Sid Bream Slides by: TTM from a Brave Great

When researching Sid Bream's career, I was surprised to find out he stole 50 bases over his 12 years in the bigs. The 40 CS by comparison was no surprise at all, save for the fact that the slow-footed Bream attempted a grand total of 90 stolen bases. In sum, I'm not at all sure what to make of that.

Any way you look at it, though, it is kind of odd that Bream will always be best remembered for scoring the winning run in the Braves 1992 NLCS victory over the Pirates. If you were a Braves fan in the late-80s, those NL titles in the early-90s were a glory to behold. And they did it with guys like Bream and another CCC favorite, the man who drove Bream in, Francisco Cabrera. Since I already have a Cabrera auto from 1990, before all of this, I decided it was time to give Bream a shot. He didn't disappoint.

Here's Mr. Bream on his first Braves card. Man, if we all knew then what the next few years had in store. 

For some reason I think of Bream as being a Dodger more so than a Pirate, but he was a Pirate nonetheless. You wonder if those fans have any regrets?

And here's another look at the Cabrera hit and the Bream slide. You can never get enough of that. 

Have a good one everybody and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!

Old School Auto: Francisco Cabrera

My grandmother passed away about 2 years ago. She'd been living with my folks for several years, and they're just now getting around to going through her stuff. Understandable, I guess. On Sunday my dad told me he and my mom had found two autos I got in the late-80s at a Braves game: Vida Blue and Atlee Hammaker. Apparently they were in an envelop my grandmother had kept for years.

Anyway, that got me kind of sentimental. After my granddad passed away in the mid-1990s my grandmother always came over for dinner. In the summer and into the fall, she stayed for the Braves. In honor of gramma, I pulled out this card:

I got this card "the year before," but that doesn't make it any less awesome. If I remember correctly, I obtained the card and the auto at a Braves Caravan back when the Braves had a rabid regional following. Like my Glavine and Smoltz autos, when I got this Francisco Cabrera was nobody. 

But he'd very quickly become a somebody, one of the greatest somebodies in Braves history.

This video is here. I many ways, it's kind of a "shot heard round the world." Cabrera's BB reference page is even sponsored by a Pirates fan who says, "He ruined my childhood and destroyed a franchise. The only thing I can do now is make sure a Braves fan can never sponsor this page again." Dark stuff they talk over at Where have you gone Andy Van Slyke.

Anyway, get your EJ's out, trade bait coming out soon!

Have a good one everybody and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!