That was some damn good post-season baseball.

It’s laundry night, so I was up and down during the game. And it seems that I always left during the exciting parts. With the score tied at 2-2 in the fifth, I went downstairs and came back just in time to see the replay of Berkman’s double to bring Houston up 4-2. But that wasn’t the play I really kicked myself for missing.

In the bottom of the seventh, I watched the White Sox load the bases when Jermaine Dye got hit by a pitch. (Or did he? It looked like it hit the bat to me.) The Astros went for a pitching change, and so I went for a laundry change. But apparently it take me longer to change my laundry than it takes Houston to change a pitcher. When I got back upstairs, it was the top of the eighth, and the score was 6-4. I quickly reached for my computer to figure out how that happened — oh, Paul Konerko grand slam. That play I kicked myself for missing. There have only been 18 grand slams in World Series history.* And I just missed one.

As I sat there folding laundry, I figured with two outs in the top of the ninth and the White Sox up by two, I’d be able to go grab my last load out of the dryer very shortly. But the Astros decided to make it interesting and tied it up at 6 going into the bottom of the ninth. I almost went to get my clothes during the mid-inning commercial break, but having learned my lesson in the 7th, I thought better of it. And I’m very glad at that. Because while there have been only 18 grand slams in World Series history, there have been even fewer (14 including tonight) walk-off homeruns.** And while I can’t find official statistics, I’m pretty sure that this is the first one hit by a guy who didn’t hit any homers in the regular season.

* Bonus Trivia: Two teams have hit two grand slams in one World Series. The first was the 1956 Yankees. The second? My beloved 1987 Twins, with Kent Hrbek and Dan Gladden both going deep with the bases loaded.

** More trivia: One of those walk-off homeruns was Kirby Puckett’s in game 6 of the 1991 World Series. In the right baseball montage, footage of that homerun with the call “… and we’ll see you tomorrow night!” can actually bring me to tears. (Shut up — I know I’m a sucker for that stuff.)

Even more trivia, because I can: Prior to yesterday, the last World Series homerun for Chicago was hit by Ted Kluszewski on October 8, 1959 in an 8-3 loss to the Dodgers, who took the series in that game.