Tuesday, July 23, 2013

I Was There! Seriously!

There were about 1.3 million people in Dodger Stadium the night Kirk Gibson homered to beat the A's in game one of the 1988 World Series. Not really, of course. But people like to exaggerate. The official attendance on that fateful Saturday night at Chavez Ravine was 55,983. Some of them had their car's taillights immortalized in the endlessly replayed scene of Gibson's unlikely blast sailing into the bleachers. I'm not sure of the number of people over the years who have said that they were there that night. But I'm guessing it may be closer to my sarcastic figure than the real one.


I won't lie. I was not there that night, as much as I wish I had been. (Though listening to Vin Scully call the game on television was certainly an acceptable alternative.) But I am very lucky to have been in attendance at more than a handful of games that baseball fans will instantly recognize, including some of the most famous contests of the previous decade. I am well aware of my good fortune, and those memories have served me well as it has now been a little over six years since I last had the pleasure of attending a major league baseball game.

Considering my good fortune, it's appropriate that the number of games on my "I Was There!" list is seven. As a way of reliving those precious experiences, and sharing them with you, I plan to launch a series of posts about those games. And to continue with the theme of having good luck, I'm also going to have a little contest.

Just a second...

FREE CARDS!!


Okay, I just wanted to increase the chances that people actually read this post and don't miss out on the opportunity.

Here's all you have to do (not that there's any chance of actually accomplishing this): Guess which seven games I'm talking about. I'll give you a few hints.

1) If you're one of the three people who follow this blog regularly, you've already read about my attendance at one of these games. If you haven't been reading, enjoy digging through the archives!

2) These seven games all took place between 1992-2004, some on the west coast and some on the east coast.

3) Astonishingly, none of these games took place at Dodger Stadium, and only one included the Dodgers at all.

Naturally, nobody's going to come up with anything close to the complete list. But whoever has the most correct guesses among their seven by the time I begin this series (Friday, 8/2) will win a PWE with cards connected in some way to each of the seven games in question. Sounds fun to me, anyway.

Might as well give it a shot. Comment below with your list. The winner will be revealed after the final post in the series. Good luck!

7 comments:

  1. A few games that popped into my head, I pretty much blanked on coming up with a potential Dodger contest:

    #1 -- 1992 NLCS Pirates/Braves (Sid Bream)
    #2 -- 1997 World Series Game 7 Indians/Marlins
    #3 -- 1998 Mike Piazza's last game as a Dodger
    #4 -- 1998 David Wells perfect game
    #5 -- 1999 David Wells perfect game
    #6 -- 2002 MLB All-Star Game
    #7 -- 2004 Randy Johnson perfect game

    Thanks for the contest!

    ReplyDelete
  2. And we have our first contestant, one of my three loyal readers. Thanks, Nick, and good luck!

    Except that you didn't guess any right... You still have a chance, though! If nobody else guesses even a single game, you are the winner by virtue of answering first. See, it pays to read this blog, people.

    A few ground rules before we get too far, i.e., the fine print:

    I have ranked the seven games from most likely to be guessed to least. In the event of a tie, "difficulty points" will be used to determine a winner.

    If there's still a tie, I will flip a coin or use Random.org.

    Right now, Nick's got a fighting chance. But it only takes one to deliver a knockout blow. Get guessing...

    ReplyDelete
  3. 1 - Game 5, 2001 World Series
    2 - Game 2, 2000 World Series
    3 - Game 7, 2003 ALCS
    4 - Kevin Brown no-hitter
    5 - Post 9/11 game where Mike Piazza got a walk-off hit
    6 - Hideo Nomo no-hitter
    7 - Derek Jeter dives in the stands, bloodying his face

    ReplyDelete
  4. Game 5 2001 W/S
    Game 1 2000 W/S
    Game 7 1993 W/S
    Game 2 1992 W/S
    2004 All Star game
    9/11 New York
    Dodgers season opener 1996

    ReplyDelete
  5. The game where that one guy did that one thing that was either really good or really bad, but still noteworthy? I think I was sitting a few rows in front of you or behind you.

    Not specific enough? No points for creativity?

    Ok:

    1992 All-Star Game
    Padres sweep the Dodgers in the last series of 1996 to win the division
    Tony Gwynn's 2,000th hit August 6th v. the Rockies
    Tony Gwynn's 3,000th hit August 6th @ Montreal
    Yankees sweep the Padres in the 1998 World Series
    AJ Burnett no-hits the Padres - 2001
    Bud Smith no-hits the Padres - 2001

    If it's possible to get a lower score than Nick's, I probably did it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Whoo hoo! More contestants. I guess pouting works. More, please...?

    ReplyDelete
  7. The field is set. Stay tuned to the "I Was There" posts each week, coming soon, for updated standings. As for the rest of you, don't miss out on the next contest.

    ReplyDelete