If you’ve picked up the Buffalo News at all this week, then you couldn’t help but see the outstanding array of articles and blog reports celebrating 20 seasons for the Buffalo Bisons at the downtown ballpark. One of the pieces which really caught my eye profiles Mike Harrington’s top twenty Bisons home games.

So this got me thinking, out of the 800 or so games I have been to these past 20 years, which one of these marquee games stands out in my mind as the absolute most memorable? I didn’t have to think long… for me the infamous 18 inning loss to the Nashville Sounds in 1990, a one game playoff for the division title, is the one that I remember most.

One has to put this game into context with everything else that was happening at the time. For the third straight season, the Bisons had topped 1-million in attendance, an accomplishment without precedent in minor league baseball. Anticipation was running high that a MLB expansion team announcement for Buffalo was imminent. The Bisons had started out at the new ballpark with mediocre seasons, and fans were chomping at the bit for playoff baseball and a championship run. And the 1990 Bisons put together an awesome season and were poised to contend for the American Association trophy.

Standing in their way were the Nashville Sounds. As the calendar flipped to August, the team got hot, posting a 24-8 record for the final month, but no matter how well they played, Nashville was equally as hot, keeping pace with the Bisons, and the team just couldn’t put any distance in the standings.

Buffalo sports fans were really paying attention that year; WGR radio was then the flagship station of the Bisons, and after our games were finished, Pete Weber would send it over to the Nashville Sounds radio network, and yes, their games were simulcast here in Buffalo. Night after night the ballpark was packed, the crowds were so into the unfolding pennant chase, and the atmosphere was absolutely electric.

On the last day of the season, the Bisons were in Indianapolis, in control of their destiny, needing only one win to clinch the division outright. But on that night a Bisons pitching castoff named Rich Sauveur had a score to settle with his old team, and insisted on starting for the Indians on two days rest. His manager obliged, and Sauveur shut the Bisons down. With Nashville winning their game that night, the teams were tied in the standings, and a one game playoff in Buffalo would settle the division title.

The team came home obviously dejected, but as the team bus pulled into downtown Buffalo that afternoon, the bus driver wisely drove around Swan and Washington before pulling into the back door, so the players could get a gander of what was unfolding. There, on the plaza, thousands of fans were lined up 50 deep at each of the ticket windows to buy tickets for that night. WGR radio had their remote on the plaza, and daytime personality Paul Lyle was exhorting Buffalonians to come down and buy tickets and pack the place. Entertainers were performing, food carts were selling hot dogs, it was a party atmosphere at the stadium, setting the stage for what was then going to be the biggest game in the history of this young ballpark.

And where was I? Well, I was a Cheektowaga Councilman in 1990, and since the previous night was Labor Day, this was the night of our Town Board meeting. (The last place I wanted to be). A kind soul named Paul Matuszewski who headed one of the taxpayers groups had a transistor radio and an earpiece and was signaling score updates from the audience. The other bit of good news was that our Supervisor Frank Swiatek was also a Bisons fan, and was anxious to get down to the ballpark as well. We just blew threw the meeting (”Mr. Clerk, just read the “resolved”…), bigmouth Councilman Tom Johnson kept his filibustering yap shut under threats of physical harm (kidding), and we were out of Town Hall by 7:45pm. I arrived in the top of the 5th, not knowing at the time that a long night waited ahead of me.

What I remember most about that game is how loud and boisterous the crowd was… Once the game went extra innings tied at three, I remember all the chances Buffalo had to win it. Tommy Shields with a lead off triple in the bottom of the 10th, I believe, and left stranded. Speedy John Cangelosi tagging from third in the 11th, and gunned down at the plate on a perfect throw from short center. By midnight the rains came, and they played through it. Then finally the Sounds breaking through in the top of the 18th with the go ahead run, and for the Bisons, the bench was depleted… no pinch hitters left and I think some pitcher named Hugh Kemp hit for the final out in the bottom of the 18th. Final score Nashville 4, Buffalo 3… it was 12:27AM.

I left the ballpark that night so heartbroken, so devastated. I had a hard time falling asleep that night, reliving in my mind all the near misses, all the chances. It took a while for me to shake off this game, and how this season ended so brutally.

That’s what made the 1991 season so sweet, when Buffalo finally vanquished those hated Sounds to win the American Association division. As silly as it seems, the pileon on the pitchers mound at the division clinching game was genuine, many of the guys still remembering the stinging defeat of the previous season.

I am really looking forward to Saturday night’s celebration of 20 years downtown. The Bisons have been such a big and enjoyable part of my life during all this time, and it will be great remembering, reminiscing and cheering on the Earl of Bud as he makes his return to a place that has given me so many good times and so much joy.

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