The most memorable HR of all time
 

While listening to a history of baseball podcast, I became curious about something. What is the most memorable home run the game has ever seen? I'm certain answers will vary; however, would be interested in reading your opinions.

For me, it's Gibson's World Series Game 1 pinch-hit blast beat the A's. It probably "ranks" lower than Ruth's called shot, Aaron's 715, or Fisk's Game 6 classic. However, I saw it unfold (on TV) in real time when I was a teenager. By that point, I could fully understand the magnitude of the moment...and I absolutely did believe what I just saw.

Chris Chambliss taking home the pennant for the Bombers in 1976...and a year later, Reggie launching Charlie Hough's first pitch knuckler into the black of center field for his third homer of Game 6. What a pair of majestic moments!!!

For me, it will always be Mike Piazza's post 9/11 homer against the Braves.

Jeffrey Maier game for me.

I'm pretty sure none of the guys mentioned upthread got a nickname as a result of hitting that home run, so the answer is clearly Bucky Dent in the one game playoff between the Yankees and Red Sox at the end of the 1978 regular season.

We definitely need a 'like' button here.

Bucky F***ing Dent. LOL

The "Shot Heard 'Round The World", Bobby Thomson off of Ralph Branca in 1951 is one of the most iconic HRs off all-time.

The two most exciting home runs I saw were Carlton Fisk's home run in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, and Chris Chambliss' home run to end the 1976 playoffs against the Royals.

Of course another famous home run is Bill Mazeroski's home run in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series.

Bernie Carbo 1975 World Series against the Reds. Everyone remembers Fisk but without Carbo, it never happens. Another dinger I`ll never forget, Reggie Jackson 1971 Tiger stadium all star game, WOW !!!!

My most memorable was watching Roger Maris blast number 50 into the stands at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles on his way to 61.

Mazeroski's was Game 7 and defeated the Yankees. I would say his.

HR
 

Kirk Gibson hobbling to the plate in the World Series. Sitting in a room full of A’s fans at the time about to watch my team season go down the tubes. When Gibson connected and the ball flew out of the stadium I had never heard a room go so silent. That replay always gives me chills.
Brett

Fisk, was it in 75...fair ball, the hop helped it!

Nick esasky v bash brothers in 89 after he signed my card.


Went to a random sox yankees game at Fenway at sox went, back to back to back to back!

For me, Wilmer Flores on July 31, 2015 is as memorable as any. My others are Aaron 715, Fisk, Gibson, and Reggie’s 3rd.

There's Carbo and also Hal Smith who hit a 3 run homer in the bottom of the 8th for the Pirates in Game 7 in the 1960 series to put the Pirates ahead 9-7. The Yankees of course, tied it up in the 9th. But without Smith's home run, there would have been no Maz home run.

Mazeroski.

Was walking home from parochial school in north Jersey and had a cheap transistor radio glued to my ear. I floated home on cloud nine.

Not as important as the ones listed, but two from Jacob's Field:

McGwire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss9moiGqHCQ


Manny/Eck/WOW!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgyrGsw6aMg

Top three (too close to call):

Mazeroski
Fisk
Kirk Gibson

Next three (also in no order, and barely behind the top three):

Thomson
Ruth's called shot
Aaron's 715

Saw it Live on TV
 

As far as me personally.... "saw it live on TV"..... Gibsons HR ( reminded me of the Natural) Mark McGwires #70 , Ripken hitting a HR in both the game tying Gehrig and the one following breaking Gehrigs record. All of these you just had to love not only the HR itself but the moment for the guy you were really rooting for at the time.

Mazeroski, then Thomson.

As time passes, the older ones fade in the collective memory while more people remember the recent.

For example, look how many people here are putting Bucky Dent above Thomson or Maz. Dent's HR was in the 7th inning and made the score 3-2, in a game that ended 5-4.

Thomson stepped to the plate in the bottom of the 9th, down 2 runs, and turned defeat into instant victory over crosstown rival Brooklyn. Every NL fan in New York either cheered or cried that day.

The Yankees, winners of the World Series in 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1956, and 1958, were heavy favorites over the Pirates in 1960. They destroyed Pittsburgh in 3 of the games, by scores of 16-3, 10-0, and 12-0. Pittsburgh led 9-7 entering the 9th, but the Yankees tied it and it looked like fate would again be on their side. When Maz connected, it was electric. Game over, Series over, season over, and the Pirates, who had finished dead last 6 times and next to last twice in the 1950s had vanquished the mighty Yankees.

You just can't compare those 2 walk-off home runs to Chris Chambliss or Bucky Dent.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Joe Carter.

I was just about to. :)

If the category is memorable,to me that means I have to remember it personally, so I have to go with Gibson. Was visiting my brother at college and a bunch of guys in the dorm lounge were all watching. No Dodgers or A's fans (other than my brother and I) in the group and the place still exploded. The feeling of hopelessness as he hobbled to the plate against prime Eckersley and the emotional 180, it's hard to describe.

2nd is probably Joe Carter

3rd is Ozzie Smith. How do you get beat in the NLCS on a home run by Ozzie Smith? That's statistically much more improbable than Bucky F'n Dent.

I'm a Phillies fan. I don't mention that home run without lots of colorful language...

For me, it's Steve Garvey's home run off Lee Smith in the 1984 NLCS.

Steve

#715
 

Mine has to be Hank Aaron’s 715th homer. He did it with his first swing of the bat in his home park! Watching Bill Buckner climbing the left field fence as Tom House retrieved the ball! Can’t get much bigger than that.

Another great home run is Mickey Mantle's 535th off of Denny McLain, where Denny grooved one for him. One of the most beautiful moments in baseball. I wish there were a film or even a radio recording of that. I've only come across a few pictures over the years. There used to be a paper out on Long Island, NY called The Suffolk Sun which ran some nice big pictures the morning after it happened.

Many thoughts come to mind.

I was a minister in the late 80s, and visited a dear lady all alone one October evening. She enjoyed watching baseball, and she invited me to join her. I said sure, I'd be glad to, even though I had not seen a World Series since game 3 of the '78 series. So, here it was exactly 10 years later, and we're watching game 1 ........ It was precisely as you described; Kirk Gibson literally hobbled to the plate. How could the man swing the bat well, I wondered? Then.... KERBLAMO!! I somehow knew this one was special. Gibson was interviewed right after the game and said, appropriately, "I thank God for this beautiful moment." Amen.

I remember seeing Hank Aaron break Ruth's lifetime home run record. I just shook my head. Wow, he really did it---amazing.

I think Roger Maris's 61st home run rates right up there, knowing all the odds were against him.

However, the home run I would have loved to have seen that I know would have had a profound impact on me, since it has affected me deeply without seeing it, was the young emerging New York Yankees star, Mickey Mantle, crushing a Chuck Stobbs fastball 565 feet way over Washington's leftfield wall. The park's dimensions most assuredly did not favor a right-handed hitter, yet young Mickey exploded that ball! From EXPLOSION!, Paul Gallagher's well-researched book about Mickey Mantle's home runs, Paul interviewed various people who were present at the game. They said everybody in the press box was screaming; they could not believe their eyes. One scribe asked himself, "Did that just happen?" The following day, headlines and wire-photos with dashed trajectory lines were run in virtually every paper from coast to coast. Young Mr. Mantle just made himself a household name! With his World Series heroics the previous fall, fans everywhere figured he was the new Yankee star. That gigantic home run in Griffith Stadium underscored, punctuated, and more than confirmed everyone's hopes and expectations.

I imagine EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU IS VERY WELL AWARE OF THE GIST OF THIS HOME RUN. In all honesty, as I pondered the OP, that magnificent clout made a fresh, deep impression on me. Therefore, I believed it was worth articulating once again on this august forum.

Back to our "neighborhood", every baseball card-lovin' youngin' wanted any baseball card they could get their hands on of Mickey Mantle. Some were easy to get, and oh-so-beautiful! Others were relatively unknown, but deeply desirable, such as Dormand postcards, and especially the new Stahl-Meyer Franks promotion going on in Metropolitan New York, as well as the three New York ballparks. The aforementioned meat card required you be at the right place, at the right time, to seize the moment it was available in perfect condition.

I know---this thread is about the most memorable home run of all time. The April, 1953 Washington blast and all those great '53 Mickey Mantle cards became available at the same time! Perfect timing.

Cheers. --- Brian Powell

Thanks for mentioning Maris' 61st! I don't know how we forgot that one.

Bartolo Colon

Bill Mazeroski. The only HR to win game 7 of the World Series. #2 would be Bobby Thompson, #3 Joe Carter.

Tell me you age and what you favorite team was and I can probably tell you what the most important home run of all time was.

As to Bartolo Colons home run, there is no one who is a bigger Mets fan than me. And god am I tired hearing about that. Was a funny moment but don’t understand the seemingly never ending worship of that. Saw it live. Was amusing. But let’s move on.

Altuve

I've been trying to figure this out.

There's most memorable to most people. And most memorable to me, which most people don't remember at all.

Most of the generally memorable ones have been covered already.
I'd add David Ortiz walk off in game 4 of the 2004 ALCS, although it may be a distant 10th? 15th? to some of those others.

And Ted Williams homering in his last at bat.


For me, of course there are the usual ones already mentioned. The ones I wasn't around for were a big enough deal that I saw them on film years after.

I don't know the date, but a Jim Rice HR I saw in person was amazing. It seemed like the ball was gone in the time it took to turn my head to see where it went. The other home runs I'd seen all were in the air long enough to watch and enjoy. This was just bang! and on to the parking garage, maybe beyond.

The other was a Dave Kingman HR at Fenway I think 77 while he was with the Yankees. A massive shot, or maybe just the biggest popup home ever.
Most Yankees /Redsox homers have a lot of cheering going on. This one it started then just faded to stunned silence for a few seconds.
It hit up in the bank of lights on the tower in left center. Homers into the lights on the tower closer to the foul line were not very unusual. This was the only one I recall seeing into the farther lights.
Not on anyones list of longest homers at Fenway, not on youtube, nothing...

Likewise for one Nomar hit. Very few homers had been hit out of Fenway to the right of the flagpole. And none after they put up the added bit of wall there. I think when I heard about homers to that area, it was Foxx, Rice, and maybe Mantle?
Nomar hit one that hit the new wall section right about in the center. In the older version of the park it would have been a fourth.
Not really any mention of it either at the time, or later.

Jeez, there's a shocker. 'Angry Gehrig Guy' is pissed about something. What a surprise!!! Who could've possibly seen that coming...I mean besides anyone with a pulse? Why don't you save time for the people who can still see your posts and just make a list of the very few things in the world that DON'T trigger you??? Although I routinely just skip past your posts like everyone else on the site, I can't take it anymore, so welcome to my ignore list. (And, yes, I know you don't care. Good riddance.)

In my lifetime here is my list (Disclaimer I’m a Cardinals fan)
1 - David Freese 2011 WS
1a - Ozzie Smith off Tom Niedenfuer 1985 NLCS

2 - Kirk Gibson 1988 WS

3 - Carlton Fisk 1975 WS

4 - George Brett pine tar home run

5 - McGwire hitting 70

6 - Bonds breaking McGwire season record and Aaron career record

7 - Joe Carter 1992 WS

8 - Pujols off Lidge 2005 NLCS

9

This....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbEHAsZxRYo

Could not agree with you more!

For me, though it was way before my time, it's Ted Williams homering in his last at-bat. The last home game for a team that finished seventh in an eight team league, with only about 10,000 fans in attendance, he had two long fly balls that died on the warning track. He figured if those two didn't go out, nothing would. He finally did hit one out, to finish a season where he hit .316 with 29 home runs and a .451 OBP. Guys in their primes today won't put up those numbers, and he did it as a broken-down 42 year old.

Fun topic!

The Bill Mazeroski shot won the '60 World Series, so theoretically, no homer should be bigger. All these guys beat themselves up for 154 (and now 162) games to win a title. Maz, arguably the greatest defensive player in baseball history, most improbably, won the Bucs the championship with his bat, beating the most storied franchise in professional sports history in the process.

Hank Aaron's #715 passed the biggest icon in North American professional sports history (apologies to Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Muhammad Ali, Tiger Woods, Jim Brown and a few others of similar stature, but The Babe will rule until the end of time). Aaron was a gentleman, a model of consistency and greatness for his entire career, and with levels of stress, and an understandable concern for his own well being, given the threats against his life, Aaron broke sport's most hallowed record, clobbering a home run in the Deep South, and was greeted by two white men as he rounded the bases. Sometimes, moments transcend the game. Hank Aaron passing the Sultan of Swat is a moment that did just that.

Yet, even as a lover of the Pirates and Hank Aaron, both, I have to go with Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard Around the World". The iconic call by Russ Hodges that was almost lost to time. It's imprinted on my brain forever.

Ralph Branca. Bobby Thomson. The rope to left field. One swing literally broke the hearts of every man, woman and child in Brooklyn. As of August 11th, the Bums led their cross town rivals by a whopping 13.5 games. The Dodgers went 26-22 down the stretch-not terrible, and the Giants played out of their minds, going 37-7 to close the season.

The call. The improbable comeback. The men involved. Hell, Willie Mays was on deck when the ball cleared the wall. Just....fantastic.

Honorable. Bucky "$&($%*^&" Dent.
Roger Maris #61.

Sadly, the game as it exists in the year 2021, just isn't a hell of a lot of fun to watch. Seemingly every outcome is a home run or strikeout. But my passion for the history of the game has never been greater.

June 24, 1968. When Jim Northrup hit his second grand slam of the game against the Indians. Maybe not as dramatic as a World Series home run, but it sure was a iconic home run for me as a young Tiger fan. I believe Northrup hit 5 grand slams that year.

I gather it’s Bobby Thomson then everything else...

Every single HR hit by the White Sox in the 2005 postseason. I know it's not old and many not famous but for me to see my Sox win a World Series, which I never thought I would, the memories of Scotty Pods, Jeff Blum, Paulie, AJ and the rest will always be the most memorable to me.

His 5th slam that year was in the World Series, too.

I'm surprised at how little love Aaron Boone's pennant winning shot gets and not just on this thread. An extra inning walk-off in game seven against their bitterest rival yet it seems that even Yankees fans seldom talk about it.

I'm not a Yankees fan, so I'll defer if one of them chimes in, but it might have to do with them getting upset in the World Series that year.

That could be. It may also be that the Yankees had so many big post-season moments in the previous few years that the HR sort of "got lost". Even so, I'm surprised it's not spoken about more, especially considering that Boone is now their manager.