When the cleat is on the other foot

A year after stunning Norwich with a title-winning, walk-off grand slam by Milton Bradley, the Harrisburg Senators come to know the Navigators’ angst 25 years ago tonight as they are equally flummoxed when pinch-hitter Carmine Cappuccio hits a game-ending slam in the ninth inning.

Cappuccio’s slam off Senators reliever Rodney Stevenson gives Reading a stunning 10-9 victory over Harrisburg in Game 1 of the Southern Division finals at Municipal Stadium.

Rodney Stevenson delivers the final, fateful pitch to Reading’s Carmine Cappuccio

“I was just trying to take the biggest hack I could,” Cappuccio says.

“When I hit first base and the crowd exploded, it was just the best feeling.”

Well, not for everyone – starting in the Harrisburg’s cramped clubhouse.

There, in a small brick-lined cubicle, the Senators talk in whispers dropping from the lips of ashen faces.

“Give me a minute,” Harrisburg manager Doug Sisson says. “I have to grieve about this. I’m in complete shock. …

“We had things pretty well in hand," Sisson says. “In the playoffs, with a five-run lead going into the ninth, you have to win that game.”

Exactly the same thinking of the Norwich Navigators a year earlier when Bradley, with one swing, launches a grand slam that gives Harrisburg the 1999 EL title while simultaneously crushing Norwich’s dreams.

Alas for the Senators in 2000, they never win another game as Reading sweeps the three-game series and ends the Senators’ chances for a fifth straight Class AA Eastern League title.

“As badly as we wanted to win,” Sisson says after the series, “you can’t guarantee them, you can’t predict them, you can’t wish them upon yourself.”

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