No. 5, Oct. 23, 1993: Joe Carter hits a series-clinching three-run homer off Mitch Williams in Game 6 in the bottom of the ninth to give the Blue Jays the World Series.
Remember the balloting for the 2001 Major League Baseball All-Star Game'Äîyou know the last one a team actually won? For those of you who do you recall, you'll remember that it was Ichiro's first year, and the little Asian sensation, thanks to Japanese ballot stuffing, ran off with the voting.
On the same note, the land of the Rising Sun, still on this Mariners bandwagon, basically logged on to MLB.com (now that they have online voting) as a whole and nearly voted in every possible Mariner.
We almost had Ben Davis starting at catcher'ÄîI'm not joking, they seriously considered banning fan voting after that.
Truthfully, you can't fault the Japanese for doing this. At the entrance to voting on the website it encourages you to vote with the same e-mail address up to 25 times. 25 times?! Who votes 25 times?
Must be the Bud Selig school of mathematics...
Anyway, the geniuses at the MLB office are at it again, encouraging fans to log in up to 25 times (seriously, 25 times, President Richard Nixon, Law '37, probably voted for himself less) and vote for Major League Baseball's greatest moment.
That's problem No. 1. Problem No. 2: The rocket scientist who came up with the 30 greatest moments to choose from, chose'Äîthe most recent of the bunch'Äî"Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners'Äîthe first Japanese-born position player in Major League Baseball'Äîearns 2001 American League MVP and Rookie of the Year honors, as well as being the leading vote-getter for the 2001 All-Star Game."
Aside from the final clause, which we've already discussed, the statement in itself has three issues (or there are three parts to Problem No. 2, if you will). Issue A: The man has asked ad nasueum to be referred to as simply "Ichiro" not "Ichiro Suzuki." (Selig's office must really be in touch.)
Issue B: That statement is not a moment, it is, at best, a few moments, like winning the MVP, winning Rookie of the Year and being the leading All-Star getter'Äîand if it is a series of moments, they are not good dramatic ones like you would except to win a "best in show" award, they're just pictures of a dude getting a trophy. They're as pretty through snapshot as video.
Issue C: Those damned Mariner fans are fixin' to do the same thing again.
Hopefully, it won't come to this when Game 4 of the Angels-Giants rolls around, but just in case, I need to use the rest of this column to make a last second (un)biased plea for my own top five'Äîthe moments I voted for, once.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.