World Series, games 1 and 2

Game 1

The series starts in New York after hard fought 7 game series for both participants. Miami sends their old ace, Sunsurf, the last active member of the 1987 Shockers, to the mound. For New York its Pedro Lewis, considered by many the best pitcher in the game today.
Through the first 6 innings, it’s a scoreless pitcher’s duel. New York had a leadoff double by Jackie Garrison in the first, but broke too soon on a line drive by Manfred Mueller, which was caught and turned into a double play. In the 3rd, Pedro singled, followed by another Garrison double. Pedro Lewis, not used to baserunning, held at second. Mueller lifted a fly to right, but Lewis held at 3rd, as Favre has got the gun in right. Miami got out of the inning when Brett Solo lined to first, with Bubba Lewis making a spectacular diving catch and firing to second for a double play.

Pedro Lewis gave Miami few chances to score until the 7th, when Geoff Favre led off with a homerun. After a Damon Nkik triple and a walk by Ryan Kashiwada, Bubba Lewis hit one over Chad White’s head for a 2 run double. Sunsurf pitched 7 shutout innings for the win. Pedro struck out 9 in 7 1/3 innings. Miami added 3 more in the 9th and won the game 6-0 to take the first game of the series.

Game 2

For the second straight game, RJ Duke made an unconventional response to not having the DH rule: he started Matt McCoy, one of his best hitters (and slowest runners) at second base so that he could get his bat into the first inning. Unlike game one, McCoy came through this time with a 2 out double. He was immediately pinch run for by the real second baseman, Jim Fanning, who scored the first run off Stuart Coppolla on a Damon Nkik single.

Joe Thomas tied the game in the second with a homerun off Ed LeRoy. Ryan Kashiwada homered for Miami in the 4th. Manfred Mueller and Keith Lee gave New York the lead with RBI hits in the 5th. Kashiwada tied the game at 3 with a 6th inning RBI triple, but in the bottom of the inning Brett Solo scored on an error by Bubba Lewis. New York failed to add an insurance run in the 7th when Favre gunned down Keith Lee at the plate to end the inning.

New York took a 4-3 lead into the 8th. Rudiger Rocker came in to pitch to Brian Kaat. Kaat doubled. Favre flew out, but then Rocker got wild and walked Jim Fanning. Rudiger struck out Nkik for the second out, then New York manager Eddie Bird went to his bullpen for ace Troy Everett. At that point, Bird wanted to avoid having Everett bat in the bottom of the inning, so he made a double switch.

The only problem was that the best candidate to leave the game for the double switch was second baseman Joe Thomas. This had never happened before. Joe is accustomed to playing the whole game. In fact, he had played in 1,986 consecutive games, a league record and more than anyone outside of Lou Gehrig and Cal Ripken. At first Joe looked confused. The game wasn’t over. Reporters would find out later that Joe had never watched a game from off the field in his life. After a few confused moments, Joe approached a tearful Eddie Bird, and said two words: "I understand". Joe left the field to a standing ovation. Even the jawas in the Miami dugout participated.

Everett, however, was unable to find the strike zone against Kashiwada, loading the bases for the dangerous Bubba Lewis. For the second straight game, Lewis cleared the bases with a double. Miami led 6-4. Joel Shapiro pitched a scoreless 9th before Bob Belardi set the Cobras down 1-2-3 in the 9th.

Miami had gone into the Lion’s den, and left with a 2-0 lead. And it dawned on the New York fans that they might have cheered for Joe Thomas for the last time.