Remembering Kim Batiste

Let’s take a minute to remember Kim Batiste. In Game 1 of the 1993 NLCS the Phillies were leading the Braves 3-2 going into the 9th. In came Mitch Williams to pitch and Kim Batiste replaced Dave Hollins for defensive purposes. What happened? Batiste made an error on a Mark Lemke ground ball, so much for the defensive replacement. Two batters later Otis Nixon, on what should have been the third out, knocked in the tying run on a ground ball.

All was not lost for Batiste. With the game still tied in the bottom of the 10th John Kruk doubled with one out and that brought Batiste to the plate. He hit one down the 3rd base line. There was no way fleet footed Terry Pendleton was going to stop that one. Kruck scored and the Phillies won Game 1.

I couldn’t find video of that game, but here is the box score and play-by-play. I took some of the finer details from that play-by-play, but I actually remembered most of it.

That game was 15 years ago. I remember watching in my room, which is odd cause I didn’t have a TV in my room. I think because the games were going to be on late my parents put a TV in my room thinking that at least I would be ‘in bed’ even if I wasn’t getting to sleep until late. There is a good lesson there, always let your kids stay up for those moments. They may not come again for quite a while. I don’t remember too much about the rest of that series. I remember when we clinched in Game 6, because I was there, only a few rows behind the Braves dugout. I really wish I had a camera back then. I can’t remember if I took a camera, even if I did, I was very short and probably wouldn’t have gotten very good shots.

Now the Phillies are back there. I can’t tell you how excited I am. I was tense the whole game when we clinched the division. I couldn’t sit still during the games against the Brewers, especially in the later innings. This is a family problem, my mom can’t even watch the games, she paces around too much. When we won that series on Sunday I did a little screaming and jumping up and down. I was very sick this weekend so my celebrating was limited.

I’m not making a prediction, I don’t have any clue what is going to happen. We could sweep or get swept. Or it could be a very painful 7 games. I’m going to watch every pitch and realize that it could be another 15 years before I see any of this again.