July 22, 2020 • 40 mins
In 2007 the Padres & Rockies engaged in a game for the ages, as after 162 games the two teams were tied for the National League Wild Card. A tie-breaking contest raged into 13 innings of punch-counter punch - and still, 13 years later, the winning run never touched home plate. How did that happen - and how did Jason turn into the person who broke that news to one of the teams? The second-best closer we’ve ever seen had the worst two-game run of his career at the worst possible time, and one of the teams overall strategies certainly was, well, let’s just say different. Plus, we go in-depth on players like Jake Peavy, Adrian Gonzalez, Khalil Greene, Matt Holliday and more.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Special Teams, a production of I Heart Radio
(00:20):
Greetings and Welcome inside Special Teams with Jason Smith and
Mike Harmon, the podcast that takes a look back at
some special teams, special years in sports and what made
these teams so noteworthy. Now the past few weeks, you've
been in a big run looking back at some big
NFL playoff games and some of the special teams that
took part in them throughout the past years. We'll get
(00:41):
back to that. We got a couple more to get to,
but a bit of a break, give you a little
bit of a curveball, which tells you where we're going
right now. As for the next couple of weeks, we
have some big baseball games in the past few years
to break down, and a couple of the best games
that we have seen in Major League Baseball in the
past twenty years are gonna be the topics of this
week and next week's Special Teams. And today we're gonna
(01:04):
look back at the crazy ass two thousand seven National
League Wild Card tiebreaker between the Rockies and the Padres
that was won by the Rockies and walk off or
slide off fashion nine to eight. Yes, this is back
when Mike Harmon d San Diego Padres or a team
that routinely competed for the playoffs. Hey, they're ready to
(01:25):
rise again to new world order, isn't it? Isn't that
what I'm supposed to sell the young talent. Yes, they
have a lot of great talent. They're they're rising, absolutely,
But boy, it's been at the same time, Yeah, it's
been a long time between now and that. It's been
a minute. But you know, everything comes in cycles. And
now what they say, you can't be dominant forever Patriots
(01:48):
and your against your Jets, but you know that that's
the outlier for the most part. There's an ebb and
flow and a time to every purpose and and all
of those things. You gotta get a lot of cliche's
in there. Yeah, I gave my best. Well, you know what,
I was watching Bull Durham, Okay, during the break. You know,
you try to find your fix as you wait for
(02:08):
opening day to come back, you know, and as you
and I sat down to talk about this historic game.
Part of it is how much can I immerse myself
into baseball films? And so, having done a little nuclear
luche Uh study, I figured i'd go cliche heavy. All right,
very good. Well it's well, I'll try to mark how
(02:29):
many cliches you say throughout the podcast today. Okay, I'm
already at one, like now, and I was I think
like eleven, I think the cliche because I kind of
mutated some of them. So I think it did a
good job of, you know, being straight on with him.
All right, then I'll we'll just round it off the
ten and call it even. Well there you go. Alright.
Uh So this season two thousand and seven, the teams
(02:52):
that wind up playing in the NL wild Card tiebreaker
game number one sixty three. It comes down to the
Rockies and the Padres, both teams finishing eighty nine and
seventy three. Colorado wins the coin flip to win home field,
so the Rockies are at home. The Padres have to
go play in Colorado. Now. Most of the season were
the Diamondbacks and the Padres fighting for the division, and
(03:14):
the Rockies had a big run, uh to make it
up to the to the playing game. The wild card
fight was huge. The wild Card came down to the
last day of the season. This is the year that yes,
unfortunately or fortunately, if you're not a Mets fan, the
Mets blew a seven game lead with seventeen games left
to finish eight eight and seventy four, one game out
(03:36):
of first place and the wild card, to which I say, metsio,
I mean the collapses that coming off two thousand six
and Beltran looking at strike three, there are up seven
games with seventeen left. Nah, they got it, they got it. Nope, Nope,
the Mets gaging away. They don't go to the playoffs.
But this was actually really exciting because at the end
of the season, Philadelphia, who und up winning the NL East,
(03:59):
the Mets, the Padres, Colorado, and Arizona all finished within
two games of one another. So this is every game
the final week and a half of the season, is
we gotta win tonight or this could be it for us.
It was tremendously excited, but great for baseball, great for
those cities, except the Mets, as they get left out
losing six of those finals seven. But the Rockies go
(04:21):
on that what thirteen and one in their final fourteen
Uh to get there. But I mean, that's all you
can hope for at the end of a regular season,
right we always bemoan the September one playoffs are set,
Can we just stop right at least now with the
wild Cards as they've been structured into the game. Now, uh,
you you're start going to have a number of cities
(04:42):
that are still vying and fans hopeful and optimistic that
they can pull off one more series sweep to get
into a postseason dance. Because once you're in the dance,
that's all that matters. Right. It's like we always talk
about getting into the n C Double a tournament. All right, yeah,
you've got your sixteen seeds or whatever, but all you're
hoping for it is an invitation because then you can
(05:02):
make magic happen. And in this year, I mean, this
is how the end stretch runs certainly did and and
propelled into a great uh playoff month for Major League Baseball.
You know, he said a lot of great salient points
right there, And all I was thinking of was Tom
Glavin being so crappy in the final game of the
season and blowing it as the Mets blew that lead
and then said he wasn't devastated after losing that game
(05:25):
and the Mets missed out on going to the playoffs.
The day after, Johan Santana, through I think a hundred
and sixty three pitches to win to nothing to make
the last day means something. Uh back yo ha yo
hand sanna. I mean really what a study was I
mean he had a shutout, he threw like a hundred
and sixty pitches to win that game, and Glevin gets
(05:47):
bombed the final game of the season. Uh, alright, so
go your fault. No, you're right. You tell me that
all the time, and I realized that it really isn't
my fault. Doesn't make me. We really do string a
lot of things into that, which probably some of it
is your fault. Uh. Now these teams, now, this is
the most fun part about this is you get to
talk about some of the players who were big stars
(06:08):
back then. As you mentioned, Colorado gets in because they
go nuts the second half of the season. Right, they
have an eleven game win streak. They lose one more game,
they're out. They were so much fun this year. Troy
toula Whisky was a rookie. Matt Holiday mash You went
up coming in second for m v P Todd Helton.
They had five guys in the starting lineup with nine
(06:29):
D R B I S right, and they came at
you in waves with all their young players who would
come up late. They would rake for a couple of
years and then disappear, guys like Garrett Atkins, Brad Hawp
Seth Smith, like, I felt like that was all the
Rockies were. It was we're gonna hit. We're not gonna
pitch for crap, but we are just gonna try to
hit and pound you into submission. Now, it never worked
all the way because you really need to pitch a
(06:50):
little bit to win. But it seemed like everybody the
Rockies brought up was great. They hit well, they mashed,
and look some of these guys, they had some phenomenal
years in Colorado. And when you had five guys with
nine d r B, i's when you're starting lineup. Uh,
you're not gonna lose too many games. Home road splits
were absurd. Of course we've always talked about that, but
(07:11):
you know, you look at every everybody in the line
up hitting two eighty year better, except for your Vat
Tori Alba, who hit to sad. Everybody have to bring
up your I want to I wanted to single is
not my vat, he's your Vat Tori Alba. He said
that like Berman, he's not my vat, he's your v
(07:32):
dorialba d J. Yeah, I mean go all the way
down your guy Kaz, Matt Suey former Mets getting after it.
But you mentioned all those names and just it seemed like,
for what twelve years, fifteen years, you can cycle guys in.
It's like, all right, what's he gonna do. He's gonna
hit about two eighty five, probably about three twenty at home. Uh,
(07:55):
he's gonna hit about twenty home runs and driving eight
r eighty runs. Hey, sold, there's my outfield. Just give
me three guys like that with the occasional run like
you had from a Matt Holiday. Just a fantastic lineup, Belton, Todd,
Helton over there at first base, steady as they came.
Now for San Diego, they were in a great team,
(08:16):
Bud Black as the manager who went on to manage
Colorado after Uh, they had just enough hitting because they
relied mainly on Adrian Gonzalez. People remember, Oh yeah, it
was with the Padres where Adrian Gonzalez became a household name.
Start again. Khalil Green, who was supposed to be the
next great star player of a lot more in him,
coming up in the podcast, Kevin kuzman Off. You know,
those are the guys they relied on to hit. Jake
(08:38):
Peavey was their only standout picture, But boy, what a
season he had. He won the pitching Triple Crown that year,
win strikeouts in the r A, he led the National League.
Their bullpen was fantastic. Trevor Hoffman one of the top
five closure of all time, Heath Bell, Doug Brokale, Kevin Cameron.
This is your quintessential Hey, who's a solid team that that,
(08:58):
like I said, has just enough to win eight ninety
games and get in. That was the San Diego Padres. Yeah,
not not exactly a world beating like compared to what
we were just talking about with the Rock No, no, no, no, no.
They did not pound you into submission at all. This
Padres lineup, no had They had a they had a
couple of masters, and they pitched just enough and they
(09:18):
and their bullpen was really good. Yeah. Mike Cameron, who
had a nice career, good outfielder one and seventy eight. Uh.
You mentioned Brian Giles one of the things looking up
to where are they now? Uh? A lot of guys
on both these rosters found their way into the legal system.
So we'll just stipulate to that here. Um. But as
(09:39):
you you look at the rest of their roster, I
mean you mentioned from the pitching staff where Greg Maddox
is more or less just a guy, right, he's over
five hundred but four point one four e r A.
David Wells is on this squad, but he's pitched into
a five and a half e r A. And Chris
Young was Mr hard luck. I remember that season and
(10:00):
specifically for fantasy baseball purposes, like can you score a
run for him? Just give him anything? So nine and
eight with his three point one, I'll just give you enough.
Don't worry about it. You'll get just enough for me. Now,
it's because of that great bullpen that San Diego was
in this playing game. Because Trevor Hoffman again, look, hey,
(10:22):
he's gonna find out he had a pretty bad two
games stretch at the end of the year. One of
the best closers ever. Look, outside of Mariano Rivera, Trevor
Hoffman was the best. He blew Game one sixty two
when Tony Gwynn Jr. Of all people, his dad's starring
for so many years for the San Diego Padres ties
the game in the ninth inning with a triple and
the Brewers wind up beating the Padres four to three.
(10:46):
And this is why the Padres wind up in a
tie for the wild Card with Colorado. And this is
why we go to game number one sixty three, and
what a game it was. It's this many years later,
and the winning run the guy still never touched the plate.
All that. Lord, keep right here Special Teams with Jason
Smith and Mike Harmon. So here we are game number
(11:25):
one sixty three to decide the NL wild Card team.
Jake Peavey wins the Triple Crown against Josh Fogg, who
was nicknamed the Dragon Slayer because he was so good
against other teams top pitchers throughout the season in two
thousand and seven. Hey, we don't have good pictures. We
just have a guy that pitches well against other good pictures.
(11:45):
So we're gonna start Josh Fogg. Now, on paper, it's
a pitching mismatch, but it's corps Field. That's the great equalizer,
you know. And you gotta love the fact that you
got a guy and and every team wishes they had
a dude like this. It's like there's no pressure on
me because about the Ace. Yeah, the guy, I keep
it close for a while. I'm fine. Now. Pev was
(12:05):
someone who you always thought, boy, this guy is gonna
be great, and he had two great years two thousand
four and two thousand seven, and that was really it.
I mean, this is after two thousands and he said, Okay,
this guy is gonna be a superstar now. And that
was really the last great year he had. And it
was stunning because you see, Pev had all the talent
in the world and that was just it for him.
(12:26):
And it's kind of shocking he didn't have a better career. Yeah,
I mean he had a couple of okay seasons with
the with the White Sox h one in particular back
in twelve eleven and twelve with a three three seven
e r A, made the All Star Game, was having
a fine first half. Second half it fell off. But
to your point, I mean, it is a guy that
(12:47):
had the stuff, right, hundred fifty two one six for
the career with a three six three e r A
and overall, what about strikeouts is what he finished with.
But seemed at that point in his career like that
was where it was gonna take off, and you're gonna
be a consistent beast a top the cy Young voting.
(13:10):
He would have only three more seasons where he would
finish with a double digit win total. So of course
this game begins with all kinds of offensive fireworks and
his five four after three innings PV gets rocked for
ten hits and six runs. Hey, Corus fildio. So this
this starts out like, boy, what an exciting game this
(13:30):
is going to be. We already got nine runs and
three innings h part of those hits, and Adrian Gonzalez
Grand Slam, which was the first of his career, and
you know, all he did was rake for eleven years.
He was incredible for San Diego. He was kind of
like Albert Poolholt light. He never made any headlines, but
you can write him in for thirty eight five every
(13:53):
year at the position you need that production from at
first base. I mean he made that Dodgers trade worth
it for Carl Crawford. All the had money they accepted
because they got Adrian Gonzalez, who raped for a long time.
But you remember him as boy. He was an m
VP candidate with the Red Sox MVP candidate with the Dodgers,
you know, finally the end of his career, but the
Podres where he really became a star. And like I said,
(14:14):
Albert pool Hols light like, he wasn't quite as damaging,
but boy could he hit man and and he was
like a machine. When you talked about the numbers out there,
there was never any wild swings of one year of
forty nine homers and then one year and nineteen homers.
He didn't have any years like that. Now, the model
of consistency, remember him coming all the way you know,
as he was first coming up in Major League Baseball
(14:37):
was you know, he was annointed as the next even
going all the way back to when he was with Texas, right,
didn't play with them much, only about sixty major League
games before he starts rolling with San Diego. Takes over
the first base slot in two thousand and six, and
just like that, you know, it took one year before
he was a perennial MVP candidate. Also remember a bunch
(15:00):
of gold gloves along the way, so erasing some runs
along the along the path and really where we're at
broadcasting from Los Angeles. Became a bit of a folk
hero and fan favorite. For those years that he was
out here in l A. Now this game is one
of those back and forth edge of your seat because
(15:21):
the offense could start ripping at any time. That's what
kind of game this Why look these were corps field games,
but with the playoffs on the line, really something we
don't get all that often, it was all the more excited.
You could tell that I remember this game, the tension
being worth it going back and rewatching it. All the
excitement is still there. And you know, to kind of
illustrate the power of the waves, I tell you about
(15:42):
the Rockies, they would come at you over and over.
In the seventh inning, Uh, Garrett Atkins doubled and Jamie
Carroll came into pinch run for him, all right in
the seventh inning. And Atkins is a hundred rbi guy.
He knocked in a hundred runs in the Rocky said, hey,
good game, you're coming out. This is the seventh inning.
But this is how Colorado did things. They had guys
that come in. Doesn't matter. You're gonna come in, you're
(16:03):
gonna hit, You're gonna rake. Whether it's Brad Hop or
anybody else, that doesn't matter. We're gonna have guys come in.
I mean, can you imagine pinch running for a rb
I guy in the seventh inning of the playoff game. Hey,
thanks a good game, Now you're out. I mean, that's
that doesn't make any sense, but that's how Colorado did it. Well.
The luxury that you have knowing that you'd already gotten
to PV right, so you you put done some damage
(16:25):
against him. Uh. And when when you can go after
an ace like that and you've got shark's teeth is
as I always call it, right, take one bite, a
new one pops into place, and you're ready to strike again.
That was that Colorado all offense. I mean, that's just
what they did. The tie run is scored in the
eighth inning by Jeff Blum to make it a six
(16:47):
six game. Right later on, Jeff Blum was the best.
I got got great stories about Jeff Blum, including I'll
tease this for later. I was the one that let
the pie Drey's No. The winning run never touched home plate.
I was the one. That's great story, right. I was
the one, and it was because a Jeff Blum. Brian
(17:10):
Flentase is the one who blew the save here by
letting the tying run score. It was his seventh blown
save of the season. Right, he had saved twenty games,
but he had blown seven. That's a horrendous percentage. But
you're not gonna This is where if you're twenty out
of twenty seven and Fantasy Baseball, you're in the waiver
(17:31):
wire going who's next up, who's the next I'm gonna
pick him up right now, so when he becomes the closer,
I can put it in my lineup. But in Colorado,
that's how it goes in Colorado. This is how it Yeah,
we understand what it's like, the occupational hazard of fitching.
So seven works. I mean, now, he had some good
years closing, but only one great one. He saved forty
eight games in two thousand nine. He was always the
(17:53):
well Brian Flintas is closing. Okay, don't have to really
worry about He's not great, he's not awful. He'll save
a majority of games. We couldn't do better, but we
couldn't do a lot worse, So okay, we're okay at closer.
That was kind of Brian Flente's twelve years in the
big leagues. You know, he was a four time All Star,
about that four times with at least thirty saves that
(18:16):
big year of course with the Angels in two thousand nine.
This game winds up being tied into the twelve inning,
and if you just picture the the chewing down on
your fingernails. As the game goes from top of the ninth,
bottom of the ninth, top of the tenth, bottom of
the tenth, top, eleventh, botty, leventh, You're going, wait a minute,
what why are we not getting any runs here? Why
did the runs always stop? We're playing a course, playing
(18:38):
a course. It goes tied into the twelve inning, and
this is where things get crazy. Scott Hairston, who is
your quintessential fourth outfielder, utility guy who played his like
two or three days a week. HiT's a two run
homer to give the San Diego Padres the lead. And
at this point you're saying, Wow, what a great back
and forth game. This has been insane. It's eight six now,
(19:00):
you know, Hoffman's coming into the bottom of the third
teenth thinning, and is as much as the Rockies have
pulled rabbits out of hats before, you got to think
you're at the bottom of that sock drawer. Is gonna
be empty because Hoffman's could you get a run and
scratch your run off him? Yeah? Maybe, But is he
gonna give up to is he gonna lose the game?
You really thought this was gonna be it for the
Rockies because Haffman was coming in. He was as automatic
(19:21):
as it got, and he didn't get the attention of
other closers because he played for San Diego and San
Diego wasn't really a front page newsmaking team. Plus he's
on the West Coast where all of his action comes
at one thirty in the morning on the East coast
because you don't see him till the ninth th inning,
often with a save, off with a save, and when
you get him in one of the few times on
(19:42):
national TV where everybody is watching, it's oh boy, this
was not a really good game for Trevor Hoffman. Now
this is the guy we heard about, I mean, just
lights out for his career. You can hear the entry
music and all the pageantry celebration, but like you said,
most times people only saw it in the update and
their fantasy numbers are in the box score or maybe
(20:03):
a little early morning highlights while getting ready for work.
But forty two saves and forty eight opportunities. Uh during
the regular season heading into this faithful night. So Hoffman
comes into the bottom of the thirteen, You're thinking that's it,
Well not so much. Kazmat Suey, x Met now Good
and Tulawitski lead off with back to back doubles. So
(20:25):
now suddenly but now good. Yeah, they said that was
a big saying for a long time. X met or
ex Jet now good. That was the thing because kas
Mat sue is the guys supposed to push Jose Reyes
off a short stop. Oh no, kas Mat Suey is great. Yeah.
Now kas Mat sue reinvents himself when he matches with
the Colorado Rockies and anybody go if they got a
(20:46):
gift trip to Colorado was gonna put up some production
at least for a while. Hell, Mike Hampton didn't go
there for the schools or well, yeah, I don't go
in rake I don't like the schools and all the
big private schools that put people in Harve heard and Yale, No, no, no,
I don't want to go there. I want to make
sure we go to the school system in Colorado. You know,
he wanted to go and be the fourth outfielder. So,
(21:09):
I mean, you know, you just expect that you're going
to have an uptick in production. I'm sorry, buddy. So yeah,
I mean I was done with the medicine blowing the
lead and and uh and Glavin and so you have
Matsue and Tulawitski back to back doubles and makes the
score eight seven. Matt Holiday triples off the wall to
tie the game. Right, So now you gotta runner at
(21:31):
third and the game is tied and you're wondering what
has just happened? Now you're not taking Trevor Hoffman out
of the game. It's dude, You're either gonna win it
to lose this man, this is what we pay you for.
Come on, man, you gotta get stuff and done. Uh.
Then Jamie Carroll comes up, Remember who pinched rand for
Garrett Atkins and stayed in the game. He lines out
to Brian Giles, who makes a throw home and it
(21:54):
alludes catcher Michael Barrett. Right, Matt Holliday slides in safe
and Barrett is not sure whether or not Holiday touches
the plate, so he runs over to get the ball
and what does he get too far by him, and
this is a really exciting play. If you've seen the highlights,
it's phenomenal. Uh. He runs and gets the ball and
he comes back and he sees home plate umpire Tim
(22:15):
McClellan give the safe signal, so he doesn't even tag Holiday.
Holiday gets up, he starts going crazy. He's mobbed by
his teammates. Rockies win the game nine eight, and it's stunning.
Trevor Hoffman feels like he just walked on the mound
and like four minutes later he walks off and he
couldn't protect a two run lead, and this too game
(22:36):
run for Hoffman too. He really wants to just forget about.
I blew the game that got us into the play
in game, and now I blew the play in game.
And it happened that fast. It was like a lightning strike.
And suddenly the Padres have lost and the Rockies have one.
But this is where things get really interesting because replay
show Matt Holiday never touched the plate, didn't even get
(22:57):
close to it. So what should have happened was Barrett
gets the ball, tags Matt Holiday. It's a double play
and suddenly there's two outs. Look, the game is tied,
and you don't know what happens after that, but there's
two outs, nobody on in the game is tied, but
instead there's no tag made and Holiday is called safe. Now,
watching this, you can see McClellan doesn't make the call
(23:20):
right away. He watches the play happen, and you see
Holiday slides in and he doesn't make the call. And
then the ball gets away from Michael Barrett. And when
McClellan sees the ball get away, then he makes the
safe signal and that ends the game. Now, clearly, if
we had instant replay, we've gone back and said, you
see right here the replay, you gotta tag it, you
(23:41):
gotta complete the play. A Barrett should have tagged him
and it would have gone on. But McClellan. It was
very strange because I don't think McClellan saw it. I
don't think he saw Holiday touched the plate. I think
he couldn't tell. I think he hesitated calling him safe
and only did so when the ball got away from Barrett.
Like in his mind he thought, Okay, maybe he didn't
(24:01):
touch the plate, but the ball got away. He saved
game is over right. I really think that's what went
through his head. He didn't see it, and I was
really surprised that that was how you make the final call,
because if you don't see him touch the plate but
there's no call, Holliday touches the plate because if he
doesn't make the call, Holiday, I think, reaches back and
touches a plate before he gets tagged. But he doesn't,
(24:21):
you know, because he kind of sits there thinking I'm safe,
and you know, Barrett runs and gets the ball and
that's when McClellan calls him safe. Barrett still should have
tagged him, He still should have touched him, but Barrett
after the game and other people, other other members of
the padre said they didn't want to question Tim McClellan
because he had such an unimpeachable reputation that, Okay, McClellan
(24:44):
got the call right, Okay, we're walking away. I mean,
that was the reputation he had as an umpire, and
so when he misses a call like this, it's okay,
we get it, when nowadays it would be I don't
care what the guy's reputation is, Dad, we're gonna go
to replay. He is a human being. That is why
instant play, That's why the robot umpires are coming into
major League baseball. Man, we're seeing them in different levels.
(25:05):
They're testing the processes now. So I mean, in this one,
it's just clear. And I don't know what he was
waiting to call though, right, I mean, because it's not hey,
you made a tag on him, like the ball skips away,
you're looking confused, and then finally you get the slow
deliberate safe signal, and then there's the mosh pit behind
(25:29):
home plate. So it becomes an I guess a non
reviewable incident at that point once the first guy body
splashes him. But it's certainly a moment that major League Baseball.
Now you'd have guys throwing challenge flags all over the place. Yeah. Wait,
wait a minute, wait, and it's clear he never touched
(25:49):
the plate. It's not that well maybe not like oh no,
no, no no, Holiday never got you see how the this
is back when you blocked the plate and Barrett had
the plate blocked with his foot and there was a
way he was near it, and you know, listen, Matt
Holliday slid in, so I I can maybe it look
like I touched the plate and he called me safe.
He called me safe once he calls me safe. The
(26:10):
play is over, and I'm still kind of surprised Barrett
didn't try to tag him and argue, it's the end
of your season. And clearly he didn't touch the plate.
I tagged him, he should be out, but they didn't.
And I don't care who the umpire is now, I
don't care what you thought of him. That's how it
would go now. And it's kind of said a little
bit that you know, this is just thirteen years ago
that an umpire could have that much cash a that
(26:32):
nobody would think to question him because he was he
was thought of that highly. I mean, who thinks of
umpires that highly? Now? Anyway we see Joe West trends
on Twitter and and Angel Hernandez trends on Twitter's Okay,
what did these guys do? These are guys who think
people come to the ballpark to watch them umpire and
that's but I mean, it's only thirteen years ago that
we actually had some umps that people thought of that way,
(26:53):
and that was pretty cool. So what happened next for
both of these teams? For the Rockies, they went further
than any other year in recent history, and the Padres
kind of turned into the Padres we'll tell you what
that's all about coming up next, as well as how
I was the one to inform the Padres that Matt
Holliday didn't touch the play that's coming up next right
here on special Teams. So with this legendary game in
(27:30):
the books, the Colorado Rockies move on in the playoffs
and they get all the way to the World Series.
It is a huge season for them. They had never
gotten that far before. They haven't been back since. Matt
Holiday caps an incredible season. He goes to for six
in the playing game, wins the batting title over Chipper Jones.
He also won the RBI Crown, finished second though in
(27:53):
m v P voting to the Phillies Jimmy Rollins. Now, look,
both players had great cases to make for m v P.
Rollins was the guy who was a prophet who talked
about how the Phillies are gonna win the division even
when the Mets were up big late. Uh, Jimmy Rollins
is a prophet. So Rollins wins. And and look, let's
be honest, anytime someone puts up big numbers at corps,
(28:14):
if there's another player that puts up an equal type
of production, they're gonna get the benefit of the doubt
because look, hey, offensive numbers are inflated by corps Field.
So it was clear that Matt Holiday was gonna have
a losing battle to fight because hey, between Holiday and
Jimmy Rollins, boy Rollins did in Philadelphia, Holiday did his
damage in Colorado. Yeah, no, that that you're always gonna
(28:36):
get the benefit of the doubt. And I don't know
what the percentage was in terms of votes inflation. It's
like great inflation. I think that's what you got for
the Colorado Rocky squad. It's like, what do we give
them an extra half point? Is that what it's worth here?
Or strokes in golf, whatever the analogy you want to
work with. Here he got he got an issue. If
(28:56):
you were in Colorado, you were really gonna need to
hammer the competition. Uh. They wanted to get swept by
Boston in the World Series. Uh. Their entire franchise success
is that season. Now, they've made playoffs in recent years,
but they've also been terrible. They've still never won the
n L Weston That's kind of been their identity. Some years.
Can the Rockies hit enough to squeak into the playoffs.
(29:17):
Sometimes they don't hit, they don't pitch, and they wind
up finishing terrible. But really their entire franchise success is
about this game. This season and two thousand and seven
they have never hit those heights again. And really this
was their year. I mean, like I said, five guys
over nine d r B. I if you can't get
to the World Series that year, when are you gonna
get there? They got there, they were outclassed by Boston
(29:40):
who had been there before, had a few players who
were there coming off the two thousand four team. It's
only three years later for them. They're keeping the dynasty rolling.
And the Rockies weren't really competitive and it was a
shame to see it because they were young, they were exciting.
But this season you talk about two thousand seven, all
Rockies fans will tell you it was, Yeah, that was
the year. That was a year, that was the year. Now, well,
(30:01):
everything had gone right right down the stretch, that second
half momentum running through got you to the dance, but
then you're just outclassed. And it always is the all right,
if we had one more picture, but that's been the Rockies.
That's the unofficial, you know, subtitle for the team. If
we had one more picture. In some years it's been
(30:24):
if we had one picture at all. So yeah, offense, uh,
playing one one part of the game. Can't win in
the NFL, can't win in Major League Baseball. So that
was the Colorado Rockies. Now for the San Diego Padres,
and we'll get to my, uh my story in a second. Yeah, uh,
you know the most interesting player coming off this because
(30:44):
look that that was really the end of the good
times for the Padres. You know they had you know
that this is where they entered the time of Okay,
now we're just gonna wait and rebuild. How are you
to rebuild for a decade? Really, well, maybe longer than that,
but we're gonna rebuild now. But I look at somebody
like Khalil Green, and I I shake my head and go, boy,
this is just a microcosm of the Padres franchise in
(31:06):
two thousand seven. Khalil Green he was always he He's
the next great shortstop right in Major League baseball. Khalil
Green was, and he had had some really solid years,
right He had a he had years where he had
around two fifty two sixty, he had fifteen home runs
knocked in about seventy runs. Right, this was Khalil grand boy.
He's a young shortstop. He's coming on. In two thousand seven,
(31:28):
he slashed twenty seven homers, ninety seven rbi, and he
had two fifty four Alright, this is it. He's twenty seven,
he's entering his prime, and the and the Podres are
gonna ride him for the next five to seven years.
He's gonna be that good. I mean, he suddenly is
coming in and he's gonna be that great a player.
He only lasted two more years in the majors. He
(31:49):
was out of the majors in two thousand and nine
at the age of twenty nine with the St. Louis Cardinals.
He had mental anxiety issues, had a tough time dealing
with that. That was what helped force him out of
the game. And that's such a shame because he had
all the talent in the world and and there was
you know, I really thought, okay, he's comedies, comedies, comedies
coming and then he looks like he's right there, and
(32:12):
then he winds up having problems that prevent him from
becoming a star in Major League Baseball When it looked
like he had everything there for him. Yeah. I went
and played one more year, what seventy seven games in
two thousand nine for the Cardinals. Uh, and then was
out of baseball. And we'll get into him in the
where are they now? Uh segment of things. But you know,
(32:33):
you see that breakthrough two thousand seven season, You know
that was that was gonna be a star for them, Right.
I gotta hang their hat on uh and continue to
build with him and Gonzalez. You look like you at
least had two pieces moving forward. But it's the Padres.
We've had a lot of prospects that have come up.
How many times? Is it all right? The youth movement
(32:56):
part twenty seven that's really going to get things star
earning and move forward. Since this appearance and this battle
against the Rockies, they've had one season over. Uh. So
now you're ready for my story. I told the Padres
that that holiday didn't touch the plate. So Jeff Blum,
(33:17):
who I mentioned a few minutes ago, he would come
on my show on All Night, all the Time on
ESPN Radio what I did before I came to Fox,
and he was a great dude. He would talk about anything.
He was so much fun to come on. He would
come on once a week when they had an off day.
He was the best. We had him on UH during
his years with San Diego. We had him on with
the White Sox. He came on after he hit the
(33:39):
big home run that won the World Series. At won
Game three of the World Series. He was fantastic. He
was on Oprah with the team after they won. Blum
was a terrific dude. So I didn't talk to him
that night, but we talked to him the night after
and I came on and it was a big deal,
having a you know guy, remember from the padres On.
We're talking about it and I said, so, what was
it like last night? You know, you know, knowing that
(34:00):
Matt Holliday didn't touch the plate, And he said, you
want to hear a funny story? And I said sure,
And he said, we didn't know he didn't touch the plate.
I said, what he goes. We were getting on the
plane to go back to San Diego and I was
listening to you and you were talking about how Holliday
never touched the plate and how it wasn't even close.
And I take off my headphones and I tell some
of the guys, hey, I'm listening to Jason Smith on
(34:21):
ESPN Radio and he is saying that Matt Holliday never
touched the plate, and they were all the guys were
looking at him like what they were wanted to see
a replay and see it all. So a lot of
guys didn't know he didn't touch the plate until I,
you know, I was talking about it. Blum was listening,
took off his headphone and said, hey, guys, uh, Holliday
never touched the plate. So I was, I was. I
kind of broke that news to him by way of
(34:41):
the radio. And now they're all contained within an air airliner.
You do with that? Can you believe that he didn't
touch the plate? Come on this plane? Soon? We got
some piste off people. Man, hey, no, Holliday never touched
the plate. That's crazy. Oh and you want even a
to addendum to this story. Okay, this is the best,
(35:03):
even a better addendum. So at ESPN, it was like
a week before this, our one of our big managers said, hey, listen,
we're looking to put together reels of stuff when people
outside of ESPN mentioned us in our programming, and we
said okay, And he said, like, for instance, the other day,
Bud Sealing mentioned Mike and Mike, and he mentioned them
(35:24):
because they were talking about what he was labor negotiations,
just something, and Bud Sealing in an interview said, well,
you know, I heard Mike and Mike, you know, talking
about this on ESPN radio. Blah blah blah blah blah. Okay,
I get it. So this happens. We got this with
Jeff Blum, right, this is a big deal. Like, oh
my god, so I he just told me that. Listening
to to our show, they wound up finding out that
Holliday didn't touch the plate. I gave it to my manager.
(35:46):
This is exactly what they want. I'm thinking, this is
gonna be great for us. Never use it. Never did
it just I wasn't big enough because I was on Overnight,
So they're like, oh, we don't need to put that
on there. I'm like, that's exactly what you asked for.
It's exactly what you wanted, and I gave it to you.
I mean, how many other shows can do that. I
gave it to you. It's a big game. It was
a big deal, and you didn't use it because I
was on Overnight and I was so disappointed, and you look,
(36:10):
you know reason number four. When I say ESPN they
only want to promote like two or three shows. They
don't care about anybody else. I was so disappointed because
it was it was what they asked for to the letter.
When somebody else is talking about listening to ESPN, rated
here it is. I had it right here. Here's a
guy you played in the game and that Nope, they
didn't use it. Now because I was on overnight, I
(36:30):
was so mad. I was so mad about that. Laid
it up precisely as ordered. I mean, it was almost
according to the script. Boy. All right, So speaking of
where are they now? Where are some of the players
from this game? Mr? Harmon? All right? We got a
lot of people that still stuck around Major League Baseball.
And as I referenced before, I was like, hey, let's
bring up this name. Nah, bring up the nah. A
(36:52):
bunch of guys that got some legal things. You look
those up on your own time. Uh you got Joe Thatcher,
assistant coach at Indiana University, Cocomokemo. Yeah, exactly. That's where
I want to go to get away from it all
down in Kokomo, especially in Indiana. Montego, Baby, why don't
(37:15):
we go Florida? Keys say Jamaica. Okay, there my dad
Bermuda Bahamas. Come on pretty mama, Key Largo Montego, I
miss Key Largo. That's the one. I'm a baby. Why
don't we go around to Cocomo? Uh? Yeah, now, I'm
I really, I'm doing spoken word. Jamie Carroll is a
special assistant to the front office of the Pittsburgh Pirates
(37:38):
Jeff Baker. His dad was a United States Army colonel,
so he's very heavily involved with Wounded Warrior Project. Turmel
Sledge is the hitting coach for the Cubs. Well, if
your name is Sledge, you better be a hitting coach.
I mean really, come on, Hey, who's gonna help you out? Sledge?
Oh yeah, I'm gonna learn how to hit? Really with Well,
I think that would give you an inside track. You know,
(38:00):
us get a little bit of a job opportunity and
then you gotta make the most of it. Uh. And
then you mentioned Khalil Green. We talked about him and
his anxiety issues. Uh, they tried to do awhere are
they now? For the you know Cardinals writers saying hey,
let's you know, follow up on and he's in Greer,
South Carolina. But doesn't talk. Wow. Basically, I guess been
(38:22):
telling teammates that as soon as he was done, he
would disappear. And he's done as best as he can.
Just that. I had a guy worked with he used
to say that. He used to say, Hey, when I quit,
You're never gonna see me again. I go, yeah, but dude,
we hang out all the time, we hang out at work,
we go out. He goes, yeah, when I quit, you're
never gonna see me again. I'm gonna be gone, and said, Okay,
I guess what happened. The guy quit. I never saw
(38:43):
him again, and that was well. Hopefully he's doing okay again.
You know, look playing in a game like this, having
a career, you know, making it to the majors, all
that talent in the world. Hopefully he's doing okay. Uh.
This has been Special Teams with Jason Smith and Mike
Harmon as we look back our first of our two
week look back at game number one sixty three's that
(39:05):
have been big in Major League Baseball in the past
few years, which kind of gives you a hint is
the game we're gonna talk about next week. If you
have any ideas for future episodes on Special Teams. Hit
us up on Twitter at how about a Fresca Mike
at Swollen Dome. Don't forget to rate us. If you
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(39:27):
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(39:48):
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Special Teams is a production of I heart Radio. For
(40:09):
more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the I heart
Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Welcome to Special Teams, a production of I Heart Radio
(00:20):
Greetings and Welcome inside Special Teams with Jason Smith and
Mike Harmon, the podcast that takes a look back at
some special teams, special years in sports and what made
these teams so noteworthy. Now the past few weeks, you've
been in a big run looking back at some big
NFL playoff games and some of the special teams that
took part in them throughout the past years. We'll get
(00:41):
back to that. We got a couple more to get to,
but a bit of a break, give you a little
bit of a curveball, which tells you where we're going
right now. As for the next couple of weeks, we
have some big baseball games in the past few years
to break down, and a couple of the best games
that we have seen in Major League Baseball in the
past twenty years are gonna be the topics of this
week and next week's Special Teams. And today we're gonna
(01:04):
look back at the crazy ass two thousand seven National
League Wild Card tiebreaker between the Rockies and the Padres
that was won by the Rockies and walk off or
slide off fashion nine to eight. Yes, this is back
when Mike Harmon d San Diego Padres or a team
that routinely competed for the playoffs. Hey, they're ready to
(01:25):
rise again to new world order, isn't it? Isn't that
what I'm supposed to sell the young talent. Yes, they
have a lot of great talent. They're they're rising, absolutely,
But boy, it's been at the same time, Yeah, it's
been a long time between now and that. It's been
a minute. But you know, everything comes in cycles. And
now what they say, you can't be dominant forever Patriots
(01:48):
and your against your Jets, but you know that that's
the outlier for the most part. There's an ebb and
flow and a time to every purpose and and all
of those things. You gotta get a lot of cliche's
in there. Yeah, I gave my best. Well, you know what,
I was watching Bull Durham, Okay, during the break. You know,
you try to find your fix as you wait for
(02:08):
opening day to come back, you know, and as you
and I sat down to talk about this historic game.
Part of it is how much can I immerse myself
into baseball films? And so, having done a little nuclear
luche Uh study, I figured i'd go cliche heavy. All right,
very good. Well it's well, I'll try to mark how
(02:29):
many cliches you say throughout the podcast today. Okay, I'm
already at one, like now, and I was I think
like eleven, I think the cliche because I kind of
mutated some of them. So I think it did a
good job of, you know, being straight on with him.
All right, then I'll we'll just round it off the
ten and call it even. Well there you go. Alright.
Uh So this season two thousand and seven, the teams
(02:52):
that wind up playing in the NL wild Card tiebreaker
game number one sixty three. It comes down to the
Rockies and the Padres, both teams finishing eighty nine and
seventy three. Colorado wins the coin flip to win home field,
so the Rockies are at home. The Padres have to
go play in Colorado. Now. Most of the season were
the Diamondbacks and the Padres fighting for the division, and
(03:14):
the Rockies had a big run, uh to make it
up to the to the playing game. The wild card
fight was huge. The wild Card came down to the
last day of the season. This is the year that yes,
unfortunately or fortunately, if you're not a Mets fan, the
Mets blew a seven game lead with seventeen games left
to finish eight eight and seventy four, one game out
(03:36):
of first place and the wild card, to which I say, metsio,
I mean the collapses that coming off two thousand six
and Beltran looking at strike three, there are up seven
games with seventeen left. Nah, they got it, they got it. Nope, Nope,
the Mets gaging away. They don't go to the playoffs.
But this was actually really exciting because at the end
of the season, Philadelphia, who und up winning the NL East,
(03:59):
the Mets, the Padres, Colorado, and Arizona all finished within
two games of one another. So this is every game
the final week and a half of the season, is
we gotta win tonight or this could be it for us.
It was tremendously excited, but great for baseball, great for
those cities, except the Mets, as they get left out
losing six of those finals seven. But the Rockies go
(04:21):
on that what thirteen and one in their final fourteen
Uh to get there. But I mean, that's all you
can hope for at the end of a regular season,
right we always bemoan the September one playoffs are set,
Can we just stop right at least now with the
wild Cards as they've been structured into the game. Now, uh,
you you're start going to have a number of cities
(04:42):
that are still vying and fans hopeful and optimistic that
they can pull off one more series sweep to get
into a postseason dance. Because once you're in the dance,
that's all that matters. Right. It's like we always talk
about getting into the n C Double a tournament. All right, yeah,
you've got your sixteen seeds or whatever, but all you're
hoping for it is an invitation because then you can
(05:02):
make magic happen. And in this year, I mean, this
is how the end stretch runs certainly did and and
propelled into a great uh playoff month for Major League Baseball.
You know, he said a lot of great salient points
right there, And all I was thinking of was Tom
Glavin being so crappy in the final game of the
season and blowing it as the Mets blew that lead
and then said he wasn't devastated after losing that game
(05:25):
and the Mets missed out on going to the playoffs.
The day after, Johan Santana, through I think a hundred
and sixty three pitches to win to nothing to make
the last day means something. Uh back yo ha yo
hand sanna. I mean really what a study was I
mean he had a shutout, he threw like a hundred
and sixty pitches to win that game, and Glevin gets
(05:47):
bombed the final game of the season. Uh, alright, so
go your fault. No, you're right. You tell me that
all the time, and I realized that it really isn't
my fault. Doesn't make me. We really do string a
lot of things into that, which probably some of it
is your fault. Uh. Now these teams, now, this is
the most fun part about this is you get to
talk about some of the players who were big stars
(06:08):
back then. As you mentioned, Colorado gets in because they
go nuts the second half of the season. Right, they
have an eleven game win streak. They lose one more game,
they're out. They were so much fun this year. Troy
toula Whisky was a rookie. Matt Holiday mash You went
up coming in second for m v P Todd Helton.
They had five guys in the starting lineup with nine
(06:29):
D R B I S right, and they came at
you in waves with all their young players who would
come up late. They would rake for a couple of
years and then disappear, guys like Garrett Atkins, Brad Hawp
Seth Smith, like, I felt like that was all the
Rockies were. It was we're gonna hit. We're not gonna
pitch for crap, but we are just gonna try to
hit and pound you into submission. Now, it never worked
all the way because you really need to pitch a
(06:50):
little bit to win. But it seemed like everybody the
Rockies brought up was great. They hit well, they mashed,
and look some of these guys, they had some phenomenal
years in Colorado. And when you had five guys with
nine d r B, i's when you're starting lineup. Uh,
you're not gonna lose too many games. Home road splits
were absurd. Of course we've always talked about that, but
(07:11):
you know, you look at every everybody in the line
up hitting two eighty year better, except for your Vat
Tori Alba, who hit to sad. Everybody have to bring
up your I want to I wanted to single is
not my vat, he's your Vat Tori Alba. He said
that like Berman, he's not my vat, he's your v
(07:32):
dorialba d J. Yeah, I mean go all the way
down your guy Kaz, Matt Suey former Mets getting after it.
But you mentioned all those names and just it seemed like,
for what twelve years, fifteen years, you can cycle guys in.
It's like, all right, what's he gonna do. He's gonna
hit about two eighty five, probably about three twenty at home. Uh,
(07:55):
he's gonna hit about twenty home runs and driving eight
r eighty runs. Hey, sold, there's my outfield. Just give
me three guys like that with the occasional run like
you had from a Matt Holiday. Just a fantastic lineup, Belton, Todd,
Helton over there at first base, steady as they came.
Now for San Diego, they were in a great team,
(08:16):
Bud Black as the manager who went on to manage
Colorado after Uh, they had just enough hitting because they
relied mainly on Adrian Gonzalez. People remember, Oh yeah, it
was with the Padres where Adrian Gonzalez became a household name.
Start again. Khalil Green, who was supposed to be the
next great star player of a lot more in him,
coming up in the podcast, Kevin kuzman Off. You know,
those are the guys they relied on to hit. Jake
(08:38):
Peavey was their only standout picture, But boy, what a
season he had. He won the pitching Triple Crown that year,
win strikeouts in the r A, he led the National League.
Their bullpen was fantastic. Trevor Hoffman one of the top
five closure of all time, Heath Bell, Doug Brokale, Kevin Cameron.
This is your quintessential Hey, who's a solid team that that,
(08:58):
like I said, has just enough to win eight ninety
games and get in. That was the San Diego Padres. Yeah,
not not exactly a world beating like compared to what
we were just talking about with the Rock No, no, no, no, no.
They did not pound you into submission at all. This
Padres lineup, no had They had a they had a
couple of masters, and they pitched just enough and they
(09:18):
and their bullpen was really good. Yeah. Mike Cameron, who
had a nice career, good outfielder one and seventy eight. Uh.
You mentioned Brian Giles one of the things looking up
to where are they now? Uh? A lot of guys
on both these rosters found their way into the legal system.
So we'll just stipulate to that here. Um. But as
(09:39):
you you look at the rest of their roster, I
mean you mentioned from the pitching staff where Greg Maddox
is more or less just a guy, right, he's over
five hundred but four point one four e r A.
David Wells is on this squad, but he's pitched into
a five and a half e r A. And Chris
Young was Mr hard luck. I remember that season and
(10:00):
specifically for fantasy baseball purposes, like can you score a
run for him? Just give him anything? So nine and
eight with his three point one, I'll just give you enough.
Don't worry about it. You'll get just enough for me. Now,
it's because of that great bullpen that San Diego was
in this playing game. Because Trevor Hoffman again, look, hey,
(10:22):
he's gonna find out he had a pretty bad two
games stretch at the end of the year. One of
the best closers ever. Look, outside of Mariano Rivera, Trevor
Hoffman was the best. He blew Game one sixty two
when Tony Gwynn Jr. Of all people, his dad's starring
for so many years for the San Diego Padres ties
the game in the ninth inning with a triple and
the Brewers wind up beating the Padres four to three.
(10:46):
And this is why the Padres wind up in a
tie for the wild Card with Colorado. And this is
why we go to game number one sixty three, and
what a game it was. It's this many years later,
and the winning run the guy still never touched the plate.
All that. Lord, keep right here Special Teams with Jason
Smith and Mike Harmon. So here we are game number
(11:25):
one sixty three to decide the NL wild Card team.
Jake Peavey wins the Triple Crown against Josh Fogg, who
was nicknamed the Dragon Slayer because he was so good
against other teams top pitchers throughout the season in two
thousand and seven. Hey, we don't have good pictures. We
just have a guy that pitches well against other good pictures.
(11:45):
So we're gonna start Josh Fogg. Now, on paper, it's
a pitching mismatch, but it's corps Field. That's the great equalizer,
you know. And you gotta love the fact that you
got a guy and and every team wishes they had
a dude like this. It's like there's no pressure on
me because about the Ace. Yeah, the guy, I keep
it close for a while. I'm fine. Now. Pev was
(12:05):
someone who you always thought, boy, this guy is gonna
be great, and he had two great years two thousand
four and two thousand seven, and that was really it.
I mean, this is after two thousands and he said, Okay,
this guy is gonna be a superstar now. And that
was really the last great year he had. And it
was stunning because you see, Pev had all the talent
in the world and that was just it for him.
(12:26):
And it's kind of shocking he didn't have a better career. Yeah,
I mean he had a couple of okay seasons with
the with the White Sox h one in particular back
in twelve eleven and twelve with a three three seven
e r A, made the All Star Game, was having
a fine first half. Second half it fell off. But
to your point, I mean, it is a guy that
(12:47):
had the stuff, right, hundred fifty two one six for
the career with a three six three e r A
and overall, what about strikeouts is what he finished with.
But seemed at that point in his career like that
was where it was gonna take off, and you're gonna
be a consistent beast a top the cy Young voting.
(13:10):
He would have only three more seasons where he would
finish with a double digit win total. So of course
this game begins with all kinds of offensive fireworks and
his five four after three innings PV gets rocked for
ten hits and six runs. Hey, Corus fildio. So this
this starts out like, boy, what an exciting game this
(13:30):
is going to be. We already got nine runs and
three innings h part of those hits, and Adrian Gonzalez
Grand Slam, which was the first of his career, and
you know, all he did was rake for eleven years.
He was incredible for San Diego. He was kind of
like Albert Poolholt light. He never made any headlines, but
you can write him in for thirty eight five every
(13:53):
year at the position you need that production from at
first base. I mean he made that Dodgers trade worth
it for Carl Crawford. All the had money they accepted
because they got Adrian Gonzalez, who raped for a long time.
But you remember him as boy. He was an m
VP candidate with the Red Sox MVP candidate with the Dodgers,
you know, finally the end of his career, but the
Podres where he really became a star. And like I said,
(14:14):
Albert pool Hols light like, he wasn't quite as damaging,
but boy could he hit man and and he was
like a machine. When you talked about the numbers out there,
there was never any wild swings of one year of
forty nine homers and then one year and nineteen homers.
He didn't have any years like that. Now, the model
of consistency, remember him coming all the way you know,
as he was first coming up in Major League Baseball
(14:37):
was you know, he was annointed as the next even
going all the way back to when he was with Texas, right,
didn't play with them much, only about sixty major League
games before he starts rolling with San Diego. Takes over
the first base slot in two thousand and six, and
just like that, you know, it took one year before
he was a perennial MVP candidate. Also remember a bunch
(15:00):
of gold gloves along the way, so erasing some runs
along the along the path and really where we're at
broadcasting from Los Angeles. Became a bit of a folk
hero and fan favorite. For those years that he was
out here in l A. Now this game is one
of those back and forth edge of your seat because
(15:21):
the offense could start ripping at any time. That's what
kind of game this Why look these were corps field games,
but with the playoffs on the line, really something we
don't get all that often, it was all the more excited.
You could tell that I remember this game, the tension
being worth it going back and rewatching it. All the
excitement is still there. And you know, to kind of
illustrate the power of the waves, I tell you about
(15:42):
the Rockies, they would come at you over and over.
In the seventh inning, Uh, Garrett Atkins doubled and Jamie
Carroll came into pinch run for him, all right in
the seventh inning. And Atkins is a hundred rbi guy.
He knocked in a hundred runs in the Rocky said, hey,
good game, you're coming out. This is the seventh inning.
But this is how Colorado did things. They had guys
that come in. Doesn't matter. You're gonna come in, you're
(16:03):
gonna hit, You're gonna rake. Whether it's Brad Hop or
anybody else, that doesn't matter. We're gonna have guys come in.
I mean, can you imagine pinch running for a rb
I guy in the seventh inning of the playoff game. Hey,
thanks a good game, Now you're out. I mean, that's
that doesn't make any sense, but that's how Colorado did it. Well.
The luxury that you have knowing that you'd already gotten
to PV right, so you you put done some damage
(16:25):
against him. Uh. And when when you can go after
an ace like that and you've got shark's teeth is
as I always call it, right, take one bite, a
new one pops into place, and you're ready to strike again.
That was that Colorado all offense. I mean, that's just
what they did. The tie run is scored in the
eighth inning by Jeff Blum to make it a six
(16:47):
six game. Right later on, Jeff Blum was the best.
I got got great stories about Jeff Blum, including I'll
tease this for later. I was the one that let
the pie Drey's No. The winning run never touched home plate.
I was the one. That's great story, right. I was
the one, and it was because a Jeff Blum. Brian
(17:10):
Flentase is the one who blew the save here by
letting the tying run score. It was his seventh blown
save of the season. Right, he had saved twenty games,
but he had blown seven. That's a horrendous percentage. But
you're not gonna This is where if you're twenty out
of twenty seven and Fantasy Baseball, you're in the waiver
(17:31):
wire going who's next up, who's the next I'm gonna
pick him up right now, so when he becomes the closer,
I can put it in my lineup. But in Colorado,
that's how it goes in Colorado. This is how it Yeah,
we understand what it's like, the occupational hazard of fitching.
So seven works. I mean, now, he had some good
years closing, but only one great one. He saved forty
eight games in two thousand nine. He was always the
(17:53):
well Brian Flintas is closing. Okay, don't have to really
worry about He's not great, he's not awful. He'll save
a majority of games. We couldn't do better, but we
couldn't do a lot worse, So okay, we're okay at closer.
That was kind of Brian Flente's twelve years in the
big leagues. You know, he was a four time All Star,
about that four times with at least thirty saves that
(18:16):
big year of course with the Angels in two thousand nine.
This game winds up being tied into the twelve inning,
and if you just picture the the chewing down on
your fingernails. As the game goes from top of the ninth,
bottom of the ninth, top of the tenth, bottom of
the tenth, top, eleventh, botty, leventh, You're going, wait a minute,
what why are we not getting any runs here? Why
did the runs always stop? We're playing a course, playing
(18:38):
a course. It goes tied into the twelve inning, and
this is where things get crazy. Scott Hairston, who is
your quintessential fourth outfielder, utility guy who played his like
two or three days a week. HiT's a two run
homer to give the San Diego Padres the lead. And
at this point you're saying, Wow, what a great back
and forth game. This has been insane. It's eight six now,
(19:00):
you know, Hoffman's coming into the bottom of the third
teenth thinning, and is as much as the Rockies have
pulled rabbits out of hats before, you got to think
you're at the bottom of that sock drawer. Is gonna
be empty because Hoffman's could you get a run and
scratch your run off him? Yeah? Maybe, But is he
gonna give up to is he gonna lose the game?
You really thought this was gonna be it for the
Rockies because Haffman was coming in. He was as automatic
(19:21):
as it got, and he didn't get the attention of
other closers because he played for San Diego and San
Diego wasn't really a front page newsmaking team. Plus he's
on the West Coast where all of his action comes
at one thirty in the morning on the East coast
because you don't see him till the ninth th inning,
often with a save, off with a save, and when
you get him in one of the few times on
(19:42):
national TV where everybody is watching, it's oh boy, this
was not a really good game for Trevor Hoffman. Now
this is the guy we heard about, I mean, just
lights out for his career. You can hear the entry
music and all the pageantry celebration, but like you said,
most times people only saw it in the update and
their fantasy numbers are in the box score or maybe
(20:03):
a little early morning highlights while getting ready for work.
But forty two saves and forty eight opportunities. Uh during
the regular season heading into this faithful night. So Hoffman
comes into the bottom of the thirteen, You're thinking that's it,
Well not so much. Kazmat Suey, x Met now Good
and Tulawitski lead off with back to back doubles. So
(20:25):
now suddenly but now good. Yeah, they said that was
a big saying for a long time. X met or
ex Jet now good. That was the thing because kas
Mat sue is the guys supposed to push Jose Reyes
off a short stop. Oh no, kas Mat Suey is great. Yeah.
Now kas Mat sue reinvents himself when he matches with
the Colorado Rockies and anybody go if they got a
(20:46):
gift trip to Colorado was gonna put up some production
at least for a while. Hell, Mike Hampton didn't go
there for the schools or well, yeah, I don't go
in rake I don't like the schools and all the
big private schools that put people in Harve heard and Yale, No, no, no,
I don't want to go there. I want to make
sure we go to the school system in Colorado. You know,
he wanted to go and be the fourth outfielder. So,
(21:09):
I mean, you know, you just expect that you're going
to have an uptick in production. I'm sorry, buddy. So yeah,
I mean I was done with the medicine blowing the
lead and and uh and Glavin and so you have
Matsue and Tulawitski back to back doubles and makes the
score eight seven. Matt Holiday triples off the wall to
tie the game. Right, So now you gotta runner at
(21:31):
third and the game is tied and you're wondering what
has just happened? Now you're not taking Trevor Hoffman out
of the game. It's dude, You're either gonna win it
to lose this man, this is what we pay you for.
Come on, man, you gotta get stuff and done. Uh.
Then Jamie Carroll comes up, Remember who pinched rand for
Garrett Atkins and stayed in the game. He lines out
to Brian Giles, who makes a throw home and it
(21:54):
alludes catcher Michael Barrett. Right, Matt Holliday slides in safe
and Barrett is not sure whether or not Holiday touches
the plate, so he runs over to get the ball
and what does he get too far by him, and
this is a really exciting play. If you've seen the highlights,
it's phenomenal. Uh. He runs and gets the ball and
he comes back and he sees home plate umpire Tim
(22:15):
McClellan give the safe signal, so he doesn't even tag Holiday.
Holiday gets up, he starts going crazy. He's mobbed by
his teammates. Rockies win the game nine eight, and it's stunning.
Trevor Hoffman feels like he just walked on the mound
and like four minutes later he walks off and he
couldn't protect a two run lead, and this too game
(22:36):
run for Hoffman too. He really wants to just forget about.
I blew the game that got us into the play
in game, and now I blew the play in game.
And it happened that fast. It was like a lightning strike.
And suddenly the Padres have lost and the Rockies have one.
But this is where things get really interesting because replay
show Matt Holiday never touched the plate, didn't even get
(22:57):
close to it. So what should have happened was Barrett
gets the ball, tags Matt Holiday. It's a double play
and suddenly there's two outs. Look, the game is tied,
and you don't know what happens after that, but there's
two outs, nobody on in the game is tied, but
instead there's no tag made and Holiday is called safe. Now,
watching this, you can see McClellan doesn't make the call
(23:20):
right away. He watches the play happen, and you see
Holiday slides in and he doesn't make the call. And
then the ball gets away from Michael Barrett. And when
McClellan sees the ball get away, then he makes the
safe signal and that ends the game. Now, clearly, if
we had instant replay, we've gone back and said, you
see right here the replay, you gotta tag it, you
(23:41):
gotta complete the play. A Barrett should have tagged him
and it would have gone on. But McClellan. It was
very strange because I don't think McClellan saw it. I
don't think he saw Holiday touched the plate. I think
he couldn't tell. I think he hesitated calling him safe
and only did so when the ball got away from Barrett.
Like in his mind he thought, Okay, maybe he didn't
(24:01):
touch the plate, but the ball got away. He saved
game is over right. I really think that's what went
through his head. He didn't see it, and I was
really surprised that that was how you make the final call,
because if you don't see him touch the plate but
there's no call, Holliday touches the plate because if he
doesn't make the call, Holiday, I think, reaches back and
touches a plate before he gets tagged. But he doesn't,
(24:21):
you know, because he kind of sits there thinking I'm safe,
and you know, Barrett runs and gets the ball and
that's when McClellan calls him safe. Barrett still should have
tagged him, He still should have touched him, but Barrett
after the game and other people, other other members of
the padre said they didn't want to question Tim McClellan
because he had such an unimpeachable reputation that, Okay, McClellan
(24:44):
got the call right, Okay, we're walking away. I mean,
that was the reputation he had as an umpire, and
so when he misses a call like this, it's okay,
we get it, when nowadays it would be I don't
care what the guy's reputation is, Dad, we're gonna go
to replay. He is a human being. That is why
instant play, That's why the robot umpires are coming into
major League baseball. Man, we're seeing them in different levels.
(25:05):
They're testing the processes now. So I mean, in this one,
it's just clear. And I don't know what he was
waiting to call though, right, I mean, because it's not hey,
you made a tag on him, like the ball skips away,
you're looking confused, and then finally you get the slow
deliberate safe signal, and then there's the mosh pit behind
(25:29):
home plate. So it becomes an I guess a non
reviewable incident at that point once the first guy body
splashes him. But it's certainly a moment that major League Baseball.
Now you'd have guys throwing challenge flags all over the place. Yeah. Wait,
wait a minute, wait, and it's clear he never touched
(25:49):
the plate. It's not that well maybe not like oh no,
no, no no, Holiday never got you see how the this
is back when you blocked the plate and Barrett had
the plate blocked with his foot and there was a
way he was near it, and you know, listen, Matt
Holliday slid in, so I I can maybe it look
like I touched the plate and he called me safe.
He called me safe once he calls me safe. The
(26:10):
play is over, and I'm still kind of surprised Barrett
didn't try to tag him and argue, it's the end
of your season. And clearly he didn't touch the plate.
I tagged him, he should be out, but they didn't.
And I don't care who the umpire is now, I
don't care what you thought of him. That's how it
would go now. And it's kind of said a little
bit that you know, this is just thirteen years ago
that an umpire could have that much cash a that
(26:32):
nobody would think to question him because he was he
was thought of that highly. I mean, who thinks of
umpires that highly? Now? Anyway we see Joe West trends
on Twitter and and Angel Hernandez trends on Twitter's Okay,
what did these guys do? These are guys who think
people come to the ballpark to watch them umpire and
that's but I mean, it's only thirteen years ago that
we actually had some umps that people thought of that way,
(26:53):
and that was pretty cool. So what happened next for
both of these teams? For the Rockies, they went further
than any other year in recent history, and the Padres
kind of turned into the Padres we'll tell you what
that's all about coming up next, as well as how
I was the one to inform the Padres that Matt
Holliday didn't touch the play that's coming up next right
here on special Teams. So with this legendary game in
(27:30):
the books, the Colorado Rockies move on in the playoffs
and they get all the way to the World Series.
It is a huge season for them. They had never
gotten that far before. They haven't been back since. Matt
Holiday caps an incredible season. He goes to for six
in the playing game, wins the batting title over Chipper Jones.
He also won the RBI Crown, finished second though in
(27:53):
m v P voting to the Phillies Jimmy Rollins. Now, look,
both players had great cases to make for m v P.
Rollins was the guy who was a prophet who talked
about how the Phillies are gonna win the division even
when the Mets were up big late. Uh, Jimmy Rollins
is a prophet. So Rollins wins. And and look, let's
be honest, anytime someone puts up big numbers at corps,
(28:14):
if there's another player that puts up an equal type
of production, they're gonna get the benefit of the doubt
because look, hey, offensive numbers are inflated by corps Field.
So it was clear that Matt Holiday was gonna have
a losing battle to fight because hey, between Holiday and
Jimmy Rollins, boy Rollins did in Philadelphia, Holiday did his
damage in Colorado. Yeah, no, that that you're always gonna
(28:36):
get the benefit of the doubt. And I don't know
what the percentage was in terms of votes inflation. It's
like great inflation. I think that's what you got for
the Colorado Rocky squad. It's like, what do we give
them an extra half point? Is that what it's worth here?
Or strokes in golf, whatever the analogy you want to
work with. Here he got he got an issue. If
(28:56):
you were in Colorado, you were really gonna need to
hammer the competition. Uh. They wanted to get swept by
Boston in the World Series. Uh. Their entire franchise success
is that season. Now, they've made playoffs in recent years,
but they've also been terrible. They've still never won the
n L Weston That's kind of been their identity. Some years.
Can the Rockies hit enough to squeak into the playoffs.
(29:17):
Sometimes they don't hit, they don't pitch, and they wind
up finishing terrible. But really their entire franchise success is
about this game. This season and two thousand and seven
they have never hit those heights again. And really this
was their year. I mean, like I said, five guys
over nine d r B. I if you can't get
to the World Series that year, when are you gonna
get there? They got there, they were outclassed by Boston
(29:40):
who had been there before, had a few players who
were there coming off the two thousand four team. It's
only three years later for them. They're keeping the dynasty rolling.
And the Rockies weren't really competitive and it was a
shame to see it because they were young, they were exciting.
But this season you talk about two thousand seven, all
Rockies fans will tell you it was, Yeah, that was
the year. That was a year, that was the year. Now, well,
(30:01):
everything had gone right right down the stretch, that second
half momentum running through got you to the dance, but
then you're just outclassed. And it always is the all right,
if we had one more picture, but that's been the Rockies.
That's the unofficial, you know, subtitle for the team. If
we had one more picture. In some years it's been
(30:24):
if we had one picture at all. So yeah, offense, uh,
playing one one part of the game. Can't win in
the NFL, can't win in Major League Baseball. So that
was the Colorado Rockies. Now for the San Diego Padres,
and we'll get to my, uh my story in a second. Yeah, uh,
you know the most interesting player coming off this because
(30:44):
look that that was really the end of the good
times for the Padres. You know they had you know
that this is where they entered the time of Okay,
now we're just gonna wait and rebuild. How are you
to rebuild for a decade? Really, well, maybe longer than that,
but we're gonna rebuild now. But I look at somebody
like Khalil Green, and I I shake my head and go, boy,
this is just a microcosm of the Padres franchise in
(31:06):
two thousand seven. Khalil Green he was always he He's
the next great shortstop right in Major League baseball. Khalil
Green was, and he had had some really solid years,
right He had a he had years where he had
around two fifty two sixty, he had fifteen home runs
knocked in about seventy runs. Right, this was Khalil grand boy.
He's a young shortstop. He's coming on. In two thousand seven,
(31:28):
he slashed twenty seven homers, ninety seven rbi, and he
had two fifty four Alright, this is it. He's twenty seven,
he's entering his prime, and the and the Podres are
gonna ride him for the next five to seven years.
He's gonna be that good. I mean, he suddenly is
coming in and he's gonna be that great a player.
He only lasted two more years in the majors. He
(31:49):
was out of the majors in two thousand and nine
at the age of twenty nine with the St. Louis Cardinals.
He had mental anxiety issues, had a tough time dealing
with that. That was what helped force him out of
the game. And that's such a shame because he had
all the talent in the world and and there was
you know, I really thought, okay, he's comedies, comedies, comedies
coming and then he looks like he's right there, and
(32:12):
then he winds up having problems that prevent him from
becoming a star in Major League Baseball When it looked
like he had everything there for him. Yeah. I went
and played one more year, what seventy seven games in
two thousand nine for the Cardinals. Uh, and then was
out of baseball. And we'll get into him in the
where are they now? Uh segment of things. But you know,
(32:33):
you see that breakthrough two thousand seven season, You know
that was that was gonna be a star for them, Right.
I gotta hang their hat on uh and continue to
build with him and Gonzalez. You look like you at
least had two pieces moving forward. But it's the Padres.
We've had a lot of prospects that have come up.
How many times? Is it all right? The youth movement
(32:56):
part twenty seven that's really going to get things star
earning and move forward. Since this appearance and this battle
against the Rockies, they've had one season over. Uh. So
now you're ready for my story. I told the Padres
that that holiday didn't touch the plate. So Jeff Blum,
(33:17):
who I mentioned a few minutes ago, he would come
on my show on All Night, all the Time on
ESPN Radio what I did before I came to Fox,
and he was a great dude. He would talk about anything.
He was so much fun to come on. He would
come on once a week when they had an off day.
He was the best. We had him on UH during
his years with San Diego. We had him on with
the White Sox. He came on after he hit the
(33:39):
big home run that won the World Series. At won
Game three of the World Series. He was fantastic. He
was on Oprah with the team after they won. Blum
was a terrific dude. So I didn't talk to him
that night, but we talked to him the night after
and I came on and it was a big deal,
having a you know guy, remember from the padres On.
We're talking about it and I said, so, what was
it like last night? You know, you know, knowing that
(34:00):
Matt Holliday didn't touch the plate, And he said, you
want to hear a funny story? And I said sure,
And he said, we didn't know he didn't touch the plate.
I said, what he goes. We were getting on the
plane to go back to San Diego and I was
listening to you and you were talking about how Holliday
never touched the plate and how it wasn't even close.
And I take off my headphones and I tell some
of the guys, hey, I'm listening to Jason Smith on
(34:21):
ESPN Radio and he is saying that Matt Holliday never
touched the plate, and they were all the guys were
looking at him like what they were wanted to see
a replay and see it all. So a lot of
guys didn't know he didn't touch the plate until I,
you know, I was talking about it. Blum was listening,
took off his headphone and said, hey, guys, uh, Holliday
never touched the plate. So I was, I was. I
kind of broke that news to him by way of
(34:41):
the radio. And now they're all contained within an air airliner.
You do with that? Can you believe that he didn't
touch the plate? Come on this plane? Soon? We got
some piste off people. Man, hey, no, Holliday never touched
the plate. That's crazy. Oh and you want even a
to addendum to this story. Okay, this is the best,
(35:03):
even a better addendum. So at ESPN, it was like
a week before this, our one of our big managers said, hey, listen,
we're looking to put together reels of stuff when people
outside of ESPN mentioned us in our programming, and we
said okay, And he said, like, for instance, the other day,
Bud Sealing mentioned Mike and Mike, and he mentioned them
(35:24):
because they were talking about what he was labor negotiations,
just something, and Bud Sealing in an interview said, well,
you know, I heard Mike and Mike, you know, talking
about this on ESPN radio. Blah blah blah blah blah. Okay,
I get it. So this happens. We got this with
Jeff Blum, right, this is a big deal. Like, oh
my god, so I he just told me that. Listening
to to our show, they wound up finding out that
Holliday didn't touch the plate. I gave it to my manager.
(35:46):
This is exactly what they want. I'm thinking, this is
gonna be great for us. Never use it. Never did
it just I wasn't big enough because I was on Overnight,
So they're like, oh, we don't need to put that
on there. I'm like, that's exactly what you asked for.
It's exactly what you wanted, and I gave it to you.
I mean, how many other shows can do that. I
gave it to you. It's a big game. It was
a big deal, and you didn't use it because I
was on Overnight and I was so disappointed, and you look,
(36:10):
you know reason number four. When I say ESPN they
only want to promote like two or three shows. They
don't care about anybody else. I was so disappointed because
it was it was what they asked for to the letter.
When somebody else is talking about listening to ESPN, rated
here it is. I had it right here. Here's a
guy you played in the game and that Nope, they
didn't use it. Now because I was on overnight, I
(36:30):
was so mad. I was so mad about that. Laid
it up precisely as ordered. I mean, it was almost
according to the script. Boy. All right, So speaking of
where are they now? Where are some of the players
from this game? Mr? Harmon? All right? We got a
lot of people that still stuck around Major League Baseball.
And as I referenced before, I was like, hey, let's
bring up this name. Nah, bring up the nah. A
(36:52):
bunch of guys that got some legal things. You look
those up on your own time. Uh you got Joe Thatcher,
assistant coach at Indiana University, Cocomokemo. Yeah, exactly. That's where
I want to go to get away from it all
down in Kokomo, especially in Indiana. Montego, Baby, why don't
(37:15):
we go Florida? Keys say Jamaica. Okay, there my dad
Bermuda Bahamas. Come on pretty mama, Key Largo Montego, I
miss Key Largo. That's the one. I'm a baby. Why
don't we go around to Cocomo? Uh? Yeah, now, I'm
I really, I'm doing spoken word. Jamie Carroll is a
special assistant to the front office of the Pittsburgh Pirates
(37:38):
Jeff Baker. His dad was a United States Army colonel,
so he's very heavily involved with Wounded Warrior Project. Turmel
Sledge is the hitting coach for the Cubs. Well, if
your name is Sledge, you better be a hitting coach.
I mean really, come on, Hey, who's gonna help you out? Sledge?
Oh yeah, I'm gonna learn how to hit? Really with Well,
I think that would give you an inside track. You know,
(38:00):
us get a little bit of a job opportunity and
then you gotta make the most of it. Uh. And
then you mentioned Khalil Green. We talked about him and
his anxiety issues. Uh, they tried to do awhere are
they now? For the you know Cardinals writers saying hey,
let's you know, follow up on and he's in Greer,
South Carolina. But doesn't talk. Wow. Basically, I guess been
(38:22):
telling teammates that as soon as he was done, he
would disappear. And he's done as best as he can.
Just that. I had a guy worked with he used
to say that. He used to say, Hey, when I quit,
You're never gonna see me again. I go, yeah, but dude,
we hang out all the time, we hang out at work,
we go out. He goes, yeah, when I quit, you're
never gonna see me again. I'm gonna be gone, and said, Okay,
I guess what happened. The guy quit. I never saw
(38:43):
him again, and that was well. Hopefully he's doing okay again.
You know, look playing in a game like this, having
a career, you know, making it to the majors, all
that talent in the world. Hopefully he's doing okay. Uh.
This has been Special Teams with Jason Smith and Mike
Harmon as we look back our first of our two
week look back at game number one sixty three's that
(39:05):
have been big in Major League Baseball in the past
few years, which kind of gives you a hint is
the game we're gonna talk about next week. If you
have any ideas for future episodes on Special Teams. Hit
us up on Twitter at how about a Fresca Mike
at Swollen Dome. Don't forget to rate us. If you
love to give us five stars. Will love you forever
and ever. It allows us to continue to bring you
content like this. If you hate us, you can say
(39:27):
you hate us, still give us five stars. It's okay.
I won't tell anybody. We'll talk to you next week
on Special Teams. Before you go, rate and review the show.
Whether you're listening on I heart radio, I heart radio apps, Apple,
(39:48):
whatever it is, give us a rate, tell us you
like it. We will love you forever and ever and ever. Yeah.
Special Teams is a production of I heart Radio. For
(40:09):
more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the I heart
Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
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