October 23, 1993: Game 6 of the World Series, at the SkyDome in Toronto. The Toronto Blue Jays lead the Philadelphia Phillies 3 games to 2, but trail 6-5 in the bottom of the 9th.
Mitch Williams comes in to close it out for the Phils, but allows 2 runners, before Joe Carter comes to bat. Carter would go on to hit 396 home runs in regular season play, so he was no Bucky Dent, or Bernie Carbo, or Geoff Blum. He hit more home runs in his career than Chris Chambliss, or Bobby Thomson, or Kirk Gibson, or Carlton Fisk did in theirs. So giving up a home run to him was no shame, though you don't want to lose the World Series on any pitch to any player.
Carter sends a screaming liner down the left-field line, just clearing the fence, and just fair. Home run. Toronto 8, Philadelphia 6. The Jays have won back-to-back World Championships.
Only Bill Mazeroski, who ended a World Series Game 7 with a home run in 1960, has ever hit a bigger home run than this.
That night, on Saturday Night Live, Chris Farley played Phillies 1st baseman John Kruk during "Weekend Update," and was asked by anchorman Kevin Nealon why he wasn't in Toronto with his team. He said he'd forgotten, and asked what happened. When Nealon told him Toronto won 8-6, Farley-as-Kruk got up, looked deflated, and said, "I shoulda been there." In reality, Kruk went 0-for-3, although he did draw 2 walks.
Williams, a.k.a. the Wild Thing, has often been blamed for losing the Series. But it was Game 6, so if the Phils had won, they still would have had to play Game 7, on the road, against the defending World Champions. The rest of the Philly bullpen hadn't been much better in this Series. Where the Phils really lost the Series was in Game 4, when they blew a 14-9 lead at Veterans Stadium and lost 15-14. The Jays were very experienced, already accomplished, at home, and the better team. Besides, the Phils wouldn't have gotten into the World Series without Williams.
This game has been cited as part of "The Curse of Billy Penn": From 1983, when the Philadelphia 76ers won the NBA Championship, until 2008, when the Phillies won their next World Series, no Philadelphia professional sports team won a World Championship. The suggestion was that the construction of One Liberty Place in 1987, making it taller than the statue of William Penn atop City Hall, caused Penn's spirit to put a curse on the city's teams.
When the Vet closed in 2003, Williams was one of the in-uniform attendees, and was cheered, rather than subjected to the well-known venom of "the Philadelphia Boo-Birds." All was forgiven.
And in the 21 years from 1994 to 2014, the Phillies played 46 postseason games. The Jays, none. It took the Jays until 2015 to get back into the Playoffs; until they did, they'd gone longer without making the Playoffs than any other team. From 1994 to 2021, the Phillies have won 2 Pennants and 1 World Series. The Blue Jays have gotten to the ALCS twice, but have not won a Pennant.
In 2010, the MLB Network listed this game at 14th on their list of MLB's 20 Greatest Games -- limited in scope, due to the availability of surviving videotape, to 1975 onward.
In 1978, the Philadelphia Phillies instituted a team Wall of Fame. From the 1993 "Macho Row" squad, they have elected Darren Daulton, John Kruk, Curt Schilling, coach John Vukovich, broadcasters Richie Ashburn and Harry Kalas, and executives Paul Owens and David Montgomery. They have not elected manager Jim Fregosi. Schilling, Kalas, Owens, Montgomery, team owner Bill Giles, and Veterans Stadium public address announcer Dan Baker have also been elected to the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame.
It says something about the Phillies that, between their 1983 and 1993 Pennants, the only player elected to the Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame has been Juan Samuel; and that, between their 1993 and 2008 Pennants, the only players elected have been Mike Lieberthal, Jim Thome, Bobby Abreu and Scott Rolen. And Thome and Rolen were basically elected only because they were elected to the main Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, and those elections were mainly on the basis of what they did with other teams.
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October 23, 1993 was a Saturday. Florida State was then ranked Number 1 in both major college football polls, but did not play that week. These notable college football games were played:
* Number 2 Notre Dame beat USC, 31-13 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. Notre Dame would beat Florida State 3 weeks later, in one of those occasional "Games of the Century," but lost the following week to Boston College, costing them the National Championship.
* Boston College beat Army, 41-14 at Alumni Stadium in the Boston suburb of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. They would rise to Number 13 in the postseason poll, so their stunning 41-39 win away to Notre Dame was no fluke.
* Number 3 Ohio State beat Purdue, 45-24 at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana. The next week, Penn State, idle on this day, walked into Ohio Stadium in Columbus ranked Number 12, and walked out defeated by the Buckeyes, 24-6.
* Number 4 Alabama, the defending National Champions, coming off a tie against Tennessee that dropped them from Number 2, beat Mississippi (a.k.a. Ole Miss), 19-14 at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Mississippi. 'Bama finished 9-3-1, but would eventually have to forfeit all but 1 of their wins, and the tie with Tennessee, due to NCAA rule violations that got them put on probation.
Ironically, 'Bama's arch-rivals, Auburn, were on probation that season, but went undefeated. They did not play on this day, but did beat 'Bama to finish 11-0 and ranked Number 6. But they were ineligible to improve upon that in a bowl game.
* Number 5 Nebraska beat Missouri, 49-7 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska. Nebraska rose to Number 2, and played Florida State for the National Championship in the Orange Bowl. For once, Florida State, known for missing late field goals, made one, and Nebraska missed one on the final play, giving Florida State an 18-16 victory. But Nebraska won the next 2 National Championships.
* Number 6 Miami beat Syracuse, 49-0 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.
* Number 13 Michigan was upset by Illinois, 24-21 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. But after starting the season 4-4, the Wolverines recovered, winning their last 4 games, including beating Ohio State.
* Minnesota upset rival Wisconsin, then ranked Number 15, 28-21 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis, to win the trophy known as Paul Bunyan's Axe.
* Princeton beat Harvard, 21-10 at Harvard Stadium in Boston.
* And Rutgers lost to Virginia Tech, 49-42 at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Virginia. Rutgers played all its home games at the Meadowlands that season, as the 1938 Rutgers Stadium was being demolished and replaced with a new stadium, now named SHI Stadium. In spite of this, the only "home" crowd they got that wouldn't have fit in the old Rutgers Stadium was the 37,035 they got against Boston College, who brought so many fans, it felt like an away game for Rutgers. (The Meadowlands is 36 miles from SHI Stadium.)
The NBA season didn't start until November 5. But there were 11 NHL games played that day:
* The New Jersey Devils beat the Florida Panthers, 2-1 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands. Devils Captain Scott Stevens scored the winner, shorthanded, 3:12 into the 3rd period. The Devils had now started the season 7-0, but would lose their next game.
* The New York Islanders played the Ottawa Senators to a tie, 5-5 at the Nassau Coliseum. (The New York Rangers did not play that day.)
* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 9-6 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.
* The defending Stanley Cup Champion Montreal Canadiens beat the expansion Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, 4-1 at the Montreal Forum.
* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Dallas Stars, 3-2 at the Colisee de Quebec.
* The Buffalo Sabres and the Hartford Whalers played to a tie, 3-3 at the Hartford Civic Center. (Now the PeoplesBank Arena Center.)
* The St. Louis Blues and the Pittsburgh Penguins played to a tie, 3-3 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.
* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 2-0 at the ThunderDome in St. Petersburg, Florida. (Now Tropicana Field.)
* The Chicago Blackhawks beat their arch-rivals, the Detroit Red Wings, 4-2 at the Chicago Stadium.
* The Boston Bruins and the Calgary Flames played to a tie, 3-3 at the Saddledome in Calgary.
* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the San Jose Sharks, 6-4 at the San Jose Arena. (Now the HP Pavilion.)
Also, my former high school, East Brunswick in Middlesex County, New Jersey, beat J.P. Stevens of nearby Edison, 35-0 at Jay Doyle Field in East Brunswick.
And Arsenal could only manage a draw with Oldham Athletics, 0-0 at Boundary Park in Oldham, outside Manchester.
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