TWITTER ‘Favorite Baseball Moment’ CHALLENGE CONTINUES
To say I am ecstatic about the response I have received from my first blog entry would be an understatement. As I write this, we are at 39 comments and counting! Thank you to all who contributed to the “Twitter Favorite Baseball Moment Challenge” and to those who passed my link on to others. The link even landed in the hands of Wisconsin Governor Candidate Mark Neumann who tweeted (Dang, I told myself I wasn’t going to use those Twitter expressions!) me the following message: “@StrongWisconsin One of my all-time favorites was Dale Sveum's Easter shot: http://is.gd/1GzbF .”
Our favorite baseball experiences are fascinating snippets into defining moments of our lives. Often times these moments stick with us close enough to replay in our heads like an ESPN highlight. These memories make us feel something deeply; they take us back to important times in our lives; they’re shared with loved ones, some who may no longer be with us. Some baseball moments seem to slow us down, which we like since we can all attest that every year seems to go by just a little bit faster than the last. However, some of the best baseball memories were spent with happy strangers nudging us to share the same grandstand elbow rest. Whoever you played out your favorite baseball moments with, you were united with them as you all experienced the same thrills of the games.
Keep dusting off your favorite baseball experience memories and replay them in your minds like an ESPN Plays of the Week montage. Please continue to tweet the memories to www.twitter.com/joelkatte The tweets so far have been very exciting! I must say, the idea of someday compiling a more detailed account of these recollections would make for an outstanding book project.
Please continue to spread the word about this blog and my memoir. Email this link, re-tweet, Facebook, or simply share the old-fashioned way, word-of-mouth.
(SIDENOTE: If you do not Twitter, simply share your memories with the comments below by clicking on the pencil icon. Also, feel free to share more than one response in order to provide more details.)
Best wishes,
Joel Katte
joelkatte@yahoo.com
NEXT POST: “ALL-STARS AMONG US”
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Joel- Great stuff here. Take a look at the collecton of Baseball Memorable Moments on CheckSwing:
ReplyDeletewww.checkswing.net/forum/topics/2099111:Topic:3237
I think you'll enjoy it!
Also, join us at CheckSwing. It's like Facebook for Baseball.
Thanks.
- Bill Stanton
@cyndie23 fave: as a little girl choosing to go see my O's at Memorial Stadium almost every year for my birthday. best birthdays! :)
ReplyDeleteHey..
ReplyDeleteI am following you on twitter. I just wanted to say I think its really cool, and I am looking forward to reading your book. Growing up, my parents didn't watch any sports so I wasn't really exposed to the Brewers much (I think I went to one game when I was a kid and don't remember it at all). But now I am a huge fan and go to tons of games. I also have a 4 year old son who is incredible. He is most likely the biggest Brewers fan under the age of 5.. baseball is his life. I can't wait for him to be able to look back and have such great memories.
Take Care,
Jamie
@MLBGAL Joel, awesome blog. My BF is a scout for the Angels (retired major leaguer), and I know he will enjoy this. Keep up the great work
ReplyDelete@fansacrossus Watching the Angels win the 2002 World Series with my son while my dad was still alive.
ReplyDeleteBruce Petillo
http://www.fansacrossamerica.org/
@pcsketch Baseball this summer @ Sox bases loaded Dye up 2 bat hits a grand slam! Park went nuts we were hi-5in all around us! Sox won!
ReplyDeleteJoel,
ReplyDeleteIt is difficult to narrow a career down to one favorite moment but I would
have to say the first day in the major leagues would have to go down as one
of the most memorable for most players, including me. It was a little
special for me because my debut was in Cincinnati which was not far from
where is grew up in Wellston, Ohio and in the same stadium I watched my
boyhood favorites grow up playing for the Big Red Machine. To make it more
special, my first major league manager was my all time favorite player who
happened to be Pete Rose. Although my Royals Hall of Fame induction was
very memorable as well, I don't think it surpasses my first day in
Riverfront Stadium.
Jeff
Joel, I sent my memory via Twitter. Thought it would help you get more entries. I'm at @frugalbookpromo
ReplyDeleteBest,
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Blogging at Writer's Digest 101 Best Websites pick, www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com
I too have some happy memories of going to Brewers games as a kid. I am 42 now and enjoy sharing stories about Hall of Famers Robin Yount and Paul Molitor with my son.
ReplyDeleteJim H.
Joel:
ReplyDeleteMy grandparents lived in New York City - Flushing, New York, specifically, and we spent 2 weeks each summer there. Every year we also went to one Yankees' game. We rode on the subway (what seemed a long time in the early sixties) to the stadium with my dad and grandfather. The memory that still remains in my psyche is that my brother (11 years old, a year younger than I, and both baseball fans) and I attended a late summer Yankees game when Micky Mantle and Roger Maris were vying for the home run crown (1961). The stadium was electric every time these players came to bat. They each hit a home run; we were alternatively calm and exceedingly excited all afternoon. We were not at the game that determined who eventually won the crown, but you couldn't have told that crowd that fact. We rode back on the subway, worn out, but feeling like we saw something rare and forever memorable.
Hi Joel,
ReplyDeleteWhat a cool project! Without a doubt my best memory is not only a memory but a moment in my life that made me appreciate what I have been through. I was diagnosed with acute leukemia back on August 5, 2003 at the age of 34. My wife and I were a few months shy of our 3rd Anniversary when I was diagnosed. I had a long and arduous treatment protocol which called for 2 years straight of treatment, 5 months as an inpatient in the hospital, over 600 chemo treatments, 2 weeks brain radiation, 1 ALL INCLUSIVE trip to reverse isolation in ICU and over 17 units of blood and platelets transfused into me. The reason I tell you this is so you appreciate where this is going so bare with me here. During my treatments I promised my wife that I will beat this and when I do, we're going to New York so I can see a game at Yankee Stadium. I kept my part of the deal ( Monday July 27 I will be 4 years post treatment and still showing no evidence of disease) and August 2007 we went to NYC. The emotion that I had inside of as we got off the subway in Bronx and headed up the steps through the concourse were like nothing I have ever felt before in a baseball experience and I have played on a national championship winning team up here in Canada. I will never forget the feeling as I walked up to the railing, took a complete 360 of the House That Ruth Built, took in a big inhale and felt like that was the first day of my new life post cancer and have never looked back since. I believe that any true baseball fan will appreciate this moment.
Thanks for allowing me to share and good luck with the book! Let me know when it's finished, I want a copy. I will let you know when my book - an anthology of young adult cancer survivors called Let's Talk About It is finished - I guarantee you will receive an incredible amount of inspiration from this book as I will from yours!
Cheers.
Darren
I don't think I could have kept it to 140! I have a favorite baseball summer . . . 2002 - Took a trip with my dad and one of my childhood best friends and his dad. Landed in New York and spent two games at Yankee stadium, drove to Boston for a Red Sox game, then off to Cooperstown for a day, then back to New York to Shea Stadium for Mets/Yankees game all in a week. The next month went to the All Star Game at Miller Park. That Fall I was living up in Minneapolis and went to all of the Twins home playoff games. Over my lifetime there are so many more to even mention and that is what makes Baseball so great! Best of luck to you on the book - Mike
ReplyDeleteMy greatest memory is BUD HARRELSON
ReplyDeleteIn 1973 I was a 12 year old ardent Mets fan and remember the incredible race they had to get into the playoffs. They had a lot of pitching and even more injuries that year. They coined the phrase "You gotta believe" and didn't make the playoffs until the last game of the season. They lost to the A's in the seventh game. It was an amazing year.
That September my dad took me out of school early one day. He was in the lumber business and said that we had to check out some competition. He started driving to Queens and I began to figure out that something was up. We wound up at Shea Stadium and I was really excited. We didn't go in the normal entrance. Instead, we went in where the players go in. Bud Harrelson met me there and took me into the locker room. I met Willie Mays, Tom Seaver, Jerry Grote and the rest of the 1973 Mets in the clubhouse. That is not all. He took me on the field and we tossed a ball around. I was only 12 so I couldn't stay on the bench during the game.
When your 12, love baseball what greater gift could you get?
Now that I am 48, I realize what a truly amazing person Bud Harrelson is. As they say in Mets land and to quote Casey - "amazing, amazing amazing!!!"
So, Bud, if you follow this, thanks for an unbelievable memory!
Wow I have had so many. From seeing Bonds hit #71 & #72 with my brother and sons to Ed Halicki's No Hitter in '75 with my two best friends at a Giants/Mets DH. But my absolute favorite was when my son was in T-Ball. Before I would set the ball on the tee, I would ask each kid who their favorite baseball player was. Back then it was always Will Clark, Jose Canseco, or Mark MacGwire (yeah we are from the SF Bay Area). So my kid comes up and I say, "Richie, who's your favorite ballplayer, Will Clark?". I was a big Giants fan and always pumped up The Thrill. My son smiles and looks at me and says, "Nooo, You Are Dad!". That was probably one of the best feelings a man could have.
ReplyDeleteAs a Cubs fan living in Washington for 25 years, I'd have to say it was watching the Mariners at the Os, 96 playoffs, with the Os fans chanting "Randy, Randy" while Johnson was on the mound at Camden.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the Os fan could chant and essentially diss arguably the best pitcher in the game, was amazing to me. Os won.
@everydayjourney Favorite baseball memory has to be being honored by 5 Living Presidents at the All-Star game and receiving a standing ovation.
ReplyDelete@tjwacker tie btwn 1st game @ Miller Park when i got Uecker's autograph & when i got 2 go on field for the Wild Card celebration when i was interning.
ReplyDelete@MKElover: Cecil Cooper leaping off 1st base after Rod Carew grounded out to Yount sending Crew to the World Series in 1982. Pic is framed in my apt.
ReplyDelete@aaront5 I went to a Mariners game, A-Rod was there with the Yankees, my section booed him and he hit a home run, and pointed at the ball to us!
ReplyDelete@acwilber My fave baseball exp was last year being at Miller Park watching the Brewers clinch a playoff berth. I can't fit it into 140 characters!
ReplyDeleteJoel,
ReplyDeleteI like your BLOG! Very neat.
My favorite baseball experience: Was being there when Barry Bonds hit his 700th home run @ the Giant's Staduim on Sept 17th 2004! The excitement @ the park was indescribable! That's why I love baseball, you see stories unfolding @ every game and being a part of something epic was absolutely awesome!
http://baseballbeauties.com/
www.twitter.com/annaanisin
Looking forward to your book!
Warmly,
Anna
Great question, Joel! Everytime I walk into a Major League ballpark for the first time, it turns into a new favorite experience. While some parks are better than others, everyone is unique and special in their own way. I guess this means I have 15 favorite baseball memories...
ReplyDelete@howiemag Days in Battle Creek Yankees press box one-on-one with Frank "Hondo" Howard or pitching legend Tommy John as they told story after story.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of baseball I think of my Uncle Dave and the Detroit Tigers games he used to take all of us to each summer. What a blast!
ReplyDelete@BernSports Favorite baseball moment: got a ton. double header at old yankee stadium. Yanks vs Sox both games!
ReplyDeleteJuly 22, 2009. Mets vs Nats. getting my nephew his first ever baseball from a ball game. Thanks to Jason Bergmann of the Nats!
Opening Day 08 dodgers vs giants again. dodger legends in bullpen pregame got a lot of their autographs for me and my daughter!
Opening day 05 dodgers score 4 in the bottom of the 9th to beat the giants!
Being there for the end of Eric Gagne's streak at Dodger Stadium. Seeing the Rocket pitch against the Dodgers in '04 or 05
Going to two O's games at Memorial Stadium and having Cal Ripken make the first out of both games. leaping up to catch liners
@WonsWhite 1st game 1970 I was 10, Milw-NY played catch w/Mel Stottlemyer. Age 14 stormed GM's office didn't get a bat for bat day walked out w/tons
ReplyDelete@spurleyesque Entering Miller Park for the first time, overtaken by the smell of real turf and hearing the bats. Instant feeling of community.
ReplyDeleteThat's an experience I'll never forget. And it repeats with every visit. Goosebumps just seeing the park, roof open or not.
@True2TheCrew the first time at miller park is an unexplainable experience I still and always will never forget my first game at miller park!!
ReplyDelete@blackmesabooks Great blog -- one of my fav BB experiences is from legion ball when I got to play catch with Randy Johnson before a JAX Suns minor league gm
ReplyDelete@CruscoSports Made a game saving catch playing right field going up a hill when I was 14. Crowd went wild, and my dad was there to cheer me on. Last game.
ReplyDelete@RowdyFan51 Mike Lieberthal went out of his way to meet me after a Phils game when he heard how big of a fan I was. I met his agent after a game and then fangirled all over him. But he was such a doll.
ReplyDeleteOne of mine was as a player for the Middlesex County, MA Babe Ruth All-Stars, when I was 18. We were playing in the state tournament and in the second game. I played poorly in the 1st game and was benched for the 2nd game.
ReplyDeleteOut of protest, I accepted a hotdog from one of my teammate's father. I was enjoying my hotdog when the coach pointed to me and said "Put down the hotdog, I want you to hit!"
I stepped into the box with our team down a run and a runner on 1st. I took an 0-1 fastball over the right-center field fence to put us ahead.
When I touched the plate the coach said, "Ok, you can go back to your hotdog now!"
Paul, I think that there is more to the story. Is that how they came up with the phrase "he's hotdogging it out there?!"
ReplyDeleteLove the story. Those stories are what makes it great!
Keep them coming!