The Trip 1995

THE TRIP 1995

Year	Date	City	Ballpark	Home Team	Visiting Team	Score	WP	LP	S	HR	HOF	Other Players of Note
1995	July 7	Denver	Coors Field	Rockies	Expos	12-7	Juan Acevedo	Gil Heredia	None	Shawn Berry Mike Lansing Shane Andrews Larry Walker Andres Galarraga Vinny Castilla (2)	None	Larry Walker Andres Galarraga Moises Alou Vinny Castilla
Highlights: The Rockies made this a laugher with 4 runs in the bottom of the first and 4 more in the bottom of the second. After chasing Expos starter Gil Heredia in the first with 6 hits and a walk and 4 earned runs (and no outs), the Rockies next beat up on reliever Gabe White by clubbing three consecutive home runs, the first one a two-run shot by Larry Walker, the second a solo shot by the Big Cat, and the final blow being a line drive whistler by Vinny Castilla that just barely cleared One Way Tony’s head in the left field stands, following which our hero Tony willed himself to sobriety so as to enjoy the rest of the evening.
1995	July 8	Denver	Coors Field	Rockies	Expos	8-3	Armanda Reynoso	Butch Henry	Curt Leskanic	Shane Andrews Vinny Castilla (2) Eric Young		Ellis Burks Dante Bichette Wil Cordero
Highlights: Vinny picked up where he left off on Friday night by drilling a two-run shot off Butch Henry in the bottom of the second to put the Rockies ahead 2-0. He added a solo shot in the eighth off one of the Perez boys to give him twin shots in consecutive games. Reynoso pitched 7-2/3 innings of five-hit ball, giving up two earned runs for the win while Curt Leskanic pitched the final 1-1/3 innings for a cheap save.
1995	July 9	Denver	Coors Field	Rockies	Expos	4-1	Marvin Freeman	Pedro Martinez		Wil Cordero Eric Young Dante Bichette Larry Walker John Vander Wal	Pedro Martinez
Highlights: In his Hot Stove League debut, Pedro Martinez gave up three home runs (Young, Bichette and Walker) in six innings of work, yielding only 5 hits and walking one while striking out 6, to take the loss and go to 6-and-5. Freeman pitched seven innings of 5-hit shutout ball, with no walks and four strikeouts, to take the win for the Rockies. In a game in which all runs scored were on solo home runs, the Expos out hit the Rockies 7-6 but came out on the underside of the final score. Moises Alou put forth maximum effort while going 4000.

'95 TRIP:

ROCKIES HAMMER

EXPOS

The feature of the '95 Trip, of course, was seeing the powerful Rockies pound those scratching, clawing, never-say-die Expos in three straight matches at Coors Field. On Friday night we saw (as well as you can see with thick beer goggles) the Rockies crank out a 12-5 victory, featuring back-to-back-to-back home runs by Larry Walker, Andres Galarraga and Vinny Castilla; and a second shot by Vinny that cleared all of the seats in left field. For Saturday night's game, we may have had the best seats in the house for a riveting 8-3 Rockies victory, underscored by another two-tater night by Vinny Castilla (U-belly always said he was going to be great). And finally, on Sunday we witnessed yet another home run derby contest by the Rockies, as they used four solo shots to spank the Expos for the fourth time in the four-game series, with a final tally of 4-1. Great stadium, good baseball.

Believe it or not, this was the 11th consecutive HSL Trip, and McBlunder, Shamu* and Skipper have proudly attended each year's junket. Kudos, Brothers. How about a short recap for old times' sake:

1985 Kansas City

1986 Kansas City

1987 Kansas City

1988 Chicago

989 K.C./Chicago/Milwaukee

1990 K.C./Texas

1991 Chicago (Comiskey Park)

1992 Detroit/Toronto/Cleveland

1993 Anaheim/San Diego/L.A.

1994 K.C./Boston/N.Y./Baltimore

1995 Denver

Eleven years, fourteen cities, fifteen ball-parks. Wow!

TRIP DOWN

MEMORY LANE

As usual, the '95 Trip was chocked full of good times and great memories. If I might be so presumptuous as to recount a few of the '95 Trip highlights for you, it would go something like this:

- That death-defying (but soon to be routine) trek up the face of Mount Everest to reach Eagle's Nest.

- Ahhhhhh! Eagle's Nest.

- The feverish pace at which Itchie and Tony (Possum's Trip representative) pursued their goal of abject intoxication during Friday's golf outing at Evergreen.

- U-belly's refusal to produce a scorecard from the Evergreen Golf Course, or to provide even a ballpark estimate of his score (was he concerned about exceeding Itchie's infamous 134 at Firethorn?).

- Watching Itchie try to keep a straight face as he contended (pretended?) that he scored an eagle at Evergreen to earn a skin.

- Watching the gritty determination of "One-Way" Tony as he tried without measurable success to will himself back to relative sobriety.

- Chef Larry's 6 a.m. breakfast extravaganza.

- The look of sheer terror on Squatting Bear (Shamu*) as he experienced the top of Bear Mountain.

- Seeing John VanderWal break the Rockies single-season pinch-hit record (16) with a mammoth blast to right field.

- Those oh-so-tasty (and plentiful) honeywheat beers at the Denver Chophouse.

- The remarkable view from Section 311 at Coors Field, a full story above the right field foul pole.

- Shamu's* unselfish and laudable gesture of offering up his box seat next to Itchie and Tony for the final half-inning of Saturday night's game.

- SloPay's cause of action against the Bucksnort Inn for permanent gastrointestinal impairment.

- All ten occupants of the Eagle's Nest sawing logs like a timber mill, but each individual denying the personal habit of snoring.

- The ranchhand Sunday morning breakfast at C.C. Waters, and their subsequent filing of Chapter 7 bankruptcy after Shamu's* interpretation of the "All You Can Eat" breakfast special.

- Blocking out the sun at the game with Big Guy's top-of-the-line sunglasses (how did I get in the bottom of the baby pool?)

- Hangin' with the funky locals at Little Bear.

- B.T.'s "in your face" retort to the mad-at-the-world hippie hacker at Evergreen (nice swing!).

- Big Guy's obvious pleasure watching newly-acquired Moises Alou hustle and scrap like he was trying to make the cut.

- Not hearing U-belly shout "I love my life!" anymore.

- Our 12-hour yak ride to Cleveland (oops, wrong year).

- Playing golf (you could call it that) with Giopetto (Tony) and his prevaricating puppet (Pinocchio f/k/a Itchie) at the scenic but impossible mountain course known as Eagle's Nest.

- Pinocchio's 32-inch drive on hole #15, followed by a straight-sideways shot into the deep forest (just how did he make bogey on that hole?).

- Skipper's winning score of 81 at Evergreen (hey, it was a highlight for me -- and yes, we bumped a few of them up).

- Tony's suicidal drive from Denver to Silverthorn (we only had to use three of the runaway truck ramps).

- Mountain air.

- Freedom.

- Brotherhood.

- Icy-brisk mountain showers.

- Outhouses.

- That view from B.T.'s deck.

- Coors Field. Ahhh!

All in all, an enjoyable and memorable trip. Many thanks to B.T. for his always meticulous planning of the Trip and the use of Eagle's Nest as our base of operations.