Nate Schierholtz hadn’t forgotten.

He needed to leave tickets for his youngest brother, Vai, and some of his fellow cadets at the Air Force Academy. They were driving up from Colorado Springs, and Monday night’s game was the only one in the series at Coors Field they could attend.

But before Nate could write their names on the comp list, his brother sent a text. He’d already bought tickets.

That pretty much summed up Vai. He didn’t want to be a bother. He took care of it himself. That’s what he’s been doing ever since he left San Ramon Valley High School and enrolled in the Air Force Academy, transforming himself from a so-so student to a scholar who is set to graduate at the top of his class next month.

Next stop: Manhattan Beach, and a position in the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program.

“He’s turned into more of a student than we expected,” Nate said, with obvious pride. “He’s always looked up to me, you know, as the big brother who plays baseball. But he’ll be successful in whatever he does. We’re best friends. Any time I get a chance to see him, I get excited.”

Vai has his own baseball story to tell. He played in high school and was captain of the basketball team, but was undersized — more heart than ability — and didn’t get recruited. He played a little baseball his first two years in Colorado Springs but decided to focus on academics his junior year. A member of Cadet Squadron 3, he made the Superintendent’s list six semesters, the Dean’s list six semesters, the Commandant’s list seven semesters and the Athletics list seven semesters.

Going forward, baseball wasn’t part of the plan. But interim coach Mike Kazlausky had a number of players get hurt. So he asked Vai if he would be willing to rejoin the team. Turns out Vai hit enough to become the starting shortstop, and if not for his five-year military obligation, he might have a chance at playing professionally.

“He could always pick it,” Nate said. “He was always the smallest guy on the team, but he filled out a bit. I really wish I could see him play.”

Nate took Vai to AT&T Park one day over the winter and threw batting practice to him.

“He looked good,” Nate said. “ I know, defensively at least, he could play somewhere.”

But Vai has a more important calling in meteorological science. And as fate would have it, he nearly caught a comet off his brother’s bat tonight.

Vai and his buddies bought tickets in the third deck in right-center field. They were thrilled when they saw that Nate was in the lineup – just his second start of the season. That was a huge stroke of luck in itself.

Now imagine their eyes growing wide as saucers in the first inning as Nate’s home run ball rises, and rises, and lands 10 feet from them in the third deck.

“I saw them up there screaming a little while later,” Nate said. “I’d guessed they went up there to yell at me, you know, from the same spot.”

He didn’t know they sat there the whole game. He also didn’t know until afterward that one of Vai’s buddies bribed a fan $25 for the ball.

“He had a ball in his hand,” Nate said. “He said, `This is the ball.’ I said, `C’mon. No it’s not.”

Hey, Vai tracks cruise missiles and satellite arrays for the U.S. government. A 467-foot home run? That was easy.

This one was suborbital, all right. It was the third homer by a Giant ever to reach the third deck. Barry Bonds hit the other two.

“Cool. That’s pretty neat. I didn’t know that,” Nate said. “I didn’t even swing hard. I just reacted to the pitch. It kind of surprised me, to be honest.”

(It wasn’t the first time Schierholtz had been linked with Bonds. Did you ever hear the story about the homer he hit as a minor leaguer on the back field at Scottsdale Stadium? It was the first year they played on the new field and the netting wasn’t high enough. Schierholtz cleared it with a titanic shot and it broke the window of a second-story apartment. The woman who lived there immediately went to the Scottsdale Stadium office and demanded that Bonds sign the ball for her. Why Bonds? Well, she figured, he’s the only one who could’ve hit it. She had to hide her disappointment when she got the ball back with a minor leaguer named Nate Schierholtz’s autograph scribbled on it.)

Tonight was a great moment for two brothers whose friendship and admiration for each other continues to grow. Nate and his family had another event to celebrate in March, when he surprised his girlfriend by proposing in a rose petal-filled hotel suite at the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco.

(I confess I chided Nate a little for that. You’re making the rest of us guys look bad, buddy.)

There is more happening in the Schierholtz family. You might recall that Nate’s middle brother, Cainan, made headlines in September when he injured four people and crashed into several vehicles, a bicyclist and a light pole while driving drunk. He pleaded no contest to two felonies and a misdemeanor and received a year in county jail, in addition to other fines, alcohol diversion programs and five years of probation.

Nate was candid at the time, saying his brother made a huge mistake, a stupid mistake, but that he would support him however he could.

Cainan is due to be released in a few months and he is in good spirits. Nate said he’s determined to put the incident behind him and move forward with his life. He knows how fortunate he is that nobody got killed, and he is remorseful for his actions. He has his whole life in front of him now, he plans to live it responsibly, and his family will be ready to welcome him home.

Life is not always a streaking comet. Sometimes you have to catch your brother when he falls, too.