this HAS to have been discussed before, and if so please point me to the relevant thread.
My “leader in the clubhouse” is being at the 2010 NFC Championship between the Saints and Vikings. I figured it would be a good game, but never dreamed it would be as exciting as it turned out to be.
Any that stand out for you?
I saw an inside the park home run. Except, well, I didn’t actually see it as two minutes earlier my wife decided she wanted another beer, so I was in line at the concession stand, but I heard the crowd roaring, and THAT was pretty exciting!
I’m in the crowd during this amazing ending to the Michigan game. I was blown away.
I was on the other side of the stadium from the camera, dead center. Jaw dropped open.
I think this thread happened somewhat recently, but I’ll roll with it. I was at the Red Sox v. Devil Rays game in 2000 where Pedro Martinez struck out 17 and lost 1-0. Awesome atmosphere at Fenway that day. Pedro struck out the first five batters and you just knew he had it.
Also attended a Nuggets/Cavs game where Carmelo and LeBron both scored around 40 and Melo won the game with a buzzer beater.
A 2003 game in Fenway Park where Johnny Damon hit a game-winning home run. I’ve never felt that kind of energy at any sporting venue, ever. As a bonus I got to see myself going nuts in the bleachers on ESPN later as the ball cleared the fence in front of me.
I did see an inside-the-park home run in the first MLB game I ever saw in person. Juan Samuel hit it for the Phillies against the Giants (here it is on Baseball Reference).
But the most exciting thing I saw on the field was two years later. This review doesn’t make it sound too exciting, but imagine Notre Dame going for the game-winning two-point conversion with 100,000+ Penn State fans screaming. The best of many, many great times watching the Nittany Lions.
This is tough, I been to some doozies.
Baseball Regular season:
Jason Giambi hits a 14th inning Grand Slamto win the game for the Yanks over the Twins for a 13-12 victory. The score kept changing. There was a tying home run in 9th by Bernie Williams off Jacque Jones’ glove. To make it better, as Jason hit the ball the skies broke open into a big downpour from the sprinkling it had been and the ball flew about 2’ above my hands in the right field bleachers. This game was amazing.
Post Season games are tougher, I was there for game 1 of the subway series of Yanks vs. Mets in 2000. A great game that also went extra innings. Good pitching dual and some clutch hitting.
More recently I took my son to the Yankees vs. Twins post season game 2 in 2009 that went 11 innings. The pitching was very exciting with both teams getting into and out of trouble constantly. It was made better by it being my sons first playoff game.
Finally football: I don’t get to many games, but I was at aGiants vs. Skins game right after Mr. Mara died where the Giants won 36-0 with Tiki rushing for 204 yards. It was the best football game I have ever attended.
The game that the Rockies won to go to the World Series.
The 1997 football game between the Florida Gators and FSU. Florida had already lost twice that year and wouldn’t play for the national championship, but the next best thing was to deny top-ranked FSU a chance at the championship. It was a back-and-forth game but the Gators won 32-29.
I was at the Athletics / Brewers game in Milwaukee in August, 1982, in which Rickey Henderson broke the single-season record for stolen bases. He reached base as the game’s leadoff batter (ISTR that Doc Medich walked him), then immediately stole second to break the record. Lou Brock was at the game (he was sitting in a box seat a couple of rows from us), and went onto the field to “present” Henderson with the base in a brief ceremony. The game resumed, and Henderson immediately stole third. 
He had 4 steals overall in the game.
Much less historic than that (though well-remembered by us Packer fans) was the 1980 season opener against the Bears. The Packers managed to take the favored Bears to overtime, and Chester Marcol (in what turned out to be one of his last games as the Packers’ kicker) attempted a game-winning field goal. It was a low kick, easily blocked by the Bears…except that it bounced right back into Marcol’s hands, and he managed to awkwardly run it all the way into the end zone for a touchdown.
Probably a game between the Twins and Red Sox at the Metrodome in September 1987. The Twins entered the game clinging to a slight division lead over Oakland in their quest to win their first title in 17 years.
Blyleven pitches a gem for the Twins, with 1 run off of 6 hits, 4 walks and 11 strikeouts over 9 innings, unfortunately, the Boston pitching was even better, combining for a 3-hit shutout through 8 innings, with no walks and 12 strikeouts. The Boston run came off of a sac fly with 1 gone in the top of the 9th.
The bottom of the ninth started out poorly for the Twins, with the first two batters going down quickly, including Boston’s 13th strikeout of the night. A good portion of the crowd had left by the time Kirby Puckett stepped to the plate with two away. Those on their way out headed back to their seats quickly as Puckett responded with his only hit of the afternoon - a home run that landed near our seats in left field, although I had no chance at the ball.
In the top of the tenth, the Sox get a 2 out single, followed by a double that fails to drive in a run. The Twins manage to get the next batter to keep the score tied into the bottom of the inning.
With one out in the bottom, the Twins hit a double, which is followed by their first walk of the night, an intentional walk to set up the double play. I recall the Metrodome screen showing a ghost and saying “Walks Will Haunt!” The same image comes up after the next batter is unintentionally walked to load the bases. The next batter was almost anticlimactic, as he received a walk-off walk to win the game 2-1, with the Metrodome screen taunting “We Told You So!” After going 9 1/3 innings with no walks, Boston walks three consecutive batters to drive in the winning run.
Of course, the Twins then went on to win the World Series for the first time in over 50 years, where my wife can top my story, as she was in attendance for Game 7.
The most exciting thing I think I’ve seen was the Brewers’ Easter Sunday win in April '87. They were 11-0 to start the season, and trailing the 12th game going into the 9th inning. Rob Deer and Dale Sveum both homered in the bottom of the 9th, and County Stadium went insane. I swear I was there…and I’m pretty sure about a million others managed to fit in the 53k capacity stadium. But I really was there!
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/cover/featured/9060/index.htm
Bevan hitting four off the last ball to win after we were 6-38
Not in any order:
The 2000/2001 NFC Championship game between the NY Giants and the Minnesota Vikings. Giants 41 Vikings 0.
Derek Jeter’s 2000th hit. We were at field level for that game, only a few rows behind the visitor dugout. You could tell Jeter was embarrassed as he got the standing O. He was slumping at the time, and the “hit” maybe went 5 feet up the 3rd base line and the catcher couldn’t find the ball fast enough, so he beat it out. Not really exciting, but memorable.
1998 NY Yankees vs Baltimore Orioles. Same seats as above (my wife’s company has season tickets and we get one game a year up close and personal, 6 rows behind the visitor’s dugout). Armando Benitez plunks Tino Martinez on the back triggering a huge brawl. Two things I vividly remember are Paul O’Neill grabbing Martinez and taking him way out into right field, and Darryl Strawberry charging the visitors dugout and diving in (where we could no longer see what was happening).
I listened to that game while riding in the car with my girlfriend and her parents, heading back from visiting some of her relatives. Great game!
2003 NL Division Series - Giants vs. Marlins. Marlins down 2-3 going in to the bottom of the 11th, and Pudge hits a 2-run single to win it.
I was also there for Wide Left I, the football game between UM and FSU in 2002, cheering for UM. Now this was in the old Orange Bowl, a stadium seemingly built for maximum noise. When FSU down 1 lined up to attempt a game-winning field goal, everyone in the stadium was waving their hands, willing the ball to go right of the goalpost. FSU had famously missed three field goals wide right to lose the game in the closing seconds in previous games (Wide Right I, II, and III, of course). But, surprise surprise, the ball went wide LEFT this time. I was in the stands behind the goalpost, too. The crowd went absolutely bonkers.
The last three sporting events I was at period would be a White Sox/Cubs game last summer. An Admirals game where I first asked out my future ex-wife about 11 or 12 years ago and a Brewers game the first time the Brewers played against Paul Molitor after he left them. I was probably 8 or 9 for the Brewers game, but of the three, for sports fans, I’d guess that was the most exciting as I’d assume most people don’t care about me asking some girl out and I don’t follow baseball but I’m aware enough to know that a Cubs/White Sox game is a big deal (right?) but I assume it happens with some regularity.
1999 Tennessee at Florida. The Vols were defending national champs and had kinda lucked out against the Gators the year before, so there were about 85,000 Gator fans in the stadium thirsty for revenge. I imagine both teams were ranked in the top five at that point of the season. This game was pretty much the de facto SEC East Championship game in the 90’s and both teams were thinking national championship every year. I was a sophomore at Florida and pretty much at the height of my sports fanaticism. The whole campus was buzzing for days before the game.
It was a tense, close game throughout. Alex Brown went nuts in this game. Sacked Tee Martin five times. Dude was in the backfield before the Tennessee offensive linemen could even look to see who to block. The Gators were up 23-21 near the end of the game, with Tennessee driving. It gets to be third and three and they are getting close the field goal range. I couldn’t really tell how loud it was because I was yelling my own head off, but I could feel the stands shaking underneath me. Jamal Lewis gets nothing. Fourth and three, and I’m starting to wonder if it’s possible for a solid concrete structure to collapse, but I don’t really care. Jamal Lewis gets nothing. Gator fans are delirious. I don’t particularly remember much after that, but it was wonderful.
The 1978 Belmont Stakes, Affirmed vs. Alydar for the Triple Crown.
No one has won the Crown since.