Good on yer, beautiful one! Couldn’t stand Conniors either.
That was the one for me. I became a Bruins fan in the mid 90s and a general fan of Bourque. Seeing him hold that cup, seeing the emotions in his eyes, in his face, in his hands … his whole body, really. The man had to have been exhausted, as most are from the NHL playoffs, but it didn’t look it to me. I can’t describe it except to say he looked like he had gotten to the place he wanted to be when he hung up his skates.
The other two are odd ones. I saw Darrell Green Day and happened upon Patrick Ewing Night (he had his jersey retired), both on television. Both left me bawling like a baby. It was more the totality of the event than any random-chance shot, play, whatever. When I was growing up, Green was the constant for the Redskins and Ewing for the Knicks. These days, your average pro athlete simply doesn’t stay in the same place for 15+ years most of the time.
You can find comments on them and others here. Note the date; if you comment I probably won’t see;)
Born and raised in San Francisco (as will become obvious).
The best moments I can think of are JT Snow’s ninth-inning home run down the right field line against the Mets in the 2000 Division Series. I think that that moment would be remembered as one of baseball’s greatest moments, had the Giants been able to win, at the very least, that game.
I was in Pac Bell Park’s portwalk in 2002 when Kenny Lofton batted in David Bell to send the Giants into the World Series. That’s a hell of a feeling.
I guess I’ll have to second, begrudgingly, Kirk Gibson’s HR. Begrudgingly because I hate the Dodgers and the late-80s A’s.
Oh, and that Barry fella. I think he’s gonna do some pretty cool things some day.
I haven’t seen anything particularly momentous live, but nothing else I’ve seen on television can trump The Greatest 10 Seconds in the History of Washington, D.C., aka John Riggins scoring the go-ahead touchdown on 4th-and-1 from the 42 in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XVII.
Also on TV, the 1978 Red Sox-Yankees playoff game for the American League East title and the 1986 World Series were both stunning, but as a Sox fan I’m hardly going to include those among my “greatest” sporting moments, am I?
As a kid I remember seeing this exhausted fighter, slumped on something, in poor lighting, surrounded by reporters and hangers-on, glaring into the camera and roaring out “All of my detractors should get on their knees and beg for forgiveness for what they have said about me!” This was Muhammed Ali’s post fight interview after beating Foreman. Professionally, politically, in the public eye, in every possible way, he had been beaten, taken his licks, won his fights and was again champion… professionally, in the public’s eye, in every possible way.
[sub](…And shoot me if I’m remembering another one of his fights.)[/sub]
I stand corrected. Although I’m sure there’s a “He’s got” in there somewhere. After “Here comes Hurst”.
I know it from the sports quiz show named from the phrase in the middle.
If horses count, Secretariat blowing away the field in the Belmont.
[QUOTE=Lobsang]
I stand corrected. Although I’m sure there’s a “He’s got” in there somewhere. After “Here comes Hurst”.
[QUOTE]
Lobbers, you’re right. I guess the commentator was going to say that Hurst had got Roger Hunt or whoever in support.
Two greatest baseball games I saw in person were:
- Luis Tiant vs Jim Palmer (1977?); 0 to 0 after 9 innings, Red Sox win in 10.
- Extra game pennant playoff between Yankees and Red Sox in '78. Yankees win on HR by Bucky (F****ing) Dent.
The Ice Bowl. I watched it live in the comfort of a heated living room.
I believe that over 750,000 Wisconsinites claim to have been there. I personally know one guy who actually was there.
Although it’s been replayed to death, for me nothing can beat the goosebump moment of Carlton Fisk’s wave-it-fair homerun in the World Series. I was a college freshman watching the series in a dorm full of die-hard fans. I was young–I didn’t know what lay ahead as a Sox fan.
(The counterpoint to that game, of course, is the ball-through-Buckner’s-legs game which forever turned me off to the Red Sox and baseball in general. I watch the Series now because my husband still cares, but–honestly–something inside me died that evening.)
The most personally exciting moment has to be Adam Vinatieri’s kick to win the Super Bowl for the Patriots. Listening to Madden and company verbally hump the Rams for the whole game, second-guess Belichick’s decision to play for the win instead of overtime–that magical season had a lot of heart-stopping moments, but the Super Bowl victory was sweet enough to last a lifetime of Sox fades.
Some college football ones:
Cal beating Stanford in 1982 by running through the band:
“Alright here we go with the kick-off. Harmon will probably try to squib it and he does. Ball comes loose and the Bears have to get out of bounds. Rogers along the sideline, another one…they’re still in deep trouble at midfield, they tried to do a couple of…the ball is still loose as they get it to Rogers. They get it back to the 30, they’re down to the 20…Oh the band is out on the field!! He’s gonna go into the endzone!!! He got into the endzone!! [voice quite hoarse at this point] Will it count? The Bears have scored [CANNON GOES OFF] but the bands are out on the field.”
1984: “The Pass” Boston College’s Doug Flutie hurls a last-second 62-yard hail mary pass to beat Miami.
1983: Nebraska’s coach Tom Osborne going for 2 instead of tying the game. A tie would’ve won him his first national championship. He went for the win and the conversion failed and lost the championship.
I don’t watch a lot of sports, so I’ve missed a lot of “greatests”; but the editors of Sports Illustrated agree with me about the 1981 NFLdivisional playoff between the San Diego Chargers and the Miami Dolphins. The game lasted 4 hours in the Miami heat, some players lost 10 pounds, and there were two missed/blocked field goals in sudden-death overtime.
September 1983 - Australia wins the Americas Cup. I was 11 at the time, still remember watching the race live & witnessing an entire counrty go crazy.
The final time trial in the Tour De France 1989.
Greg Lemond had to take 42 seconds from Laurent Fignon, and this in France, in Paris, on the last stage of the Tour against a Frenchman who had already previously won the tour twice and was also a time trial specialist.
Lemond still had, and still has I guess, twenty or so shotgun pellets in him after a hunting accident that nearly killed him, and yet here he was, proving to the world he was back to his best.
Watching this live and seeing Lemond beat all the time checks for every previous rider, and Fignon following and thus knowing exactly what he needed to do to beat Lemond, its considered an advantage to be the following rider for this reason, this was really high drama, shootout at the OK Corral and all that stuff.
Watching as Fignon slowly slipped behind Lemonds schedule, and finally, 8 seconds, Lemond not only got 42 seconds back he took a further 8 seconds out of Fignon, it was so close that you had to watch it all right to the last half kilometre.
After 2000 miles, it came down to just those 8 seconds.
1992, Buffalo Bills vs. Houston Oilers.
I was rooting for the Oilers, and they were kicking ass. But the Bills made a second half comeback that was just astounding - I don’t know if it still stands, but it had the record as the biggest comeback to win in football history up to that point. And it was amazing.
I ended up rooting for the Bills just because it was so phenomenal. I think that game was when I really started to like football. I was standing on the couch yelling at the TV by the end of the game.
My daddy was so proud.
It would have to be Hank Aaron’s 715th home run. I wrote about it here.
I watched on tv the night baseball came back in New York City after 9/11. I’m not a Bush fan and I think 9/11 has been overused, but that was an amazing moment in time.
I think I’ll also pick watching (on tv) the 1999 Women’s World Cup USA vs China.
Since I’ve lived in a university town most of my life, my most memorable sports moments have all come live. I remember last year when Kentucky beat MSU on a last second shot here. The crowd went from incredibly loud to totally quiet. I’ll always remember the home run hit by Rafael Palmeiro that hit a building in straight away center field. It had to be six hundred feet away.
Live: I got to see Gordie Howe, in the twilight of his career, score the winning goal in overtime in a Houston-Toronto WHA game. (Also the only time I was in Maple Leaf Gardens - quite nice.)
On TV: Aaron’s 715th.
On radio: Tippy Martinez picking off three straight Blue Jays in the top of the 10th. Earl Weaver had outsmarted himself again, and had to insert Lenn Sakata as a catcher, so the Jays were itching to run. Martinez came in with a man on first and picked him off. Single. Pickoff. Single. Pickoff. Then, if I remember right, it was Sakata who homered in the bottom of the 10th to win. An absolutely excellent baseball moment.