Since the ‘game that ripped your heart out’ thread makes me alternate between manic depressive and suicidal, let’s recap some of our favorite sporting moments. Come on, everyone has a couple! Unless you’re from Cleveland, in which I’m sorry; God just hates you.
In no particular order:
2009 MLB AL Central tie-breaker: For the second year in a row the Twins play 163 games. In one of the most dramatic games of recent memory, the Twins come back from 3-0 down to finally win the see-saw game in extra innings. The Twins continue a tradition that continues to this day of getting trounced in the first round by the Yankees, but honestly, at least last year I almost didn’t care.
1991 World Series: The best world series ever. And it’s not close. Three games go to extra innings. Three games won in the final at-bat, five games decided by just one run. Kirby Puckett’s heroics in game six, Jack Morris throwing 10 shut-out innings in Game Seven of the World Series. Go back and read that again: 10 shut-out innings in Game Seven of the World Series. That’s just insane.
1980 Lake Placid, USA 4 USSR 3. Lots of people forget it wasn’t the gold-medal game - in fact, I think because of how the format was back then, the US could have even finished out of a medal depending on how they did against Sweden in the last game. I watched this (probably not even realizing it wasn’t a live broadcast). Still get goosebumps when I see the replays.
2004, 9th inning of Game 4 of the ALCS - Dave Roberts steals second base. Oh man was this sweet. Boston comes back from three games down to beat the Yankees and end the Bambino Curse. Perhaps the most important stolen base in history given what it meant for one franchise.
**Nadal vs Federer, Wimbledon final 2008: **One of the greatest tennis matches I’ve ever seen.
Agassi - Sampras 1995 US Open / Agassi - Blake 2006 US Open / Agassi - Rafter various Wimbledons: Win or lose, tennis with Agassi was never boring.
It was a tough, well-played series, and that the villainous Derian Hatcher got burned for the Cup clincher made it all the more sweet.
I’ll second the Federer-Nadal Wimbledon Final. Epic tennis by two elite players at the absolute top of their game.
As an avid Yankees hater, I also thoroughly enjoyed Game 2 of the 2007 ALDS when it seemed Mother Nature herself shared my disdain and set a plague of insects upon the Yankees in one of the stranger events of my sports viewing history.
The only horse race I ever attended was the 1973 Belmont Stakes. The one where Secretariet set the new record that stands to this day while he appeared to be out on a leisurely Sunday stroll. The horse wasn’t even trying to run fast. After a moment of shocked unbelieving silence, the crowd went insane.
I will never go to another horse race ever. It simply could never top that.
Rice 19, Texas 17. Rice had a 28-year losing streak to Texas, but they finally had a decent team. And in this game, the elements seemed to cooperate: it was raining pretty heavily, but every time Texas got the ball the rain picked up, while when Rice took over, the rain slacked off a bit. Just about every time.
Baylor 34, Texas 24. “Bear fans remember the 1974 Baylor-Texas game as the greatest Baylor football game ever. Baylor had not defeated Texas since 1956, but Grant Teaff’s Bears overcame a 17-point halftime deficit to beat the Longhorns 34-24, paving the way for Baylor’s first Southwest Conference championship in 50 years. The victory, one of many that created that season’s “Miracle On the Brazos,” inspired officials to leave the scoreboard lit and spend the night at the stadium.”
Van Basten’s goal in the 1988 European Championship final and Bergkamps winner in the 1998 world cup quarterfinal winner. Both brilliant goals on the biggest stage immaginable.
Also the dismantling of France and Italy in the 2088 euros.
Recently the 2-1 against Brazil in the quarters also counts, few sport moments have made me more happy.
In the last two instances the overachievement/exceeding expectations is what really made it so memorable.
Now beside football, I have to mention Marianne Timmer’s 1500m gold in the Nagano olympics; and I also really enjoyed the battle for yellow in the Tour de France where Contador and Rasmussen (even though he later turned out to be a doper, sort of :)) were slugging it out in the mountains.
Saints vs Colts, Superbowl 2010: Onside kick to start the second half.
Alabama vs Penn State. Sugar Bowl 1979. Goal Line stand to clinch the National Championship.
Braves vs Pirates, NLCS, a long time ago. Fransisco Cabrera (spelling mangled I am sure) single to right, Sid Breaming and the worst knees in baseball pounding down the line to the plate.
Game 4 of the 1992 American League Championship Series. Robbie Alomar’s famous two-run homer off Dennis Eckersley, after Eck had gestured to the Jays dugout after the top of the eighth.
Game 2 of the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals. Marty McSorley’s illegal stick penalty, Eric Desjardins ties the game in the final moments, then scores his third of the game 51 seconds into overtime.
Internationally, I’ll go with Game 3 of the 1987 Canada Cup Final, with Lemieux scoring against the Soviets with 1:26 left in the third to win the game 6-5. And of course, Crosby’s golden goal in Vancouver.
My favorite moments as a sports fan rarely involve championships. Oh sure, I’ve been very happy to see my teams win titles, but my two favorite memories are…
Seeing Mickey Mantle hit a home run off Whitey Ford at the 1973 Yankees Old-Timers Day Game.
Sitting in the bleachers at Yankee Stadium watching Ron Guidry strike out 18 Angels (falling just short of a record) in the summer of 1978.
Already mentioned by the OP, but Dave Roberts stealing second in game 4 of the 2004 ALCS will be one of my favorite moments forever.
When the 2001 Patriots took the field as a team in the Super Bowl. Back then the Pats were a team of relatively unknown players coming in as underdogs against the Greatest Show On Turf.
I know it’s not really a sport, but Eddie Guerrero winning the WWE Championship on Pay-Per-View was as emotional a moment for me as any in “real” sport. I had been watching Guerrero wrestle since I was about 10, and seeing him reach the pinnacle of his profession 12 years later was awesome.
Ayrton Senna winning the 1992 Monaco Grand Prix. That was the year that Renault not only caught up with Honda in F1, they took a quantum leap ahead of them. Nigel Mansell and Williams were miles ahead of McLaren-Honda and everyone else. Senna managed to get in front of Mansell due to a last-minute pit stop, and Mansell threw everything at Senna trying to get past again. Nose to tail racing for ~10 laps. I don’t think I breathed the entire time.
1991, World Series: Kirby Puckett, Game 6, Jack Buck said, “We’ll see you tomorrow night!”
2000, Miami vs Florida State: Wide Right 3, Miami ended a 5-game losing streak to FSU.
2002, MLB All Star Game: Barry Bonds hit one deep into right-center, but Torri Hunter climbed the wall to rob Bonds of the home run. When Torri came back toward the infield (it was the 3rd out), Bonds gave him a fun tackle/bearhug.
2004, Miami vs Florida: Devin Hester returned the opening kickoff 99 yards. He’d been hyped for years in high school and his redshirt year, and finally, in his first game against a big opponent, showed everyone he was for real.
2007, Manchester United vs Liverpool: John O’Shea got an injury time goal in front of the Kop, and it was 2 valuable points toward regaining the Premier League trophy.
If a season can be a moment: The 1993 baseball season.
I grew up on the horrible late-80s Phillies, and the miracle season from the “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves” team was my favorite ever.
I was in China for seven weeks in the middle of the season. Nowadays, this would be no big deal, but pre-internet there was no way to follow the pennant race … so my mom and my girlfriend mailed me the boxscores for every single game I missed.
I was brought up 200 yards from Carlisle United’s home ground - Carlisle United being the local professional football/soccer club - and, needless to say, I am a fan.
There are 4 professional leagues in England and in 1999, on the last day of the season, Carlisle United found themselves stuck right at the bottom of the fourth of those leagues. We were being run by a Chairman who was effectively trying to run the club into the ground, with the intention of selling the ground off, cutting his losses and leaving us without a club. For small English towns, a professional football club is, with no exaggeration, at the heart of the community - often it’s the only thing that people who don’t come from there know about where you live.
If we finished bottom, not only would we have been relegated out of professional football, the club more than likely would have been wound up. If we finished 2nd from bottom, we would stay up, carry on receiving payments from the Football League and be much more likely to find a new buyer.
With 1 minute to go in the season and Carlisle United needing a goal to stay up, this happened.
I will never, ever, see a game or a moment like it again in my life. It saved the club and, even now, over 10 years later, when people ask me where I am from and I tell them, it’s pretty good odds that they’ll follow up with the words “Jimmy Glass”.
It’s tough to choose, but I will have to say Jim Abbott’s no hitter against the Indians in 1993. For those of you that aren’t familiar with him, Abbott was born without a right hand. He went on to be a star pitcher at the University of Michigan, and then made it to the bigs. Watching him pitch (and more impressively, IMO, field his position) was truly amazing. The no hitter was one of the coolest things I’ve seen.
Shaun White’s gold medal performance on the snowboard in the last Olympics.
I’m not a huge follower of snowboarding or anything, but I totally got sucked into the finals when this was on TV. He was the last contestant to go and he was already guaranteed the gold before he even started his run. Shaun and his trainers were whooping it up excitedly before his run and a few swear words were thrown out; whoever was doing the commentary was silent for a few moments then apologized for the words and reminded the viewers that it’s live.
Shaun was talking about just going straight down without doing any stunts, but ended up doing one of the best ones of the night. It was streets ahead of any of the other competitors.
