Catching Up With Braves Great Francisco Cabrera

[Editor’s note: This article is from The Spun’s “Then and Now” magazine, featuring interviews with more than 50 sports stars of yesteryear. Order your copy online today, or pick one up at retail racks and newsstands nationwide.]

Sid Bream lumbers around third and chugs home, sliding in just ahead of catcher Mike LaValliere's tag to give Atlanta a dramatic 3-2 comeback win over Pittsburgh in Game 7 of the 1992 National League Championship Series.

It's one of baseball's most iconic highlights, replayed so often in October that Bream and teammate David Justice, who mobbed Bream after scoring the tying run, are permanently etched into the brains of baseball fans.

But can you name the seldom-used utility man who delivered the two-out, two-run, pinch-hit single to score Justice and Bream - the player CBS announcer Sean McDonough called "the unlikeliest of heroes" for the Braves?

That would be Francisco Cabrera, who had only 283 big-league plate appearances - and 11 during the 1992 regular season - to his name when he authored one of baseball's greatest playoff finishes.

"That was the highlight of my career," said Cabrera, 56. "The best memory I have."

Cabrera was 25 when he delivered that clutch hit. He played 70 games for the Braves in 1993 but spent the next 10 years playing minor league and independent league ball, as well as for professional leagues across Japan, Mexico, Taiwan, and Canada.