LAS VEGAS -- Todd Helton had only one thing to say to Luis Gonzalez when the two ran into each other on Friday. "Nice hit," Helton said, rolling his eyes so far back they almost grazed his brain.

Sure enough, Gonzalez's flared, slow-motion single to win Game 7 of last year's World Series against the Yankees might live in Fall Classic history, but it won't exactly cornerstone instructional videos anytime soon. Gonzalez clunked Mariano Rivera's inside fastball off his bat handle and blooped it past Derek Jeter to become the most famous Arizona battle hero since Wyatt Earp.

	Luis Gonzalez will be remembered for a long time for his World Series heroics.

Life sure has changed for Luis Gonzalez, whose 57 home runs last year never brought more renown than his awkward, squib single last November. His busy offseason has included stops at Disneyland, the Lennox Lewis-Hasim Rahman fight and the Super Bowl, each one of them to the hitherto rare chorus of, "That's Luis Gonzalez!"

"Before, you get recognized going around the town," Gonzalez says. "Now it's a different magnitude. It was my first World Series, and you don't realize the magnitude of something until you're actually in it and it's over.

"If I could go to any Super Bowl, this one was it, because all the Boston Red Sox fans were there. I didn't really realize how much the fans in Boston hated the Yankees till I showed up at the Super Bowl and I was like a cult hero to those people. I've never had more people thank me."

Participating in the Big League Challenge, the Players Association's annual home run derby in Las Vegas this weekend, Gonzalez accepted more congratulations from the likes of Barry Bonds, Helton and Rafael Palmeiro. (Alas, we can not divulge the winner because a certain cable network will broadcast the event starting March 23.) Other sights and sounds included Bonds breaking one of his special maple bats on a batting-practice floater after cracking about seven all last year, Richie Sexson threatening to charge the mound after a brushback, and one big-league slugger, sitting at a $100 blackjack table, splitting before doubling down into a six of hearts before the dealer drew a 21.

"Go away," he said.

Yet the biggest fan favorite might have been Gonzalez, whose storybook 2001 included a major league record-tying 13 home runs in April, getting voted to start the All-Star Game in Seattle and winning the Home Run Derby there. But those feats couldn't compete with the storybook, World Series single that will only grow more legendary with age -- "Five years from now, that was a line drive I hit over Jeter's head," Gonzalez jokes. His national notoriety has neeted him endorsements with Shamrock Farms milk, GNC and EA Sports, whose upcoming Triple Play game will feature Gonzalez on the cover. "As a young kid, when you grow up you want to be on a cereal box," he says. "Times have changed -- now you want to be on a video game."

Gonzalez considers himself just some skinny guy from Tampa but, alas, he's not quite that anymore. He lived every American male's dream of coming through with a World Series-winning hit. Heck, in the three months since almost every American male has told him so.

	“	I'm walking up to the plate and the first thing that went through my mind -- I still remember like it was yesterday -- was all the fans on their feet and everyone counting on me. 'Here's a guy, 57 home runs, man, and there's no doubt he's gonna do it.' I walk up to the plate, this is what I've been dreaming about my whole life. Don't screw this thing up. ”
		— Luis Gonzalez on his World Series clinching hit

"People come up to me and tell how nervous they were -- and I'm like, 'Try living in my shoes walking up to the plate,' " Gonzalez says. The inning, of course, began with the Diamondbacks down to the Yankees 2-1 and facing the indomitable Rivera. Then came Mark Grace's single, Rivera's ominous throwing error, Jay Bell's muffed bunt and then Tony Womack's double to tie the score at 2-2. Up came Craig Counsell, the only Diamondback with a World Series ring at that time.

"I was thinking Counsell was gonna win the game. He's our Rudy. He's gonna be the guy," Gonzalez says. "And when he got hit by the pitch I'm walking up to the plate and the first thing that went through my mind -- I still remember like it was yesterday -- was all the fans on their feet and everyone counting on me. 'Here's a guy, 57 home runs, man, and there's no doubt he's gonna do it.'

"I walk up to the plate, this is what I've been dreaming about my whole life. Don't screw this thing up."

Instead, he corkscrewed his floating single past Jeter to end arguably the most exciting World Series ever. He entered the ranks of Bill Mazeroski and Joe Carter for having a hit win and end a World Series. His name will live forever.

Then again, maybe not ...

"I was at a restaurant at home," Gonzalez recalls with his trademark grin, "and a guy came up to me and goes, 'Are you ... Are you who who I think you are?' And I kind of just said, 'Yeah.' And he goes, 'What would Tom Green be doing here?'

"He thought I was Tom Green, the guy on MTV. I was like 'Uh,' and everybody cracked up. They were going, 'No, dummy, he's the guy who got the game-winning hit in the World Series.'

"That's OK. I just like to be treated like the guy next door. I don't want any special treatment. I'm not gonna change."

Alan Schwarz is the Senior Writer of Baseball America magazine and a regular contributor to ESPN.com.