On July 4, 1961, I was an 8-year-old boy lucky enough to accompany his father to a Twins-White Sox doubleheader at Metropolitan Stadium. I had attended the season (and franchise opener) several months earlier, but the game wasn't memorable. This would be different, as Patrick Reusse captured in his July 4 column ("Twins first Fourth a golden moment for Becquer, fans"). I was about to find out how exciting major league baseball could be. Given that the Twins had been in town just a few months, only a few names were well-known: Killebrew, Allison, Pascual and a few others. When the ninth inning came in game one, with the Twins down 4-2 and two out, Julio Becquer was announced as the pinch hitter, and few fans had ever heard of him. Still, everyone got to their feet, and when Becquer hit the first pitch into the right field bleachers for a walk-off grand slam, the roar, as Reusse described, was tremendous. Forty-nine years later, I can still see the swing, and I can still feel the thrill of realizing that the ball was over the fence and the game was won. This was followed by another victory capped by Harmon Killebrew's only career inside-the-park homerun. As the years went by, Becquer and Killebrew had sharply different career paths, but I don't think it is overstating the case to suggest that both players were responsible for ensuring that the 23,592 fans present that day (including a boy and his father) would remain diehard fans for all the years and games that have followed. Thank you, Julio and Harmon, and thanks to Patrick Reusse for bringing back such a sweet memory. ED CLEARY, RAMSEY COUNTY JUDGE