OT: Coolest Home Runs You've Witnessed

[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.

[whitehse]

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.

[Peter_Spaeth]

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.

[MVSNYC]

1) McGwire 62
2) Gibson 88 WS
3) Brett's Pine Tar HR
4) Robin Ventura's Grand Slam "Single" (was at this game)

[EGreenwood]

Mine would have to be the Griffeys hitting back-to-back home runs on September 14, 1990.

[RGold]

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.

[Republicaninmass]

Yanks vs Sox live at Fenway

Sox go back to back to back to back. The stadium was electric

[old-baseball]

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.

[scooter729]

Originally Posted by Republicaninmass

Yanks vs Sox live at Fenway

Sox go back to back to back to back. The stadium was electric

I was there that day too, Ted - that was a kick start to the 2007 World Series season - what a night!

[kmac32]

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

[billyb]

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.

[dabigyankeeman]

Bucky Dent - Aaron Boone - Chris Chambliss - Derek Jeter (Mr November) - Reggie's 3 (Mr October).

[Peter W Thomas]

1960 freshman at MIT last class @ 1:00 then to Fenway.

Williams last at bat drive deep into bleachers, landing about 50 feet from me. Not many in bleachers, but at least 10 closer to the ball. I think of it several times a year.

[pbspelly]

Not sure why radio-heard blasts aren't allowed. The most exciting home run I ever "witnessed" was Jayson Werth's game winning home run off of the Cardinals to force a game 5 in the 2012 NL divisional series. Werth fouled off pitch after pitch before connecting on the 13th pitch of the at bat to save the season for the Nats. I was listening in my car and going crazy. I'm lucky I didn't have an accident.

The second most exciting home run that I saw was Robin Ventura's grand slam "single" in game 5 of the 1999 NL series to win the game for the Mets in the 15th inning. I saw that one on TV.

[Deertick]

Most disappointing in person: Eddie Murray's two HR in 1983 WS.

Most impressive in person: Greg Luzinski hitting the Liberty Bell in 1975. I have never seen a replay.

Longest I have hit: Approx 470 ft @ "Doc" Lang field in Tampa. Just to the left of center (408') and one hopped the street (another 70').

Longest I have given up: A knuckle curve that started a little too high to a lefty and got a lot higher in a hurry. We were on Tampa Catholic's field, and the ball cleared the RF fence (335'), a two story field house (+20') behind the fence (+10') over the adjacent field's fence (+10') and wound up in the infield halfway to home plate (+200' ??). My teammates had a meeting on the mound because we couldn't stop laughing.

[Rich Klein]

One season at the Ballpark in Arlington, Juan Encarncion led off the season with a homer, we knew it was going to be another long season

At the double AA Frisco games

Delino DeShields blasting a homer and getting hit int he face the same game

Leonys Martin's first ever professional homer

[clydepepper]

Originally Posted by Deertick

Most disappointing in person: Eddie Murray's two HR in 1983 WS.

Most impressive in person: Greg Luzinski hitting the Liberty Bell in 1975. I have never seen a replay.

Longest I have hit: Approx 470 ft @ "Doc" Lang field in Tampa. Just to the left of center (408') and one hopped the street (another 70').

Longest I have given up: A knuckle curve that started a little too high to a lefty and got a lot higher in a hurry. We were on Tampa Catholic's field, and the ball cleared the RF fence (335'), a two story field house (+20') behind the fence (+10') over the adjacent field's fence (+10') and wound up in the infield halfway to home plate (+200' ??). My teammates had a meeting on the mound because we couldn't stop laughing.

I always hit like a pitcher, so it was good that we had the DH for most of my career.

I never really thought about it until I read your post, but I honestly do not remember ever giving up a homer. That may sound like I'm bragging a lot, but maybe I have selective memory loss, too. I was a full-time pitcher for over a decade, so it must have happened at least once.

[BleedinBlue]

I grew up in Southern California and am a lifelong LA Dodger fan. I was going to UC Berkeley during the 1988 World Series and went out to a bar with a few of my friends to watch Game 1 of the World Series. My friends were giving me quite a ribbing as the game went later and later. They kept saying that as soon as Eck got in the game was over. Well, things got down to the last out and Gibson limped up to the plate. The crowd in the bar was loudly cheering for Eckersley to finish off Game 1. When Gibby connected I let out a primal gutteral yell of pure joy. The rest of the bar got deathly quiet. It was an amazing momemt.

Until I had to walk home. Scariest walk of my life.

[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.

[Buythatcard]

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.

[Wite3]

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

[clydepepper]

Oops! PLEASE DELETE