Nothing guarantees anything, of course, least of all the acquisition of a starting pitcher, but maybe it tilts the odds a bit. Who knows. Cone wasn’t actually all that dominant late in the summer and through the autumn of 1992, but perhaps his arrival goosed the energy around the team somewhat. At any rate, they made the Series, flew down to Atlanta, former president Jimmy Carter threw out the first pitch, and Tom Glavine beat Jack Morris to give Atlanta a one-game lead. Before the second game the Marine Corps Color Guard flew our flag upside down, in what was maybe a terrible indignity, or maybe a sweet encapsulation of the relationship between our two nations. I’m still not quite sure.

— I’ll be blogging regularly over at the Invisible Publishing site, about the pennant race and such, from now until the end of the season in a series called Meaningful Games. The first post, entitled “Atlanta,” is now up.