It has to be the most exciting play in baseball, the inside-the-park home run. The roar of the crowd when they realize the third base coach is sending the batter/runner home is as loud as it gets in a ballpark.
Yesterday while watching the Blue Jays-Yankees game, Brett Gardner of the Yanks hit an inside-the-parker when Dwayne Wise lost a fly ball in the sun and had it ricochet off his glove.
Then, while viewing the Giants-Rockies game, San Fran's Andres Torres hit and inside-the-park homer when the ball evaded Ryan Spilborghs in the rigth field corner.
So I saw two run-around-the-bases home runs in two games.
While it was fun watching those home runs, it doesn't compare to a couple of games I attended in which I saw two inside the park home runs in the same game.
In 1977 at Yankee Stadium, Toby Harrah and Bump Wills hit back-to-back inside-the-park home runs. Bump also hit a regular over the fence home run in the Rangers win over the Yanks. Fast forward to 1995. Bump was managing the Hudson Valley Renegades in the New York-Penn League. I asked Bump about the back-to-back inside-the-park homers that day and he had very little recollection. He said something like, "I kind of remember hitting an inside-the-park homer. It was back-to-back with Harrah? Really?" I was a little stunned.
The other great inside-the-park home runs moment occurred at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Rick Schultz and me were stopping by after taking in some games at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.
In the top of the 6th, Sammy Sosa hit an inside-the-park home run to right-center field. In the bottom of the inning, Tony Womack hit an inside job to the same spot.
Two inside-the-park home runs in the same inning made it a most memorable game.
I wonder if there is anyone else on the planet who was at the "Harrah-Wills" game in 1977 and the "Sosa-Womanck" game 20-years later other than me.
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