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OT: Coolest Home Runs You've Witnessed
Can't sleep so started thinking... What are the top 5 coolest/ dramatic home runs you've witnessed either in person or on TV. Radio and replays don't count. There's been a lot... Thompson, Fisk, Gibson... But just list YOUR 5 you saw live. Here are mine: I think....
1) Aaron 715 2) Reggie's monster 1971 All Star blast 3) Brett's Pine tar HR off Gossage 4) McWires 62 5) David Freese Game 6 2011 WS walk off |
Kirk Gibson's homer for the Dodgers in the '88 World Series. I saw it live on the tv. He could barely walk up to the plate, but somehow he had just enough strength to golf the ball into the right field seats.
I saw Robin Yount hit #200 in person. He and Clemente have long been my favorite players, so seeing one of Robin's milestones was pretty special. He had one of the sweetest swings I've ever seen, and if he hadn't messed up his shoulder in 1983, he'd have ended up with a lot more than 251 homers in his career. I was at County Stadium and saw Dale Sveum hit 3 home runs in one game on July 17, 1987. And he missed a 4th home run by about 5 feet on a bomb that was just foul down the right field line. I saw that game with both my folks, and my dad and I went nuts when we thought he'd hit #4. I watched the game on September 25, 2001 when Jeromy Burnitz and Richie Sexson both hit 3 home runs for the Brewers. The Brewers stunk in 2001, but they were a lot of fun to watch, anyways. They hit 209 home runs, but only won 68 games. Burnitz and Sexson combined to hit 79 between them. And they hit some absolute tape measure shots, especially Sexson. It killed me when the Brewers traded him. He played three seasons in Milwaukee, hitting .274 with 119 home runs and 351 RBI in his three seasons there. Between 1999 and 2006, if you take out the 2004 season, when he only played 23 games due to two dislocated shoulder injuries, he hit 253 home runs in 7 seasons, or 26 home runs a season. And he was on a tear in 2004 when he got hurt. He'd only played in 23 games, and had 9 home runs. Sexson was 6'6" 205 pounds, and he had some of the sickest bat speed I've ever seen. The guy was a monster. Sexson hits #200 off the scoreboard in Arizona |
Greg Zaun's Called Shot:
During the 1999 Hall-of-Fame Game on Induction Weekend.
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Been to a lot of ballgames at a lot of ballparks in my 64 years and have witnessed a lot of home runs. None have been particularly significant although I value the memories of having seen the likes of Mantle and Williams park one over the fence. Saw Norm Siebern hit an inside-the-park home run at Yankee Stadium on my eighth birthday in 1958. That was pretty cool. More to the topic of this thread I would say the greatest HR's I ever saw were on the old black-and-white, and they would be Mazeroski's walk-off (although that term hadn't been coined yet) against NYY in 1960 and Maris' #60 in 1961. The whole McGwire Bonds Sosa thing didn't have an iota of the drama of Maris' run at Ruth's record. It was like Lindbergh or the four minute mile. Major stuff, not a vaudeville show.
Siebern rounds third http://photos.imageevent.com/kawika_...2023-50-49.jpg Crosetti waves him home http://photos.imageevent.com/kawika_...2023-51-35.jpg http://photos.imageevent.com/kawika_...0Park%20HR.jpg |
All live at stadium: Saw Jackie Jensen hit one at Fenway in 1957. Willie Mays' last HR, at Shea, in 1973. Chambliss winning pennant for Yanks in playoffs. Reggie's 3 dingers in the Series. Gary Carter's to win game in first game as Met, opening day '85. Dykstra to win playoff game in '86. Others.
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Mike piazza right after 911 vs braves to win it ,,i was there,great night.
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1. Gibson in 88 via TV. Goosebumps lasted a week.
2. McGwire in 98 hitting the left pole on the Jacob's field scoreboard (in person). I swear that ball was still going up when it hit. Laser shot. 3. Griffey's #499 in Cleveland. His next at bat sadly was caught on the track. 4. Bo Jackson's leadoff All Star game bomb with President Reagan in the TV booth. 5. My 8 year old putting one over a short 170 sign in right center - priceless. |
The first two that I thought of were Fisk and Dent.
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Gibson 88 and McGwire 62 were huge - saw both on TV. I'll add Joe Carter in 92. He had played for Cleveland in the 80s, and he came to my school and signed autographs. Then left town and did that.
But for me the best one ever was Albert Belle in game 1 of the 95 divisional round against Boston. First playoff game in cleveland in 40 years, in extra innings, Indians down 1 in the 12th, two outs. Belle is dialed in, fouls one off, then hammers one over the fence. Ties the game, bedlam in the stands. Boston's manager immediately calls for the bat to be checked, and Belle gets up on the top step of the dugout, flexes and points to his bicep to show Boston where it came from. Tribe wins in 13, and the bat is sawed in half after the game, and is clean. Just a wild crazy game - welcome back to playoff baseball cleveland. One other that is memorable to me is Pujols off of Brad Lidge in 2005 or so. In Houston, ninth inning to tie the game. Hit it waaaaaaaay out, rattled around on the train tracks ( or whatever in Houston) behind the seats.was just huge. |
I've seen many historic Home Runs live on tv like Aaron's 715th, Kirk Gibson's vs the A's, Chambliss vs the Royals and so on.
But in person, my favorite was in 1981 at Yankee Stadium, it was the end of Sept on a cold dreary night. John Denny of the Indians struck our Reggie in the 1st inning. Then a couple innings later Reggie hits a titantic shot off of Denny and Reggie did a slow trot around the bases w/ Denny walking off the mound shouting at him. Reggie touched home plate and went after Denny, both benches emptied and there was excitement in the Bronx w/ more cheers during the fight then the home Run. |
I've seen the likes of Ernie Banks and Billy Williams hit HR's. For as many major league games as I've seen, including playoff games, I don't recall anything truly historic. I did see Geoff Jenkins (Brewers) hit a walk off against the Cardinals in September a few years back when St Louis needed wins in it's hunt for the playoffs.
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Watching Roger Maris hit his 61st in 61. That is still my favorite moment in baseball that I will never forget.
Roger Maris was my hero when I was a kid. |
My three best HR memories...
For me live the Gibson HR in the '88 World Series of Eck would be #1. Watching the Dodger crowd cheer and go crazy when Fernando Tatis hit 2 grandslams in the same inning was #2. That was wild and will probably never be duplicated. #3 would be Mike Piazza clearing the left field bleachers in Dodger Stadium. Up to that point, only Willie Stargell (twice) had ever hit it completely out of Dodger Stadium...It was a huge shot. I think McGwire did it once too later on. Joshua |
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Like many others I have seen countless memorable home runs on television but the best one (or two) I have witnessed in person was the Sandberg game at Wrigley Field against the Cardinals in 1984. Sandberg hit two homers to give the Cubs the lead each time in this game. You could cut the tension with a knife and somehow, after this game, one would know that 1984 was going to be the Cubs year.
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Frank Howard hitting what looked like a high popup except that it ended up in the center field upper deck at RFK.
The same Frank Howard hitting a laser off Sam McDowell that could not have been in the air more than 3 seconds. A rookie I had never heard of hitting two over the Monster on consecutive pitches one afternoon I took off from work -- turned out to be Juan Gonzalez. On TV, Don Baylor's 3 run shot against the Angels to bring the Red Sox back from the verge of extinction in 1986. Johnny Damon's grand slam to put Game 7 almost out of reach against the Yankees in 2004. Ortiz' slam against the Tigers last year. Gibson of course. We look back now in contempt but McGwire's 62 was pretty cool at the time. |
1) McGwire 62
2) Gibson 88 WS 3) Brett's Pine Tar HR 4) Robin Ventura's Grand Slam "Single" (was at this game) |
Mine would have to be the Griffeys hitting back-to-back home runs on September 14, 1990.
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Cardinals vs Yankees 1964 World Series Game 4.
Cardinals down 2 games to 1, at Yankee Stadium, sure to lose their first World Series appearance since 1946 after Ray Sadecki yields 3 runs in the first inning. With one out in the top of the 6th, Ken Boyer hits a grand slam off Al Downing, final score 4-3 on just 6 hits. Cardinals go on to win World Series in 7 games. Old Yankee dynasty ends, new Cardinal dynasty begins, Ken Boyer makes Hall of Fame. Well, Boyer should be in the Hall of Fame. :D:D:D |
Watching on TV as Joe Carter hit his World Series winning homer run off Mitch Williams.
I had a premonition just as Williams started his wind-up that the pitch was getting hammered, and couldn't believe it when Carter actually came thru. Cool, but weird too |
I know this isn't an important home run, but I was at Yankee Stadium one day for a game against the Tigers and Damion Easly crushed a ball most of the way up the black seats in left center. It was one of the longest bombs I've ever seen and hit by such a relatively little guy. I went to Yankee games at the old stadium for 20 years and never saw anyone else hit a home run that deep.
Another time Manny Ramirez crushed a ball about half way up the upper deck in left field in the rain. What a bomb probably the only time I saw someone hit one into the left field upper deck at the stadium too. |
Was in Atlanta and saw my favorite player, Ken Griffey Jr., hit one to pass Frank Robinson on the all time HR list to number 6. Only time I saw him hit one live.
Drew |
I have to add another home run I saw in person and actually watched it sail over my head. It was hit by the incredible home run hitter of the Pirates.......Doug Frobel. I have to say that I have soon some moon shots but after seeing over 1000 games in person at Wrigley Field, this was the most impressive shot I have seen in the old ball yard.
Here is a link from that game. http://news.google.com/newspapers?ni...g=5115,5946533 |
On my one and only trip to Wrigley, saw Sammy Sosa hit his 60th home run (second season he hit 60).
Also was in attendance and saw Griffey Jr hit the last home run in the Kingdome |
It doesn't get much better than these HR's
In my youth, growing up in the 1940's & 1950's, I saw 5 of these tremendous HR's (as identified) in this photo.
* The greatest, though, was Mantle's monster that hit the ornate facade on the RF roof. It was within 12" of clearing Yankee Stadium. Had it cleared, it was projected that it would have traveled 600+ feet. ........... Mantle .................. DiMaggio ......................................... Mantle ........................................ Mantle * .. Williams http://photos.imageevent.com/tedzan7...keeStad25x.jpg TED Z . |
HRs
As for watching one on TV, it's either the Sandberg/Sutter game, or the bomb that Glenallen Hill hit on top of a roof in left field at Wrigley...that was amazing!
The best in person home runs were all the ones I saw Dave Kingman hit...majestic! |
Watching Chad Johnson homer to beat the Braves in a WS game.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk |
Yanks vs Sox live at Fenway
Sox go back to back to back to back. The stadium was electric |
Memories From Cleveland Stadium
First is Mark McGuire during his rookie season. First series in to play the Indians he hit either two or three home runs in the game. I can remember turning to my buddies and commenting "who does this guy think he is - Babe Ruth?"
The second would be Bo Jackson. In his first trip into Cleveland I can remember him swinging and missing with such great velocity / so hard that he almost fell down. I think he struck out the first three time up. In his last at bat he hit a screaming line drive that the Indians short stop jumped and just missed catching for an out. The ball was hit so hard it sailed over the left-center field fence for a home run. |
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The coolest home run I was ever involved in or saw was at Cubs Fantasy camp. The team I was playing on was in the championship game to see who won the trophy for the camp. It was a sudden death situation so first team to score won the title. We put the other team down 3 up 3 down in the first inning. Our team came up to bat and our shortstop "Rico" lead off our side. First pitch came down to center of the plate and he just watched it go by. Second pitch came by and he lined it over the left field fence to win the game and clinch the title.
I was the catcher for this game and i had been talking some crap to batters earlier in the week to distract the other batters. A friend of mine who came up to bat for the other team in this game came up and said "don't say anything". I said " I wasn't planning on saying anything". He actually hit the ball into the ground for an easy out at First. Guess I beat him mentally. LOL |
In person: I was at the first night baseball game at the University of Georgia in 1984. UGA played Auburn and Bo Jackson hit a homerun to dead center that hit the lights. I swear the ball was still rising when it hit the lights at the top of the pole. I don't care if it was an aluminum bat, it was the most amazing HR I have seen. Would have easily gone 500+ feet if not for the lights. The stunned UGA fans even gave him a standing ovation as he rounded the bases.
On TV: my mom allowed me to stay up late on a school night to watch the 6th game of the 1977 World Series to watch my favorite player, Reggie Jackson. It was a truly magical night for a 12-year-old as I saw Reggie hit 3 homers to clinch the Series. Amazing performance on the biggest stage! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk |
A trifecta - 1961 - Sitting in the stands at Wrigley Field - Los Angeles, watching the new Los Angeles Angels playing the New York Yankees and Roger Maris hitting his 50th homer on his way to 61.
Brand new team Great stadium that closed after the 1961 season Seeing an historic home run Life was good. |
I was at the game in Chicago in 2003 when Alfonso Soriano set the record for most leadoff homeruns in a season.
The other was batting practice in St Louis in 1999. It was the last 3 games of the season, Cubs vs Cardinals. Glenallen Hill hit one into the upper deck and smashed a guy in the face(OUCH!!). I was sitting below in the bleachers and seen it close up and personal. The really cool part was the next day fans showed up with signs that they could stick their faces through that read "Hit me in the face Sammy" Some said McGwire but crazily most I seen said Sammy in St Louis. |
In person at Yankee stadium 2008 all star game home run derby. When Hamilton went crazy hitting like 12 in a row without an out. One of his shots hit the back wall behind the bleachers. I was in upper deck which was shaking everyone was jumping up and down screaming. HAM-IL-TON
That was fun |
In person, my favorite homers were:
A home run by Carlton Fisk when I was 11. My dad took me out to Comiskey and Fisk homered in the second game of a three game series. He was my favorite player, so it was a great childhood moment. I saw Bonds #713th homer, Sunday night ESPN game in Philadelphia, crowd was giving it to him good and he crushed one that went over my head in right field and hit the facing of the third deck, then landed in my row about 15 people to my right. My favorite part was booing Ryan Franklin(who failed a PED test and was suspended) and then asking everyone around me why they weren't booing him too. He actually got a nice round of applause. I don't think anyone got the irony :) I was at the HR Derby in Pittsburgh when Ryan Howard hit the 1000 free trips sign to win it all and someone in the stadium actually got free flights for life. I was at a playoff game in Boston where the White Sox defeated the Red Sox to eliminate them in 2005. Two homers by Ramirez, one by Ortiz and they still lost 5-3. That was the only playoff game I've been to, so all three homers were cool moments. Without considering everything else, the coolest homer I saw was at a minor league game last year. I go to a lot of games in Lakewood, so I remember a lot of homers there but I never saw anyone hit one over the batter's eye. It's not a hitter's park at all, so there really isn't many homers hit there. Anyway, Cameron Flynn steps up and crushes a line drive to center field that passes the batter's eye and the ball didn't start it's downward ascent until sometime after it got out of sight. The stadium has a walkway around the whole park and there were people a good 440 feet from home plate that watched the ball fly over their head and didn't even bother to chase it because it ended up so far away from them. Flynn has nine homers in three season of minor league ball. I'm guessing he never hit a ball like that either before or after that homer and I've never seen a ball hit that far before or since. |
Game 5 yanks v. Diamondbacks sitting 5 rows behind home plate and Brosous hits that home run in the bottom of the ninth. It was delirium. Everyone going ape $hit. Everyone in the crowd hugging each other remember it followed the previous game that had a similar ending and it was only 2 weeks after 9/11. It was like a dream. Turned into a nightmare though two games later when Mariano gave up the game winner in game 7. I'll never forget it.
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Bucky Dents home run in the 1978 AL tie breaker. I talked my dad into picking me up from school as I was "sick". He dropped me off at my grandpas and we watched the game together. My grandpa knew what was up. Lol. I have been a Yankees fan ever since!
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On t.v. I've seen too many to bring up, but Kirk Gibson's was pretty special, as was Carlton Fisk's.
In person I'll go with Griffey Jr.'s last HR, which I suspected was his last. He just whipped it on a line over the rf fence. Looked like he could have kept doing it for years, but then he started sleeping in the dugout during games. |
In-person all I've got are minor league ones by Spokane Indians at Avista Stadium:
- Ruben Sierra Jr hitting a walkoff grand slam on a full don't with two outs to win a pickup for a fan. Incredible night. - Joey Gallo hitting a monster home run over the light pole in right field. The ball doesn't carry all that well at Avista and this was just a massive bomb. 500 feet, I would bet. TV: - Kirk Gibson's big World Series home run. The one off Gossage. You thought I meant something else? - The Sutter/Sandberg game - Mark McGwire hitting a home run into the upper deck in dead center field at Tiger Stadium - McGwire's 62nd - Aaron F'ing Boons |
Via TV, Gibson and Mazerowski HRs I have witnessed.
The only HR of importance, to the ball player involved, but not to history, and I got to see it at the game. Coot Veal's only major league home run in his career. Just a Punch and Judy hitter, on this day,. he hit one far enough to tuck it just inside the left field foul line, and just over the fence. I think the guy in the first row caught it.....LOL But it counted, one career home run. |
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Another time, in 1999, I was given a pair of tickets for the Mets NLDS. My friend and I are both Yankee fans (but not Mets haters). Todd Pratt hits a walk-off in the 10th to send the Mets to NLCS. Video clips of this are deceiving because they have cheering all the way through. The crowd was indeed making a lot of noise in anticipation as the ball went out to center, and the fielder's glove went up over the wall as the ball was going over. But the crowd went completely silent for what seemed like an eternity. Nobody knew. Then the fielder opens his glove. Empty. Then the crowd erupts. |
Blue Monday
Saw this one live on a cold Monday afternoon at the Olympic Stadium....still painful to watch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC-dFGBglWs |
Dave Justice of the Braves off Jim Poole of the Indians to account for the only run in Game 6 of the 1995 WS. Tom Glavine one-hit the Indians and the Braves won 1-0 to win the WS.
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Funny other post on important hits I posted these three
1- Jeter 2001 world series game 4 Live 2-Jeter's 300th hit Live 3-Jeter's only inside the park Homer vs KC Live 4 Buckey Dent on TV 5 Arron Boone on TV |
Funny other post on important hits I posted these three
1- Jeter 2001 world series game 4 Live 2-Jeter's 300th hit Live 3-Jeter's only inside the park Homer vs KC Live 4 Buckey Dent on TV 5 Arron Boone on TV |
Live: First game I took my daughter to... Morneau hit one in the top of the 10th or eleventh in Detroit to put the Twins ahead after a great comeback. They went on to win the game. I was the only one standing and cheering in my section. Boy, did I get an earful from a lot of people!
TV: Puckett's Game 6 blast off Liebrandt in 1991. "And we'll see you tomorrow night!" |
A long story, but I hope you will enjoy.
While I was playing in College in 1974, we traveled several hundred miles to play Florida State. While the final score was 10-1 'noles, we considered ourselves lucky it wasn't much worse. They were a Nationally Ranked Division I powerhouse and we were just a good Division III team. There were 10,000 fans attending - about 20 times what we normally draw.
Behind the outfield fence was a row of say, twenty-foot high trees stretching from the left-field corner all the way to the right-field corner. Behind that was a standard sized sidewalk and street and across the street was the FSU outdoor circus including a trapeze net...which was about ten yards away from the street, behind a fence. Anyway, after our starting pitcher was relieved of his torment, our junk-ball relief specialist was called on to pitch to their first baseman, an Hispanic lad with no apparent neck. The first pitch was in the dirt as was the second. Pressure dictated a strike at this point and that is what was delivered. The ball was still going up as it sailed over the twenty-foot trees in center-field and it landed - on the fly - in the trapeze net. I got in a lot of trouble on the bus ride home yapping on and on about how far it must have traveled. I have probably see five hundred high school, college and pro games since and never have seen one close to that. |
In person: Freese, Game 6 of 2011 WS, McGwire 62, Sutcliffe in game 1 of 1984 NLCS.
TV: Gibson in '88, easily. On DVD: Mazeroski in 1960. |
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