The first sporting event post 9/11.
Mets vs. Braves, September 21, 2001. Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the FDNY, NYPD, etc. was there.
Mike Piazza’s home run was electric.
I was watching it at home.
I was most impressed this last weekend by a sailing ‘achievement’ on NBC. A sailor named Elvis Francois drifted for 24 days across the Caribbean this month because his sails got screwed up and he couldn’t catch a breeze, was alone and had no communication of any kind. The only things he had were a bottle of ketchup, some garlic powder and a tarp to catch water. He got picked up by the Columbian navy and was smiling with a daze.
It wasn’t a sporting event but still inspiring to me.
Roger Maris’s 61st home run.
I was in Yankee Stadium when it happened.
Very cool. Did the place go wild?
Definitely.
I was in Busch Stadium for Griffey Jr’s 500th HR in 2004.
Game 4 of the 2004 World Series when Boston broke the curse.
Game 5 clincher of the 2006 World Series for the Cardinals.
“the hand of god” or rather the morning after at breakfast when the everyone on the radio (and at the breakfast table) was in agreement that Maradona’s goal should not have stood, it was a blatant, unambiguous foul. So I turned to my dad (I was 8) and said something to the effect of “they are going to replay the game, then right?” Only to be told that is not how football or life works and we just have to deal with it.
(I could add the various england team traumas for the ensuing 38 years but this was the first)