Examples of famous sports commentary

The Game Room
1

Are there any moments in sports history (US or worldwide) that are particularly remembered for the commentary (announcer)?

In the UK everybody would know the quote “Some people are on the pitch, they think it’s all over - it is now!”.

(from Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They…over)

Also quite fondly regarded is the moment when commentator Harry Carpenter covering his close friend Frank Bruno’s fight against Mike Tyson, momentarily lost both his poise and his supposed impartiality, as Bruno (for the only time during their two bouts) had Tyson slightly off-balance. He leapt to his feet and yelled “Go on… get in there, Frank.”

Any examples of legendary commentary? I’m not looking for bloopers, or mistakes, nor personal favourites (like what was said when your team won the series/bowl/whatever) - more quotes that were spontaneous at the time, but have stayed in the national (or regional) consciousness.

2

“The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!” Not too original, but well-known by baseball fans.

3

“Do you believe in miracles? YES!”

4

“Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!”

5

Does the faux baseball commentary in “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” count?

But other than that, the one buddha_david linked is probably the most iconic, for Americans.

6

Jack Buck’s call of Kirk Gibson’s home run.

7

Perhaps more regional, but Game 6 of the 1994 Stanley Cup Final had a (according to Vancouverites) nasty cheapshot by Mark Messier that sent Canuck hero Trevor Linden to the bench in the final minutes. The Canucks went on to win over the Rangers, but eventually lost Game 7. This is the final minute of Game 6, as called by Jim Robson.

"He will play! You know he’ll play! He’ll play on crutches! He will play and he’ll play at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday Night!

8

“The band is on the field”

9

Huh. That’s not Jack Buck, that’s Vin Scully, and it was on TV, not radio.

10

It sure sounds like Jack Buck’s radio broadcast to me. Vin Scully said something like “and she is gone!” while doing the TV broadcast.

11

That’s not Vin Scully

12

As a Giants fan, this was the first thing that came to my mind. Russ Hodges’ famous call (and the TV footage) here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrI7dVj90zs

13

Jack Buck on radio and Vin Scully on tv’s awesome description of Gibson’s home run cements it as one of the best of all time. That homerun would have been legendary if Joe Buck had been barking his thoughts on it. From the mouths of those two masters? Legendary.

14

I thought for sure a New England Doper would come in with this by now.

“Havlicek stole the ball!”

15

A great golf clip here - a Cinderella story.

16

"We are the best in the world! We are the best in the world! We have beaten England 2-1 in football!! It is completely unbelievable! We have beaten England! England, birthplace of giants. Lord Nelson, Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Anthony Eden, Clement Attlee, Henry Cooper, Lady Diana–we have beaten them all. We have beaten them all.

"Maggie Thatcher can you hear me? Maggie Thatcher, I have a message for you in the middle of the election campaign. I have a message for you: We have knocked England out of the football World Cup. Maggie Thatcher, as they say in your language in the boxing bars around Madison Square Garden in New York: Your boys took a hell of a beating! Your boys took a hell of a beating!"
17

“The batsman’s Holding, the bowler’s Willey.”

18

Trying to think of an Australian themed one, best I could come up with is this

19

The other way around; the bowler’s Holding; the batsman’s Willey.

From Bill Lawry (on many occassions) “It dos’nt matter how they come, where they come as long as they come”

20

I actually thought about the ‘They think it’s allover, it is now’ as soon as I saw the thread title. In Dutch there are a few that will be familiar to most people:

1500m speedskating at the olympics in Nagano where Marianne Timmer (unexpectedly) wins gold in a new world record. At the second intermediate time that was very fast the comentary is ‘Timmertje, Timmertje wat ga je doen!?’ which translates as ‘Timmer (diminutive), Timmer, what are you going to do!?’. Here at 1.04 Marianne Timmer 1500m Nagano 1998 - YouTube

World cup final 1974 when the Germans scored the 2-1: ‘zijn we er toch weer ingetuind!’ which means something like ‘we fell for it again’ (sorry no video)

The most famous one the world cup quarterfinal in 1998 in Marseille, France against Argentina. Last minute of the game at 1-1, Jack van Gelder says: ‘we’re going to the semi-finals, I suddenly have this feeling we’re going to the semi finals’ after which he goes to the play by play action and 10 seconds later the ball is in the net, which is followed by mentioning of the goalscorer a few times. - YouTube