Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 29, 1995 TAG: 9510310049
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ATLANTA LENGTH: Long
Five years of frustration ended Saturday night when Tom Glavine pitched one-hit ball for eight innings and David Justice homered, bringing the city of Atlanta its first major sports title with a 1-0 victory over the Cleveland Indians in Game 6 of the World Series.
``This has been a long time coming,'' Glavine said. ``This organization and this group of guys has worked so hard to get here and we've come up short.
``That bitterness of losing the World Series games is real fresh in everyone's mouth.''
Now, the sweet taste of champagne.
``We've been close before, but we finally got it,'' Braves manager Bobby Cox said. ``Our players, from day one, wanted to win this thing.''
Glavine and Mark Wohlers combined on the fifth one-hitter in Series history and first since Jim Lonborg for Boston in 1967, allowing only a soft single by Tony Pena starting the sixth inning. Glavine reprised his win in Game 2 by again using his change-ups and breaking balls to fool the best-hitting team in the game, and was voted Series MVP.
More than anything, that was the theme this October - great pitching stopping great hitting. Cleveland, which led the majors in batting, scoring and home runs, was held to a .179 average by Atlanta's aces.
Justice, who had criticized Braves fans for being too quiet, gave them reason to cheer when he homered leading off the sixth against reliever Jim Poole.
``I was really a nervous wreck coming in today because I'd been in this situation before, where you're up 3-2,'' Justice said. ``I was never so nervous in my life.
``I really had a good feeling that it was our time. We had suffered enough. It was time for our club and time for our city.''
Series losers in 1991 and 1992 and NL playoff losers in 1993, Atlanta won its first title since moving from Milwaukee to open the 1966 season. The Braves also became the first franchise to win the World Series in three cities, having done it as the so-called Miracle Braves in Boston in 1914 and in Milwaukee in 1957.
Fittingly, it was Glavine who ended the elusive quest. He'd been with the Braves longer than any player on their postseason roster, beginning his career in 1987 at the start of a four-year span in which Atlanta was the worst team in baseball, averaging 98 losses per season.
Glavine struck out eight and walked three. Wohlers, filling the closer role that had been the Braves' biggest bug-a-boo in postseasons past, finished it out, retiring the side in order.
The crowd was on its feet for the ninth inning, a lot with their tomahawks chopping. As soon as Marquis Grissom caught Carlos Baerga's fly ball to left-center, a few fans took to the field but they were quickly escorted by police as the rest of Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium stood and cheered to the song ``We are the Champions'' by the group Queen.
Properly, perhaps, the Braves won by a 1-0 score. In 1991, in their first try at clinching the title, they blew a three games to two lead over Minnesota, dropping Game 7 by a 1-0 score to Jack Morris in 10 innings at the Metrodome. That was the last 1-0 game in a World Series.
Five of the games were decided by one run, a record for a six-game Series.
For the Indians, who dominated the majors with 100 wins in a strike-shortened season, the loss finished out a Series in which they could never really catch up with Atlanta's awesome pitching staff. Cleveland seemed to solve three-time Cy Young winner Greg Maddux in winning Game 5 at Jacobs Field, but did not figure out how to hit Glavine's off-speed stuff.
The Indians remained without a World Series title since 1948, when they beat the Boston Braves. Cleveland's last Series appearance was 1954, when it got swept by the New York Giants.
``I told them they played well and they're champions,'' Cleveland manager Mike Hargrove said. ``We played hard and they should feel good about that.
``We pitched well enough to win. It just didn't work for us. We've got to get ready to dedicate ourselves to do it again.''
Justice, without an extra-base hit in 42 at-bats during the expanded playoffs this season, doubled off Dennis Martinez in the fourth.
Poole bailed out the Indians in the fifth, but Justice tagged him for a deep drive on a 1-1 pitch to start the sixth, his first homer since Sept.22 and his fourth in World Series play.
While Glavine was keeping Cleveland hitless for five innings, Indians starter Martinez was working in and out of trouble.
The surest sign that Martinez was struggling - and the best signal that this was a big game - came in the bullpen. Rookie Chad Ogea, who had not pitched in the Series, began warming up three batters into the game, Ken Hill and Poole began throwing in the second, Eric Plunk got up in the fourth and Alan Embree was tossing in the sixth.
Helped by one of the prettiest double plays in a long time, plus some relief by Poole, Martinez kept the game scoreless through the fifth.
Martinez struck out Fred McGriff with two runners on to end the first, but walked the first two batters in the second. An out later, Rafael Belliard hit a bouncer that two-time Gold Glove shortstop Omar Vizquel fielded behind the bag and flipped, with his glove, to second baseman Baerga, who barehanded the toss and completed the double play.
In the fourth, with runners on first and second, Martinez pitched carefully to Javier Lopez, who hit a key home run off him in Game 2. Lopez drew a walk that loaded the bases and brought up the light-hitting Belliard, who flied out.
Atlanta threatened again in the fifth with a two-out walk and an infield single by Chipper Jones that sent the rookie tumbling over first base. Hargrove brought in the left-handed Poole, and he did his job by striking out the left-handed McGriff on three pitches.
Keywords:
BASEBALL
by CNB