The late Buck O'Neil, legendary ballplayer and oral historian of the old Negro leagues, used to ask people this question: "What was your best day in baseball?"

I know this because my friend Joe Posnanski of The Kansas City Star recently sent me his new book, The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America, which I recommend.

O'Neil's answer to his own question was Easter Sunday, 1943, when he hit for the cycle for the Kansas City Monarchs, then met his future wife.

You've got to admit, that's a pretty good day.

Joe had a little more trouble pinning down a day. A lot of us who might have been ballplayers except for, you know, the athletic ability, have this problem. Joe ended up combining a memory of playing catch with his dad and a fantasy of a certain girl sitting in a tree watching.

Not wanting to get Sigmund Freud involved, I suggest we move along.

Being around Rockies camp while reading Joe's book, I ran O'Neil's question by a few of the guys. For the active players, it was always the same day. For the older guys, it was never that day, which just goes to show you.

• "I would have to say the day I found out I got called up to the big leagues," Matt Holliday said. "I remember it very vividly. I was with a buddy of mine who's with the Pirates now, Kip Bouknight. We were in Memphis, just hanging out playing video games."

• "It's got to be my first day in the big leagues," Todd Helton said. "I mean, it had been my goal since I was whatever, 5 years old, to be a major league baseball player. How many people get to fulfill their dream? I remember being very nervous. I remember batting practice. The bat felt like it weighed nothing."

That's some kind of nervous. Helton hit a home run in his first big-league game.

• "My big-league debut," Brian Fuentes agreed. "It was something I had been waiting for for such a long time. When it came, it was kind of an out-of-body experience. It was against the Devil Rays when I was in Seattle. I came in and threw my first breaking ball over everything. Cleared everybody. Went to the backstop. And I was thinking, 'Oh, my God. First pitch.'

"Next pitch, same pitch, got him to roll over to second base. Got my two-thirds of an inning. Ran off the field. It was a great crowd at Safeco. Gave me a standing 'O' coming off the field. I couldn't even tell you the score of the game. It was just kind of a surreal moment."

• "The All-Star Game in '98," Walt Weiss said, "just because of the events leading up to it. My son (Brody) got real sick. He was in critical condition for a while. I remember the day I got announced to the All-Star team, I didn't even care. I'd been in the ICU for like a week. But that day, his condition improved and he got moved out of the ICU.

"He ended up going to the game in Denver. It was the only All-Star Game I ever played in. I was 2-for-3, I think an RBI or two. I started at shortstop for the National League. I got a hit off Clemens and then I got a hit off Brad Radke. I ended up playing like six innings. It was quite a day."

• "The day that Don Baylor called me and told me I was going to be the hitting coach for the Colorado Rockies," Clint Hurdle said. "The best day.

"It was about working your way back. Maybe you didn't get done what you needed to get done as a player, in your eyes or a lot of other people's eyes. Well, you hit the next avenue. Now you went to work as a coach. And I just left another organization, not in a good way. So it was time to start figuring some things out. It wasn't a scholarship, it wasn't a brother-in-law deal. It was based, I believe, on merit."

• "You're going to laugh," said Dan O'Dowd. "It was the day I played catch with my son for the first time. He was 5.

"It was just a weekend game. We had this house in Cleveland that had a little lawn on the side. I remember him saying to me, 'Daddy, I'd like to play catch.' And I had one of those squishy balls so he wouldn't get hurt. And we just played catch. And I realized that is probably the most enjoyment I get out of the game."

Brody Weiss, by the way, was not quite 4 when he suffered complications of E. coli bacteria contracted at a water park. He's 12 now and doing fine. Christopher O'Dowd is a sophomore at Regis High School and a catcher on the baseball team.

I'd tell you about my best day, but Posnanski already mentioned my thing about the girl in the tree. Maybe another time.

kriegerd@RockyMountainNews.com