July 3, 1993: Baseball at 4:40 AM

July 3, 1993: The previous evening, a doubleheader began at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. This was forced by a rainout earlier in the season. These games were also delayed by rain. And delayed. And delayed. Given that the Philadelphia Phillies were hosting the San Diego Padres, and this was the Padres' last visit to Philadelphia that season, they couldn't delay it beyond that day.

By 1993, the Phillies were in their 10th season without having made the Playoffs. The team led by Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton had gotten not just old, but boring. As the 1990s dawned, the team was still bad, but by no means was it boring. The '93 Phils would become known as "Macho Row."

They were comparable in both talent and attitude to the 1986 World Champion New York Mets, and had one thing in common: Lenny Dykstra, the center fielder known as "Nails" in New York, but, in Philadelphia, more often called "Dude," because "Dude" was what he called everybody else. He was a tobacco-chewing scrapper, a solid contact hitter with a little power, who loved to crash into center field fences as he made catches.

In 1990, the Phillies acquired former Braves star Dale Murphy, known for a squeaky-clean image that was the opposite of Dykstra's. So they posed for an ad together, with Murphy's uniform completely clean and Dykstra's covered with infield dirt, labeled "Dr. Dirt and Mr. Clean." But a knee injury led the Phillies to release him at the start of the 1993 season. Murphy soon retired, and was not a part of the amazing Philly season that followed.

They had outfielder Jim Eisenreich, who left the Minnesota Twins in 1984, going on the voluntary retirement list due to the severity of his Tourette syndrome. He was replaced on the Twins' roster by Kirby Puckett, who went to the Hall of Fame. "Eisey" recovered enough by 1987 to return to the major leagues, and play another 12 seasons. In 1990, he received the 1st Tony Conigliaro Award, given to MLB players who have overcome significant obstacles. (The NBA has no corresponding award, but the NFL has the George Halas Award, and the NHL has the Bill Masterton Trophy.)

They had catcher Darren Daulton, who was an inspirational leader on the field, but a troubled man off it. Like Dykstra, "Dutch" had a drinking problem that resulted in the loss of his driver's license. He also believed in UFOs and studied the occult.

They had 1st baseman John Kruk. The Krukker can be best summed up by this story: A female reporter saw him in the locker room, covering his strong but flabby body with only a towel, and smoking a cigarette. She told him, "You don't look like an athlete." He said, "I ain't an athlete, lady. I'm a baseball player." He survived cancer to return to playing, retired on his own terms with a lifetime batting average of exactly .300, titled his memoir I Ain't an Athlete, Lady, and became a popular studio analyst on ESPN.

And then there were the pitchers. Bobby Thigpen had set a major league record (since broken) of 57 saves with the 1990 Chicago White Sox, but had slipped to the point where the ChiSox were willing to trade him. They had Terry Mulholland, who pitched a no-hitter for them in 1990. They had Tommy Greene, who pitched a no-hitter for them in 1991.

In 1986, while pitching for the San Francisco Giants, Mulholland fielded a comebacker from Keith Hernandez of the New York Mets, but the ball got stuck in the webbing of his glove, and he couldn't get it out. Not sure of whether it would count as an out, he took off the glove, and threw it to 1st baseman Will Clark, who caught it. The umpires ruled it as an out. In 1998, the same thing would happen to Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez of the New York Yankees.

A note about Mulholland's no-hitter: It was the 1st one pitched by a Phillie since 1971, when Rick Wise did it against the Cincinnati Reds, and also hit 2 home runs in the game. The last out of Wise's no-hitter was Pete Rose hitting a liner that was caught by the Phillies' 3rd baseman, John Vukovich. Mulholland's was against the Giants, and the last out was Gary Carter hitting a liner that was caught by the Phillies' 3rd baseman, Charlie Hayes. In between was the entire career of Mike Schmidt, the greatest player in Phillies history, and the greatest 3rd baseman of all time. But for all of Schmidt's achievements, playing on the winning side of a no-hitter was not one of them.

The Phillies had Danny Jackson. Jackson was used to winning, having won the World Series with the 1985 Kansas City Royals and the 1990 Cincinnati Reds, and reached the Playoffs with the 1992 Pittsburgh Pirates. He liked to celebrate wins by posing like a professional wrestler, sometimes even tearing his jersey off. He fit right in on this team.

There was Larry Andersen, one of the game's great characters, known for pulling pranks on teammates and coaches alike. He had been on the Phillies' 1983 Pennant winners, and reached the Playoffs with the 1986 Houston Astros and the 1990 Boston Red Sox. (The Red Sox traded Jeff Bagwell to get him, considered one of their worst trades ever.) The Phillies picked him up as a result of the recent Padres "salary dump," a.k.a. "fire sale."

And there was Curt Schilling. Eventually, he would be known as one of the great clutch pitchers of all time. For now, he was known to have great speed, but to also be rather difficult to get along with. Lee Thomas, the Phils' general manager from 1988 to 1997, said of him, "One day out of five, he's a horse. The other four, he's a horse's ass."

And they had Mitch Williams. Formerly of the Chicago Cubs, the lefthander was a bit wild, both as a pitcher and as a man. But when he got the ball over the plate, he was hard to hit. Formerly wearing Number 28, somebody called him "The Wild Thing," the nickname of Ricky Vaughn, the pitcher played by Charlie Sheen in the 1989 baseball-themed film Major League. Vaughn wore Number 99, so Williams switched to that number.

The opener of this doubleheader at The Vet began at 4:44 PM on July 2, and the Padres won, 5-2. Fred McGriff, soon to be traded to the Braves by the struggling Padres as part of their season-long salary dump, hit a home run. Tony Gwynn went 1-for-4. Mark Ettles, pitching in relief, collected his 1st major league win -- and his last. Mulholland was the losing pitcher.

With the delays, the nightcap didn't begin until 1:28 – AM, on July 3. For comparison's sake: This game was in the National League, while, at the time, the American League had a curfew, stating that no inning could start after 1:00 AM. This game was starting after that time. And most of the announced crowd of 54,617 fans at The Vet were still there at that point.

Andy Benes started for San Diego, Jose DeLeón for Philadelphia. The Padres took a 5-0 lead into the bottom of the 4th inning, thanks in part to a home run by Craig Shipley. It looked like a long night for the Phils was going to be even longer than it seemed.

But they weren't called the Fightin' Phils (or, sometimes, just the Fightin's) for nothing. They picked up a run in the bottom of the 4th. Ricky Jordan hit a 3-run homer in the 5th. A single by Daulton tied the game in the 8th.

Phils manager Jim Fregosi knew that his bullpen was gassed. Pretty much the only pitcher he still had who could throw was his closer, Mitch Williams. He got through the top of the 9th without allowing a run. The game went to extra innings, and Williams pitched a 1-2-3 top of the 10th.

Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Even if you're a future Hall-of-Famer. The Padres brought on their closer, Trevor Hoffman, the man who would briefly become the major leagues' all-time leader in saves, and remains the leader for the NL. But he began the bottom of the 10th by walking Pete Incaviglia. He gave up a single to Eisenreich. He struck out Daulton.

Williams was up next, with the winning run on 2nd base. In his career to that point, Williams was 2-for-15 at the plate, a lifetime batting average of .133.But this was the NL, before 2022: No designated hitter. Fregosi had to let Williams bat for himself, because, regardless of which available hitters he had left, he had no more available pitchers, unless he wanted to mess up his rotation by putting a starter in, or let a position player pitch.

It was now the latest-ending game in Major League Baseball history: 4:40 AM. (On July 3, sunrise in Philadelphia occurs at 5:37 AM.) Williams stood in against Hoffman. Batting lefthanded, he smacked the ball into left field. Harry Kalas, voice of the Phillies since The Vet opened in 1971, had the call, as his broadcast partner, Richie Ashburn, the Phils' Hall of Fame center fielder of the 1950s, could be heard cheering in the background:

Now, the stretch, and the pitch: Swing, and a base hit, to left-center field! Incaviglia's gonna score! This game is over, on an RBI hit by Mitchie-poo! The Phils have won it, 6-5 in 10, on the Wild Thing's RBI hit! Can you believe it?

Somehow, I don't think Williams minded Kalas calling him "Mitchie-poo."

With this game finally in the books, the Phillies were 6 games ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Eastern Division. The season wasn't even halfway over, but the Phils had made a big statement: This is a different team, we are going to fight like hell for every game, and we are not going away quietly.

Five days later, Dykstra hit a ground-rule double in the bottom of the 20th inning, to give the Phillies a 7-6 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers as The Vet.

They adopted "Whoomp (There It Is)," perhaps the song of the Summer of '93, by rap duo Tag Team, as their theme song. On August 29, they beat the Reds, 12-0. They were now 10 games ahead of the Cardinals, and 10 1/2 ahead of the Montreal Expos, with 32 games to go.

However, another slip in September caused some newspaper columnists to compare the club to the infamous 1964 Phillies. They lost 5 of 7 games at home to the Cubs and the Astros, then lost 2 of 3 at Olympic Stadium, which brought the Expos to within 4 games with 13 remaining.

All that was laid to rest on September 28, when the Phils clinched the NL East with a 10–7 win over the Pirates at Three Rivers Stadium. Mariano Duncan hit a grand slam to lead a comeback, and little-used Donn Pall closed out the game, touching off a wild celebration for their 1st division crown in 10 years.

Outfielder Wes Chamberlain ended all the references to 1964, screaming, "It's 1993, baby! It ain't 1964. Where are those ghosts now?" Kalas called the team "this wonderful band of throwbacks." In the locker room after the game, Kalas sang a song from his youth, Frank Sinatra's 1960 hit "High Hopes." This replaced "Whoomp! (There It Is)" as the team's theme song, and it has remained so ever since.

On October 13, they beat the Braves, 6-3 in Game 6 of the NL Championship Series, to take their 1st Pennant in 10 years, only the 5th in their 111-season history. Mitch Williams got the final out. They would not be so lucky in the World Series -- Williams, especially so. But they made an impact as one of the most beloved teams in Philadelphia sports history.

*

July 3, 1993 was a Saturday. These other Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* In the Phillies game actually scheduled for July 3, they lost to the Padres, 6-4. Greg Harris outpitched Danny Jackson. Fred McGriff homered for San Diego, Lenny Dykstra for Philadelphia.

* The New York Yankees lost to the Oakland Athletics, 5-4 at the Oakland Coliseum. Goose Gossage pitched in relief for the A's against the Yankees. Don Mattingly went 2-for-4.

* The New York Mets beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-3 at Shea Stadium. Jeromy Burnitz hit a home run for the Mets, and Royce Clayton hit one for the Giants. Barry Bonds went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-4 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Florida Marlins, 11-2 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-3 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Detroit Tigers, 11-5 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox, 9-6 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago. Cal Ripken Jr. went 0-for-3 with 2 walks.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Minnesota Twins, 3-1 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 3-2 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. In his final season, George Brett went 0-for-4.

* The Houston Astros beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-0 at the Astrodome in Houston. Darryl Kile pitched a 6-hit shutout.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-4 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the California Angels, 5-3 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

* And the Boston Red Sox beat the Seattle Mariners, 6-5 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Ken Griffey Jr. went 2-for-4 with a home run.