October 18, 1992: Ed Sprague’s blow squares World Series after Canadian flag snafu

Politics and sports collided uneasily before Game Two of the 1992 World Series when a member of the U.S. Marine Corps color guard displayed the Canadian flag upside down; although “American [meaning U.S.] viewers didn’t see the gaffe … it was included on the feed … to Canada.”1

The Globe & Mail’s Stephen Brunt had an understandably snarky reaction: “Designed as it is, with a great big maple leaf in the centre … most sentient beings probably could have figured [the correct way to carry the flag]. (Note to the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff: The stem goes at the bottom.)”2

The Toronto Sun’s Christie Blatchford had a much more forgiving take, wondering at Canadians who “were outraged. … You think the wicked Yanks … did it on purpose? Good Lord, this city is trying so hard to prove itself a worthy host for the 1996 Olympics, they are running scoreboard messages in Spanish and French just to accustom the populace to foreign tongues.”3

After Atlanta’s 3-1 Game One win, the Jays in Game Two achieved divine retribution on the diamond.

Two hard-throwing righties dominated the first part of the game. John Smoltz of the Braves retired the first eight Blue Jays, fanning five. After a one-two-three first, David Cone of the Blue Jays struggled in the second. He walked leadoff batter David Justice. With one out, Justice started a stolen-base parade against Cone, “a pitcher notoriously poor at holding runners,”4 by swiping second. Jeff Blauser grounded to Manny Lee at short. Justice reached third on Lee’s throwing error. With Damon Berryhill up, Blauser stole second. Justice had not sought to advance but scored on a wild pitch on the steal with Blauser taking third. Berryhill walked but Mark Lemke hit into a double play to keep the Atlanta lead at 1-0.

Surprisingly and portentously, Cone got the first hit by the Jays with a single in the third. Neither team scored although the Braves again threatened thanks to a prime-time (football) player. “I’m going to play Deion [Sanders] instead of (Ron) Gant in left field,” Atlanta manager Bobby Cox told reporters before the game. “Deion hit … Cone really well during the spring and he hit him pretty well during the season.”5 Sanders would prove productive at the plate; in the third, he walked with two outs and went to third on an infield single by Terry Pendleton. But Justice flied out to right to strand the runners.

Matching Atlanta’s aggressiveness, Toronto almost tied the game in its third but to no avail, according to home-plate umpire Mike Reilly.6 Roberto Alomar drew a leadoff walk, went to second on a wild pitch, and moved to third on a grounder. With two outs and John Olerud up, a Smoltz pitch eluded Berryhill, but the backstop, in Reilly’s judgment, threw out Alomar “despite [Smoltz’s] arriving at home plate with enough time to cook breakfast prior to the tag being made[.]”7 “I thought he was safe,” said Toronto manager Cito Gaston. “You all had [television] monitors, you all saw [the replay].”8

The Braves added a second run in the bottom of the inning. Sid Bream drew a leadoff walk and went to third on Blauser’s single. With one out, Lemke singled to score Bream and move Blauser to third. But Cone kept the deficit at two runs by getting another DP, this time off the bat of Smoltz.

Smoltz seemed in control. In the fifth inning he had a 2-0 lead with two outs and none on facing Pat Borders. Smoltz walked Borders and gave up a single to Lee. Pitcher Cone was up next. On the one hand, Smoltz had to respect Cone for his earlier single. On the other, he had to feel confident that the AL pitcher would not do so a second straight time, particularly when Smoltz would bear down with the tying runs on base.

Shockingly, Smoltz gave up another hit to Cone, an RBI single scoring Borders. When cutoff man Bream made a throwing error, Cone and Lee advanced to second and third. “I feel good about doing something good tonight – and it wasn’t on the mound,” said Cone after the game.9 The error proved critical: An infield hit by Devon White tied the score.

The adventures in hitting and baserunning may have weakened Cone. With one out in the Braves’ half of the inning, Sanders singled, stole second, and took third on Borders’ bad throw to second. Cone walked Pendleton and gave up an RBI single to Justice, with Pendleton moving to third. Southpaw David Wells replaced Cone and Brian Hunter batted for Bream. Hunter’s sacrifice fly restored the Atlanta margin to two at 4-2.

With one out in the Blue Jays’ seventh, Borders doubled. With two outs, he moved to third on a wild pitch. Smoltz escaped further trouble by striking out Candy Maldonado, batting for Wells.

Todd Stottlemyre had a one-two-three seventh. Smoltz finally sagged in the eighth. With one out, Alomar doubled. Joe Carter singled him to third and Dave Winfield singled him home to make the score 4-3. With the tying run on third, Cox first turned to Mike Stanton, who got Olerud to pop to third baseman Pendleton, and then to Jeff Reardon, familiar to Canadian baseball fans from his dominating days in Montreal. Reardon struck out Kelly Gruber looking on a pitch one Toronto writer said seemed “clearly inside.”10 The Braves needed three more outs to take a 2-0 Series lead.

Duane Ward replaced Stottlemyre in the eighth and like his predecessor retired all three batters.

Reardon returned for the ninth, which started well for Atlanta as Borders lined out. Derek Bell batted for Lee and walked. “You can’t be walking a guy in that spot,” said Reardon. “That’s what lost the game, you could argue.”11

Gaston needed another substitute with the pitcher due. “Given that Reardon is a right-hander, many expected veteran Rance Mulliniks to be sent to the plate,” one writer observed. “‘It was [Ed] Sprague all the way,’ Gaston said.”12 Sprague hit for Ward. Bell represented the tying run, and Sprague the go-ahead run. “I knew I hit it good,” Sprague said. “I looked up and it was in the lights and then I threw my hands up in the air”13 to celebrate his homer that put the Jays up 5-4. Said Reardon: “I made a pitch to Sprague that was low. Usually I get hitters on a high fastball. It didn’t happen tonight.”14 He retired the next two batters to keep the deficit at one run.

Tom Henke replaced Ward on the mound in the bottom of the ninth and retired Lemke. Lonnie Smith hit for Reardon, and Henke hit him. Gant ran for Smith. With two outs, Gant stole second, and Henke walked Sanders. With the tying and go-ahead runners on, Henke sealed the first World Series win by a Canadian team, getting Pendleton to foul out to Gruber, who “did the tomahawk chop” after making the catch. “We won one,” said Gruber. “I really like the Braves’ song. It’s a sedate song. It relaxes you and then it puts you on the warpath at the same time.”15

The flag from Canada may have flown upside down, but Toronto could fly home with heads held high after squaring the World Series.

Sources

In addition to the Sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the Baseball-Reference.com website for pertinent material and the box score noted below.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ATL/ATL199210180.shtml

Notes

1 Glenn Sheely, “Inverted Flag Angers Canadians,” Atlanta Constitution, October 19, 1992: 31. Like many U.S. residents, Sheely used the word “American” as a synonym for the United States of America. “The inverted maple leaf confirmed Canada’s worst suspicions, that Yanks don’t know much about geography, or national flags, for that matter, and are particularly numb regarding Canada,” wrote George Vecsey in “Some Hits and Runs, But Short on Sleep,” New York Times, October 19, 1992: C9.

2 Stephen Brunt, “Marines Wave Red Flag at Canada – Upside Down,” Globe & Mail, October 19, 1992.

3 Excerpt from Christie Blatchford of the Toronto Sun as reprinted in the Atlanta Constitution, October 19, 1992: 32.

4 Al Strachan, “The Manager,” Globe & Mail, October 19, 1992.

5 Neil A. Campbell, “Sanders Gets Nod from Cox,” Globe & Mail, October 19, 1992.

6 Canadian sports fans might more fondly recall another Mike Reilly, namely, the star Canadian Football League quarterback.

7 Kirk Makin, “1992 World Series/A Fan’s View with Kirk Makin,” Globe & Mail, October 19, 1992.

8 Larry Whiteside, “Fresh Start for Sanders in Left,” Boston Globe, October 19, 1992: 44.

9 Claire Smith, “Cone Does His Best Work with Bat,” New York Times, October 19, 1992: C9.

10 Rosie DiManno, “Jays Tie It in a Pinch,” Toronto Star, October 19, 1992: A1.

11 Joe Sexton, “A Fast Pitch That Fell a Few Feet Too Short,” New York Times, October 19, 1992: C9.

12 Neil A. Campbell, “Jays Swing Series Momentum Their Way,” Globe & Mail, October 19, 1992.

13 Marty York, “Reardon Is Pure Relief for Jays,” Globe & Mail, October 19, 1992.

14 Larry Whiteside, “Blue Jays Stun Reardon, Braves,” Boston Globe, October 19, 1992: 44.

15 “Glavine Appears OK for Game 4,” Boston Globe, October 20, 1992: 80. Gruber would likely not have made this insensitive gesture and comment a few decades later given the increased sensitivity to the racist treatment of indigenous people in both Canada and the United States.