Here we are in the middle of the baseball postseason. It got me wondering who has been to these games in person.
Although I would love to go see more Yankee postseason games I’ve only been to two. It was supposed to be one but when I was struggling with the website trying to buy tickets it popped out tickets for two games. I saw the Yankees defeat the Twins twice in the 2019 ALDS. Both were very exciting.
I also went to the 1989 Orange Bowl. It was a pretty boring game. Miami crushed Nebraska. Notre Dame had already secured the national championship earlier that day. Miami ended the season #2.
2013 ALCS Game 6, Oct 19th, Red Sox hosting the Tigers at Fenway. Shane Victorino hit a grand slam in the 7th to put the Sox up 5-2 and they clinched the series. We made it on the broadcast very briefly when Victorino came to the outfield in the 8th.
Cowboys vs Seahawks, January 2019, wild-card playoffs. Dallas won 24-22.
France vs Spain in the World Cup semifinal, 2026 (technically a playoff game.) Spain won 2-0. Given the stakes, I had been expecting a roaring crowd from both sides but the game was surprisingly quiet and non-enthusiastic. I believe it’s because the ticket prices were so high that genuine supporters got priced out and instead it was half just rich people in the Dallas locale who went. One good moment was that Jerry Jones was shown on the Jumbotron video board for a moment and was lustily booed by the crowd.
1985 World Series Game 7, Cardinals vs Royals in KC. Royals had won Game 6 the previous night, in large part because of a terrible call by Don Denkinger at first base. Cards never showed up in Game 7, and the Royals won 11-0. It was quite the party in Kaufmann Stadium that night.
30 years later, Game 1 of the 2015 World Series, Mets vs Royals in KC. Mets took a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth, and Alex Gordon hit a home run to tie the game. That produced the loudest roar I’ve ever heard in a baseball stadium. KC won the game 5-4 in 13 and won the Series in five games.
I think I’ve been to 10 post season games now for the Yanks. Though the last one was probably 2009.
Game 1 of the Subway series over the Mets stands out in 2000.
Several wins over the Twins.
In 2001, It was game 3, the first in the Bronx over the Diamondbacks. I mainly remember the stadium shaking that night like I can’t recall.
We used use a Sea Streak package to take a ferry up and sit in the nosebleeds. But that ride home after a loss was brutal.
I even got free playoff tickets twice through work.
Back when I lived in Indianapolis, I went to Game 1 of the 1999 Eastern Conference Finals between the Pacers and the Knicks. We lost. I remember being pissed off at New York’s Othella Harrington for bullying Al Harrington like Al owed him money.
We were at Game 2 where Scherzer pitched a brilliant game for the Tigers and then their bullpen blew up. It was great.
I went to a lot of Dallas Mavericks playoff games in the 80s. I was at the game where Derek Harper dribbled out the clock against the Lakers thinking they were ahead when they were only tied. I was at the game where Kareem Abdul-Jabbar cupped his ear at the silence of the crowd and someone poured a beer on his head as he exited. I did see them beat the Sonics quite a few times in the playoffs, however.
As far as the NFL goes, my friend and I were at the Washington - Seattle playoff game in 2013 when RG3 blew his knee out. My son and I also managed to be at both Drake Maye home playoff victories last year for the Patriots.
ETA somehow my mind had mercifully erased when the University of Texas football team went to the Fiesta Bowl and were shellacked by Penn State 38–15. I say let’s just forget that one again. I traveled all the way to Arizona for that, but at least I got to see friends.
Braves vs Pirates in the 1991 division playoffs. From the first pitch, the crowd were standing on their seats screaming like it was 2 outs, full count, bottom of the 9th, bases loaded, score tied. Every single pitch. It was insane. I’ve never seen anything like it before or since, but it was a huge rebound out of like an 8-year slump.
I was at Michael Jordan’s first finals game: Bulls vs. Magic Johnson’s Lakers, 1991. Standing-room (nosebleed) tickets. Last play of the game: Bulls down by one (or two?) points. Jordan with the mid-range shot. Ball rolls around the rim…and out. Bulls lose the game.
I turned to my friend in despair: “Oh, no, we* finally made it to the finals (by beating the Pistons)…and now we’re going to lose the series!” My friend said, “Don’t worry, the Bulls will win the next four games.”
Turned out he was right. Good thing, too, because if they had gone to a sixth game, I wouldn’t have known who won the championship for an entire month, as I was doing a field course in the high Arctic, far off the grid.
*I was living in Chicago for college. Loved picking up the Weekly Reader at the restaurant down the block, and reading some column by a local dude named Cecil something.
I hope this fits the spirit of the thread: gold medal baseball game, 1996 Olympics, Atlanta. Excellent seats (IMO), one or two rows up from the home dugout.
When tickets for the Olympics went on sale in 1995 I was living in Jacksonville FL (Bortles!) making less-than-amazing pay as a university instructor/supervisor; I couldn’t afford anything extravagant. Basketball for most games was out of budget, and many of the sports I had no special interest in.
But the gold medal baseball game with good seats was surprisingly cheap; I want to say something like $40 each; I bought 2, even though I was very single. I figured surely the USA would be playing in this game.
Fast forward to August 1996 and I was now married, quite happy, but still financially challenged. The Fates had smiled on me, as I now had in-laws living in metro Atlanta, so we got free accommodation and meals.
Oh, and the USA was a no-show; Cuba beat Japan 13-9.
The 95th Grey Cup in 2007 in Toronto: Saskatchewan vs. Winnipeg. My parents were visiting Toronto with their friends to see the game and I tagged along. It wasn’t a particularly great game, if I recall. We had seats behind the Winnipeg bench, so our vision was partially obscured by a crowd of players and coaches.
I think we also went to see the Vanier Cup (Canadian college championship) since those tickets were included, but I don’t remember much about that game.
About 15 NCAA Division 1 college hockey championship weekends. Our team has won the championship three times when we attended. We’ve gone often enough we can get good tickets from the NCAA. Usually good hockey, kinda nice to be there as a fan of the winning team.
I was on the sidelines when Terrell Owens caught a touchdown in traffic to help San Francisco beat Green Bay in the 1998 NFC Wild Card playoff game. (It’s apparently called “The Catch II,” which I didn’t actually know until now.) I was taking pictures for a small Bay Area newspaper. I didn’t get that shot, sadly. Chalk it up to inexperience and the fact that my modest little camera just didn’t have the needed zoom. But I recall getting a fantastic shot of Steve Young dodging a sack earlier in the game, so I was still pretty happy.
