Someone notices us!
Today in his ESPN Magazine column (which more than a couple people have forwarded my way), Bill Simmons has this to say about losing sports franchises:
Consider these two indisputable sports truths:And here we are, 15 years later, fighting about Chris Gomez. Ugh. I swear to you I have a lot more to say about this, but dammit, it's going to be long and well thought out and heartfelt and all those good things and I don't have the time to be any of them right now. But I will soon, I promise.
Truth No. 1: The most agonizing baseball moment since Bill Buckner's gaffe was Francisco Cabrera's series-winning single for Atlanta that killed Pittsburgh in the 1992 playoffs. Not only did the Pirates blow a ninth-inning lead, not only did Cabrera, a no-name, deliver the final blow, not only did comically slow Sid Bream somehow beat a Barry Bonds throw home, not only was it the Pirates' third straight October defeat ... but Bonds signed with the Giants a couple of months later, banishing the Pirates to small-market hell. They haven't been heard from since. The franchise was effectively murdered by one play.