I haven't been too active on the blog for a while, blame it on the summer weather, I was too busy being lazy...
But bear with me, here's a little somethin' from Tempy's heydays with the Friars. Yea, it's true that I haven't posted much on Garry's Padres seasons but hey, I had to start at the beginning, St. Louis, where he started his pro career and had some of his best seasons.
Sure we all know now that it wasn't always happy times in Missouri but whatever happened there had to happen and it made our favorite shortstop mature into the leader he was going to become in San Diego.
And that's where I'm taking you now with this video, I strongly believe that Tempy was the cornerstone of the 1984 NLCS. After losing the first two games in Chicago land the Friars where in desperate need of some leadership and who provided? Of course, our very own Mr. Templeton!
Here's my little video resume of how and what happened in that key third game.
First you'll see the players intro where everything was going a little too smooth until Tempy decided to take charge by getting the crowd going by waving his hat and cheerleading some.
Then you'll see how he took away a run to end a potential big 1st inning for the Cubbies by robbing Leon Durham of a sure RBI hit with a tremendous catch, picking a line-drive off thin air, on his feet, muchas gracias, no need to dive à la Ozzie when you got JumpSteadyCoolCat reflexes...
And finally you'll see how, with a "load of potatoes on his back", he hit the clutch double that finally burst Chicago's bubble and put the Padres on top for the 1st and decisive time in the series.
All he did during the series was hit .333 with a .412 OBP and play outstanding defense to lead the franchise to it's first World Series ever.
