Tuesday Top Five

[Again, stolen from here].

In light of Barry Bonds’ recent milestone, I present my Top Five Baseball moments (which I have experienced, in person at the ballpark):

5. Brian Dallimore, April 2004. SBC Park (now AT&T): Dallimore, a lifelong minor leaguer, hit a grandslam in his first major league at-bat. The Giants had fallen behind 7-2 to the Marlins early in the game and his jack put them up 9-7 just an inning later.

4. Bonds, April 2004. SBC Park. I saw him hit home run #660, which tied him with his godfather, Willie Mays, for third all-time.

3. Jason Schmidt, the Giants team, June 2003. Dodger Stadium. I went with my friends Tato and Matt to watch the Giants play the Dodgers at Dodger stadium. Schmidt pitched a 3-hit shutout, and the Giants won 3-0.

2. Derek Jeter, June 2005. Yankee Stadium. Jeter had hit in the #2 spot for ten years, so his first career grand slam came after a decade in the big leagues. As we were walking out of the stadium, I said, somewhat loudly (wearing my Giants hat), “If he’s so great, why’d it take him ten years to hit a grand slam?” The guy in front of me turn around, and said in with his New York accent, “Because he bats numba two!” And I thought — point taken.

1a. Bonds, August 2003. Jason Schmidt had pitched 8 shutout innings against the Braves. Felipe Alou pulled him, and put in the make-shift closer Tim Worrell, who coughed up the lead. The Braves tied the game. I honestly can’t remember if it was the ninth or tenth inning, but Bonds led off. And promptly jacked a bomb into McCovey Cove, winning the game.

1. Dad and me, and family. Many places, many years, many in the late 80s. My dad taught me right, that baseball is the best sport, and that dads and sons should do baseball together. A couple of highlights:

* Having season tickets to the Padres, and going to every Sunday afternoon home game. I got to see Tony Gwynn, the greatest hitter of this generation win a batting title on the last game of the season. I watched Benito Santiago extend to a 34-game hitting streak, and win the Rookie of the Year award in 1987. One night, Bip Roberts hit an inside-the-park home-run. Every Sunday we watched random fans participate in the Allies’ Pop-Fly Pay-off, and we got lots of cheap food vouchers because of it. One night, when I was grounded, my dad got soft, and still let me go the game. That night he caught a foul ball off the bat of the Phillies’ Juan Samuel. The best was probably, in October 1988, when he surprised me, and we drove all night, 7 hours north of San Diego to the Bay Area. We went to the 1988 World Series Game 3, and watched McGwire homer to left center. Those were special times.