When The Padres Actually Won A Series: A Look Back at The Pittsburgh Miracle of 2018

There's a great quote from the baseball movie The Sandlot that I find myself thinking about. "Remember, kid," says baseball legend Sandy "The Sandlot" Lott to a character the viewer knows only as "The Kid", "there's heroes and there's legends. Heroes get remembered, but legends never die."

The scrappy kids of "The Sandlot" (Paramount Pictures, 1972), enjoying a day of baseball at the local municipal park. 

Listen: do you hear it? It's the sound of the clouds, moving across the sky, reminding us of Time's inexorable passage, and that the water cycle is a thing, even in southern California. The clouds are made of vapor, which is really water writ small, and in those clouds perhaps are reconstituted droplets of the sweat of iron legend-men, their essence drifting upwards to Valhalla, where Zeus dwells. (Or perhaps it's Thor? He lived, right? I know Spider-Man didn't. Killing off the kid superhero was some cold-ass shit, Thanos. Oh, sorry, Spoiler Alert.) A reminder that titans once walked the earth, wearing caps and athletic uniforms that required belts, which if you think about it is weird.

You know who didn't need to wear a stupid belt? Randy Jones.

I'm an old man now, but I remember it as if it was yesterday. May 20, 2018. The Padres were on the verge of actually winning a series in Pittsburgh, something they hadn't done since 2014. Except that they weren't: going into their last at-bat in the ninth, the Padres were down 4 to 5. And then Jose Pirela scored from second thanks to a throwing error by shortstop Jordy Mercer. Tie game. And then Freddy Galvis bunted in Franchy "One Half Of The FRAN-chise" Cordero to give the Padres the lead. It became glorious:

THE COMEBACK!#PadresWin 🙌 pic.twitter.com/GVlplFdwE2

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) May 20, 2018

The Padres would win that series, taking three of four games from the Pirates, and raising the hopes of the Friar Faithful. A three game winning streak! All things seemed possible.

That, of course, was The Time Before.

I tell my children of it, though they do not believe me. This world conspires to crush the small things. Even legends fade with time. "Didn't the Nationals beat the Padres 10 to 2 yesterday?" asks my son, and I have no answer to give him, other than "yes, yes they did".