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Roger Mooney

Roger Mooney covers the Tampa Bay Rays for The Tampa Tribune, TBO.com and News Channel 8. He has covered the Rays since their first season in 1998, including 11 years for the Bradenton Herald. Roger has also covered Florida, South Florida and Florida State football, the Bucs and the Lightning.

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• December 2011

Longo, Johnson win GIBBYs for their home runs in Game 162

Posted Dec 17, 2011 by Roger Mooney

Updated Dec 17, 2011 at 12:25 PM

ROGER MOONEY

The Rays final two home runs of the regular season earned each author a GIBBY.

Evan Longoria’s 12th inning home run that beat the Yankees on the final night of the regular season earned him a GIBBY for Walk-off Home Run of the Year.

Dan Johnson’s pinch-hit home run in the ninth that sent the game into extra innings earned Johnson a GIBBY for Moment of the Year.

(Watch the clips here: http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/awards/y2011/gibbys/index.jsp#)

What’s a GIBBY? It’s a Greatness in Baseball Yearly Awards as voted on by fans at mlb.com and handed out Friday night on the MLB Network.

Longoria’s line drive down the left field line ended what some are calling the greatest regular season night in baseball and capped the Rays amazing September comeback to win the AL Wild Card.

The Rays rallied from a 7-0, fourth-inning deficit to beat the Yankees, while the Red Sox blew a ninth inning lead and fell to the Orioles in Baltimore. The teams began the night tied for the AL Wild Card lead.

The Cardinals also overtook the Braves for the NL Wild Card in the same fashion, with the Braves losing and the Cards winning.

Longoria’s heroics would not have happened without another Dan Johnson Moment, this one a two-out, two-strike, pinch-hit home run in the ninth inning that tied the score at 7-7 and sent the game into extra innings.

The fans picked Johnson’s moment ahead of Derek Jeter’s 3,000 hit (also a home run).

“Unbelievable, that was one of the best days of baseball I ever witnesses,” former pitcher Mitch Williams said during Friday night’s award show.