For David Smith, the most gratifying aspect of his Retrosheet work is tracking down the box score and play-by-play summary of the first major league baseball game that an individual attended.

So far, he has fulfilled more than 400 of these requests. One memorable one came from a man seeking to rekindle a fond childhood memory with his terminally ill father. "He wanted to get anything he could on the game but recalled very little," said Smith. "I'm crying while I'm reading this."

As is often the case, the man was fuzzy on the details, and Smith sleuthed around the Retrosheet files to come up with four games that were likely candidates. The man was able to pinpoint the correct one and share it with his dad in the hospital.

A detail, perhaps the starting pitcher or a key play, will trigger an individual's memory after having been buried for so many years. "I get schmaltzy about this," Smith says, "but people don't want to know the details about their first NFL or NBA game."

Here are some samples among those interviewed for this story:

Clem Comly: July 21, 1962. Pirates vs. Giants. Clem was 7 and the next-door neighbors took him with their three sons to Forbes Field. He sat in the right-center field bleachers and remembers seeing future Hall of Famers Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, Willie McCovey, Roberto Clemente and Bill Mazeroski. The Pirates won 7-6 in 11 innings, on a Jim Marshall pinch-hit.

Amy Smith: It was Sept. 11, 1973. Her dad took her to see the Baltimore Orioles defeat the Boston Red Sox. Amy, then 11, was in the front row behind the Orioles dugout. Dave McNally pitched. Brooks Robinson homered. And her father? "Dad was a god that day, boy."

Tim Hevly: Now the Seattle Mariners' public relations director, Hevly celebrated his 10th birthday by attending the Mariners' first game ever, against the California Angels, on April 6, 1977. In the second inning, Seattle pitcher Diego Segui signaled to the dugout to bring out another hat to replace his sweaty cap. "This is going to change everything for us," Hevly recalls thinking. Alas, Seattle lost, 7-0. 

Luke Kraemer: August 1963, old Busch Stadium, St. Louis. He and his father, uncle and grandfather watched Cardinals catcher Tim McCarver tie the score late with a grand slam. The crowd slammed the wooden folding seats in unison. "The place just went bananas." The Cardinals eventually lost, but "I was hooked," said Kraemer.

David and Amy Smith are considering a book based on individuals' first-game accounts. Smith also has co-authored "The Midsummer Classic," a history of major league all-star games, and was a prime consultant for Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy, a soon-to-be published book about his childhood hero.