Flashback: A crippled Sid outruns Bonds….

[CockofEarle…]

 

[Gradstudent]

Jason Mackey: How Sid Bream turned the most frustrating play in Pirates history into a 'magnificent' opportunity to help others​

Jason Mackey
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
[email protected]

Jun 28, 2024

5:30 AM


The familiar thoughts and emotions will arrive for Sid Bream this weekend, the same as they always have, the reality of having played for both the Pirates and Braves.

And obviously not typical tenures, too. Bream, as any Pirates fan knows, was at the forefront of arguably the most painful play in Pittsburgh baseball history.

Bream gets it.
“Thirty-two years later, it’s amazing,” said Bream, reflecting on the Pirates’ heartbreaking loss in the 1992 National League Championship Series. “I still get recognized, and people will say, ‘How could you do that to the Pirates?’ It happens quite often when I’m out and about.”


Again, Bream gets it — the frustration, the agony, the two decades of losing, the maddening reality that eight-time Gold Glove winner Barry Bonds couldn’t throw out someone whose knee had been sliced and diced like a Thanksgiving turkey.
But this is where the story diverges.

Pirates fans, understandably, see Francisco Cabrera’s single and the Braves’ walk-off win as the start of a downward spiral. Atlanta advancing to the World Series was the worst moment of my sports childhood, and I’m guessing the same is true for many of you.

Bream doesn’t try to ignore the frustration, but he also saw it as an opportunity. The lifelong Christian and Liberty University graduate never fails to talk about that play during his post-playing career as a motivational speaker and chaplain or during one of the countless charity events he’s done.

“I’ve been speaking basically ever since that play,” Bream said. “It gave me a platform to get up and share in front of people.”
Unsure and lacking confidence at first, Bream has grown into his role. He works as corporate chaplain for PGT Trucking in Aliquippa while also contributing to several Christian-based and youth-focused charities.

Bream has essentially taken a bad thing — the worst baseball play many of us have ever seen — and turned it into a way to positively affect kids with terminal illnesses or truck drivers struggling to maintain relationships with their family.