Top 10 Memorable Moments of the 2008 MLB Season (So Far)

If you ask most people what the most memorable points of a baseball season are, they are likely to respond with moments for the World Series or playoffs or clutch performances late in September during a pennant race.

But as you have all figured out by now, I am not like most other people. So, here in the second week of September, I'm coming up with a list of my most memorable moments of the 2008 season.

Ordinarily, I would do a David Letterman Top 10 Countdown style list, leading up to the number one moment. But in this case, I think it's better to list them in chronological order. All of these were notable moments and I don't feel capable of putting one above another.

Enough rambling, on to the list!

1. Billy Beane Going Young: Before heading into the Winter Meetings, A's general manager Billy Beane was allegedly deciding between signing Barry Bonds and competing in 2008 or trading stars for prospects to rebuild his farm system. On December 14th, Beane traded Dan Haren, who won 43 games the past three seasons, for six players. That led to Beane trading Nick Swisher, Mark Kotsay, Rich Harden and Joe Blanton. It also helped shape one of the most active trading years in recent memory, with major stars like Johan Santana, C.C. Sabathia, Manny Ramirez, Mark Teixeira and others switching teams.

2. Rays Spring Training Brawl: The Yankees and Red Sox fattened up in the early 2000s by pummeling the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. In 2008, the franchise dropped the Devil from their name and everything changed. During a Spring Training game on March 12th, just days after a home plate collision, the Rays and Yankees met again and had a brawl. Yankees prospect Shelley Duncan went into 2nd base with spikes flying high, which caused Jonny Gomes to come in from the outfield to ram Duncan and then both benches flew out onto the field. It's probably two unrelated things, but in my mind the brawl set the tempo for the Rays successful season and indicated a changing of the guard in the American League East.

3. Ken Griffey Jr. Belts 600th Home Run: Last year was the year of the milestone and when Griffey hit his 600th home run on June 9th, it got a lot of attention but not nearly the amount I would have expected. Yeah, we were suffering from milestone burnout (to say nothing of HR/steroid burnout) and Griffey did it on the road in Miami in front of a sparse crowd. But this is still the guy who was once considered the best player in baseball achieving a mark that only five other players in MLB history have ever reached.

4. Mets Fire Willie Randolph: Many fans thought that Willie Randolph should have been fired after the team collapsed down the stretch in 2007 and failed to make the playoffs. Instead the club brought him back and had a lame duck manager for the first part of 2008. After weeks of speculation and a win on the first day of a West Coast trip, general manager Omar Minaya delivered the pink slip. All of the news at the time was how poorly the Mets handled the decision. And while they certainly get no style points, the bottom line is the club was 34-35 under Randolph and is currently 47-28 under interim manager Jerry Manuel. Winning cures everything.

5. Brett Myers Accepts Minor League Assignment: Veteran Phillies pitcher Brett Myers, who won 50 games over a four-year stretch before requesting a bullpen assignment last year, decided to accept a demotion to the minors on June 30th after a 3-9 start to his 2008 season. With more than five years of experience in the majors, Myers had the right to refuse the assignment to Triple-A. After spending a month in the minors, Myers has come back a different pitcher. He's gone 6-1 with a 1.55 ERA since his return. He's allowed just two home runs and 15 walks in 63.2 innings since his return and has also fanned 56 batters in that same time period.

6. Josh Hamilton Sets HR Derby Mark: Prior to the All-Star game festivities all of the hoopla was about how the Yankees were hosting the game in the last season in the rebuilt Yankee Stadium. Fortunately, Josh Hamilton changed the story line when on July 14th he blasted a derby record of 28 home runs in the opening round, eclipsing Bobby Abreu's mark of 24. And these were mammoth blasts. While Hamilton did not win the derby (Justin Morneau did) his performance in the first round was amazing. And the actual All-Star game a day later was pretty good, too.

7. C.C. Sabathia Loses No-Hitter On Ball He Mishandled: Sabathia has had a truly memorable season in 2008. He's 9-0 since moving to the Brewers with a 1.42 ERA in 95 innings pitched. Sabathia took his outstanding pitching to another level on August 31st, when he pitched a one-hitter. The only base hit in the game came in the fifth inning when Andy LaRoche opened the frame with a dribbler back to the mound. Sabathia picked up the ball and dropped it and the play was scored as a hit, as the scorer ruled that LaRoche would have beat the throw to first even if Sabathia fielded it cleanly. And if that wasn't memorable enough, the Brewers officially protested the decision, trying to get the call changed to an error to get Sabathia a no-hitter. There are no-hitters every season (Jon Lester has one this year) but how often does a guy miss a no-hitter because of himself and then have the club officially protest a scoring decision?

8. 36-Year-Old Scott McClain Hits First MLB Home Run: Anyone who doesn't have this on their list of top moments in 2008 is one heartless bastard. McClain made his Major League debut in 1998 as a 26-year old and did not make it back to the show until 2005. He had another cup of coffee in 2007. Coming into this year he had 45 at-bats in the majors. On September 2nd, McClain had hits in two of his first three at-bats in the game. His fourth time up, he belted a no-doubt home run to left field off Steven Register. When McClain came back to the dugout, he received the silent treatment. Finally a clubhouse attendant greeted him and the rest of his teammates acted like it was Bill Mazeroski's home run to win Game 7 of the World Series.

9. Alex Rodriguez Involved In First Instant Replay Call: Rodriguez could have made this list for a number of things. Circumventing Scott Boras on the advice of Warren Buffet to re-sign with the Yankees seemed like it couldn't be topped until it came out that he was having an affair with Madonna. Then after Major League Baseball decided to use instant replay to decide fair or foul on close home run calls, Rodriguez topped himself again, becoming the first player involved in a reviewed call. Rodriguez told the AP, "There's probably 800 players in the big leagues. The odds of my being in some controversy are probably 2-to-1." On September 3rd, Rodriguez hit a ball over the pole which was ruled a home run. After a 2:15 delay, umpires confirmed that the ball was fair and upheld the home run call, giving Rodriguez his 549th career home run. The blast moved him out of a tie with Mike Schmidt and into 12th place on the all-time home run list.

10. Gary Sheffield Hits 250,000th Home Run In MLB History: The greatest site on the Internet is Baseball-Reference.com and that topic is not even up for debate. The wealth of information available there is simply staggering and it's all free. Site founder Sean Forman began a countdown to the 250,000th home run and Gary Sheffield delivered the milestone blast on September 8th. It was the second home run of the game for Sheffield and it came in his second at-bat, in the second inning off Gio Gonzalez.

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Please chime in with your top moments that I did not mention. I'm sure I forgot or missed a bunch of them. These are subjective by nature and it's hard to see (and remember) everything that has happened in a season. I apologize if I left your favorite moment off. I did not do it intentionally.