SAN FRANCISCO -- The baseball hung there in the crisp, turbo-charged San Francisco night. When it came down, a gigantic October baseball game was going to be all but over.

But time seemed to stop. That baseball seemed to freeze in the sky. It froze there as you realized just what you were watching.

You were watching Benito Santiago hit the home run of a lifetime.

	“	I feel like I'm 13 years old, man, jumping all over the place because I'm so happy. I've been playing so long ... just to be in this situation ... expectations have gotten so high ... with the way we've been playing ... the playoff intensity ... ”
		— Benito Santiago, Giants catcher

A home run that was going to win an amazing postseason game with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning.

A home run that was going to lift the San Francisco Giants to within one victory of the World Series, thanks to a 4-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals that will live in Giants lore for a long, long time.

A home run that came six pitches after the Cardinals did something that used to be unthinkable but has now, somehow, become absurdly routine -- intentionally walk Barry Bonds, with two outs and nobody on, in the eighth inning of a tie game, to put the winning run on base.

A home run that was hit just 19 months after the man who hit it was still unemployed, was still sitting home wondering why every other free agent in baseball had been in spring training for a month, was still trying to decide whether it was time to retire and start his own baseball clinic in his native Puerto Rico.

Oh, and one more thing ...

A home run that looked as if it were about to land in the lap of the guy who is writing this story.

There isn't much in the old sportswriting business that hasn't happened to this well-traveled sportswriter. But we've never before had a story literally drop in our laps. That's a first.

Well, it just about happened Sunday night at Pac Bell Park. Fortunately, Benito Santiago's storybook home run came down in left field, just on the other side of the aisle from us. It was caught by a man standing maybe 15 feet away, who then had to survive a 50-man steel-cage wrestling match to hang onto his prize baseball.

But the memory of that baseball -- traveling through the night, bound for the very row where we were watching it, about to record itself on the CD-R drives in the brains of all who witnessed it -- is something that's going to be tough to forget.

And we suspect Benito Santiago might remember it a while, too.

He is 37 years old now. His rookie-of-the-year season in San Diego is 15 years back in the rear-view mirror. He is currently playing for team No. 8 (if you count the Reds twice). He has changed teams five times just since he hit the first postseason homer of his career, off Ramon Martinez, in the first playoff game he ever appeared in, back in 1995. He is four years removed from an auto accident that almost ended his career.

He has done lots of stuff. That's for sure. But this swing of the bat, this home run, this moment that shook his ballpark and rescued his baseball team -- this topped everything.

Asked if he could describe that moment and all the emotions that exploded inside him on that trip around the bases, Santiago wasn't certain the words existed.

"I feel like I'm 13 years old, man, jumping all over the place because I'm so happy," he said. "I've been playing so long ... just to be in this situation ... expectations have gotten so high ... with the way we've been playing ... the playoff intensity ..."

He laughed. He knew this was beginning to sound like somebody who was speaking on your TV set and the cable kept cutting out every three seconds.

All these thoughts. All these feelings. All disjointed. All connected. He wanted to express it all. He couldn't do it.

"I don't know how to describe this," said Benito Santiago -- but the look on his face described it better than any words ever could.

When the bottom of the eighth inning arrived Sunday at Pac Bell, it was equally hard to explain how the heck this game was tied, at 2-2.

The Cardinals had left nine men on. The Giants only had three hits.

The Cardinals had had 13 at-bats with runners in scoring position. The Giants had had only seven baserunners.

Cardinals starter Andy Benes had allowed as many hits in 5 2/3 innings (two) as the total number of swings and misses by Cardinals hitters off Giants starter Livan Hernandez (in 85 pitches).

But in the sixth, with Jeff Kent on first and a two-run lead, the Cardinals noticed that Bonds guy heading for the plate again. And you know what that means. It means they were breaking out in boils and hives at the thought of throwing any pitches within 200 miles of home plate.

So four pitches later, Bonds was strolling down to first base after about as intentional an unintentional walk as you'll ever see. Which semi-deliberately put the tying run on base. Which allowed J.T. Snow's two-out double to bring that tying run home. Which set the stage for Benito Santiago's magic moment.

But first, there were two outs and nobody on base in the bottom of the eighth. There may not be another man on earth besides Barry Bonds who would be intentionally walked in that situation.

Walk Bonds or not?

Through nine postseason games this year, Barry Bonds has walked 13 times. Below is a game-by-game rundown of each of Bonds' walks and what Benito Santiago did in the at-bat following: NLDS Game 1: Bonds intentionally walked with two outs and Jeff Kent on second base in the sixth inning. Santiago follows with a two-run double, giving the Giants an 8-2 lead over the Braves. NLDS Game 3: Bonds intentionally walked with one out and Kent on second in the first inning. Santiago grounds into an inning-ending double play. NLDS Game 4: Bonds intentionally walked to load the bases in the second inning. Santiago is also walked, forcing in a run as the Giants take a 4-0 lead. NLDS Game 5: Bonds walked with one out and nobody on in the eighth inning with the Giants leading 3-1. He was caught attempting to steal second base for the second out. Santiago strikes out to end the inning. NLCS Game 1: Bonds walked with Kenny Lofton on third base and two outs in the first inning. Santiago follows with an infield single, scoring Lofton. Giants take a 1-0 lead over the Cardinals. NLCS Game 1: Bonds walked with Kent on first and no outs in the fourth inning. Santiago grounds into a double play. NLCS Game 1: Bonds walked with two outs and nobody on in the sixth inning. Santiago follows with a two-run homer. Giants lead 9-3. NLCS Game 2: Bonds walked leading off the sixth inning. Santiago flies out. NLCS Game 3: Bonds walked with Lofton on second and two outs in the first inning. Santiago grounds into a fielder's choice. NLCS Game 3: Bonds intentionally walked with Rich Aurilia on second and one out in the seventh inning. Santiago reaches on an infield single, loading the bases. Reggie Sanders and J.T. Snow are retired to end the inning. NLCS Game 3: Bonds walked with one out and nobody on in the ninth inning. Santiago strikes out. NLCS Game 4: Bonds walked with one out and Jeff Kent on first base. Santiago strikes out for the second out. Snow follows with a two-run double, tying the game at 2-2. NLCS Game 4: Bonds intentionally walked with two outs and nobody on in the eighth inning. Santiago follows with a game-winning two-run homer.

Now, however, we've reached the point in Bonds' journey through the outer limits of his sport that a manager is considered legally insane if he doesn't walk him there. So Tony La Russa did just that.

"Bonds is the most dangerous hitter in the game right now," La Russa said. "And it's tough to walk in that clubhouse (after) giving him a chance to get the hit to beat you."

Saturday afternoon, La Russa had given Bonds a chance to get the hit to tie a game his team had seemed to have in firm control. One superhuman swing of the bat later, the baseball was floating in McCovey Cove. And you knew right then there would be no more moments like that in this series.

Or, possibly, for the next 75 years.

"They're going to keep doing that till he retires," said Rich Aurilia. "We could have Babe Ruth hitting behind him. Or Hank Aaron. It doesn't matter who it is, because the philosophy is not to let Barry Bonds beat you. But in my opinion, we have other ways to beat you. So every time he's on base, that's good for us."

They believe that because they have to believe that. But it doesn't stop managers like Tony La Russa from forcing them to prove it. Over and over and over again. Night after night. Week after week. Month after month.

Especially when the guy hitting behind Bonds isn't Ruth or Aaron. It's Santiago, a man whose career keeps springing back to life every time you think it's safe to think of him in the past tense, like the Don Slaughts and Ernie Whitts and Terry Steinbachs he once shared the catching profession with.

As recently as last season, he was a man without a job on St. Patrick's Day. Two weeks before the end of spring training. Then Dusty Baker called him at home on a fateful morning in March and convinced him to take that offer from the Giants he'd been complaining was for too little money ($500,000).

"When Dusty Baker gave me that phone call and asked me to play for him, that was my motivation," Santiago said. "I mean, it was getting late, man. There were only a couple of weeks left in spring training."

That call didn't seem like one of the most significant phone calls in the life of the Giants' franchise at the time. But it does now, because Benito Santiago said yes.

He signed with the Giants on March 18, 2001. They were so desperate to get him at-bats that on his first day in uniform, they sent him to the minor-league complex, "and I got to hit in every inning," he recalled Sunday night. "I got nine hits that day in 11 at-bats. I said, 'I don't need spring training, man.' "

It's 900 at-bats later now. But Santiago will never have a more important at-bat than he had in that eighth inning, after the Cardinals had intentionally walked the greatest hitter alive to pitch to him.

The man he was facing -- reliever Rick White -- had struck him out two innings earlier, just before Snow's game-tying double. Incredibly, even though the Cardinals have eight pitchers in their bullpen, White was still in there when Santiago's turn came around again.

White jumped ahead, 1 and 2. Santiago took a slider off the outside corner for ball two. He almost got drilled by an inside fastball for ball three.

He stepped out and took a deep breath. All around him, every occupant of Pac Bell Park was standing, stomping, screaming, banging those inflatable orange noise-making sticks.

Santiago remembered that White had frozen him with a fastball in his previous at-bat. "So I was really looking for the breaking ball," he said. "And he kind of surprised me."

Nah, the surprise was on the Cardinals. White delivered his 41st pitch of the night. Santiago uncoiled on the baseball, sent it flying toward the left-field bleachers and slammed his bat to the turf in jubilation. Bonds was sprinting toward second base, looked up to see the ball disappear and pointed a finger toward the sky. Giants 4, Cardinals 2.

Asked what he thought as he saw the ball land, Santiago said, "I don't know, man. It's something. Wow. It's hard to describe. All the bad times motivate me, and things are just happening right now. This is where I want to be, especially after I play so long in the big leagues."

Of course, this game wasn't quite as over as it looked. The ninth inning began with Santiago failing to catch a third strike for the second day in a row -- this time on one of those Robb Nen sliders from hell. And since Saturday's strikeout-wild pitch had started a two-run rally, Santiago said, "I was so mad that I missed that stinking ball, and I was thinking, 'Oh, no. Here we go again.' "

And here we almost did go again. Three hitters later, it was a 4-3 game, with runners on the corners and the No. 4 and No. 5 hitters (Albert Pujols and J.D. Drew) awaiting.

But Nen struck out Pujols on a hanging slider. Then, after running the count full on Drew, he smoked one last devastating slider past him to end the festivities. A stadium erupted. Santiago spun in a complete circle and pumped his fist. And the first all-wild-card World Series was just a shout away.

And why? Because of Benito Santiago and J.T. Snow and all the Giants who have made those opposing managers pay for forcing someone other than the great Mr. Bonds to beat them.

"Maybe now," Aurilia mused, "people around the country will see that the rest of us can play, too. And we'll get more credit. And people on the East Coast will want to stay up a little later and not go to bed before the games are over."

Like his parents, back in New York, for instance?

"Nah," Aurilia laughed. "My parents watch about five, six innings -- and pass out."

Hmmm. Sounds a lot like what the St. Louis Cardinals did Sunday night.

Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.