Pedro Martinez in 1999 and 2000. Most dominant two years of pitching anyone will ever see, in the toughest division in baseball for pitchers, at the height of the steroid era.
If I had to pick a personal favorite, it would be the 1999 ALDS: after leaving Game 1 with a strained back, it was unclear when Pedro would be able to pitch again. The last couple games of the series got completely ridiculous with the offense - neither team could get anyone out. Boston won game 4 23-7 to force a game 5, and game 5 was tied 8-8 after three innings. Pedro came out of the bullpen as an emergency reliever, on the road. He was wild with most of his pitches due to the injury, and worked almost exclusively off of his curveball. 6 IP, 0 H, 3 BB, 8 K, series over.
Also, honorable mentions to the 1999 All-Star game (5K in 2 IP in front of the home fans at Fenway), this game (@NYY 1H 17K 0BB, K’s 8 of the last 9), and this game (hits the first batter of the game, a brawl comes very close to breaking out, then doesn’t allow another baserunner until a single to lead off the 9th breaks up the no-hitter).
I contributed a college hockey moment to the other thread, however there are a couple other moments I can put in this thread.
The 2002 NCAA championship game featured Maine and Minnesota, with the Gophers back for the first time since the 1989 overtime loss that I posted about. The Gophers are playing a virtual home game, with the tournament occurring in St. Paul, just minutes from campus.
Maine was leading 3-2 with 58.3 seconds remaining. Minnesota pulls the goalie for a faceoff in the Maine zone. The next five seconds will be long remembered by Gopher fans.
Well, there are a bunch for this Los Angeleno, most of them previously mentioned:
Gibson’s Homer (1988 World Series, Game 1);
Kareem removes “the most odious statement in sports, that the Lakers never beat Boston.” (Quoting Jerry Buss.) (1985 NBA Finals, Game 6);
Magic’s junior-junior-junior skyhook (1987 NBA Finals, Game 4);
Etc.
But the one that I remember making me just silly happy was the 1973 MLB All Star Game. Our family was traveling cross country and were staying at the time with relatives in Denver, none of whom gave a f*** about baseball and somehow I, a mere 8-year-old, was able to wrest the TV away from a whole buncha people at this family gathering. I had to take all their barbs, but I somehow got to watch the game in its entirety.
My favorite Dodger, Willie Davis, finally came up to pinch hit in the later innings and hit a home run – while wearing Hank Aaron’s Atlanta Braves helmet – apparently the Dodger gear got stolen. I was jumping up and down as if they’d won the World Series (being eight, I viewed the important games a bit differently).
I can’t believe I get to be the first one to mention Aaron F***ing Boone. It’s game seven of the ACLS in 2003 and the Yankees have pulled off a dramatic rally to tie Boston, knocking Pedro Martinez out of the game and pushing the action into extra innings. Boone came to the Yankees in a midseason trade and didn’t do very much, but I remember him hitting a game winning home run in extra innings in his first week with the team. Just as I’m telling some friends about that home run, Boone leads off the 10th innings and on the first pitch, he does this. It’s a good thing I’m not a broadcaster, because my home run call was “Holy shit! HOLY SHIT!!! HOLY SHIT!!!”
I never worked up the nerve to admit this before, but I didn’t watch this match. I didn’t want to ask her to wait until the match was over (and given how long this one was it’s a good thing I didn’t), and to be honest I was worried Federer was going to lose to the point where I wasn’t sure I’d be able to enoy it. That afternoon I saw the scoreline, and after the disappointment that Nadal won sunk in, I thought “that must’ve been a hell of a match.” I finally saw it last December when ESPN Classic replayed a lot of the best sporting events of the 2000s. This match was the Sistine Chapel of tennis as far as I’m concerned. They both played incredibly for the entire time, and you just couldn’t keep track of how many great points they played. There were great shots on the important points and great shots on the points that didn’t mean much, and I don’t know how many fantastic shots were returned with even better ones. I’m glad I had time to get over the emotion before I saw the match. It’s just amazing. You watch this and think “I’m never going to see a better match than this, and that’s OK.”
The Blake match was gripping stuff. Agassi came back from two sets down to win in five. The 2001 Agassi-Sampras match deserves a mention, too. That’s the one where neither one of them managed to break serve. All four sets went to tiebreaks before Sampras won. Oh, and then there was the French Open final in 1999: Agassi loses the first two sets, but comes back to win the title and complete the career Grand Slam.
My list has to include Jordan Bryon Russell, of course.
I was just coming to link to that. It reminded me that the Rangers winning the 1994 Eastern Conference championship is another one of my favorite sports moments. They Rangers trailed the series 3-2 before Mark Messier guaranteed a win in game six and backed it up with a hat trick in the third period. Game seven was the third double-OT game of the series.
Good call. Even as someone who’s never been able to get into hockey – I don’t know why, I’ve tried, and it seems like I should be a fan – everyone in town was Rangers-crazy, and there was a lot of hype about this game in particular, so I figured I’d do best to watch. I’m not even a hockey fan, but that was a great fucking game.
Totally forgot: Boris Becker knocking off Agassi at Wimbledon in '95 after going down a set and a break. At the time, you just knew there was no way Becker could come back; he was too old, too big and too slow to keep up with Agassi. And then, astonishingly, he came back and won (though he went on to lose to Sampras in the final).
More than that, though- Goran Ivanisevic winning at Wimbledon in 2001 as a wild card. Never done before, will never be done again. More improbable than 46-year-old Jack Nicklaus winning a major, and more emotional; Ivanisevic, until that day, was already written into the history books as the ultimate Wimbledon loser. 3 final appearances, including two five setters, with no trophy. He would certainly have been the best player never to win a Grand Slam title otherwise - 22 singles titles, but no Grand Slam.
Gosh, that’s undoubtedly the most memorable rugby match I’ve ever seen. I was cringing after a while, though - watching Lomu drag Rory Underwood and someone else forty feet, though amazing, was also painful to watch.
On a tennis note: Michael Chang vs. Ivan Lendl (1989 French Open); Lendl (at that point the world #1) was the heavy favorite and had gone up two sets to none; Chang came back to win the third set, but then started cramping up in the fourth, which would be bad enough for any tennis player but for a guy like Chang whose game revolved around running down everything and returning it, it should have been devastating. I was sure Lendl was going to run him around the court until he just couldn’t go any more. But Chang pulled it out.
Speaking of broadcasters, remember Boone’s brother being one of the broadcast announcers in the booth when that happened? I can still remember his bemused smile clear as day.
Oh, one more. Much more regionally significant, especially considering the relatively low interest in college baseball. But…Fresno State’s run to the 2008 national championship.
They were nationally ranked 89th in the RPI going into Regionals and only qualified because they won the WAC tournament. Beat the host and #1 seed (Long Beach State) and the #2 seed 2 out of 3 to advance.
Had to beat Arizona State (#3 nationally) in their home stadium in the Super-regionals.
In Omaha they beat the #2 and #6 national teams and then beat the #8 national team two out of three. Along the way they eliminated the WCC champ, the PAC-10 champ, the SEC champ, and the ACC #3 team. They also had wins against the Big West #2 and C-USA champ.
They were on the road for 40+ days.
To date, they are the lowest seeded team to win any NCAA title in any sport.
The Oilers showed amazing promise in their first few years in the NHL (1979-1982), with a stunning defeat of the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the 1981 playoffs. Gretzky and company were stronger every season, but the playoffs seemed to be their nemesis, losing to L.A. in the first round in 1982, and to the Islanders in the 1983 final in four straight. It seemed the kids weren’t really in the same league as the polished Islanders despite the scoring records they piled up during the regular season.
The Oilers faced the Islanders again in the 1984 final and started well with a 1-0 goaltending battle won by Grant Fuhr. But game two was a blowout win by the Islanders 6-1. It seemed that once again, the Oilers may not have what it takes to win it all.
Game 3 they were down 2-1 when Mark Messier tied the game on a spectacular 1 on 2 rush. The Oilers never looked back as they won that game 7-2 and the next two to win the series 4-1. They ultimately won 5 cups in 7 years.
Since I’m a White Sox fan, many of the Cubby occurrences people are listing in the other thread, as most painful, were super-cool. The collapse in 1969, the Sutcliffe meltdown in 1984, the Brant Brown dropped fly ball game (which I attended), the Bartman game–all of them ravished my soul with delight.
For the Sox themselves, the supreme moment was AJ Pierzynski running to first base while the catcher rolled the ball to the mound, Game 2, 2005 ALCS.
Of things I’ve seen personally (not on TV), I think my biggest thrill was watching Chris Evert defeat Virginia Wade 6-1 6-1 to win the fourth match for the U.S. and clinch the Wightman Cup 1971. Evert was a virtual unknown at that time just 16 years old. She simply took apart Wade who went into a tantrum about first the playing surface and second the fact that when Evert’s first serve went in, she’d toss the second ball away (because she used a two hand backhand).
Of things I’ve watched on TV, in chronological order:
The Cleveland Browns defeating the favored Colts 27-0 to win the NFL championship with Gary Collins catching 3 TD passes. That was the first pro team I rooted for which had ever won a championship
Bobby Orr scoring the overtime goal against St Louis to win the Stanley cup for the Bruins in 1970 (This was while I was at college in Boston and had become a big hockey fan – certainly the right place at the right time.)
The Indians 1995 season. I’ve always been more a baseball fan than any other sport and my home team the Indians had given me little to cheer about until that fantastic season in which they won 100 games (playing only 144). Yes they didn’t win the World series, but it was the second pennant for them in my lifetime and I don’t remember the 1954 season as I was only 5.
Boston coming back from 3-0 to beat the Yankees in the ALCS. My wife and I watched the 6th and 7th games in a motel room in Maine and went crazy.
Oh yeah, in person is another story. The only Giants games I’ve ever seen in person sucked balls.
I did see a great Jets moment, though: the Miracle at Midnight. Great comeback against the Dolphins on MNF back in 2000. (Or maybe 2001?) I screamed my throat bloody raw that night. Thankfully, my buddy the Jets fan didn’t want to leave when the Jets fell behind by multiple touchdowns at the end of teh first half. We decided that “down by 25” would be the rule, and since they only fell behind by 23 (in the fourth quarter!) we stayed until the bitter end, a rousing overtime win.
I recalled one other in-person great sports outcome, though it wasn’t anything major or memorable in the scheme of things. I was young, and I can’t recall many details, but…
George Strickland was my favorite player. He was a shortstop, third baseman, utility infielder for the Indians (though some years he was a regular). He wasn’t playing this game though, and the Indians were down by a few runs at the start of the bottom of the ninth. My dad said we should leave to beat the traffic, but the first (I think) batter got on first base and they put Strickland in to pinch run. I remember my father looking at me and saying, “I guess we have to stay and watch.” I agreed eagerly and amazingly the Indians came from behind and won the game. As I said, nothing important — just a very personal moment for me.
