“We were playing the Mets, and going against Ron Darling,” Laga remembered. “He tried to throw a fastball up and in, and I just turned on it. I hit it clear over the light tower and up and out of the stadium. Gary Carter was the catcher, and we were just standing there when this little roar started in the crowd, with people clapping and standing up. I didn’t know what was going on. …

I looked at Carter and said, ‘What’s going on? What’s all this noise about?’ He said, ‘You just hit the ball out of the bleeping stadium!?’ [Laga actually used the word “bleeping” in recounting the tale.] About five seconds later they put up on the scoreboard that it was the first ball ever hit out of Busch Stadium, either fair or foul. It was kind of neat, and not too many months go by where somebody doesn’t mention that to me.”

Michael Russell Laga (born June 14, 1960 in Ridgewood, NJ) is a former professional baseball player for the Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants in the 1980s and 1990s. He is best known for once hitting a foul ball out of the second Busch Stadium (September 15, 1986).

Mike was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the 1st round (17th overall) of the January 1980 amateur draft. Laga played for the 1984 World Series Champion Detroit Tigers, going 6–11 that year with a .545 average for the year, but did not appear in the World Series. Nor did he appear in the 1987 World Series for the St. Louis Cardinals. In his career, Laga played in 188 major league games and had 84 hits, 55 RBIs, 39 runs scored, and 16 home runs. He also hit 32 home runs in 1991, playing for Daiei of the Japanese League. He also played for the Hawks in 1992.

He is profiled by Al Pepper in a book entitled Mendoza's Heroes: Fifty batters below .200, and has one of the worst airbrushed Topps cards ever - see below.

(excerpted from SABR, BR Bullpen & Wikipedia)