In-Depth: Thirty years after breaking Pirates fans' hearts, the story behind the unspeakable play and why Sid Bream's still talking about it

I ask Steve Blass if he was on the call for Game 7 of the 1992 National League Championship Series.

He responds the way most Pirates fans would: "The Sid Bream game."

Blass left the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium radio booth in the ninth inning on Oct. 14, 1992, so he could be ready in the clubhouse for postgame interviews when the Pirates won and clinched a trip to the World Series. Plastic was set up to cover every locker in the visitor's locker room. The series MVP trophy was set to go to Tim Wakefield. Blass was preparing to get one of the contributors from that game for his interview.

Instead, the Pirates blew a 2-0 lead and lost on a walk-off Francisco Cabrera base hit to left field. Bream, who was on second, beat Barry Bonds' throw home by a hair before David Justice jumped on him in celebration. Because of "the slide," the Braves were going to the World Series.

“Sid Bream slid across home plate, they rolled the camera out, they took the champagne away and ripped the plastic down," Blass said. "They had to get to the other locker room.”

“I remember hearing all that took place," Bream told me this week.

The loss ranks as perhaps the worst in Pittsburgh sports history. Not just because the Pirates fell just an out short from a trip of the World Series. Not only because it was the third straight fruitless trip to the NLCS. But because there was an unspoken understanding that this was the last chance that core of Pirates had. Doug Drabek, Bonds and much of that team would depart either that offseason or shortly into the 1993 season.

"In the back of everybody’s minds, they knew that it was a possibility," Drabek said during a visit to PNC Park in September. "Once that was done, it hit a lot of guys to where we thought, ‘OK, what’s next? What’s going to happen next year?’ I think it was a combination of that and that was the third year in a row that it didn’t happen. I think the disappointment and the uncertainty of the future popped into a lot of guys’ heads."

That Pirates team was destined to go through a lengthy rebuild after the '92 season, but nobody could have foreseen what the following decades would bring. In the 30 seasons since Bream scored, the Pirates have suffered 26 losing seasons and never won a division title or a playoff series. In that same time, the Penguins have hoisted three Stanley Cups and the Steelers a pair of Lombardi trophies.

It's a "winning city," as Bream put it. It's partly why the Carlisle, Pa., native has continued to make Zelienople -- located just north of Pittsburgh -- his home even after he left the Pirates during the 1990 offseason and through his post playing career, even if he was an unintentional harbinger of losing seasons.

“Looking back 30 years and knowing the Pittsburgh Pirates have only been above .500 four of those 30 years just makes it even worse around here,” Bream said.

So after 30 years of hearing how he broke hearts, does he consider himself a Pittsburgh sports villain?

“Obviously," he responds. "They named it the 'Bream Curse.' "

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Bream didn't want to leave the Pirates. So much so that he never left Pittsburgh.

In 1990, the Pirates had overcome a decade of turmoil, ranging from the Pittsburgh drug trials to a lengthy rebuild, to win the National League East division for their first playoff berth in over a decade. While they would lose to the Reds in the NLCS, the future looked bright. A fair amount of their supporting cast hit free agency that winter, though, and facing a payroll crunch, tough decisions would have to be made.

That included the first baseman Bream. After coming back from a shortened 1989 season where he had three operations on his right knee, he bounced back to become one of the Pirates' best hitters. It's why, publicly, he was the club's top priority that winter.

"The guy that glues this club more is Sid," then-general manager Larry Doughty said that winter. "Sid would be the biggest loss over the course of 162 games."

The data backed up Doughty's statement. According to Baseball Reference, the two most valuable players on that Pirates team were Bonds and Drabek, who won the National League MVP and Cy Young, respectively, that season. Then came Andy Van Slyke, a Gold Glover that year, and Bobby Bonilla, an All-Star in 1990. Then there was Bream, who drove in 67 runs and roped 40 extra-base hits, primarily out of the No. 6 spot in the lineup, cashing in on opportunities when the top half of the order needed someone to bring them home.

However, Bream and the Pirates did not make much progress on a potential contract. The Braves were offering more money, and it became clear the Pirates would not be able to match. But Bream was willing to make a concession. He would take the Pirates' offer, but only if the club included a no-trade clause.

“My attorney asked, 'what happens if they sign you and they trade you to Atlanta? You’re going to look like an idiot,' " Bream said. "I had to agree.”

The Pirates balked at the ask and Bream signed with the Braves just nine days after Doughty called him the "glue" to the team.

“It’s a real possibility in the game of baseball that if a deal comes up, it can happen if you don’t have those assurances,” Bream said, saying there was an "extremely real" chance he thought that he could have been traded without that clause. Bream had recently just had a conversation with John Smiley, who won 20 games with the Pirates in 1991 and was then traded during spring training 1992 in what appeared to be a financially-driven decision. 

Bream's grudge was with management, not his former teammates or the city. It's what made his return to Three Rivers Stadium in May of 1991 tough. He would homer after receiving a standing ovation in his first at-bat back and after he homered. When the Pirates traveled down to Atlanta a week later, he launched his first grand slam.

“You would have thought that my grandmother or my mom died because I couldn’t get happy," Bream recalled about that homer.

Those matchups and accomplishments with the Pirates were bittersweet. Not only was it his hometown team, but it was the team that gave him his first real chance. Bream was buried on the Dodgers' depth chart before being traded in 1985. There, he went from a sub-.200 hitting replacement to a legitimate major leaguer.

“It was a great move for me, and fortunately for me, the Pirates were going with a youth movement at that time," Bream said. "... It was the start of my career."

Bream had climbed to the top of the division with the Pirates, but was on the other side in 1991 and 1992 to make sure they didn't take that next step to the World Series.

“I went through the foxhole with them," Bream said. "Now all of a sudden we’re knocking them out of a chance to go to the World Series."

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This video was inevitably going to show up in this article.

Bream was due up third in the bottom of that ninth inning. The way Drabek was pitching, there seemed to be a real possibility that he could be the Braves' last hope.

“Dougie was just wonderful on the mound that night," Bream said. "You were wondering if you were just going to be able to penetrate what he was able to do.”

The Braves were a comeback team all season, and they had one more in them. Terry Pendelton doubled, Jose Lind made an error and Bream drew a walk to load the bases. Jim Leyland pulled Drabek for closer Stan Belinda, a move that still sparks debate of whether the Pirates should have kept their ace in with the season on the line.

"I don't know. If they let us replay it, we'll find out, maybe," was Drabek's assessment.

Belinda got a couple of outs at the cost of one run. Now a 2-1 game with the bases loaded again, Bream had the advantage on second. Earlier in the game, he doubled off Drabek and the starter tried to pick him off second a couple of times. This time, he knew Belinda wasn't going to try to pick him off, so he took a larger lead off the bag.

“I had the best opportunity I could have had," Bream said. "If there had been less than two outs and Stan Belinda wouldn’t have been on the mound, my chance would have been slim because I would have had to wait a little bit to see what was going on.”

He needed those extra steps. Bonds' throw was up the first base line, and Bream just beat the tag home, at least according to home plate umpire John McSherry.

"Here's my deal," catcher Mike LaValliere told our Cory Giger this summer. "When you bent leg slide, your top foot or lead foot is off the ground. It can't be digging into the ground or your spikes, you'll break an ankle. Going into any of the bases, that's easy -- going into second, going into third, because they're above ground. Home plate is level with the ground. So, my contention is I dove back, I got his back leg before his back leg hit home plate."

LaValliere and Bream have long agreed to disagree on whether he was safe or not.

In Atlanta, that play made Bream a Braves legend. The team has commissioned bobbleheads and held on-field recognitions for Cabrera and Bream. His knee brace is in their team Hall of Fame. In Pittsburgh, he was infamous. Either way, people were going to remember Sid Bream.

Because of that, the story of the slide doesn't end there.

"God gave me a platform to do it because of that slide," Bream said. "I’m trying to use it to help other people.”

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Gerry Hickly was one of countless Pirate fans who had their heart broken that night in October 30 years ago.

“I thought we were in," he said. "You kind of had your heart ripped out of you.”

So imagine Hickly's surprise when in 2015, he was asked to meet with Bream for a potential position with his company, PGT Trucking, located in Aliquippa. The company employs a chaplain as a resource for new truckers and those who need some guidance while working a demanding job that could take them away from their family for a week at a time.

Bream sometimes gets a mixed reception from the new recruits at first, especially if they are from Pittsburgh. One worker makes sure to let him know he was out every time he comes in the building, but it's in good fun.

“People hold a grudge, I’ll tell you what," Hickly said with a chuckle. "You come across some people, and boy, they kind of let them have it... Once you get to know Sid, all that goes away.”

Bream's speeches begin with, what else, the slide, and then he talks about his faith and the importance of being goal-oriented. The slide is a conversation starter, an opener, now. He talks every Monday at PGT, but now that the COVID-19 pandemic has lessened its grip on society, he also does somewhere between 15-25 speaking engagements at churches, schools and businesses. Most of it is in the southeast in Braves country, but some are in Pittsburgh, welcoming his message even if it picks at an old wound.

“That is my testimony," Bream said. "That is my life. That is my experience. It’s one of the greatest tools to help someone keep moving forward."

It's not just words and a video of a playoff game, though. Bream also sends out messages to those who are out on the road and has started GoFundMes for those who are experiencing hardship.

“It’s one thing to say you care about people, but it’s another thing to show it," Hickly said. "I think this is a real active demonstration of caring for your people.”

“He’s not trying to attract attention," Hickly said shortly after. "He’s trying to go about doing the right thing.”

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“There’s no way that my mind can even capture the fact that it was 30 years ago. Certainly seems like it’s less than that, but my body in some ways says it’s been 30 years.”

It's been 30 years of encounters with baseball fans, a usually binary event. Either they will thank Sid for his time as a player, or...

“They will introduce themselves and make a statement like, ‘I just want you to know, you killed us,’ ” Bream said.

Take his foray into coaching in the Pirates' system. When Bream was announced as a coach for then-affiliate State College, former farm director Kyle Stark was flooded with two types of emails. Half of them said that it was a great hire to bring in someone with Bream's expertise. The other half were furious that the guy who cursed this franchise is now working for it.

So be honest, Sid. Is that real?

“In some people’s eyes," Bream said. "They’ll come up with anything in order to excuse the real reason for the slump. You have to put good players out on the field to win baseball games. I’m not getting on any player, but at the same time, ownership has to want to win.”

Bream is still a goal-oriented individual. He got to the majors. He's remembered for his time there. Now, his focus is on the two grandsons he and his wife, Michele, share.

“[Making sure they are] living a life of integrity, living a life to show them what’s important. Trying to help other people to do that. Right now, that’s where I’m at at this point.”