When the 2011 regular season was over, many baseball commentators and historians declared that September 28, 2011, was not just the greatest night of the season but, arguably, the greatest night of any season.
Such claims are impossible to substantiate; the topic is subjective, like beauty residing in the eye of the beholder.
But if the events of Wednesday do not rank at the top of baseball's list of greatest days, they must be very close to the top.
When the night began, the wild-card spots in both the American League and National League were unclaimed. Four teams were still in contention for the two spots.
The AL wild-card race involved the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays, tied with records of 90-71. If the teams each won, or lost, a one-game play-off would have been conducted on Thursday to decide the team going forward to the Divisional Series.
The Red Sox built an early lead over the Baltimore Orioles while the Rays fell behind 7-0 to the New York Yankees. But the Rays scored six in the bottom of the eighth to pull within a run. In the bottom of the ninth, Dan Johnson hit a two-out homer, sending the game to extra innings.
Meanwhile, the Red Sox carried a one-run lead into the ninth inning and recorded the first two outs before trouble set in for the closer Jonathan Papelbon. Two doubles and a single later, the Orioles had themselves a shock 4-3 comeback victory, and the crestfallen Red Sox needed their arch-rivals, the Yankees, to beat the Rays to create the play-in game on Thursday.
Their hope was misplaced. Exactly three minutes after Boston's loss was finished, Evan Longoria homered in the bottom of the 12th for Tampa Bay. What had been a nine-game lead in early September was now a ticket home for the Red Sox.
In the National League, the drama was nearly as spectacular. The St Louis Cardinals, like the Rays in the AL, had taken advantage of a collapse by a team seemingly destined for the play-offs, in this case the Atlanta Braves, to reach the 162nd game in a dead heat.
As in the AL, the NL seemed headed for a 163rd game as a tie-breaker. The Cards routed Houston but the Braves held a 3-2 lead in the ninth - until their closer Craig Kimbrel could not shut the door, giving up three walks as Philadelphia tied the game.
With the Cards watching via television in their clubhouse, the Phillies scored in the top of the 12th inning and held off the Braves in the bottom of the frame, making the Cards the wild-card winners.
Four games, two decided in extra innings, capped two incredible surges and two equally astonishing collapses. All on the same day.
Wrote Dave Sheinin of the Washington Post: "… quite simply the best day of regular-season baseball the game has ever seen".
