look who's coming up... [part 1]

i have been to a lot of baseball games in my lifetime. i have been to 16 different stadiums. i have seen shutouts, blowouts, extra innings, pitching duels, a one-hitter, had tickets to a no-hitter (but didn't go); i saw aaron, mccovey, stargell, rose, nomo vs. glavine on opening day 1996, hershiser vs. the mets in 1988, jim abbott's first career shutout, kerry wood's first ml victory, pedro at his peak, mcgwire and sosa in 1998, ripken during his streak, and so much more.

there are two games, though, that stand out. games so great, i can collect cards that commemorate each of them. one is shawn green's 4 hr game in milwaukee in may of 2002. a friend and i roadtripped to milwaukee to see a couple games and were lucky enough to see one of the greatest individual offensive performances ever. however, the greatest game i have ever seen in person happened 20 years ago today. game 1 of the 1988 world series. i was there.
my dad got tickets through the dodgers' postcard lottery. we watched the nlcs against the mets with great anxiety, knowing that we would be at dodger stadium if the dodgers advanced. they did, of course, so my dad picked me up in orange county and took me to chavez ravine. debbie gibson sang the national anthem. bob welch returned to the stadium. kirk gibson wasn't playing. he wouldn't be able to play.

but he did...