Joe: the home-run hit in Mountain Time Zone (by Eric Young in April 1993) in the first AB for the Rockies was SUCH a huge moment for not only the city of Denver but for an entire REGION of baseball fans! People don't understand just how exciting that was to people in about 5 or 6 states. Baseball at altitude...a dramatic HR in the first at-bat for the Rockies...it was pure magic!
Wondering why Lou Brock's total dominance of the basepaths in the 1967 WS is never identified as a "great moment" among baseball cognoscente. Strikeout records and home runs they get. And it helps if it happens in New York or LA.
Joe, I'm not 21 any more, and I'm not going to strain to read this survey when you put it out in light gray type against a white background. I would love to participate if you'd use good old black on white.
Thanks Joe! Thanks for the survey. When you asked to add an additional moment, I wrote down --- "Lou Johnson. Homers off left field screen. Game 7. 1965 World Series." A life-long Mets fan chooses a moment in a Dodgers- Twins game. Your book is going to try to answer the question WHY WE LOVE BASEBALL. The Lou Johnson home run is my answer to the question WHEN WAS THE MOMENT YOU FELL IN LOVE WITH BASEBALL.
Hey Joe, maybe you already thought of this, but a book about what makes baseball loveable needs to cover the college summer baseball leagues. Go watch "The Big Train" play at Shirley Povich stadium in Bethesda MD and you will be reminded of the magic of baseball. If you do go to a game, you will need to call ahead since they sell out their stadium.
Good activity. I named about 4-5 events. 3 were Bo Jackson related. His leadoff home run in the 1989 All Star game has to be one of the best b/c as you pointed out in the Trivia Question, the NL owned the All Star game in the 1980s. Jackson's home run was not only amazing but the AL went on to win the next 5-6 games.
This was an interesting exercise particularly with the options given. There was no option on the Dave Henderson HR for “Worst moment of my baseball life and I hate it with all my soul.” Well either that or DeCinces popping up later. Also, minor correction: Hulse fouled the 4 pitches into the Angels’ dugout, not his own.
I noted that Joe referenced the Buckner error. The error is the iconic memory of the 1986 WS. However, fans know that the error was the last and least of the Red Sox mistakes that game-6 tenth inning. It is not fair to Buckner but people latch onto what is remembered, even when it doesn't tell the full story.
Likewise for famous walk off hits. There is the side of the losing team that has a completely different view of the moment. This reality leads to some of the best trivia concerning who were the pitchers who lost on these seminal homeruns? For Bucky Dent it was Mike Torrez, who actually pitched and won the clinching game for the Yankees in the 1977 World Series. It's a small world indeed.
Lastly, what makes all sports great are the failed rallies. Yaz popping out to Nettles to end the 1978 elimination game was anticlimactic. But up to the moment Yaz swung both Yankee and Red Sox fans were on pins and needles in anticipation of what might happen next. That the Angels tied the "Henderson" game in the bottom of the ninth and had a great chance to win the game and the series is not remembered, except by broken hearted Angels fans.
I always thought the Stanley wild pitch was the biggest calamity of that inning. The Angels had the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the 9th with the game tied and didn’t score again. And in the 10th, Gary Pettis lined one to left field that Rice caught with his glove above the wall, and the only reason he was playing that deep was because Pettis had doubled over his head earlier in the series.
Joe: the home-run hit in Mountain Time Zone (by Eric Young in April 1993) in the first AB for the Rockies was SUCH a huge moment for not only the city of Denver but for an entire REGION of baseball fans! People don't understand just how exciting that was to people in about 5 or 6 states. Baseball at altitude...a dramatic HR in the first at-bat for the Rockies...it was pure magic!
Wondering why Lou Brock's total dominance of the basepaths in the 1967 WS is never identified as a "great moment" among baseball cognoscente. Strikeout records and home runs they get. And it helps if it happens in New York or LA.
So after going through all those maybe it should be why we really like baseball instead of love.
Joe, I'm not 21 any more, and I'm not going to strain to read this survey when you put it out in light gray type against a white background. I would love to participate if you'd use good old black on white.
Thanks Joe! Thanks for the survey. When you asked to add an additional moment, I wrote down --- "Lou Johnson. Homers off left field screen. Game 7. 1965 World Series." A life-long Mets fan chooses a moment in a Dodgers- Twins game. Your book is going to try to answer the question WHY WE LOVE BASEBALL. The Lou Johnson home run is my answer to the question WHEN WAS THE MOMENT YOU FELL IN LOVE WITH BASEBALL.
Hey Joe, maybe you already thought of this, but a book about what makes baseball loveable needs to cover the college summer baseball leagues. Go watch "The Big Train" play at Shirley Povich stadium in Bethesda MD and you will be reminded of the magic of baseball. If you do go to a game, you will need to call ahead since they sell out their stadium.
Where is Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard 'Round the World"? This has to be one the great moments.
Bingo!!
I thought the same thing!
Survey was not working correctly. It kept saying that it was modified by the creator (God?) and then I got the same things over and over.
Good activity. I named about 4-5 events. 3 were Bo Jackson related. His leadoff home run in the 1989 All Star game has to be one of the best b/c as you pointed out in the Trivia Question, the NL owned the All Star game in the 1980s. Jackson's home run was not only amazing but the AL went on to win the next 5-6 games.
Hm, the survey doesn’t seem to let me go to the 2nd page. Keeps telling me the survey was modified by its owner
You misspelled Clemens twice in your greatest moments and Belinsky. belinsky I understand, but Roger?
This was an interesting exercise particularly with the options given. There was no option on the Dave Henderson HR for “Worst moment of my baseball life and I hate it with all my soul.” Well either that or DeCinces popping up later. Also, minor correction: Hulse fouled the 4 pitches into the Angels’ dugout, not his own.
I noted that Joe referenced the Buckner error. The error is the iconic memory of the 1986 WS. However, fans know that the error was the last and least of the Red Sox mistakes that game-6 tenth inning. It is not fair to Buckner but people latch onto what is remembered, even when it doesn't tell the full story.
Likewise for famous walk off hits. There is the side of the losing team that has a completely different view of the moment. This reality leads to some of the best trivia concerning who were the pitchers who lost on these seminal homeruns? For Bucky Dent it was Mike Torrez, who actually pitched and won the clinching game for the Yankees in the 1977 World Series. It's a small world indeed.
Lastly, what makes all sports great are the failed rallies. Yaz popping out to Nettles to end the 1978 elimination game was anticlimactic. But up to the moment Yaz swung both Yankee and Red Sox fans were on pins and needles in anticipation of what might happen next. That the Angels tied the "Henderson" game in the bottom of the ninth and had a great chance to win the game and the series is not remembered, except by broken hearted Angels fans.
I always thought the Stanley wild pitch was the biggest calamity of that inning. The Angels had the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the 9th with the game tied and didn’t score again. And in the 10th, Gary Pettis lined one to left field that Rice caught with his glove above the wall, and the only reason he was playing that deep was because Pettis had doubled over his head earlier in the series.