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I know the three homers didn't come in Ruth's final game, but it was right near the end, when it looked like he was all washed up, and no one expected it from him. Also, if I'm not mistaken, one of the three was a mammoth tape-measure blast. But that part might be just the imagination that Ruth always conjures up. What a bigger-than-life character he was! And with performance on the field to match! Truly the greatest baseball player ever, and, in my opinion, the greatest player in any sport.

As for the most memorable moment in baseball history, I might vote for Mazeroski's 1960 seventh-game, ninth-inning, Series-winning home run for the underdog Pirates against the much-favored Yanks (who had vastly outscored the Buccos in that Series). Can't get more storybook than that.

But that part might be just the imagination that Ruth always conjures up. What a bigger-than-life character he was!

That was probably one of his most endearing qualities. Self-centered he may have been as a man, but he had at least the grace of a sense of humour about it in the right places. And if people wanted to exaggerate what he did, he probably figured who the hell was he to argue. I'm given to understand he couldn't resist adding to the mythology about the "called shot" homer once he realised nothing he said could straighten it out, anyway.

I don't know that I'd disagree if the Mazeroski homer ended up in the final top five memorables. You nailed one of the critical reasons: the Yankees outscoring the Pirates in that Series, not to mention the high score of the game by the time it got tied up for the bottom of the ninth. That Pirate team was a pretty good team, too, very underrated pennant winner among discussions of great single-season teams.

Speaking of the Pirates, you could make a case for memorability for...

1959: Harvey's Wallbanger - Twelve perfect innings. Wrecked in the thirteenth on an error, a hit, and a two-run homer that turned into a long double (because Henry Aaron inadvertently let Joe Adcock, who hit the blast, pass him on the basepath - or was that Adcock passing Hammerin' Hank on his own steam?) but still meant the game. Could you blame Harvey Haddix if he felt like banging his head against the wall? (Sidebar: The winning pitcher also pitched all the way that night: Lew Burdette (a.k.a. Chief Slobber on Stitches) of the Braves. When he argued for a contract raise the following year, he used the Haddix broken perfecto as his rationale: That guy pitched the greatest game in baseball history and he still couldn't beat me - so I must be the greatest pitcher in baseball!)