Best memories of live MLB Games we’ve seen in person ….

5th and final game of the 1970 Orioles-Reds World Series with my dad.

I was in 5th grade at a little Catholic School in Baltimore. Nuns in full habits...but they were all baseball fans. They wore Os t-shirts over their habits during the WS, turned the TVs on the big rolling stands to the broadcast if it was during school hours! Day of the 5th game was rainy and overcast but projected to clear to play the game. Mid morning, Mother Superior comes to my classroom, looking stern, and says "Master Parmly, there's someone to see you." My dad steps into the room. Full greens Army uniform...holds up 2 tickets and says "Want to go to a ball game?" I can still hear the collective sigh/wow from the class as I danced out of the room.

3d base side box seats about 20 rows up above the Os dugout, right on a line between 3d and 2d base. Got see my sports hero, Brooks Robinson, make a classic Brooks play, saw a Frank Robinson homer. And got to celebrate a World Series win for my Orioles!

Don't know how dad came up with those tickets but it made a lifetime memory.

 

Lived outside of Dallas 1990-1993. Met Nolan Ryan on the set of the Norm Hitzges morning show one day. Also saw Juan Gonzalez hit 3 home runs in a single game.

I was at the game with 3 other guys from my church group. Great seats on the 1st base box near the Rangers dugout. JG had hit 2 already and the Rangers were up 2 runs (3-1) late when the Twins Kent Hrbek stepped up to the plate, 2 men on. I made an off-hand comment in a radio-announcer voice "It goes without saying but the go-ahead run is at the plate." Every one laughed...and then Hrbek launches one over the fence. Everyone gave me the stink eye. Bottom 9th, Rangers have one on. Gonzalez steps into the box. Bear in mind he's 2 for 3 with both hits round-trippers. All my friends looked over at me. I said, "What?" They said, "You need to do that...you know...magic." So I said "Well, it goes without saying the go-ahead run is at the plate." 2 pitches later, Gonzalez launches his 3d home run of the game! All my buddies did the "We are not worthy" wave and even the fans around us got into it.

 

Not so much about the play on the field but how we got great seats. My wife's sister and her husband and three kids lived in Shorewood that is a nice suburb of Milwaukee and we were visiting one summer. My BIL is a baseball fan (Cubs, yuck) and his son was in Little League and also a Cubs fan (also yuck) but the Brewers were in town playing somebody that I can't remember because the game is not the cool part of the story. We decided that it was a nice night for a game so we headed out to County Stadium as this was before the new ballpark.

We are standing in line to buy tickets and a guy walks up to us and asked my BIL if he was the father of his son. He then gave us three tickets. These tickets were first row right behind the Brewers dugout. We eventually convinced the guy to at least let us buy him a beer and a brat for the tickets.

Turns out the guy was a friend of Stan Musial and we got regaled with lots of great inside stories for the duration of the game.

So for years I would pay it forward if I had two extra tickets to a Gator basketball game and a parent and a kid were looking for two tickets. And while my seats are not first row behind the Gator bench at that time they were fourth row off the baseline behind the Dazzlers so pretty good seats. Always gave them away and never charged.

 

Early season game at Fenway. Frank Viola on the mound. The wind was blowing in from center so hard that a ball that at one point was probably 10 rows into the bleachers in center was blown back and caught by the center fielder. I know this because my seats were down the right field sideline.

 

As a kid Went to a few baseball games with my father at old Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Won some. Lost some