I hate off days. It feels like today’s 9:30pm start time is still hours/days away. So, to pass the time, I have a question for any/everyone. What was/is your favorite in-person baseball experience?
I’ll start with one. Well, two:
Opening day 2009-ish at MMPUS with many of you nuts. We started out at Spanish Flower, I think, then sat as a group in the OF. And the Astros actually won the game. There’s nothing like watching a game live with knowledgeable friends that understand the game, the team and, to a degree, you. I suspect it was a combination of the company, it being my first time at MMPUS and the game itself that made it noteworthy for me.
Summer of 1997, O’s vs. White Sox at Camden Yard. It was a Saturday day game and was the game of the week back when they had that. I and 3 friends went to the game and sat in the outfield eating a bucket of Popeyes fried chicken, drinking beer, watching the (good) game by a good team and having a great time. The O’s were a 98 win team that year and playing very well so the place was rockin’. They were up by a couple of runs as the stretch approached and, because it was the game of the week, there was an extra long break so that the TV broadcast could run through the scores of the other games. After the hideous 7th inning stretch song they play in Baltimore was over, they still had some time to kill. They had just upgraded the sound system at the stadium and the entertainment people put on “Everybody Dance Now” by C+C Music Factory at probably twice the normal volume and played the entire song. After around 15 seconds, all 30,000+ people in the packed stadium were on their feet and dancing. Frank Thomas was in RF right in front of us and he stood there in the OF slowly turning around with a look of amazement on his face and then started to bust a move with a massive grin on his face. Within seconds, every player on the field from both teams and every player in the dugouts and pen and all the ushers and grounds people were dancing. It was electric and a moment that you could never really manufacture. Just a small, fun vignette in a larger fun day that thousands are sure to remember years later. This is what baseball can do. The artistry of the game itself, the camaraderie, the food and fun and fans and friends. Good times.
2017, Game 7 ALCS.
I had not planned on attending the game, but I got a message from Arky about a ticket to the game. It was the best money spent. I’m not sure where Arky was sitting, but I did not know anyone around me. When the Astros won that game, I felt my dad there with me. I think that is my most favorite game ever because of that feeling. That includes the Astros winning the world series.
There are other memorable ones, but that is my favorite!
In 1968 I saw the Cubs at the Astrodome and prior to the game I was wandering around near our seats behind the third base dugout. I saw Ernie Banks and politely asked him for his autograph on my game program. He was so nice to oblige but then he took the program around and also had teammates Ferguson Jenkins, Ron Santo, Billy Williams, Don Kessinger, Joe Niekro, Bill Hands, Phill Regan, and Jim Hickman, autograph the program too. That simple act of kindness from a superstar to a young boy made the Cubs my second favorite team for a number of years.
Another highlight was Game 4 of the 2005 NLDS, 18 inning game between the Braves and Astros.
Had to be '73 or '74, and a bunch of HS friends and I decided to go to a White Sox game. I don’t think it was the season opener, but it was early in the season, and it was the first big-league night game I’d ever attended. Old Comiskey was a dump, to put it kindly, and we were walking up the dimly-lit, dusty ramps past the the old concrete columns until we got up to our level, and then we turned the corner onto the aisle, and boom! The field was lit up like day, and the field was a perfect green (except that I think that may have been when Comiskey actually had a turf infield and grass outfield, so it couldn’t have been perfect). It was almost a religious experience.
That was an interesting team: Wilbur Wood, Jim Kaat, Bill Melton, Dick Allen, Bucky Dent, Carlos May, Goose Gossage, Terry Forster, and a bunch of others. Finished 4th in AL West with an 80-80 record.
For me it is 2017 ALCS game 2. Verlander for 9 innings. Altuves run around the bases. The stadium shaking. Everyone leaving the statium chanting “Jose, Jose Jose Jose.” It was a perfect night. I almost remember that night better than I remember actually winning the damn World Series 2 weeks later.
The first game at enron, and the first regular season game. I lived in new jersey at the time. Moved back to houston a few months later. On another note, my dad put together a book as a child, with newspaper clippings. I looked at it for years. Later he made a much more complete book. My mother and dad met ryan, who we saw pitch in high school. It was at womacks a favorite of ryans at the time. Might still be, i think still there.
As a 30 year old, my only other team to win a championship that I can actually remember is the 2005 Texas Longhorns and that game is still my favorite sports moment and it’ll be very very hard to top
This is why, while the Rose Bowl is my favorite Longhorn game, the 2008 season was my favorite season. 2005 and 2009 had the expectation that the team would play for the national championship. 2008 was a year early and the whole ride seemed magical, and that team not getting its shot at Florida still pains me.