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Today’s question: What’s your earliest sports memory?

GREG HANSEN, sports columnist

My mom let me stay home from school to watch Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, Yankees vs. Pirates. It was better than Christmas.

She arranged for a neighbor, Mr. Farnes, to drive me to school after the game, one that must’ve started about 10 a.m., in my hometown. I was supposed to be in Mrs. Merritt’s fourth grade class after lunch break.

The game lingered, tied at 9 going to the bottom of the ninth. That’s when Pirates second baseman Bill Mazeroski hit what I consider the most famous — and hurtful — home run in baseball history.

Mr. Farnes, who was a stockbroker, arrived when the game was in the eighth inning. He honked his horn. I appealed to him to let me watch the game to its finish. I was stunned when he got out of his car, walked through the door and took a seat on the couch.

He, too, was a Yankee fan. He too was heartbroken when Maz circled the bases, dodging happy Pirate fans each step of the way. I never did go to school that day. I’d like to think Mr. Farnes didn’t go to work, either.

JUSTIN SPEARS, sports producer

Watching Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal win their first NBA championship together in 2000 as arguably the best guard-big tandem in basketball history. The Lakers had attempted a few times to win a championship with Shaq as the centerpiece, but failed. My parents had a 24-inch Mitsubishi TV and we sat together in the living room each game and watched the Lakers beat the Pacers in six games. We all celebrated when Shaq scored 41 points in Game 6. My father bought me a gold Shaq jersey for my birthday a month later. For some reason, the regular season was a blur, but watching the Lakers during the playoffs became a family tradition; it all started with the first one in 2000.

RYAN FINLEY, sports editor

It’s Oct. 6, 1984, and I’m crowded into a prep kitchen in a ballroom at the Chino, California, fairgrounds, where I had just served admirably as a tiny, tuxedoed ring bearer for an aunt and uncle’s wedding. A small TV is airing Game 4 of the National League Championship Series between the Padres and Cubs. Steve Garvey pokes a home run to right-center field off closer Lee Smith, giving the Padres — by then my favorite … anything in the world — a come-from-behind win. (They would win the NL title a day later). I can still remember the noise of excitable (editor’s note: intoxicated?) relatives roar as the ball cleared the fence. Thus began a lifelong love of baseball — and of sneaking away from weddings, funerals and family reunions to check scores on TV.

MICHAEL LEV, UA football and baseball reporter

I have a vague recollection of Super Bowl XII between the Cowboys and Broncos, but the most indelible memory I have is of watching the Cubs of the late 1970s on Channel 9 — known across the nation as WGN.

Things were different back then, in many ways. Wrigley Field didn’t have lights until 1988, so every home game was a day game. They typically would start at 1:20 p.m. I remember hurrying home from school to catch the last few innings. Jack Brickhouse and Lou Boudreau would have the call. “Hey-hey!�

Those Cubs teams weren’t very good — the franchise had one .500 season from 1973 through ’83 — but I was hooked. The Cubs of the late ’70s had iconic players such as Bill Buckner, Dave Kingman and Bruce Sutter. Buckner hit an even .300 over his eight-year Cubs career. Kingman socked 48 home runs in 1979. Sutter — with his trademark split-fingered fastball — led the NL with 37 saves that year. He’d later be traded for my first favorite player, Leon “Bull� Durham, who had 22 home runs, 90 RBIs and 28 stolen bases in 1982.

I memorized every stat. There are some things you never forget.

CAITLIN SCHMIDT, sports enterprise reporter

Attending San Diego Padres games at Jack Murphy Stadium with my dad when I was in elementary school. We lived in San Diego’s North County, which was quite a drive away from the stadium even with 1980s-era traffic, so we’d always make a day out of our occasional trips to the ballpark. We’d go tp used bookstores, antique stores and comic book shops on the way to or from the game. By the time I reached high school, my uncle and dad were splitting season tickets, which meant we had front-row seats to some of the Padres’ biggest highs and lows.

This included their 1996 and 1998 postseasons, the latter of which resulted in a trip to the World Series. I still have relics of those days — ticket stubs, rally towels, baseballs and a plastic helmet from a ballpark ice cream sundae — on the shelf in my office.

BRUCE PASCOE, UA basketball reporter

Picking up cardboard chocolate malt lids in the end zone at Stanford Stadium and flipping them around like Frisbees. Not sure what was happening on the field. Also, trying not to sprain my ankles in the surrounding gopher holes as we ran back to the car to beat the traffic after games.

ALEC WHITE, sports producer

I loved watching and going to baseball games as a kid — still do. I grew up in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, so I often went to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Sidewinders games.

When I was 6, my parents took me to this “Meet the Teamâ€� event, where I met players such as Andy Green and Robby Hammock. I got a signed bat that I still have from Corey Myers. I watched the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Diamondbacks on television a lot.

I remember watching Randy Johnson’s 2004 perfect game with the Dbacks; the catcher that night was Hammock, who had gotten called up that season. That was probably my first “wow� moment where things came full circle.

PJ BROWN, contributor

My dad took me to my first baseball game when I was 7 years old — that’s when he thought I was old enough to sit through all nine innings. He bought me a scorecard and a pencil and taught me how to keep score.

BRETT FERA, contributor

October 1988. I was 6 years old, sitting in the back seat of my uncle’s car, stopped at the intersection of Academy Road and Stadium Way, just outside Elysian Park and a place many know as Chavez Ravine. We were sure to miss the first pitch of one of the games of the NLCS between the Dodgers and Mets. I don’t remember which one, to be honest, but I do recall my uncle — my dad’s brother, Tom — rolling down all the car windows, popping a cassette into the tape deck, and cranking the speakers as loud as can be. On the tape: a recording of Jimi Hendrix’ Star Spangled Banner guitar solo from Woodstock, 1969.

At the end of the song, our L.A. traffic-brethren honked their horns and cheered. And somehow, the parting of the royal blue sea commenced as we all made our way into the vast parking lot wasteland that is the outskirts of Dodger Stadium. I don’t remember the game. At all. But the Dodgers won the series in seven games, and apparently took the next one, too.

JOHN MCKELVEY, contributor

Jeffrey Maier, 1996 ALCS Game 1, Yankees vs. Orioles

MICHAEL SCHMELZLE, sports producer

First sports memories are from September/October 1982 at age 5, having just started kindergarten in Illinois. My dad is a Notre Dame grad/Brewers fan, so I vaguely remember the first night game in ND history at home (a 23-17 win over Michigan) and the Brewers’ run to their first (and only) World Series.

On the same fall Saturday in October of ‘82, I remember we were watching the Brewers rally with four runs in the seventh — Gorman Thomas put the Crew ahead for good — to get past the Cardinals in Game 4 of the World Series to tie the Fall Classic at 2-2 (yes, it was actually a World Series game on during the day). At the same time, our radio had on 4-0 Notre Dame losing a lead at home to the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Wildcats to fall 16-13 on a Max Zendejas field goal as time expired.

Who knew then that we’d be living in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ less than five years later? Things didn’t end well for Harvey’s Wallbangers; they lost Game 7 in St. Louis.