Best Players You Saw Play In Person
orioles93
Posts: 3,479 ✭✭✭✭✭
Thought it would be neat to hear who the best players everyone has actually seen play in person. Growing up I went to lots of Orioles games, and the occasional Pirates and Phillies game. The best players I remember watching in person were Cal RIpken Jr., Ken Griffey Jr. David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez, Mike Mussina, Joey Votto, Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, and Miguel Tejada. I probably saw tons of other great players but these are the ones that stick out to me. Specifically, I remember watching David Ortiz launch a homerun in Camden Yards as a Twin, Votto hitting 2 homeruns against the Orioles in a game that had 9 homeruns total from both teams, and Cal RIpken's last home game in Baltimore. Who are the best players you've seen play, and were there any specific memorable moments?
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Comments
Tom Brady. End of discussion.
Oh I stand corrected. Larry Bird too of course
Guess I was thinking baseball, but any sport is fine
PSA HOF Baseball Postwar Rookies Set Registry- (Currently 80.51% Complete)
PSA Pro Football HOF Rookie Players Set Registry- (Currently 19.80% Complete)
PSA Basketball HOF Players Rookies Set Registry- (Currently 6.02% Complete)
No worries my friend--I have football on the mind tonight!
For baseball I would have to say Yaz, Fisk, Rice, Clemens, Nomaaaah, ManRam, Ortiz, Pedro, Pedroia and of course my namesake Mike Lowell.
Baseball - Clayton Kershaw
Hockey - Doug Weight (in college - I've never seen a pro game)
Football - Barry Sanders, Jerry Rice or Steve Young
Basketball - Isiah Thomas
I've never been to a baseball game. It's football only for me. I went to the Saints/Chiefs game this year so gotta say Drew Brees. I normally do 1 Chiefs game/year. So if they have wore red since 1996 or so, I have probably seen them. Sadly, off the top of my head, Tony Gonzalez is probably the most noteworthy for non Chiefs fans. Basically if they have played in Arrowhead in the last 20ish years, good chance I have seen them. Except Peyton Manning, never made it to a Chiefs game with him playing for some odd reason. Missed seeing a legend there
Baseball = Mike Trout (2015 ASG)
Basketball = Michael Jordan (GOAT)
Football = Barry Sanders
Hockey = Steve Yzerman
Was nice growing up right between Chicago and Detroit in the 90's.
I have seen a few HR's but the 2 that stick out are R Jackson and Thurman Munson.
Have seen many Yankees but Jeter stands out.
Marino
1948-76 Topps FB Sets
FB & BB HOF Player sets
1948-1993 NY Yankee Team Sets
At this moment, I could only offer a simple thought - for all the magnificent athletes I've seen participate in a live professional sporting event, nobody else stands out like Wayne Gretzky. He is indeed The Great One.
Baseball - Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco (in late 80s), Will Clark and Kevin Mitchell (in the late 80s as well), Chipper Jones, Frank Thomas, Bo Jackson, George Brett, Maddux/Smoltz/Glavine, Andruw Jones
Football - Montana, Rice, Deion Sanders, Christian Okoye, Marcus Allen...Tons of great players at UGA - Champ Bailey, Hines Ward, Knowshon Moreno, Todd Gurley, Matt Stafford, Thomas Davis.
Golf - Tiger, Phil, Sergio, Rory
Tennis - Agassi
Soccer - Batistuta, Matthäus, Klinsmann
Baseball = Griffey, ripken, rose, jeter,I once saw bonds hit 7 HRs in a row in batting practice in Baltimore never seen anything like that before, saw McGwire hit a ball on the LF roof of old tiger stadium. got to see a lot of games/good players while living in Detroit for school, of course none of them tigers, it was the bad years.
Basketball = Michael Jordan, kobe iverson
Hockey = Steve Yzerman, Gretzky, fedorov
collecting RAW Topps baseball cards 1952 Highs to 1972. looking for collector grade (somewhere between psa 4-7 condition). let me know what you have, I'll take it, I want to finish sets, I must have something you can use for trade.
looking for Topps 71-72 hi's-62-53-54-55-59, I have these sets started
Off the top of my head, Ripken and Jeter.
I was also at 2131 on September 6th, 1995 and I was a 6th grader at the time. Will never forget that game, he hit he Home Run and drove around the field in a sports car. My memories will last a lifetime on that one.
Always looking for MINT graded items, 90s inserts and random memorabilia.
Michael Jordan....end of discussion. OK, also have seen Frank Thomas, John Elway, Joe Theismann, Walter Payton, Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo, Hank Aaron, Andre Dawson, Cal Ripken, Ken Holtzman's no hitter in 1969, Phil Niekro, Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Orlando Cepeda, Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, Ryne Sandberg, Harold Baines, Anthony Rizzo.....ok, enough. Growing up in the Chicago suburbs, I attended games of the Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Bulls, Bears, and a few Brewers games too.
Baseball: Pujols, McGwire, Ozzie Smith, Randy Johnson, Kershaw, Glavine and Maddux, Griffey Jr, Jeter, Gwynn
Football: Warner, Isaac Bruce and Faulk, Manning, Favre, Rogers, Rice
Hockey: Hull, Gretzky, Lemeuix, Jagr, Crosby, Federov
Basketball: Shaq
Tough question, especially if youre older
Baseball - Ken Griffey Jr. (Game at Cincinnati)
Football - pro: Emmitt Smith (Game at Atlanta) college: Peyton Manning (Multiple Games Tenn)
Basketball - College: Shaquille O Neal (College LSU v Tenn) Pro: Stockton/Malone (WC Finals Salt Lake City)
Hockey - Wayne Gretzky (Played In Nashville)
Bowling - Pete Weber (bowled many against him)
Baseball - Big Red Machine, Pick the one you think is the greatest
Golf- Nicklaus
Basketball- LeBron
Football- No one stands out above the crowd
http://www.unisquare.com/store/brick/
Ralph
Attended my first World Series game in 1964 in St Louis . Mantle, Ford , Berra and Maris versus Gibson, Brock and Boyer. Unfortunately Musial, who I was able to see play previously retired in 1963
Bowman Baseball -1948-1955
Fleer Baseball-1923, 1959-2007
Al
Baseball: Cal Ripken, Ken Griffey Jr, Frank Thomas, Greg Maddux
Football: Joe Namath. I've only been to one game
Basketball: Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler
James
Living in Seattle since the inception of the Mariners I've seen in person plenty of great ones and cool accomplishments
George Brett - season he flirted with .400 - August doubleheader at the Kingdome with 5000 other
Seattlites dumb enough to be indoors in August.
Bo Jackson - threw out a runner from the left field wall - happened to be in along 3rd base line!
Don Mattingly - 3rd deck HR & game he played 3rd base
Nolan Ryan - 1 hitter at the Kingdome
Reggie Jackson - numerous HRs vs. the hapless M's
Cal Ripken - game number 2126 in Baltimore - very cool!
Ken Griffey Jr.- all highlights nearly every game
Ichiro - vs. KC threw out runner going from 1st to 3rd from deep right field - wow!
Mark McGwire - HR that hit back of Kingdome wall - longest HR I've ever seen!
Randy Johnson - How anyone got a bat on his ball is a wonder to me.
Big Pappy in Boston this year - he hit a dinger!
The list could go on and on...happens when you get old, you see a lot of stuff.
Basketball. Kobe
Baseball Bonds
Hockey Gretzky
Football Campbell
Being from Washington, my list is very similar to yours my friend. Saw Michael Jordan play at Key Arena, when the NBA actually still had a team in Seattle. Steve Largent, Barry Sanders, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, John Elway, and too many other Gridiron Greats to mention because I have been fortunate enough to have Seahawks Season Tickets. Happy Collecting!
*Baseball* HOF autographs, Harold Baines, Pete Rose, Joe Morgan & Seattle Mariners
*Football* Seattle Seahawks, Kenny Easley, Steve Largent, Jon Kitna, & Brian Bosworth
YouTube Channel link; https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAyO141lGqcV2fEjt723jUQ
Frank thomas, boggs, ripken, Mattingly, canseco, will clark, bo jackson, juan Gonzalez, Ivan Rodriguez, mcgriff, glavine, maddux, chipper jones and many more . Loved baseball in the 80's and 90's
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
Barry Bonds, Tim Raines, Barry Larkin, Andre Dawson, Gary Carter, Al Oliver.
Seen the Padres in Tony Gwynn's rookie year(1982) but he did not play in the game I attended
Tennis - Andre Agassi, Stefan Edberg, Pete Sampras, Michael Chang
IT CAN'T BE A TRUE PLAYOFF UNLESS THE BIG TEN CHAMPIONS ARE INCLUDED
Since he was my idol growing up I'm sure I'm a bit biased. But NOBODY, no matter what they do, will ever pass my #1 ... THE MICK!!!
Doug
Liquidating my collection for the 3rd and final time. Time for others to enjoy what I have enjoyed over the last several decades. Money could be put to better use.
Football in person, I've gotten to see Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers, Charles Woodson, Ben Roethlisberger, Cam Newton, Richard Sherman, Tom Brady, Barry Sanders, Warren Sapp, and Dez Bryant.
Baseball is much longer (I'm only listing HOFers (or will be) except Canseco, who was among my childhood hero): Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey Jr, Ichiro, Jose Canseco, Trevor Hoffman, Vladdy Guerrero, Kirby Pucket, Cal Ripken, Jr.. Craig Biggio, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Big Papi, Frank Thomas, Reggie Jackson, Nolan Ryan, Dennis Eckersley, Rickey Henderson, Dave Winfield, Roger Clemens, Miguel Cabrera, Barry Bonds, and it goes on and on and on, but thats all I can remember off the top of my head.
Basketball: Charles Barkley, Dwayne Wade. I went to the same high school as Devon Harris, my sister graduated with him. Seeing him light it up at my schools gym on Friday nights was incredible. It wasn't even fair.
I've never been to a pro hockey game, since Milwaukee doesn't have a team. Need to change that and go see the Blackhawks some time.
Great posts everyone. In my original post I did just baseball, without even thinking about other sports. I've never been to a pro hockey or basketball game. The best NFL players I ever saw were Ray Lewis, Jamal Lewis, and Ed Reed. Those were the results of many Ravens games growing up. And in college football, Allen Robinson, LeSean McCoy, Paul Posluszny, Sean Lee, Terrelle Pryor, and Saquon Barkley. Those are the results of many PSU games. A goal of mine is to get to some Steelers, Redskins, and Eagles games soon since they are close. And in college, I'd like to get to VT, WVU, OSU, and MD since they're within reasonable driving distance.
PSA HOF Baseball Postwar Rookies Set Registry- (Currently 80.51% Complete)
PSA Pro Football HOF Rookie Players Set Registry- (Currently 19.80% Complete)
PSA Basketball HOF Players Rookies Set Registry- (Currently 6.02% Complete)
I have seen Larry Bird, Tom Brady and many baseball players. I went to a game at Fenway where Clemens and Nolan Ryan were the starting pitchers....and of course they each gave up 5 runs.
Sandy Koufax, hands down.
I forgot I don't see a lot of football games live but I did see the cowboys in their heyday beat the snot out of the jets so Aikman, Irvin and smith
collecting RAW Topps baseball cards 1952 Highs to 1972. looking for collector grade (somewhere between psa 4-7 condition). let me know what you have, I'll take it, I want to finish sets, I must have something you can use for trade.
looking for Topps 71-72 hi's-62-53-54-55-59, I have these sets started
Gosh, if only. He retired before I got a chance to really know who he was so I grew up loving Big D. My mom used to love telling me how I went to a Koufax pitched home game while still in the womb.
For me, it was definitely Michael Jordan. Now, I mainly saw him for his two years as a Wizard, as I had season tickets for those years. But it was still Jordan. Also saw Ripken a lot growing up in Maryland.
Baseball: Pitcher Greg Maddux, position player Barry Bonds
Basketball: NBA Jordan. College bunch of guys. Drexler, Worthy, Jordan, Hank Gathers, Grant Hill among them
Hockey: Yet to see an NHL game in person.
Football: NFL Montana, Rice, Lawrence Taylor College: Lawrence Taylor by far
Baseball - All around position player definitely was Griffey Jr. Best hitter, hands down though was Manny. I'm from Cleveland, and I swear every game i went to he went like 3-4. Just a stud from the right side. Pitcher was Maddux. Such a technician.
Football - Deion. He amazed me. Sitting higher up in the stands when he was with Dallas. I went to a Thanksgiving day game vs the Chiefs. They left him on the left side of the field, and the Chiefs didn't even try to throw it to that side of the field the whole game ! Never seen anything like it. It was almost like they signed a deal pre game, Deion you just jog around over there next to our WR, and don't worry, we won't throw it that way.
Basketball - I got to see the Jordan shot over Ehlo at the old Richfield Colliseum. I think I was either 12 or 13 and it broke my heart, but I didn't realize at the time that I was watching greatness unfold. Ironically I was also at the Colliseum the night Jordan scored 69 on the cavs which ended up being his highest single game output of his career.
Collecting:
post world war II HOF rookie
76 topps gem mint 10 commons 9 stars
Arenado purple refractors(Rockies) Red (Cardinals)
successful deals with Keevan, Grote15, 1954, mbogoman
Well, in that case.......
Kegeling: Fred Flintstone : Him and Rubble......no wait. Only saw it on the TV whilst noshing on high fructose couch potato snacks.
Rickey Henderson all the way.
Successful card BST transactions with cbcnow, brogurt, gstarling, Bravesfan 007, and rajah 424.
As a long suffering Lions fan, I had the pleasure of walking through the frozen Silverdome parking lot (which is massive) to see Barry Sanders for 10 years.
One of the most understated dominate performances I saw was Jason Kidd with the Nets against the Pistons. He had 2 points and 18 assists. I really hadn't watch him that much since he was in the West for the start of his career, but I came to appreciate how he could dominate a game without scoring.
Went to a Nirvana concert when I was 12.
Smells like mean spirit.
Harmon Killebrew
Fran Tarkenton or Alan Page
Mike Modano
I would brag about that too. A legendary band no one will ever see live again.
IT CAN'T BE A TRUE PLAYOFF UNLESS THE BIG TEN CHAMPIONS ARE INCLUDED
I forgot to list the great football players I saw live.
Billy Sims, Brian Sipe, Charles White, Ozzie Newsome, Jerome Bettis, Eddie George, Dermonti Dawson, Greg Lloyd
IT CAN'T BE A TRUE PLAYOFF UNLESS THE BIG TEN CHAMPIONS ARE INCLUDED
Repetition with a dose of newness:
NBA - Michael Jordan
Chicago vs. Dallas back in '88. The Bulls executed one of the best alley-oops I still to this day have ever seen, and yes, MJ was involved. He assisted Brad Sellers from well beyond half court.
MLB - J.R. Richard
Had the good fortune of watching him pitch in 1980 just prior to his stroke -- when he was Batman and Nolan Ryan was Robin.
NFL - Roger Staubach
Attended his very last game in the '79 playoffs against the Rams. I can't remember where I put my car keys half an hour ago, but I'll never forget his final completion.....................to Herbert Scott.
NHL - Mike Modano
Went to a Stars game many moons ago and didn't have a clue what the hell was going on. But it was by far the most fun I've ever had at any sporting event. I had heard that MM was a stud, so I tried to remain fixated on him. He didn't disappoint. Dude scored multiple goals due in large part to him looking like a cheetah on ice.
you'll never be able to outrun a bad diet
Didn't see many huge stars but I saw KG, AI, Tim Duncan and a lot of the jail blazers (being an Oregonian), Damon stoudamire, Rasheed Wallace and whoever else played in late 90's.
I saw salim stoudamire play in high school (very exciting to see) and some other hs players that went on to college and minor stints in NBA (can't remember names). Had multiple chances to watch Kevin love play as he played in same league as my hs team but just never got off my butt to go watch his games.
On the non-major sport side, I saw Christian cantwell hit his lifetime p.r. (I think) in the shotput almost 74 feet!
Saw Ryan crouser throw shotput in high school.
George Brett, Griffey Jr., Reggie, Thurman Munson, Miguel Cabbera, Clemens and Arod (of the steroid gang)
A young Carlos Beltran(amazing speed) Pujols, Utley.
Best athlete, not a great baseball player- Bo Jackson.
Rose (albeit at the end of his career) and Bonds. Have seen Peyton Manning and Tiger as well.
Aaron. Big Red Machine. Banks. Big Hurt. Basketball-Barkley, Jordan.