Athletes you've seen play live and those you wish you could have watched live

The Game Room
21

The baseball stars I’ve seen from the 1970s to the present are far too numerous to name, but three tend to stand out in my mind.

August 27, 1992. The old Arlington Stadium had the bullpens along the sides of the field, and before the game I got to go down and stand really close as Nolan Ryan was warming up. I just kept thinking, wow, that’s Nolan freaking Ryan, right there! 1992 was the second-last year of his career and he was not the pitcher he once was. He got shelled in the 5th and took the loss, but I can always say I got to see him pitch live.

July 27 and 28, 1993, Seattle Kingdome. Ken Griffey Jr. homered in both games to run his streak to an MLB record-tying 8 consecutive games with a home run. We thought about staying an extra day but didn’t do it. Just as well, as the streak ended the next day.

September 2, 1999. I was sitting in the right-field bleachers at Camden Yards as I watched Cal Ripken Jr.'s 400th career home run disappear into the left-field bleachers. The place just erupted.

ETA: How could I forget being in attendance at Busch Stadium for the final two games of the 1998 season and seeing Mark McGwire hit homers # 67, 68, 69, and 70? I guess the ensuing PED scandal has clouded that memory a bit.

22

Let’s see…

I was too young to remember, but apparently I was at an exhibition game for Team Canada at Maple Leaf Gardens leading up to the infamous Summit Series versus the Soviets, so I got to see Henderson, Dryden, Esposito, et al. That maybe doesn’t count.

I’ve been to a few hockey games since then and seen plenty of stars, but the standouts for me include:

Guy Lafleur in his final year with Quebec
The 1989 Calgary Flames
Patrick Roy with the '89 Canadiens in Game One of the Stanley Cup finals
Little Stevie Yzerman
Nik Lidstrom
Jarome Iginla

I haven’t been to a ton of MLB games, but I have seen a handful including:

Reggie Jackson playing for Baltimore against the California Angels in Anaheim
Mark Belanger and Dennis Martinez, also with Baltimore a couple years later
George Brett
Jesse Barfield, Tony Fernandez with the Blue Jays
Ichiro Suzuki, Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, Omar Vizquel, Edgar and Tino Martinez with the Mariners at various times
Kent Hrbek, Gary Gaetti, and Kirby Pucket with the Twins (Gaetti hit a ground rule double in one game – off pitcher Billy Swift’s face)

I watched a ton of minor league baseball back when Calgary still had a team. Among the players I saw back in the day were:

Edgar Martinez
Tino Martinez
Harold Reynolds
Omar Viquel
Danny Tartabull – all Calgary Cannons

Jose Canseco
Mark MacGuire
Walt Weiss – all with Tuscon Toros

Sammy Sosa – Colorado Sky Sox

Wally Joyner
Devon White – Edmonton Trappers (Devo made the finest play I have ever seen in one game, running down a line drive in the LF gap. No human had any business getting there in time, much less making it look so easy)

I’ve seen three NBA exhibition games; two were Toronto v. Vancouver (big hairy deal) and the other one was the NJ Nets v. the LA Lakers in the last real year of the Prime Time lineup, featuring Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Byron Scott, and Vlade Divac.

In the lacrosse world, I’ve seen some of the all-time greats, including:
Gary Freaking Gait (best lacrosse player ever)
John Tavares (all-time NLL scoring leader)
Steve “Chugger” Dietrich (only goalie in NLL history to win the league MVP)
John Grant Jr.
Bob Watson
Josh Sanderson
Kaleb Toth
Geoff Snider (best faceoff man ever)
Guys I wish I had seen:

Bobby Orr
Wayne Gretzky
Mario Lemieux
Gordie Howe
Walter Payton
Joe Montana
Jerry Rice
Steve Garvey
Rickey Henderson
Tony Gwynn
Barry Bonds (pre-steroids)
Ryne Sandberg
Ozzie Smith
Nolan Ryan
Greg Maddux
Trevor Hoffman
Keith Hernandez
Doc Gooden
Tim Raines
Andre Dawson
Hank Aaron
David Robinson
John Stockton

23

I don’t know where I would start and end with the list but I did attend one sporting event that I think was quite unique.

I attended a baseball game where both starting pitchers were already 300 game winners. Don Sutton was pitching for the Angels and Tom Seaver was pitching for the White Sox. A match-up like that has only occurred 5 times in MLB history.

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/faceoff-300/

24

Despite the fact he was probably THE biggest asshole to ever play the game-Ty Cobb.

To counter-balance that experience, I would take in a few games with Walter Johnson pitching.
Then get Honus Wagner to sign one of his cards* before coming home.

  • I know he’d refuse but I can still dream.
25

:smack: And I probably saw him five or six times, too, during his last few years with the White Sox.

Also, just remembered that I saw Kirby Puckett and Cal Ripken, when I went to an Orioles / Twins game in Minnesota in '87.

And, I remembered that I went to the 1974 Western Open golf tournament as a 9-year-old, and saw Lee Trevino (he was struck by lightning at the same tournament the following year). I remember him being very friendly to the gallery.

26

I saw Secretariat win the Belmont Stakes.

27

I got to see the Dream Team. The real one, Bird, Magic, Jordan, Drexler, etc. That was awesome, even if it was againt Nicaragua or whatever.

28

Michael Jordan is the only retired player that I regret not seeing. Of those I saw, I don’t remember being in awe or anything. I haven’t seen a lot of all time greats, though, so that surely plays a role. Those that come to mind are Kirby Puckett, Kevin Garnett, Brett Favre, Cal Ripken, and Barry Bonds. I suppose seeing Bonds in the 00s after he broke the the single season record was really cool. Everyone in the stadium certainly stopped what they were doing to see what would happen, love him or hate him.

Of athletes who are active, I’d say Cristiano Ronaldo and Usain Bolt would be the ones I’d most want to see. When I see Ronaldo on tv, I probably hold my breath, just hoping he’ll make an amazing run and score. Live? I’d go nuts. If I could win a trip to London for the 100m and 200m events this summer, I’d be mesmerized watching Bolt go.

29

I went to a lot of Braves baseball games in the 1990’s so I saw what many call the greatest rotation in baseball history.

Also went to a number of Falcons games too, so you can add Deion Sanders to that bunch.

Like many, wish I had seen Jordan, but his games were always sold out as soon as the box office opened, so it was not to be…

30

The only one I wish I had seen live is Bobby Orr.

Probably the biggest stars I *have *seen live are Gordie Howe (with the Red Wings) and Al Kaline.
mmm