FanPost

Those were good times, man, good times!: Your memories of game 5 of the 2002 ALDS


So:

The idea for this thread came during a tangent on Randball's exceptional (as always) article for Demon's training video. The very idea of hilarious fielding errors inevitably led to a mention of Torii Hunter making an erroneous, ill-conceived...yeah, 2006. Just the thought of that moment still leaves Twins diehards colder than Ferdinand Marcos's corpse. So, to break a free-fall into inconsolable depression, someone (I think Hillstop) suggested we talk about 2002 instead. The time WE upset an A's team that was slated to go all the way. And I've been meaning to post this for sometime, as it is still one of my greatest baseball memories. Besides, we haven't won a playoff series since then, so without further ado: Tell your story of experiencing game five of the 2002 ALDS! Mine after the jump.

First off, for such a great day for me as a fan, it's interesting to note that I wasn't able to watch a single second of this game. Why is quite funny: I spent the whole day with my sisters and grandparents driving to Anaheim, where I would eventually see our boys tumble agains the Angels in the ALCS, but that's another story. Anyway, this series had thus far been a see-saw experience, and I even got to see the Twins get drubbed in person in game two. But game five's progress was a complete mystery to me driving down south due to a lack of sports radio reception. So I just sat in the front seat, clad in all of my Twins gear, nervously pondering what was going on. And when I say nervous, I mean nervous. I had a pit in my stomach that wouldn't go away, and every thought was consumed by anxiety. When we stopped at a Chinese restaurant in Bakersfield, I just sat there in silence, my only words coming when I asked the waitress if they had a TV.

Not long after leaving, however, we were able to tune into ESPN radio. Bottom of the 9th, no less, after the calamity of the Pierzynski homer and Mark Ellis's homer (without the former of which the game would have been over). I sweated each moment until Durham popped out to Denny Hocking in foul territory (which over the radio felt like an eternity), and went absolutely crazy in the front seat. I popped in Daft Punk's "Discovery" album to multiply the good vibes. Ah. That was a great day. And a great season.

Goddamn you, Adam Kennedy.

Now, how about yourselves?

P.S. You can actually download the whole ESPN broadcast of this game on iTunes via their "Baseball's Best" library, but it's a terrible file, as the audio and video become vastly unsynched after awhile. They need to work on their baseball downloads.