Northern California Baseball Blog and Q&A

Paul Gutierrez
Raised in Barstow, Calif., where he played community college baseball for two years, Paul Gutierrez has worked at Sports Illustrated and the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where he covered his alma mater's Runnin' Rebels at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. During a six-year stint at the Los Angeles Times, he co-authored Tommy Davis' "Tales from the Dodgers Dugout." He came to The Bee in October 2005 and is now a Bay Area sports features writer who concentrates on baseball during the spring and summer.

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August 14, 2007

A look back

With the tail-spinning Giants having played five games in four days against Pittsburgh, and having lost four to the woebegone Pirates, and with my hope last week that Sid Bream join in the galaxy of sports stars that wished Barry Bonds luck the last week of his home run chase, I was feeling a little nostalgic. I wanted to see the last time Bonds wore a Pirates uniform and the slow-legged Bream beating Bonds' throw to the plate from shallow left field.

The situation: The Pirates, who had already lost two straight National League Championship Series in 1990, to Cincinnati, and 1991, to Atlanta, were looking good in Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS with a 2-0 lead entering the bottom of the ninth inning against the Braves. But after Pittsburgh starter Doug Drabek loaded the bases with none out, he was replaced by Stan Belinda. Ron Gant followed with a sacrifice fly out to Bonds in left to score Terry Pendleton to get the Braves within 2-1 before Damon Berryhill walked to again load the bases, Dave Justice moving to third base and Bream to second.

After pinch-hitter Brian Hunter popped out to shortstop Jay Bell, Bonds and the Pirates were within one out of advancing to the World Series to face the Toronto Blue Jays, who had knocked off the A's in six games earlier in the day. Up to the plate strode pinch-hitter Francisco Cabrera.

What happened next can be seen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38mOexBigeI&mode=related&search

To this day Bonds is still ridiculed for not throwing out Bream as Bonds had the ball in his glove before Bream hit the bag at third.

-Paul Gutierrez

Posted by Bill Bradley, August 14, 2007 11:00 AM

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