A moment in time

The image on the TV screen in the bottom of the ninth inning initially is the good news for Phillies fans 31 years ago tonight as Joe Carter prepares to face Mitch Williams for only the fifth time in his career.

You know, good news in that Carter is previously gone 0-for-4 against Williams. Alas for the Phillies and their fans, the bad news comes five pitches later as Carter launches a three-run homer off Williams with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift Toronto over Philadelphia 8-6 in the sixth and deciding game of the 1993 World Series. 

You still can see that middle-in, not-so-sharp slider coming out of Williams’ left hand, can't you?

Carter surely sees it back then.

And, in front of a Saturday night crowd of 52,195 at Toronto’s SkyDome, Carter sends that 2-2 pitch over the left-field fence to join the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Bill Mazeroski from 1960 as the only other player in history to end a World Series with a walk-off home run.

“To see the ball go over the fence – right now, just talking about it – I still get chills, because it brings back that whole feeling of what it was like when the SkyDome erupted,” Carter says to MLB.com in 2023 at the approach of the 30th anniversary to the highlight of his All-Star career.

“Time flies when you get older,” says Carter, now 64. “It seems like a moment ago. … You can’t fathom it happened (31) years ago.”

Williams can fathom the moment.

Still does. Always will. Like a scar that never fully heals.

“I’ve been forgiven for it, I think,” Williams later tells NPR in a radio interview, “but I still hear about it every day. When you give up a home run to lose a World Series, it’s not going away overnight.”