OT: Coolest Home Runs You've Witnessed

[Kawika]

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

Crosetti waves him home

[GregMitch34]

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.

[rjackson44]

Mike piazza right after 911 vs braves to win it ,,i was there,great night.

[jp1216]

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.

[Pat R]

The first two that I thought of were Fisk and Dent.

[Centauri]

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.

[Jay Wolt]

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.

[RTK]

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.