Naturally, former rock promoter Barry Fey's best memory of Mile High Stadium isn't a football game.

But surprise, surprise, it's not a rock concert, either.

It's a baseball game — the Denver Dream game that Fey put together on Sept. 30, 1983.

Meant to promote the possibility of bringing Major League Baseball to the Mile High City, the old-timers game featured retired stars Ernie Banks, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron.

The emotional high point came when the announcer introduced Joe DiMaggio, the former New York Yankees star who coached third base for the old-timers.

"People were thanking me for weeks afterward," Fey said. "And I think that helped get the ball rolling for Major League Baseball. We did 57,000 people for an old-timers game, and that was more than any team in the majors that year."

Fey is best known for his rock concerts, and his string at Mile High kicked off with a bang — the bang of Denver police tear-gas grenades when gate-crashers tried to bust into his three-day Denver Pop Festival in June 1969 — two months before Woodstock.

Fey staged the festival after then-Mayor Bill McNichols and his anti-hippie administration cracked down on Fey's concerts at city facilities. Some fans broke windows at Denver Auditorium after an Iron Butterfly concert.

Fey said McNichols limited him to using Denver Coliseum, a venue he couldn't fill for single concerts. So he saved up all the acts for his big three-day festival at Mile High.

"We had already been ushered out of every other facility owned by the city," Fey said. "The mayor said, 'No more!' So I said, let's just wait a few months and put everybody together in a pop festival."

The closing night of the festival featured the last public performance by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Other acts included Iron Butterfly, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Joe Cocker, Three Dog Night, Johnny Winter, Poco, Big Mama Thornton and a group from San Francisco that Fey selected over some other act he hadn't heard of called Santana.

"That one was a real great Fey booking," Fey said with a laugh. The group he booked, Aum, was never heard from again, while Santana — well, you know.

The gate-crashers were itinerant rock fans who had recently caused trouble in California. On the second night, Denver police used tear gas to quell the crowd outside the stadium.

On the third night, Fey said, he and a partner went outside with thousands of free tickets. But the outsiders wouldn't take them. They wanted to crash. Police once again obliged with a confrontation.

"The gate-crashers were there to rumble," Fey said.

Fey put on an old-timers flag-football game in July 1988, featuring retired Broncos against retired Raiders. Popular defensive end Lyle Alzado, who had gone from Denver to Oakland, played the first half for the Broncos and the second half for the Raiders.

The Broncos won 63-54 in front of 33,000 people.

Fey said the days of stadium concerts are waning, with no acts on tour big enough to fill the huge venues. That wasn't always the case.

Among the concert tours Fey booked into the stadium are Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA," the Rolling Stones' "Voodoo Lounge," The Jacksons' "Victory Tour," Crosby Stills and Nash, John Denver, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Van Halen, Metallica, The Grateful Dead, Ozzy Osborne's "Ozzfest," U2, Pink Floyd, The Eagles, the Beach Boys and David Bowie.

And at long last, after overlooking him in 1969, Fey had Carlos Santana play there in June 1991.