PAT HENTGEN I’m kinda embarrassed to admit it, but I’m real claustrophobic, so I don’t like those pileups. So if you ever look at any of those, I’m always on the outside edge. I don’t like being on the bottom, so I don’t ever get involved in the deep, deep circle of the celebration.
JOE CARTER After about a minute or so I could hear either Tony Fernandez or Juan Guzman saying, “Let him up, let him up, let him up! Get off of him!” By that time I was just lying on the ground, could barely breathe, just lying there going, “I don’t believe this just happened. This is unreal.”
BOB ELLIOTT They hadn’t announced it, but I figured it was going to be Molitor [for MVP]. So I just sat there and I watched him. Molitor crossed the plate and everybody mobbed Carter. But then, one by one, they all sought out Molitor. He had been in the ’82 World Series and hadn’t been back since, and the only reason he came to Toronto was to win a World Series, and he was a good guy. And now he’s crying. I’m sitting there watching it and now I’m crying.
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PAUL MOLITOR I was somewhere between home and first and Cito hugs me and he sees the tears in my eyes and it’s just one guy after another embracing me. I had been through so much that year emotionally, from the decision to come there, trying to fit into a new team, realizing there was pressure on trying to repeat and filling Dave [Winfield’s] shoes. I had tried not to let those things become overwhelming and just play, but it all sort of weighs on you. It was just the rush of emotion that got to me.
JOE CARTER They picked me up and it was a sight to behold. Twenty years later I can watch the video and still get goosebumps. In fact, a couple weeks ago Charlie Sheen came by my house and before he leaves he says, “I gotta see the home run.” He’s a big baseball fan. So I put the tape on, and sure enough it still brings back chills, it really does. Hitting the home run in the bottom of the ninth. I dreamt that all the time as a kid.
DARREN KRITZER, Bat Boy The first memory always comes back to trying to retrieve Joe Carter’s bat. I just thought, “My job all day has been to go out and retrieve the bats and bring them back, so what do I do?” So I go to find it, the bat was just kind of kicked aside and I brought it back. There’s a photo where I’m just basically at the tail end trying to get into the pile. Because I went work first, let’s get the job done, and then I celebrated. I think the bat’s in the Hall of Fame now.
JERRY HOWARTH One of the best pieces of trivia that came out of that: Only two World Series have ended with a walk-off home run. Bill Mazeroski for Pittsburgh in 1960 at Forbes Field to win Game 7 against the Yankees 10–9, and Joe Carter 33 years later against the Philadelphia Phillies. In the celebration at Forbes Field, Dick Schofield, the Pirates shortstop, was there in the mob scene to congratulate Bill Mazeroski. Thirty-three years later, his son Dick Jr. was in the celebration in Toronto. Dick Schofield Jr., who broke his arm and didn’t play after May, was there; he was a significant part of that team over the first six weeks of the season. He and his dad were present for the only two walk-off home runs in World Series history. That’s why I love baseball.
