Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Tim Russert's "Guarantee"

I was checking out the "Blessed! Still We Believe 2" video last night, when I remembered that the late Tim Russert made a brief appearance in it. Mike Barnicle, the writer and broadcaster, is one of the principal people the film is centered around (along with my buddy Chris from Professor Thom's) and he sits in a box seat at Fenway talking to various people of note who are Red Sox fans or connected to them in some way.

Later in the film, Barnicle is sitting chatting about baseball and the Red Sox with Lenny Clarke, the Boston-born comedian and Sox fan. Tim Russert is sitting to the left of Clarke watching the game. The game in question is the September 12th contest against Tampa Bay. The Red Sox are down 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth with a man on and David Ortiz coming up.

Russert looks at both Barnicle and Clarke, stands up out of his seat and says just three words to them: "home run" and "guaranteed" with a smile on his face. And sure enough, Papi goes deep and belts one into the seats, the one Delmon Young turned the wrong way on in right field to give the Red Sox a 5-4 win. It was Papi's first "walkoff" home run in 2007.

And Tim Russert called it, with the cameras catching it for the film.

God bless you, Tim.

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