Eric Gagne - John Hayes - AP

A moment of silence for the releasing of Eric Gagne this week.  I think every Dodger fan was secretly hoping Eric Gagne could find a way to pitch like he did so many years ago.  Since then , he’s had injuries and was mentioned in the Mitchell Report, but to Dodger fans during that time, he was the real deal.  He was the “Wild Thing” from Major League who came out of the bullpen to his own music and mowed everyone down.  He was a personality, and he changed the culture of the fans.  His baseball career is probably over, but he’ll always have a place in L.A.  Even writing this, I’d love to have a beer with Eric Gagne.  Ahh the stories he could tell.

I was there on the night the streak ended.  It was a surreal experience.  Everyone knew what was on the line, but the D’backs finally broke through.  I believe it will probably be the only time in my life that I see a blown save greeted with a standing ovation from all the fans.  The Dodgers did end up winning, but no one could fault him for letting one through after 84 straight saves. 

Here’s an article re-capping that final night (click here) .

Happy Trails Eric.  Thanks for the memories.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010 at 6:43 am and is filed under Offseason Dodger News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.