I also wrote the whole thing from memory, and doubtless got some of the specifics wrong. Feel free to let me know if you feel I made a really glaring error, but I was trying more for the general feel of events than to get every last bit perfect.

The real excitement was in the American League, though, where the Yankees and Mariners had gotten their acts together after mid-season injury bouts, while the Angels were suffering one of the historic collapses of the game. Having held a 10-game lead in early August, they lost 80% of their games over the next month, and saw the Mariners close the gap. It came down to the final day, when New York clinched the wild card berth, and California and Seattle... were tied!

No doubt Jason Sacks will tell you of the uproar that a winning team caused in his city, but in playing - and winning - the first tie-breaking game baseball had seen since 1978, the Mariners were elevated to the level of folk heroes in very short order. Randy Johnson, the clear selection for the Cy Young award, shut down the Angels and the Mariners finished only their second winning season in their 19-year history with their first trip to the playoffs. (Only Texas and Florida have never made the playoffs.)

The first round of playoffs was mostly unexciting. Atlanta downed Colorado and Cincinnati rocked Los Angeles to advance to the National League Championship Series, while my Boston Red Sox sadly collapsed against the team with the best record in baseball in 1995, the Cleveland Indians. The Sox' pitchers put up a good fight, but the batters seemed to have checked their lumber at the door, as Mo Vaughn and Jose Canseco both went hitless throughout the 3-game sweep.

Again, the true excitement was in Seattle. The Mariners lost the first two of the best-of-five series to the Yankees in New York, but they returned to play the last three in the Kingdome. Spearheaded by Randy Johnson and AL batting champion Edgar Martinez, the Mariners swept the last three games, with Johnson pitching in relief in extra innings of the fifth game, the Mariners stayed alive and kept the hated Yankees from another World Series title they don't need. :-)

Oh, did I mention that Ken Griffey tied a record with five postseason home runs in that series? On the other hand, Yankee hero Don Mattingly missed what was likely his one shot at World Series glory (although he personally played well in the series).

It was noted on the Red Sox mailing list that, since the Yankees had a 2-0 lead in the series, since they started their ace pitcher in game 5, since they had a 1-run lead in the eighth inning, since their second-best pitcher relieved in game 5, and since they had a 1-run lead in the top of the 11th, and still managed to lose the series, no Yankee fan can in good conscience accuse the Red Sox of choking this year. Bwah-hah-hah! Nice to see the hated Yanks get a taste of the "so close and yet so far" feeling that grips every Red Sox fan.

But what everyone was talking about was that in the space of the week Seattle had played 4 must-win (as in "win-this-one-or-your-season-is-over-and-you-go-home") games and had won them all.

Yet again, the excitement was where the Mariners were. Against the powerful Indians, no one gave them much of a chance. Moreover, their pitchers were tired after the New York series. Before the ALCS, the Mariners juggled their line-up a bit, and started rookie Bob Wolcott - total Major League experience: seven games - to start the first game.

First inning. First batter: Kenny Lofton.

Walk. 4 pitches.

Second batter: Omar Vizquel (a former Mariner).

Walk. 5 pitches.

Third batter: Carlos Baerga.

Walk. 4 Pitches.

Bases loaded on 13 pitches.

Fourth batter: Albert Belle, who this year became only the 12th man ever to hit 50 home runs in a season, and who hit half of those home runs in the last two months of the season (a record).

When he went to the mound, Manager Lou Piniella reportedly told Wolcott that he didn't care if the Mariners lost 11-0, he needed five innings of work from him to save the bullpen for later games.

Wolcott struck Belle out.

Fifth batter: Eddie Murray. Future hall-of-famer. Collected his 3000th career hit in 1995, and may hit his 500th home run in 1996.

Murray pops out to foul territory.

Sixth batter: Jim Thome.

Thome hits a line drive shot -- right to second baseman Joey Cora.

Wolcott gets out of it. No runs scored.

Second inning: Mariner Mike Blowers hits a 2-run homer.

Third inning: Wolcott works out of another bases-loaded jam, allowing just one run.

Indian pitcher Dennis Martinez pitches masterfully, but Wolcott has his stuff, and works the fourth. The fifth. The sixth. People at home are thinking, "He's gonna get pulled now. He's pitched beyond belief, but he's gone six innings. What more can you ask for?" Camera shots of the Seattle dugout show Wolcott pacing back and forth, and chatting with Randy Johnson.

Seventh inning, Wolcott is back on the mound.

He gives up a solo home run. Score tied 2-2.

But nothing else.

Bottom of the seventh: A couple of Mariner doubles give them a 3-2 lead.

Wolcott does not start the eighth. Bob Wells and reborn closer Norm Charlton take over, and close out the game. The Mariners beat the Indians 3-2, and Bob "seven games of major league experience" Wolcott gets the win, while Dennis Martinez, the only active pitcher with 200 career victories, takes the loss.

What a game! The best thing about the playoffs is that there are always "little guys" like Wolcott who step up and become heroes. It's nice to see the big names do their thing, but you really root for the rookies and the bit players to come through. It's their chance.

As much as I'd like to say that the Mariners came through, the Indians did win both games, and then finally figured out Randy Johnson in game 6 to take the American League pennant. Johnson was philosophical: He'd pitched an awful lot in the past two weeks, and was bound to break down eventually. He'd put on one of the great pitching shows of recent years, and you just can't do everything every time.

To their credit, the Mariners fans proved to be good sports in the end, cheering for their team when the game - and the season - was over. I think everyone was taken aback by how strong fan sentiment for a winning team turned out to be in Seattle. A friend of mine was saying how in mid-summer, when the Mariners were seemingly out of it behind the then-powerful Angels, the Kingdome was only 25% full. If there was ever a testament that winning teams draw fans, the 1995 Mariners are it.

Game 1: Pitching in Atlanta's Fulton County Stadium ("The Launching Pad") Maddux shuts down the Indians with a 2-hitter. The Tribe scores 2 runs on errors, but the Braves prevail. Postseason powerhouse pitcher Orel Hershiser takes the loss.

Game 2: Tom Glavine, the Braves' ace before the arrival of Maddux, similarly shuts down the Tribe, with help from the bullpen. Dennis Martinez can't do the job for the Indians. Off to Cleveland's brand-spanking-new Jacobs Field ("The Jake").

Game 3: The Indians whack the heck out of Braves starter John Smoltz, and win it.

Game 4: Amid speculation that Maddux would pitch on 3 days' rest, young Steve Avery, who struggled during the regular season, takes the mound and again shuts down the Indians.

Game 5: Maddux pitches again, but instead of the god who pitched in game 1, Maddux proves merely average, giving up 4 runs in 7 innings. Merely average pitchers don't easily beat Cleveland, so the Tribe wins, to close the gap to 3-games-to-2. (An amusing footnote is that Indians' closer had not given up a home run to a lefthanded batter all year. Braves' lefty outfielder Ryan Klesko took him deep for a 2-runner in the ninth inning in a losing effort.) Back to Atlanta.

Game 6: Glavine starts again.

Now, here's what was said about Glavine between games 5 and 6. He'd been with Atlanta longer than any other pitcher. He came up in 1987 and went 7-17 that year. While the Braves have been described as "always bridesmaids and never brides", Glavine has gotten the shortest end of that stick: In 1991, he pitched game 6 of the World Series, which the Braves lost, and sat on the bench while the Twins won the 10-inning squeaker 1-0. He was slated to be the game 7 starter in 1992, but the Blue Jays won in 6 games. He was slated to be the game 7 starter in the 1993 NLCS, but the Phillies won in 6. And in 1994 there was no postseason.

So Glavine was ready. They don't get a lot bigger than this.

With Dennis Martinez pitching for the Indians, the score remained at zero-zero for two innings. Three. Five innings. Martinez worked out of jams. Glavine worked on a no-hitter. Eventually, the Indians' backup catcher, Tony Pena, got a single to break that up. But neither team could score.

In the sixth inning, Braves outfielder Dave Justice comes to the plate. He had gotten roundly booed by his own fans for criticizing those fans on the off day for not properly supporting the team. He complained that the Cleveland fans were louder, and more into it.

Jim Poole threw Justice a mistake, and Justice sent it into the bleachers for a 1-0 lead. The crowd forgave him his sins.

Glavine returns for the seventh. The eighth. Finally, we're heading into the ninth with the Braves still up 1-0. Glavine has a one-hitter. So Braves manager Bobby Cox is faced with a decision: Leave Glavine in, or turn to the Braves' closer, Mark Wohlers, the man with the 100 MPH fastball.

Rumor has it that Glavine told Cox he had nothing left and couldn't pitch another inning. Whatever the reason, Cox went with Wohlers. Wohlers has been a closer-in-training since he came up, but until 1995 he'd never found his control. He finally put it all together this year.

And he put it together in the ninth inning of the decisive game of the World Series, as he retired the top of the Indians' lineup in order. Twenty seconds later, he was at the bottom of a pile of jubilant Braves players in front of the pitcher's mound. The Braves finally had their World Championship, after five years of trying.

Only five months to spring training!