). I told him not to worry, that the Orioles would come back to earth. That they did, finishing the season 74-88, fourth place in the AL East.
On May 12, 2005, the Orioles had a record of 22-12.
On May 12, 2009, the Blue Jays have a record of 22-12.
This isn’t to say the Jays will collapse in a similar manner. They have a good team, after all, and they could be even better once they get some of their injured pitchers back. However, there are certain trends that, like the Orioles in 05, the Jays will not be able to maintain. We can start with the Jays offense, which has scored 204 runs and is the most in the majors by 20 runs. This would extrapolate to 972 runs over 162 games, which is just not likely to play out in reality. They’ll end 2008 scoring fewer than six runs per game. Similarly, the Orioles were averaging 5.4 runs per game in 2005, but ended having scored just 4.5 per game.
Plenty can happen between now and the end of the season, so to proclaim the Blue Jays “for real” at this point is a bit absurd. That’s not to say that they’re not. They have a good collection of players who are all doing rather well right now, and if they can sustain that and take advantage of returning pitchers, they could turn the AL East into an enormous dogfight. Yet they still haven’t done it against the powerhouses in the division. Tonight marks the Jays’ first game against the Yanks, and they have yet to play the Sox and Rays. By May 12, 2005, the Orioles were already 5-1 against the Yanks and 2-2 against Boston, 16-6 against the whole AL East.
Remember, too, that even at the end of May 2005 the Orioles were still atop the division, by three games, and the Yanks were in fourth place. In September, the Yanks had claimed yet another AL East crown. Also, the Orioles were still at 43-35 on June 30, 3.5 games ahead of the Yanks. It wasn’t until the end of July that the Yanks had surged ahead. Baltimore, by the way, won eight games the entire month of July. So even if the Jays do keep up this torrid pace for a little longer, it’ll really take an entire season to prove that they’re for real.
Are the 2009 Blue Jays a better team than the 2005 Orioles on paper? I think so. That’s what separates these two cases. Even when they’re battered the 2009 Blue Jays pitching looks better than that of the 2005 O’s. This is why the league needs to take the Jays seriously. However, given what we’ve learned about them from the past few years, their early-season surge could very well play out similarly to the Orioles in 2005.
When hearing how awesome a team is on paper, people often reply by noting the obvious, that the game is played on the field and that results are what matter. That’s obviously true, but that paper can catch up to you. Teams can play way over their heads for considerable portions of the season, just like others can play like crap for a month and a half before hitting the thrusters. Baseball plays a 162-game schedule so most of these flukes can run their course and the best teams can come out on top. It’s the advantage of a large sample. Let’s not forget that when evaluating the Yankees — and the Blue Jays — right now.
Two years ago on RAB: We call for Todd Linden
Posted by: | CommentsFunny how things work out. Two years ago years ago the Giants released then-27-year-old outfielder Todd Linden. Given the state of the team at the time, I thought the Yankees would do well to make a waiver claim. They never got the chance. The Marlins stepped in and picked up Linden, who went on to hit .271/.347/.364 over 144 plate appearances after destroying AAA. Not bad for a backup outfielder.
This was on May 11, 2007. The Yanks were 16-17 and were about to get blanked by Jarrod Washburn. Miguel Cairo had been put in as a defensive sub for Johnny Damon the night before. Melky Cabrera had an OPS of .593. Bobby Abreu had gone from OPSing .820 on April 14th to .634 heading into the day (and it would get down to .602). The team, and specifically the outfield was in tatters. Linden could have helped out there.
After putting up respectable numbers for Sacramento of the PCL (A’s) and more impressively Buffalo of the IL (Indians) in 2008, the Yanks signed Linden to a minor league contract this winter. He’s picking up where he left off last year, destroying the International League to the tune of .331/.406/.548. At this point he could be a better option at fourth outfielder than Brett Gardner, as Mike said on Thursday. In any case he’s a good guy to have in your system.
In other two-year-old news, Mike was excited for Roger Clemens to be working with our young pitchers. It seemed everyone was. Now most of us would like him to just stay away. It was also a good day in the minors, with both Joba Chamberlain and Alan Horne allowing zero earned runs. Jon Hovis put up a lot of zeroes, too. Hopefully he can keep that up in Trenton.
Where have you gone, Colter Bean?
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Remember Colter Bean?
The Yankees signed the righty reliever as an undrafted free agent out of the University of Alabama back in 2000, and he proceeded to annilate the minor leagues over the next 8+ seasons. He struck out 719 batters and allowed just 471 hits in 590 IP thanks to his quirky sidearm delivery, although he struggled in three cups of coffee with the Yanks. Many statheads clamored for him to be called up at a time when the Yanks’ bullpen was struggling, and there was even a website dedicated to the cause. Alas, Colter’s career came to end after 2008, and he’s since moved on to bigger and better things.
Nowadays, Bean is a part owner and instructor at the Bases Loaded Training Facility in Birmingham, Alabama. The facility is over 20,000 square feet and has four full fields with an indoor training area, and has about 10,000 participants that take lessons, play in tournaments, the whole nine. Bases Loaded was founded by Jeff Segar, another ex-Yankee farmhand drafted in 2000, and it continues to expand.
Bean may or may not have received a fair shot at the big leagues, but most sidearming righties tend to dominate the minors before getting exposed in the big leagues. Very few manage to have a significant Major League career, but it looks like Colter found something to keep himself occupied after his playing days were over.
(h/t RABer Eric Sanlnocencio)
Photo Credit: FCB
Almost a Yankee but never loved in the Bronx
Posted by: | CommentsAround these parts, we don’t harbor much love for Curt Schilling. When he announced his retirement via blog post yesterday, the jokes out of New York — from the Mystique and Aura references to a belief that now he’ll have time to really tell us what he thinks — were quick and obvious.
While Curt was and probably always will be, in the words of Ken Davidoff, a big jerk, he told it like it is. That’s something every New Yorker can appreciate. Schilling, on the other hand, is someone no one who roots for the Yanks wants to appreciate.
Ah, but what might have been. From 2004-2007, Schilling taunted the Yanks from up the road. Outside of October, Schilling didn’t really taunt them on the mound. Since arriving in Boston, Curt threw 101 innings over 15 games against the Yanks, and he went 6-6 with a 4.72 ERA. For a pitcher likely destined to Cooperstown and with a career 3.46 ERA, the Yanks fairly had his number over the last few years.
But, oh, the October torture. In 2001, Schilling helped drive a stake through the Yankee Dynasty while insulting the beloved Yankee mystique and aura. In 2004, he cemented his legacy by leading the Red Sox on a stunning and heartbreaking comeback while pitching on a bum ankle. Those are days Yankee fans long to forget.
What makes it worse though is the reality that those glory days for Boston could have been ours. So as Schilling gets set for a career as an outspoken baseball/political pundit, it’s time to rev up that ever-popular Wayback Machine.
The destination is November 7, 2003, and the Yankees are one week removed from a World Series loss at the hands of the Marlins. George wants Curt reports Tyler Kepner. “A lot of clubs are targeting him, but there’s no way we’re going to be out shopping Curt Schilling,” Sandy Johnson, Arizona’s assistant GM says. Famous last words.
Five days later, Jack Curry, in a rumor-laden article that makes for a fun experiment in “What If? The Yankees Years,” confirms the Yanks’ interest in Schilling. This time, though, the Diamondbacks are looking to cut payroll, and Curt will probably be moved.
The next day, Curry uncovers an early price tag: The Diamondbacks would swap Schilling and Junior Spivey for Alfonso Soriano and Nick Johnson. Today, that doesn’t seem like quite a high price, but five and a half years ago, it did to the Yankees. (Of note: Curry also reports for the first time that the Rangers would be open to trading Alex Rodriguez. It’s an early sign of things to come.)
By Friday, the Yankees had moved on to Javier Vazquez. The Yankees would not, according to Curry, “trade their two best young players for Schilling because they feel the monetary relief they would be giving Arizona eliminates the need for them to trade equal talent.” At that point, Schilling also expressed his desire to go to only the Yankees or the Phillies. Brian Cashman left the GM meetings with the team feeling insulted by the Diamondbacks’ offers.
That would, of course, be the end of it. The Yanks refused to budget; the Diamondbacks refused to budge. Despite Schilling’s public desire to play in New York, the two sides could not work out a deal, and when Theo Epstein turned on the Thanksgiving charm, the Boston/New York rivalry would never be the same.
As Curt goes off to the great beyond of retirement, I can’t decide if I want to tip my cap to him or give him a different kind of salute. I’ll always wonder though how we would feel today if Schilling wound up in New York. Would we still despise him if Schilling hand landed in New York? Would we still smile gleefully at his retirement? How different would the last five years have been had the Yanks shipped Soriano to Arizona for Curt Schilling? We’ll never know.
What If: Signing Damon in 2002
Posted by: | CommentsWhile slogging my way through the grit-inspired book authored by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci, I came across an interesting two paragraphs on a move in 2002 that could have change Yankee history. While the Yankee Front Office signed Rondell White to a forgettable two-year, $5-million contract, new Yankee Jason Giambi and then-manager Torre wanted to sign a different player to fill the left field gap.
“The one I was interested in,” Torre said, “was Johnny Damon.” Verducci eleaborates on page 170:
As the Yankees were wrapping up the Giambi negotiations, Giambi lobbied the Yankees to sign his buddy Damon to play left field. The Yankees decided they had a better idea; they signed Rondell White for $10 million over two years, leaving Damon to sign four days later with the Red Sox for $31 million over four years.
“Giambi tried to talk them into signing me,” Damon said. “Rondell beat me to the punch. I heard there was one person who didn’t want me there.” Damon declined to identify the person with the Yankees who did not want him.”
While it’s easy to chalk this one up to revisionist Joe Torre history, from the sound of it, Ddamon would have come to New York, and some members of the organization wanted him. Why they never signed him in 2002 will long remain a mystery, but it certainly had a lasting impact on Yankee history.
Had the Yanks signed Damon, he wouldn’t have been on the 2004 Red Sox, and the odds are good that the Yanks wouldn’t have even been in a position to blow a 3-0 lead. That they went with White over Damon probably stands as one of the bigger, if lesser known, mistakes of the last decade.
Ken Burns working on update to baseball documentary
Posted by: | CommentsHopefully, most of you are familiar with Ken Burns’s Baseball, a documentary on the history of the game. If not, I suggest you go drop $120 on the box set. While the creator says he’d never revisit any of his other works, he’s currently working on an update to the series. It’s a year away, slated for spring 2010 on PBS, and will be titled The Tenth Inning.
A great segment from the Houston Chronicle article:
“There was a guy named Pete O’Brien who said in 1858, ‘You know, they don’t play baseball the way they used to,’ ” Burns said. “Every 10 years, somebody is saying the same thing — that it’s all over.”
Burns clearly does not subscribe to that theory.
“Think of it. Since the end of (the original Baseball documentary), we have seen Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine and John Smoltz and the Braves,” he said. “We have seen the Yankees finally coalesce under one of the game’s most gifted managers (Joe Torre), throwing off the buy-buy mentality of George Steinbrenner to give him time to develop Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera.
“Sure, we had steroids, but, man, look at what else we have to offer. The Red Sox. We have Ichiro. We have Cal Ripken. Think of the Willie Mays catch (in the 1954 World Series). Now we have a caliber of play and athleticism that produces similar (catches) all the time. The Marlins won the World Series, twice. The Rays made it to the World Series.
“We are in the middle of a baseball renaissance, as (commissioner) Bud Selig says, and, working on this, I have to agree.”
As Burns contemplates the steroid era, he looks at it through the filter of American life at large.
“We live in the age of Viagra,” he said. “People take (medications) to make things better. Why would players be any different?”
The series moves forward from the 1992 World Series. Count me among those who will watch this with rapt attention.
