Homer History: Rob Schneider witnesses Bob Brenly's redemption

In our Homer History series, writers re-tell the stories of memorable home runs from their perspective. In this installment, famous baseball fan and film/television personality Rob Schneider recounts the time Bob Brenly came through after a tough game. Schneider currently stars in the show "Real Rob" on Netflix, which he wrote, produced, financed and starred in. He also still performs new stand-up material every week, and was most recently heard voicing the title character Norm from the animated movie "Norm of the North."

Every once in a while, something happens in baseball that knocks your lights out. Those moments for me, even bigger than the World Series wins, are what make it special to be a fan.

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There’s so much emphasis on postseason these days, it’s almost like the season doesn’t matter until the last couple weeks. When I was a kid, the playoffs were still on during the day and there wasn’t the emphasis on gigantic ad dollars. In that era, players were just beginning to be able to live the entire year on their salary. I’m talking about the late ’60s and early ’70s. Baseball changed for me in 1979, when Dave Parker was the first guy to get a million-dollar deal. That was unbelievable. And, in those years, the regular season was still really exciting.

When I think about home runs that I’ll always remember, I’m taken back to September 1986 at Candlestick Park, when the Giants were playing the Braves in what people like to call a “meaningless game.” The Giants were 83-79 that season, but 9.5 games out in the NL West at that point. But this game, which showed us humiliation and redemption in the course of nine innings, was hardly meaningless. Particularly not for Bob Brenly.

Being a Giants fan at that time was much different than today, when they didn’t have the World Series rings and fancy ballpark. Back then, they were playing in the worst stadium and everybody knew it. As a fan, you weren’t there because it was the thing to do. You were there because your dad was a Giants fan, so you were a Giants fan — be damned, you are! Most of the time, things didn’t go your way.

Brenly sure learned it that day. He was a catcher — a very good catcher and a good ballplayer. He was never going to be a Hall of Famer, but he was a solid ballplayer. He had a lot of heart. He could call a good game. He was good with the bat, but nothing exceptional.

The Giants put him out to play third base that day because Chris Brown was hurt. But that wasn’t Brenly’s position and he proved it. In the fourth inning, Brenly made four errors. Four errors in one inning! He booted three grounders and on one of them, he picked up the ball and made a throwing error.

[Homer History: David Eckstein comes through in the clutch ... again]

I was living in San Francisco at the time. I was 22 and a stand-up comedian. I was at the game and if there were 4,500 people at Candlestick, I’d be shocked. I remember, because we were able to move up and get better seats.

When Brenly’s first error happened, fans were on him. The second one, people were still on him. The third one, you’re wondering why he’s out there. The fourth one, you just laugh because you realize this doesn’t happen. It doesn’t even happen in rec-league softball.

Even for us — fans used to seeing some below-average play — this was like, “Wow.” Everybody knew Bob Brenly was a good guy who shouldn’t be playing third base. But you’re also laughing like, “Did we just witness this?

The humiliation was unbearable, but Brenly did hit best to make up for it. After that brutal fourth inning gave the Braves a 4-0 lead, Brenly came back and homered in the fifth inning. Then he had a two-run single in the seventh that gave the Giants a 6-6 tie. 

Brenly came up in the ninth inning with the score still tied, with two out and a full count against Braves pitcher Paul Assenmacher. You could sense the pitcher saying, “I’m not going to let this guy get the game-winning home run.”

I’ll never forget where that pitch was, it was outside and down. Brenly reached out and just smacked it over the fence. That walk-off homer was a combination of will, pride, anger, retribution and frustration.

For the San Francisco Giants, who had never won a World Series at this time or nowhere near it — it makes you realize why they play the game. It’s like he did it for the whole city and he did it for the whole team. There was justice in the world. Especially for a working-class player like Bob Brenly.

The point is, there are no meaningless games. It just depends on what you want to bring to it. There’s so much pressure, so much money, so much fame at the highest level as player, but there are very few times where you remember why you play and that it’s a game where magical things can happen. 

It’s not just in the playoffs. It’s anytime. That’s the magic of baseball.

When you’re not a playoff team, you have to look for other moments to get excited about, other stories to tell. That ended up being a major story for us. Not a lot of people know about it, but Bob will remember.

[Elsewhere: Tim Flannery is not happy with Padres fans]

When Bob Brenly hit that home run, it was like he did it for all of us — the diehard fans who showed up to watch baseball on what some people might call a meaningless Sunday in September.

COMING FRIDAY: Alex Gordon comes through in Game 1 of the 2015 World Series.

PREVIOUSLY IN HOMER HISTORY
- The night a hobbled Kirk Gibson broke my heart (by Mike Oz)
- Cal Ripken Jr. wowed us yet again on Iron Man night (by Lauren Shehadi)
- When Albert Pujols silenced Minute Maid Park (by Jeff Passan)
- Bill Mazeroski's great walk-off World Series winner (by Kevin Iole)
- The Big Papi grand slam that still haunts Detroit (by Al Toby)
- That time Joe Blanton hit a home run in the World Series (by Sam Cooper)
- When Jim Leyritz halted hopes of a Braves dynasty (by Jay Busbee)
- Bryce Harper and the home run almost no one saw (by Chris Cwik)
- Shane Robinson and the home run on one predicted (by Tim Brown)
- The shot heard 'round the world (by Larry King)
- The night Reggie Jackson became Mr. October (by Scott Pianowski)
- Tony Fernandez's extra-innings postseason blast (by Joey Gulino)
- Dave Kingman takes one out of Wrigley Field (by Andy Behrens)
- Joe Carter's blast wins the 1993 World Series (by Greg Wyshynski)
- Todd Helton ignites a historic Rockies run (by Mark Townsend)
- David Eckstein once again does the improbable (by Max Thompson)

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