Best Baseball Memory

My bad, the topic should have read Your Best Baseball Memory

There are many between playing, coaching and coaching and watching my son. The best memory not about my son would be the kid who thanked me at his football NLI press conference for helping straighten out his life when he was a fourteen year old baseball player. This kid had tough circumstances and was mad at life.

Even though my son is in high school now, I like this one about him. It's his first LL Majors all-star at-bat when he was eleven. Don't ask me why but he was waving the bat like Sheffield. I shook my head. I told a friend/another dad to yell at him to use his own swing when he came up the next time. I won't coach my kids from the stands. My son hit a double on one hop to the fence. When he came up the next time the friend asked me what I wanted him to yell. I responded, "Go Sheffield!" He hit a triple off the fence his next at-bat and his first LL home run the following at-bat. It cleared the maintenance shed behind the fence. As he approached home he called out in his best Harry Kalas (Phils announcer) "That onnnnnnes outtaaaah herrrrre."

After the game I asked my son about the Sheffield stuff. Very matter of factly he responded, "It works for him. I thought I'd try it."

Coaching my son's Little League Major Baseball team. It was a playff game and we had a kid coming up to lead off the inning, that had not had a hit all season long. It was late in the game, we were down by and we really need this kid to get on. This kid always looked to get on base with a walk ( but mostly struck out) and usually would not take a good cut, no matter how much we told him to go up there and look for a hit, just swing away.

So before he went up to bat, I told him that I was going to let him use one of my son's special bat. My son had had an old Easton triple 777. I told my son to get his special bat for his teammate to use. My son caught on quickly and made a big deal about turning over his "special" bat.

Of course the kid goes up and one hops the fence for a ground rule double and ends up getting to score the tying run later in the inning.

I have witnessed many special things done by my son on a baseball field, some very special memories, but this memory will always rank right up there among the best. My son and still talk about that special bat and that day.

I like the ones with my kids the best...as many of you do I am sure.

But I also like this one from my own childhood...playing against "Michael's Conkrete," best team in Greater Cincinnati (age 13 or 14 I would guess)...pitcher throwin' gas. I come up, bases loaded, ball looks like a beachball comin' in, straight over the plate, I hit a gapper into right-center for a triple to clear the bases. My teammates go crazy and geez that felt good!

I have no idea why that memory sticks out in my mind...but it does, so I'd have to rank it the "best."

As a Player:

Getting that first grey blue flannel uniform, blue hat and blue and white stirrups.....A $1000 hand made suit never could feel so good...

Batting in a meaningless game and seeing my father on the hill watching...you see taking time off work meant less money for the family and wasnt something that could be done very often...

The last homerun I ever hit came in an adult softball game, which ended the game...and I was able to scoop up my 6 month old son and walk off the field...

As a Parent...

Seeing my son sleeping in his uniform...

Seeing the joy and smiles on my sons face through out his youth career...

Walking out on Senior Day with my wife and son...

Seeing my sons first and last College ball game...

Seeing my sons first college ball game as a coach.

As an Umpire...

The worst day....the one I run over and over again in my mind.. the day I realized that child abuse was real and I had to do something....

The day I heard from the stands, Hey, Mr. Umpire!...you dont remember me, but you umpired my games...and thats my son playing now....O Yes I remember you...and everyone of you...

The day I turned a corner in Wal Mart, and a kid said........hey arent you MY UMPIRE???.......Yes, I am...

quote:

Getting that first grey blue flannel uniform, blue hat and blue and white stirrups

Remember when kids had to "make" LL? When I played LL was 10-12 with a handful of 9yo's. Kids who didn't make it played farms. Earning a LL hat was a badge of honor. I wore mine to school every day when I was nine. Heck, I wore it everywhere.

My son is 10 years old. One of the few years I helped coach. We draft a kid and are told he was just cleared to play sports after battling leukemia and was a hair away from dieing a couple of years earlier.
The kid had a great attitude and was actually pretty good but small due to his illness stunting his growth. He played SS most of the time. Everytime that kid smiled or did something good it made me smile.

Well we make it to the championship game. As we get closer to the end of the game with the lead this kid is jumping up and down with every out. We win the game and the kids do their thing with the dog pile and running around the field and I start to choke up. I had to leave the field before trophy presentation so these 10 yos don't see this big goofey guy standing there with tears running down his face. That kid made my year.

Of all the games my son played during those LL years that's the one I enjoyed the most.

Fills that is what it is all about.

quote:

Remember when kids had to "make" LL? When I played LL was 10-12 with a handful of 9yo's. Kids who didn't make it played farms. Earning a LL hat was a badge of honor. I wore mine to school every day when I was nine. Heck, I wore it everywhere.

O... I sure do, getting a uniform was a big thing....there were only 15 kids on my team....because they only had 15 uniforms....if you got a uniform you made it....if not better luck next year...... there was no farm team....make it and play or get cut and try again next year.....

Ahh yes..back in the day when you could get cut trying to make LL. I remember playing baseball in the back yard when my mom came out to tell me I had made the Tigers...I was grinning from ear to ear. The woollen uniforms weren't very comfortable though!! Nor were the true stirrups we wore.

Justbaseball - Your story is almost a carbon copy of mine. We were in the 7th inning of a tied game and the bases were loaded with two outs (my coach didn't like me..couldn't tell you why..just did) and the coach asks who was up and bookkeeper said "Robert" and my coach goes.."great Robert" so I go up there against Danny Carlin of the Orioles (funny how we remember the particulars)and drill a ball off the center field fence missing my 1st homerun ever by a foot (fence was 8' high then). I cleared the bases with a double..should have been a triple but I hopped up and down all the way to second like Dave Henderson did after hitting the homerun in the 1986 ALCS against California.

My favorite game for my son was our 1st playoff game in Cooperstown in 2007. We had given up back to back hr's to go down 6-5 in the top of the 6th and were down to our last out. Son is up and swings at strike one which was a tad high and outside. Second pitch goes to the same spot and same result a swing and a miss strike 2. Now I'm keeping the book in the dugout and I'm dying that my kid is about to make the last out when the pitcher throws pitch #3 to the same location again, well this time son makes an adjustment and rifles it over the right field fence for the game tying HR. My book goes flying as I race out of the dugout jumping up and down for my kid and the team as the other team was celebrating a tad early at the beginning of the inning. Game was still tied 6-6 in the 8th when leadoff guy walked, stole second and my son came up and laced a double off the centerfield wall to win the game. His confidence after that was sky high and it was awesome to see him shine like that.... a true proud parent day!!

I could write a hundred of these but this one would be in the top 10 probably.
I'm taking my son to his first ever organized ball game. It's coach pitch and there are 2 diamonds at the complex he's playing at. As we get there the game ahead of us is in progress. I am calmly looking around for our team and then I suddenly can't find my son.
Where did he wander off to? I finally find him; he's ON the field, between 1st and 2nd with his glove and getting in the ready position on every pitch!!

I guess he just joined the game! it was pretty comical.

Good thread folks, keep 'em coming.

I have so many. One of my favorites took place when my youngest son was 12 and we were playing in the state AAU championships. We were playing in the semis and for a chance to play for the state championship the next day. We were down 3 runs in our last ab. Our lead off hitter was up and hit a solo HR to cut the lead to 2. He now he is a freshman mif at VMI. Our #2 hitter comes up and he hits a HR to cut the lead to 1. He is now a Pitcher at Wingate College. Our #3 hitter comes up and he hits a HR to tie the game. He was drafted out of HS and is with Tampa as a pitcher as well. They then go to the pen and bring in a guy to try to put out the fire. Our #4 hitter is my son. With a full count he hits a monster shot out to win the game. He is now a freshman catcher at UNC. I have never seen anything like it and probaly will never again. Four HR's in a row to win the game.

I think back to the game and there were so many young guys that have gone on to play in college. The other team had a mif drafted in the first round. Their C is a freshman at UNCW. Their 1B is a freshman at USC Upstate. The CF is now a LB at Georgia I believe. It was absolutely an amazing game and a great memory.

I remember driving down to Jupiter for USA Baseball's JO's East in 2005. Midlo Son asks, "Hey dad, what if I were one of the 18 guys they picked as finalists for Team USA?"

I explained that such things were pipe dreams, like when he was 12 and we dreamed of his LL team going to Williamsport. The odds were ridiculous, too many things needed to fall your way at once, and besides, he was only 15 in a 16u tourney. Put it out of your mind and just focus on doing your best.

The following Friday, when they told him he'd been selected for trials in Phoenix, our mouths dropped so wide open neither one of us could speak. Probably the only time in my life that has been the case!

He didn't make the final cut then, and being slowed by a temporary foot injury knocked him out at trials the next year, too. But we still cherish those photos in the Team USA uniform.

For me...getting to be bat boy for the Reds in a 1971 Exhibition game during Spring Training.

For me as a dad...wow...tough one. Probably this past summer when my son got to play in the CPL...going from playing in front of a handful of people in college and summer ball to over 1000. Yeah...I was a nervous wreck his first AB.

quote:

Four HR's in a row to win the game.

That is almost unbelievable. I've never seen anything remotely similar to that. Wow.

quote:

I sure do, getting a uniform was a big thing....there were only 15 kids on my team....because they only had 15 uniforms....if you got a uniform you made it....if not better luck next year...... there was no farm team....make it and play or get cut and try again next year.....

Then after earning the uni, you had to earn playing time. We didn't have minimum playing time. I think I played in half the games and got ten plate appearances when I was nine. It was OK. The good twelve year old pitchers scared me to death. One was six feet and bringing it in the upper 70's. Thing is, he wasn't much different by high school.

Thursday night, my son gets hurt in a collision at the plate in a game for his travel team (he was safe though.) Sunday his (right) wrist is still hurting a little, but he wants to play for his rec team. Usually he pitches three innings for them, but this day he's in too much pain after the first inning -- the weight of his glove on his hand is killing him. Coach sends him out to the outfield, where he puts his glove on the ground and sees no action. At the plate, all he can do is bunt, and his second time up, he bunts the third strike foul.

So it's the 6th inning, bases loaded, he comes up. They're screaming "Watch the bunt," and we are losing by a lot. The pitch comes in, he swings away -- a line drive over the center fielder's head. Grand slam homerun. Not enough to win the game, but enough to puff him up a little.

The punch line is, I took him to the doctor the next day, and we find out the arm is broken in two places. The coach gave us the score sheet so he can always remember the day he hit a grand slam with a broken arm.

LHPMom

Best baseball memory, thats a tough one.
But one comes to mind.

Took son to his first MLB game, Maybe 4 or 5 years old.
Went to see the Mariners at the old Kingdome.
If you have ever been there, you see nothing of the field while walking around the corridors.
Until you walk up the ramps to the stadium and the seating.
Were running a little late, and there already playing the National anthem.
We walk up the Ramp right at the end of the song.
To this huge Big Indoor stadium.
Right at that time the Fireworks go off at the top of the inside of the dome.
Sons eye's were wide open.
I do believe he was mesmerized.
Anyway we take in most of the game, and then we start walking around the upper decks.
Its just him and I out there walking around in the Outfield.
Nobody else is out there.
The Kid, Junior, you know KG, Ken Griffey Jr.
He was a god in Seattle at the time.
Between innings Junior is staring at my son and I in the upper deck.
And we waved. He did not wave back.
But I know he wanted to??

EH

I have a lot of bests, but there is, as a parent of a pitcher, one that comes to mind, but not as a pitcher.
HS district playoffs, DK had pitched the game to get us in the playoff a few days earlier so he couldn't pitch, but went in as the DH and hit a HR to win the game to advance to the regionals.

Most precious baseball memory will always be the first day of t-ball, oh the joy and the excitement of playing "real" ball. All those years of preparation....throwing and catching the ball and hitting off of the "T" finally were going to pay off.