2005: Favorite Moment in Sports

Its strange, my favorite moment in Sports came in a game that was essentially meaningless in the outcome of a series and a season, but just the sheer awe that it inspired justifies it.

It was Game 5 in the 2005 NLCS, and the hosting Houston Astros were up 3 games 1 and took a 4-2 lead into the 9th inning.

In comes Bradley Lidge (Unironically he plays a part in my 2008 moment) who had turned into one of the more elite closers in the game.

In what would look familiar to any Phillies fan in 2009, Lidge had trouble sealing the deal. He got the first two outs really without much work. Lidge was a strike away, but then “Old Scrappy” David Eckstein got a single up the middle and Jim Edmonds walked to bring the winning run to the plate in the form of one Mr. Albert Pujols.

Now, at this time, Albert Pujols wasn’t “Albert Pujols”. He was the best young player in the game and quickly was setting up to take his throne as the player of the decade. Its what happened here that sent him into that stratosphere.

Lidge threw a fastball right down the middle, and that puppy was dead-red. Pujols made what I hold is the prettiest swing I’ve ever seen in my entire life as he crushed the ball over 390 ft over the train tracks in Minute Maid Park, but in all reality it would have easily gone over 500 ft. The entire stadium went from sheer excitement and anticipation to utter shock. Never in my life have I seen that many people fall silent; if Joe Buck wasn’t announcing I think you could have heard the Big Red Machine marching through the base paths.

The Cards would win Game 5, but lost the series in Game 6. However, Lidge wasn’t the same pitcher after.

In law and statistics, one of the chief questions you have to ask is “Post hoc, ergo propter hoc”, which is latin for “After this, because of this” and is meant to question causation. Often things like this are blown out of proportion (i.e. Alex Rodriguez isn’t “clutch”) but this has to be at least part of the reason for why a pitcher who had no problems before this, went into total breakdown mode from that moment on for two years (and 3 out of 4).

A moment that had no bearing on an ultimate result, but one which seemingly had lasting ramifications.