Deja vu all over again

It was a spooky night at Dodger Stadium last night. From the moment we took off from my brother's house, my nephew and I had a weird feeling about the game.
The setup was just like last time; blanket night, upper reserved level seats, middle of September and my nephew had school the next day.

The date was Sept. 18, 2006. The Dodgers hosted the San Diego Padres. It was Japanese heritage day and the samurai's fighting at home plate should have given us an indication of the crazy game we were about to embark on.

Most of you know this story. It was the bottom of the ninth and the Dodgers were down 9-5 when the Dodgers hit four consecutive home runs to tie the game at 9-9.

I was there for 8 and a half innings of the game when my brother decided that we had to leave because my nephew had school the next morning.

I boldly told him, "We can't go Joe, they're gonna hit four home runs right now and get back in it."
He laughed at me as we walked down the stairs.

My dad took a bathroom break before we left and the marvelous mustached man, Jeff Kent came up to bat. From outside of the bathroom, we heard a crack of the bat and 15,000 fans went crazy! (I was actually there ESPN. Don't try to tell me that a capacity crowd of 55,000 went wild. There were maybe 15,000 tops by that time of the game.)
Kent had hit a home run to make it 9-6. I looked at my brother and told him, "See it's happening already! four home runs!" He laughed.

As we walked to the car, we heard the crowd go wild again, and the home run song was playing. J.D. Drew had just followed Kent's home run with one of his own!
I told my brother, "We can still go back and catch the end, lets go!" By that time we were in the car and Charlie Steiner told us by radio that Trevor Hoffman was coming in. So my brother said, "Hoffman's in. Now it's over." (Oh how wrong you were dear brother)

We were driving in the lot, listening to the end of the game by radio now. Hoffman threw his first pitch to Russel Martin, and Martin promptly put it in the left field seats to make it 9-8!
At this point everyone in the car is laughing as I yell at my brother to turn the car around.

Marlon Anderson was next and he made it four home runs in a row. Charlie Steiner was going nuts and the Dodgers went into extra innings.
We got to my brother's house and the Padres had scored in the 10th inning, but the Dodgers had one last chance. We went in his house, turned on the TV, only to see Nomar Garciaparra hit a game winning 2-run hom run.

Haven't forgiven my brother 'til maybe now.

Last night wasn't exactly the same, but we sat in the upper reserved level again. This time we were on the first base side though. We got a blanket, but this time it wasn't a faded blue.
There were no Japanese samurai, but Paul Wall threw out the first pitch. (just as strange as fighting samurai)
And the game went late on a school night, but this time I was staying parked in that seat, even if everyone left home without me.

Somehow the dreadful Pirates were beating us 3-2 in the ninth when Matt Kemp hit a single to center field to bring in Andre Ethier from second base. We went into extra innings again.
The game went all the way to the 13th inning when some guy named Doumit brought in a run for the Pirates.
My brother played around and said, "lets go," but there was no way we were going to leave this time. It was past 11 p.m. and the Dodgers were up to bat.
Furcal got on base by hitting a line-drive off the pitcher's butt cheek and then Ethier came up to bat.
I pointed my cap in the same direction it was in during the 9th inning rally, sat in the exact same position, put my phone in my right pocket facing outward like it was in the 9th and kept saying, "Hit it over the right field fence. Hit it over the right field fence."
First pitch he saw, Ethier cranked it over the right field fence to win the game!
They beat him up at home plate and we were there to see it all this time.
This blanket was a lot warmer than the last one, and this time I didn't cringe at the sound of Charlie Steiner's voice as they replayed the home run call on the radio.
It was deja vu all over again, but this time I can truly say I was there.