35 years ago tonight.

“And look who’s coming up…”

 

The NBC broadcast, when following Gibson's home run, also captured the brake lights of some Dodger fans who were leaving Dodger Stadium believing the game was lost. Among those were future Boston Red Sox chairman Tom Werner and his son, future Milwaukee Brewers senior Vice President Teddy Werner.[19]​

The reference is a video that apparently doesn't exist anymore.



Another classic ...

 

No offense, but the one he hit four years earlier off of Goose Gossage in Game 5 was the Kirk Gibson World Series moment most people from southeastern Michigan of a certain age will never forget.

 

I was on a date that night, and we were having such a good time just sitting and talking on an outdoor, waterfront deck that I didn't even think about the ballgame I was missing. At one point later on, though, I went inside to get us another round, and while I was waiting on the bartender, I got to catch just a few minutes of the World Series opener.

Bar crowd sure was buzzing at that moment – and, oh look, Kirk Gibson is hobbling up to the plate ...

So I got to see the homer, and the great home-run trot that followed, and that was all I saw of 1988 Game 1. ... Great night!

 

I was 12 and a month away from 13. Dad always let me stay up for baseball, and I was mesmerized by those A's teams.

I saw that live in TV, and it was awesome. But what I remember most was how satisfied my dad was. It's probably the first time I remember of my dad rooting for "one of the old guys." He always liked that, and still does, when an old vet pulls through.

Good memory.

 

Saw it live. Barf.

 

I hear ya. Not a Dodgers fan, and I never liked Lasorda at all.

I did like Gibson, though.

 

McGwire had a walkoff two games later off Jay Howell that's forgotten because the Dodgers won the series. Had Oakland won, Gibson's HR would not be anywhere near as memorable, it happened in Game 1.

 

There's been a decent amount of walk-off HRs in the World Series in my lifetime, including Joe Carter's Series-clincher. I know Gibson was hobbled, but I've never understood why a Game 1 home run has had so much reverence.

The famous calls associated with the HR, both Vin Scully and Jack Buck, aren't that great either I don't think. Both have had much-better calls.

 

From the time Gibson emerged from the dugout to the ball clearing the fence:

6 minutes, 48 seconds.

No, I don't want to go back to that time.

 

I’ve probably shared on other threads how that night I stood on a stairwell in the right field pavilion at Dodger Stadium and saw the homer land nearby. I worked as an usher at Dodger Stadium during and after college. By 1988 I was working as sports editor in Podunk, but the Dodgers hired extra staff for the postseason and I needed extra money to buy a house, so I came back to work the Division Series and World Series.
I was assigned to the right field bleachers for Game 1 of the World Series. A couple of us took a late break and as we hustled back to our posts for the ninth inning I remember wondering why people were leaving at the start of the final inning of a one-run World Series game. Other than the home run, the brake lights in the parking lot are an iconic moment from that evening.
We knew we saw something special, but we had no idea how special it was or would become. And who knew we’d wait more than three decades for the next World Series title.
I was on the second stairwell over from the right field bullpen, one section to the left of where the ball landed, and think I can see myself, in my white shirt and straw hat, raise my arms as the ball clears the fence, but I've never seen a definitive shot.
I still get chills every time I see the replay.