On the evening of Wed., Sept. 29, 2011, the final day of regular season baseball, the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox were in a tie for the AL wild-card spot. If it had stayed that way, the teams would have headed to Tropicana Field on Thur. evening for a one game playoff.
But, it just “wasn’t in the cards”, because something happened that night that would make this day go down in the MLB history books as one of the greatest days in the history of baseball. There never has been anything quite like this in regular season baseball before.
The Tampa Bay Rays ended up with a “7-come from behind victory” to beat the Yankees. Within minutes of that victory, the Boston Red Sox “collapsed”, when they let that one last ball get away from them and the Orioles won that game by a score of 4-3.
The Boston Red Sox became the first MLB team to miss the postseason after having a 9 game lead over Tampa Bay, only 3 1/2 weeks earlier. It’s enough to make you cry, if you’re a Boston Red Sox fan.
The Tampa Bay Rays rallied from a 7-0 deficit, tying the Yankees when pitch-hitter Dan Johnson, a guy barely hitting .100, saved the season with a solo homer in the 9th inning. I would guess Mr. Johnson could probably be called the hero in this game.
The 2011 regular MLB baseball season will be one that will be remembered as being quite eventful by baseball fans across the nation, with all it’s ups and downs. The Minnesota Twins ended up having the worst season in the history of their franchise, with a loss of 99 games during the 2011 season. They almost made that 100 losses, but did manage to come up with a victory on Wed., the day that baseball history was made with that infamous Red Sox collapse, and Tampa Bay victory.
If the last day of the 2011 MLB regular season is any indication, we could be in for some very exciting playoff games and a memorable World Series.
Source: msnbc.com/sports-baseball