The NHL playoffs thread made me think about the atmosphere in Fenway for Game 6 of the 2013 ALCS when the Red Sox clinched the pennant on their way to winning the World Series. It was electric, something I’ve never felt in dozens of other regular season games, or even post season games in the middle of a series.
So, who here has been to a clinching game for a post season series? Extra points for being at a championship clinching game but it’s not required. Not sure how to treat the NFL here since every post-season game is win or go home. NHL, MLB, and NBA seem to be the most appropriate.
I feel really old saying this now but I was at the NCLS when the Braves beat the Pirates in 1991.
I guess most postseason games must be pretty electric-feeling like that, but after years upon unending years of the Braves sucking, maybe something extra was going on.
I mean literally from the first pitch of the first inning, people were going standing on their seats and screaming like it was the 3-2 pitch at the bottom of the extra inning with the score tied.
The complete polar opposite was the July 4th 1985 Braves vs Mets game that went 19 innings. That was… a very different atmosphere.
I was at game 5 of MLB’s National League Championship Series in 2017. Unfortunately the Cubs got blown out by the Dodgers by a good 10 or 11 runs to lose the game and the series, but I decided to stay to the end anyway. I figured that it’s not every day I witness a team win the pennant in person.
Not a human series, but if animals count, I was at Belmont when Secretariat won the Triple Crown. My future ex-husaband and I were in the cheap standing area, and he picked me up and held me so I could see over the heads of the other people. The feeling was what religion is supposed to provide, I think, ecstatic unity as the crowd worshipped that glorious horse.
I was at Royals Stadium for Game 7 of the 1985 World Series. (Yes, I’m old.) This was the game following the Don Denkinger blown call in the bottom of the ninth which opened the door for a dramatic Royals rally to win the game. I don’t think I was alone in feeling that we didn’t deserve to be watching a baseball game, but we weren’t complaining about being able to attend a World Series Game 7.
The game was over early, as KC scored 2 in the second, 3 in the third, and put it away with 6 in the fifth. At that point, all the Cardinal fans vacated the stadium and we Royal fans started to party hearty. Everybody was everybody else’s best friend. So there was no drama, but a good time was had by all of us who stayed through the end of the game.
The closest I’ve come was being at Wrigley Field for a game in 2008 in which the Cubs clinched the NL Central. It was a pretty big celebration, but I imagine that it was nothing like winning an actual playoff series.
I’d say that it was more exciting when I was at a Brewers game in 1982, against the A’s, in which Rickey Henderson broke the single-season stolen base record. Even though he was a visiting player, you could feel the tension and excitement in the air when he led off the game (and got on base), and then even more tension as he took a lead, and quickly took off for second. He then got a long ovation from the crowd.
I am a native Chicagoan and lifelong Cubs fan who relocated to San Francisco in 2013. The Cubs played the Giants in the 2016 NLDS (round 1, a best-of-five series). I splurged for a ticket to game 4 at AT&T Park with the Cubs up 2 games to 1. I couldn’t talk anybody into going with me, so I want alone, but at least a third of the fans there were dressed in blue, so there was a lot of camaraderie.
Matt Moore had been shutting down the Cubs for 8 innings, and going into the 9th with the score 5-2 in favor of the Giants, it looked liked they’d be heading back to Wrigley for game 5. But Bruce Bochy decided to let his bullpen finish up, which was a poor decision. The Cubs rallied for 4 runs in the ninth and a 6-5 victory to take the series.
Even though it was a road game, the atmosphere afterward was electric. I stayed for at least an hour after the game; all of us Cub fans gathered behind the first-base (visiting) dugout to celebrate and cheer for our guys. We sang “Go Cubs Go” over and over. It was pretty awesome.
I saw the Stanley Cup game 7 , Carolina over Edmonton in 2006, Carolina won at home. I don’t think anyone sat down except for TV timeouts and between periods.
Per OP, yeah, the NFL playoffs are all win-or-go-home. I was in attendance at the Cowboys-Seahawks playoff game this January. It was rather tame, actually - Cowboys fans have long had a reputation for being too quiet and well-heeled to make enough noise.
I was a Flames fan for both their Cup runs against Montreal. Somewhere I have a picture of me drinking champagne out of the Cup. Two years after that I became a Stars fan and have been since. So, for the record, my teams are 1-3 in cup clinching games I’ve been at. :eek: Maybe it is me…
BTW, Pittsburgh did win the cup at home, I just wasn’t sure how to fit that in.
I was in the Tiger Stadium stands for the 3rd and final game of the 1984 ALCS between Detroit and Kansas City. The game was 1-0 Detroit to sweep the series. I don’t remember the play that well, I just remember that in the last few inning breaks the Detroit cops came down to ring the field to let everyone know that storming the field was not an option.
In 2017 I was at the playoff game where the Nashville Predators clinched their first Stanley Cup appearance. The whole town caught hockey fever during that series. Quite the party afterwards.
I have also been to a few St L Cardinals world series games and a Pirates 1971 World series game (pirates won the series)
But (big but) The game i saw 5/21/2019 was the best!
I saw ALCS Game 5 in 1976. I was also there for the Game 6 win that clinched the World Series for the Yankees in 1977. I still have the pennants and program from that game. I have a very-faded baseball signed by the entire 1977 Yankees, too.
