May 13, 2021: Finally

I must be getting old. To stay up and watch a 45 minute episode of Baseball Seasons took me like 5 times to get through. Every night I’d sit, lay down on the couch, and every time I wouldn’t make it through. I woke up one time, and I was back in 1987; another time, I was back on a regular cable channel… I must’ve tapped out and exited YouTube that time. But finally, finally I made it through the 1995 edition.

I was only 19 years old back in 1995. Just finished up my freshman year at DePaul, watching baseball had a lot of other competing priorities; all that school work, you know… I do remember what happened the year before though; the baseball season was cancelled… no World Series champion that year; that sucked, especially for Sox fans, who thought that was their year. They’d eventually get their year in 2005, and so far this year, they’re back on that path. But 1995, it was one of the best teams in the middle of one of the best runs in baseball history, finally capturing their World Series crown. But first, there was a record once thought to be unbreakable, that was broken.

Cal Ripken Jr set the record for most consecutive games played topping Lou Gehrig’s record of 2,130 games. Ripken would eventually finish with 2,632 consecutive games played; I think it’s pretty safe to say THIS record will never be broken. The last guy to get close was Miguel Tejada, who finished with less than half that number with 1,152 games in a row, just topping the Cubs leader Billy Williams who turned in 1,117 in a row. This record breaking by Ripken was one of the things that helped baseball come back strong in 1995.

Another team that helped was the Seattle Mariners; they actually were playing for their lives too, with the threat to move the Mariners out of Seattle in serious consideration. The Mariners responded by making the playoffs via the one game play in game vs the Angels. 1995 was also the first year of the Wild Card, and that first team in the AL was the New York Yankees, setting up the first ALDS; it would be a historic one. The Yankees, with Don Mattingly seeing his first playoff action (he hit .417 in the series), would win the first two games out of this five game series in New York before the series turned back to Seattle, where the Mariners, led by Randy Johnson, his first big performance against the Yanks, and of course, Ken Griffey Jr, would storm back to win the series in dramatic fashion. The Mariners season would come to an end in the ALCS, as the Indians swept their way into the World Series.

In the NL, it was the Atlanta Braves; how many straight division titles? 14!!! This year would be their ONLY World Series win out of those years, and the first for the Braves in Atlanta. Their first franchise title came as the Milwaukee Braves back in 1957 when the beat the Yankees in 7 games, and some guy named Henry Aaron was the MVP. Of course this Braves team was lead by an amazing pitching staff, including Cy Young winner Greg Maddux. I was happy for the Braves, although the Indians hadn’t won one in a long time either… that streak continues to this day. Glad my streak of not being able to finish this episode; now I can finally start watching another one; let’s see how long it takes me to get through this episode.