Making Fenway Memories

What are your most vivid Fenway memories? I don't necessarily mean the best ones, just memories etched upon your consciousness...good or bad.

1. Much like Fever Pitch, that first walk up the ramp to see the resplendent verdant field, can never be forgotten.

2. "Loop towards shortstop. Petrocelli's back, he's got it, and the Red Sox win it! And there is pandemonium on the field...Listen!" -- Ned Martin's call of the final out of the 1967 Boston Red Sox "Impossible Dream" regular season (station was WHDH AM 850) I remember jumping around my parents' front yard deliriously after the Sox won. More than anything else, that season put the Red Sox on the map.

3. I attended a game against the Angels (I think) in the 60's, and during a rain delay, a groundskeeper keeled over (? heart attack) while running out the tarpaulin. "Baseball isn't a matter of life and death, it's a lot more important than that." Not that night.

4. Reggie Smith throwing out Dave McNally trying to score on a sac fly. Smith caught the ball just in front of the 379 mark in left center, and gunned out the Orioles pitcher. Wow. I saw Bo Jackson do something similar at Memorial Stadium in the first baseball game my son ever attended (a rain delayed affair).

5. The Sox being shut down 2-0 on a Jim Palmer two-hitter. Fisk had a double off the monster, but Palmer was totally dominating.

6. Mariano Rivera warming up in the enemy pen. The Sox trailed 3-0, and Rivera calmly delivered fastball (inside) or cutter (outside) on the corners with that familiar pop of the mitt that comes with 95 mph heat. I knew the game was over before Rivera ever left the pen. 1-2-3. Over.

7. B.J. Surhoff backing up third in a meaningless Game 162, in the eighth inning with the Orioles trailing 8-3 on a single to right with the runner going first to third. The game meant NOTHING, but Surhoff played like a pro up to the end.

8. Dwight Evans robbing Joe Morgan in extra innings in the 1975 World Series, turning a game-winning hit into a double play. Evans won't ever get into the Hall, but he was a helluva player.

9. Yaz delivering a single to center to tie Minnesota 2-2 in that final game of 1967. Yaz had the greatest season imaginable that year.

10. Yaz popping out to Nettles to end the 1978 season, as Gossage challenged him and got him with high heat. Some guy named Dent put a little hurt on the Sox that day, too.

These don't necessarily represent the most important events in Sox history, but just a few that meant something to me. How about your memories?