ONE SLAM WITH A GRAND PLACE IN YANKEE LORE

On today's ESPN.com, Tim Kurkjian writes about some quirky Grand Slam facts (click the headline above for a link to the article), led by Cleveland's Travis Hafner's six Grand Salamis this season. He's the first guy to achieve the feat in 19 years (Donnie "Baseball" Mattingly established the mark in 1987). In this rich laundry list of bases-loaded-tater-trivia, Kurkjian suggests only a few of these "Ultimate Dinger"s are etched in our memories as game clinchers. He writes:

"What is the most famous grand slam of all time? Think about it. Not one jumps to mind. Kirk Gibson, Carlton Fisk, Bill Mazeroski, Joe Carter, Reggie Jackson, Bobby Thomson -- none of those unforgettable home runs came with the bases loaded. You might think of 50 memorable home runs before you get to a grand slam. There have been 592 World Series games played, and there have been only 18 grand slams, or one every 33 games. Only one grand slam has ever been hit in the clinching game of a World Series, and Moose Skowron's seventh-inning shot in 1956 took the Yankees' 5-0 lead to 9-0. Ken Boyer's sixth-inning slam in Game 4 (the series went seven games) was big in 1964, Kent Hrbek's sixth-inning slam in Game 6 in 1987 was huge and Paul Konerko's seventh-inning slam in Game 2 last year erased a 4-2 deficit, and helped the White Sox to a sweep. But none of those slams was so gigantic that it will be etched in our minds forever."

But, there is one SuperTater Kurkjian omits from above with a nice place in the memory boxes of most Yankee Fans: Tino Martinez' upper deck shot into right in Game 1 of the 1998 World Series against the San Diego Padres. It obviously wasn't the deciding game, but it did establish the tone for the series, which the Yankees dominated in a sweep, which at the time was the first since the Reds blanked the A's in 1990. (I watched the game at a party in Chelsea, earlier that night in the hallway, i ran into two guys i went to high school with. I hadn't seen them since high school graduation; that should've tipped me off right there that this was going to be a night of rare occurences.)

Tino the Bambino's slam made it seem absolutely certain the Yankees were going to win the game and the Series. Down 5-2 after a poor showing by David Wells, the Yankees mounted a comeback in the 7th, which included a 3-run shot from Knoblauch before Martinez stepped in to drive that ball. it went so far up i thought it would wind up in Co-Op City. The stadium exploded in delight and the resulting shockwave (riding on the voice of Joe Buck) reached the living room i stood in, everyone imitating the Stadium crowd's flirtation with madness with jovial dances of our own. I still remember screaming and high-fiveing anyone within a 1-foot radius.