I was watching ESPN Classic this weekend and I caught the beginning of the final baseball game of the 1990 season, played between the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox, as usual, were playing for absolutly no reason, while a Red Sox win would put them in the playoffs. I was a sophomore at Kent State University at the time and I remember watching this game, nervous as hell because I wanted, obviously, the Red Sox to make the playoffs and because the guys next door in the dorm were Oakland A’s fans.

The Red Sox did win the game, of course, and made the playoffs, but that’s not the point of my writing today. My point is that at the beginning of the game, the play-by-play guy Gary Thorne, traditionally one of the best broadcasters out there, made a very comical and enormous gaffe. At the very beginning of the game, he was going through the White Sox lineup and when he came to Carlton Fisk, he said, and I quote: “Carlton Fisk bats third and will be doing the catcher tonight.” Uh……oops. I think he meant to say “catching.” Yikes.