Eric Nadel's Top 5 Moments In The Booth

By Richard Durrett ESPNDallas.com

ARLINGTON, Texas -- There was no question what moment was No. 1 for Eric Nadel so far in his 34-year broadcasting career with the Texas Rangers: Neftali Feliz's strikeout of Alex Rodriguez to send the club to its first World Series.

“It was the first pennant and all of the emotion that was felt and released by Rangers fans, myself included, when it happened was amazing,” said Nadel, who will be inducted into the Rangers Hall of Fame on Saturday. “I’ve never experienced that sort of emotion at an athletic event the way the stadium just erupted. I was almost overcome by emotion. After I said, ‘The Rangers are going to World Series,’ I don’t think I spoke for 30 or 40 seconds. All you could hear were the fans cheering.”

As for the rest of his top 5, Nadel talked about them in no particular order:

* Nolan Ryan's 5,000th strikeout on April 22, 1989. Nadel was not the lead voice then, so he didn't get a chance to call many dramatic moments late in games. But Ryan's strikeout came in the middle of the game, while Nadel was calling play-by-play. "That was my first big call," Nadel said. "Since it happened in the fifth inning, I was lucky."

* The Rangers' win in Game 6 of the 2011 ALCS over the Detroit Tigers, again at home, makes the list as well. The Rangers won going away, 15-5, over the Tigers in front of 51,508.

* Josh Hamilton's four-homer game on May 8, 2012, in Baltimore. "That fourth homer has to be in there somewhere," Nadel said. Perhaps Hamilton's game is as close as a hitter can get to a perfect game, and he was only the 16th player to do it.

* Texas' 30-run outburst in Baltimore on Aug. 22, 2007, in the first game of a doubleheader. "The Vazquez homer to get to 30 runs was fun to call," Nadel said. Ramon Vazquez's three-run homer in the ninth pushed the Rangers to the 30-run total, the most runs scored in a game in the modern era (beginning in 1900). The 27-run margin of victory (30-3 final) was also the largest margin in the modern era.