Awesome night card, pt. 87

I am late on this, as I tend to be. Oh well.

Brian, of 30-Year-Old Cardboard, asked bloggers to relive the most memorable games that they had ever witnessed, either in person or viewed on television.

Living where I do, I have not been to a lot of major league games. Less than a dozen, I think. If I had to rank them, off the top of my head, it'd go like this:

4. Clemens vs. Pettitte, Toronto, April 1998

3. Gagne comes home to Montreal, Montreal, August 2002
2. Eck vs. Palmer, O's win in 10, Boston, August 1982
1. Royals beat Yankees in my first MLB game, New York, July 1978

In the general scheme of things, these games have the most meaning to only me. A couple have very personal memories that I won't relay here. But to the masses, none of these are particularly special.

For that, I have to go to TV. Even some of the TV games are here only because of personal memories, but most are pretty familiar to all fans:

10. Red Sox & Brewers pound out 6 HRs in 14-10 Boston win, 1977

9. Jack Clark's HR vs. Niedenfuer in Game 6 of NLCS, 1985
8. Jack Morris' 10-inning outing for Twins in Game 7 of WS, 1991
7. Damon's GS in Game 7 completes 0-3 comeback as Red Sox beat Yanks in ALCS, 2004
6. George Brett takes Goose Gossage into upper deck in Game 3 of ALCS, 1980
5. Bucky "f**king" Dent, 1978
4. Dodgers rally from 5-3 deficit with no one on and 2 out in 9th vs. Phillies to win Game 3 of NLCS, 1977
3. Buckner botches Mookie's grounder in Game 6, 1986
2. Dodgers beat Yanks in Game 6 of WS, Cey named co-MVP, 1981
1. Gibson's HR vs. Eck, Game 1 of World Series, 1988

Notice, I did not gloss over the depressing games (No. 9, No. 5, No. 3). Memories are memories.

I could go into epic detail on every one of these games, but I'll spare you.

I know I'm leaving out a ton of games -- the '79 We Are Family Pirates, Francisco Cabrera's hit in 1992, Mark McGwire's No. 62 in 1998, Joe Carter's HR off Williams in 1993, Denkinger's call on Jorge Orta in 1985, Boone against Wakefield in 2003, Bonds not getting his ring in 2002, etc.

Then there was the time that the employees of the department store that I worked at as a young college student, gathered around the TV in the home entertainment department to watch the Tigers and Padres in the 1984 World Series. Customers be damned!

But just to show how old I am, I'll also mention that some of the biggest baseball moments I ever witnessed I didn't even see.

I was listening to the radio. Among those:

1. Dave Righetti's July 4th no-hitter, 1983

2. The "Pine-Tar" Game, 1983
3. Yastrzemski's 3,000th hit, 1979
4. Rod Carew's 3,000th hit, 1985
5. Gibson's HR in 12th, Hershiser comes out of bullpen, Game 4 of NLCS vs. Mets, 1988

I envisioned what Brett did when he was called out for having too much pine tar on his bat long before I even saw him flip out on TV. ... For the 1988 NLCS game, I was in absolute agony.

So, that's the rundown. I noticed that there aren't a lot of memories from the past decade. I think that's mostly because most of the big games occur when I'm at work now and I'm only half-focused on the game (although for Game 7 of the ALCS in 2004, everything stopped -- in the entire newsroom).

It's also because the Dodgers haven't done anything hugely memorable in the last 10 years. There was Shawn Green's four-HR game in 2002 (didn't see it), Jose Lima in the 2004 NLCS (saw it), the Dodgers' four straight HRs in the ninth of their 10-inning comeback in 2006 (didn't see it), and Loney's GS vs. Cubs in Game 1 of NLDS in 2008 (saw it). Not a lot else springs to mind.

I'm pretty sure that will all change this season.