July 26, 2007
"Excuse me...sporty nuts?"
Posted by pete at July 26, 2007 12:43 AMOver at Sports Illustrated, where they still manage to cover sports pretty well in spite of the bad taste assault leveled each month by ESPN: The Magazine, their writers are talking about the best games they've ever seen.
A full list can be found here. I myself have three:
1. The Miracle on Ice - Clichéd, I know, and already discussed here, but I honestly can't think of anything that compares.
2. The 2006 Rose Bowl - Watched this at my old UT roommate Basshole's place. I'm usually the most pessimistic son of a bitch when it comes to my teams succeeding (e.g. last year's World Series), but even when USC was up 12 points with six minutes left, I never doubted Texas was going to win. To this day, it's the greatest football game I've ever seen.
UPDATE: Basshole kindly forwards a pic. I have no idea at what point it was taken, but from some of the expressions it might be when UT stopped the Trojans on 4th and 2. I'm the guy wearing excessive amounts of burnt orange, while the dude staring at me because I just shrieked like Fay Wray is Carlos, another high school friend:
3. 1987 Texas Lutheran High School Basketball Championship - I don't remember the names of the schools, all I know is Vince, one of my fellows from the 8th floor of Jester Dormitory, had a younger brother on one of the teams and invited me to come along. They played the championship at Concordia Lutheran College in Austin, and Vince's brother's team was down 25 point with five minutes left, and they won the game. Afterwards, everyone went to an Italian restaurant to celebrate, and Vince's dad bought our 18-year old asses pitchers of beer. All told, a pretty good day.
Anybody else?
I was in the stands the day that UT played A&M and Ricky Williams broke the rushing record with an 80+ (?, very long, anyway) yard touchdown run, and finished with the Heisman pose. The game itself was probably a blowout, but I’ll never forget the way the stadium rocked after that rush.
I think the point of the CNNSI feature was games the writers saw in person, not on the tube. With that in mind, here are a handful — in order, I guess
- Miami at Notre Dame, 1988. Catholics vs Convicts came down to the last play. One of the two best regular season college football games of the 1980s;
- Robin Yount secures his 3,000th hit in September, 1992;
- Red Sox/Phillies in Fenway, 2006. Schilling strikes out 10, Papelbon gets a 5-out save. Ortiz wins it with a walk-off in the 10th. Outstanding;
- UConn tops Syracuse 86-84 in overtime in 2006 Big East Tournament. McNamara hits a pair of buzzer beaters. Insane;
- Elkhart Concord (IN) over New Castle (IN), 1988. Shawn Kemp goes for 48, 20 and 10 blocks……delivered 9 dunks;
- A&M v SMU in the early 80s when the Aggies’ finest pulled out their sabers to clear the Mustang cheerleaders from the field. dopes.
:-)
Present company prohibits me from going into detail about Game 2 of the 2004 World Series.
I think the point of the CNNSI feature was games the writers saw in person, not on the tube.
Not to dispute your fine choices, but:
We asked Sports Illustrated writers to pick the greatest game they saw, regardless of whether they were there or not.
And much as it pains me to say, that NY-BOS game is on my short list as well.
Yup, the ‘06 Rosebowl is the tops of my list too, but the most exciting play ever was Major Applewhite’s 4th-and-inches pass against Nebraska in ‘96. I was at the Aggie’s sabre-incident game as well (sitting right there in those $2 endzone seats), but that’s all I recall about that game as I was in junior high at the time.
I think James Brown made the 4th and inches pass in the Big 12 Championship, to the TE whose name I can’t remember.
Not many people remember game 1 of the 1995 Finals, when the Rockets came back from 21 down, mainly through Kenny Smith, to beat the Magic in OT on their way to a sweep. Dennis Scott missed four free throws, any one of which would have iced the game, to effectively end his career.
OK, Pete……boob tube faves
- Miracle on Ice
- UH/NCSU 1983 - - if only Benny Anders could have tipped Lowe’s pass. dammit.
- UK/Duke 1992. effin’ Laettner
- Marquette/Kentucky, 2003 Midwest Regional Final. Dwyane Wade’s coming out party - hello world!
- The Flutie Game
- Bird/Wilkins go head2head in the NBA playoffs circa 1986
- Game 7, 2004 ALCS
1) Northstars (my team) beat the Thunders (yes, the Thunders - they’re Korean..ask Jax!) in the Adult for Fun Only League championship game last Saturday. hehe
On a serious note…
1) Tampa Bay Lighting vs Calgary Flames, 2004 Stanley Cup Finals. Say what you will - I was IN to that series as a lone Lightning fan amongst surly Canadians. I remember jumping up and down in my condo, celebrating the end and calling my friend in Georgia, recounting game #7. Just love Tampa Bay - the fans, the arena, the team….awesome!
2) La Porte Bulldogs basketball team, my senior year (1987). Took state, undefeated. :) Yeah, still gives me thrills.
3) Miracle on Ice - sorry…didn’t see it live or on the tube, but saw the movie. All joking aside…I still get goosebumps just hearing “Do you believe in miracles???” See? got them right now.
4) Rockets NBA finals, 1995. Sweet.
1998, Ags over Kansas State in double OT to win the Big Twelve Championship. I especially remember this game because my wife (before she was the mrs.) and I had just moved to St. Paul, MN and we were watching it in our new apartment. The whole apartment complex could hear us yelling and jumping around during that game. Bumgardner’s layout catch that saved the drive is still one of the best catches I have seen in College football.
Best game: No question, Rice over UT in 1994. I was originally supposed to miss that game, as I was to be in NY for my 10-year HS reunion. When they moved it to Sunday night to fill in the ESPN TV slot for the cancelled World Series, I changed my plane tickets (which cost me $300) and made it back in time. It was worth every penny. When ND Kalu killed a UT drive by getting sacks on consecutive plays, I knew we could win.
Runnerup: I was actually at Yankee Stadium for the game where George Brett had a home run disallowed for having too much pine tar on his bat. Dude went totally ballistic - Bill Simmons could probably write 500 words about that.
The Kansas City Royals win over St. Louis in the 1985 World Series (sorry Pete and RayBob).
Game six especially. Game seven was a pretty boring (11-0) route. I don’t need any smart alec remarks about how long ago that was and what wonderful things the Cards have done since then. This is MY favorite. Besides, I’m a big St. Louis fan, except when they play KC.
The Kansas City Royals win over St. Louis in the 1985 World Series (sorry Pete and RayBob).
I’m still amazed CSPD didn’t have to respond to some sort of domestic incident after that.
Hey, Cracked Sidewalks, I was at that Miami-ND game, too. It was awesome! I made it to the Fiesta Bowl that year, too.
On TV: Boise State over the Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl. Saw the pick coming as soon as Zabransky looked to his left and was soooo pissed when walker took it to the end zone. I was yelling at James “why did you turn inside?!?!” right before the pitch to Rabb. I could not sit for the rest of the game and was grinning like an idiot for about a week afterward.
In person:
US-Mexico at Soldier Field in the Gold Cup final 6/24/07. We were outnumbered at least 10:1 by Mexican fans in our section and they started throwing shit at a Mexican-American wearing a McBride jersey after the first US goal. He ran up the seats and bent the closest asshole over a seatback like Homer over a fire hydrant. He was escorted out by security, but allowed back in after the real cops took away a couple of the Mexican fans. US scores again and we go apeshit. We saw the American on the way out and told him how the other guy looked like he was tearing up as he was led out of the stadium, flag in hand. High fives all around.
There is no such thing as “excessive amounts of burnt orange”.
Mine are all college basketball.
On TV:
1983 national semi-final: Houston-Louisville
Watched it in my parents’ basement with my brother, my buddy Big Guy, and much beer. We drank every time someone dunked. We didn’t have any beer left.
1992 regional final: UK-Duke
Watched in a campus bar called the Bearded Clam in Lexington, KY with Big Guy. We started drinking at noon with a shot of Maker’s Mark; the game didn’t tip off until 6:00. When Sean Woods hit his shot with 3 seconds left, I’ve never heard a bar so loud and happy. Then freakin’ Laettner shut us all up.
1998 regional final: UK-Duke
Sweet sweet payback.
1985 final: Villanova-Georgetown
Watched this in the Phi Psi tube room with around 50 of my brothers packed into a 12x12 room. Beer runs to the bar downstairs at every time out. As Villanova kept improbably making shots, I remember the pledge next to me saying, “This is some wild shit.”
2006 regional final: George Mason-UConn
Watched this at home with no beer at all, stealing some TV time away from my boys’ obsessive viewing of Thomas the (Frickin’) Tank Engine. As Mason kept improbably making shots, I said, “This is some wild shit.”
In person
Fall 2006: UVA-Arizona
Opening game in the new John Paul Jones arena. There with my Dad and 18,000 of my closest friends. Loud beyond belief. UVA made a bunch of shots down the stretch to win.
Spring 2007: UVA-Duke
Fulfilled a lifelong dream to see Duke lose in person.