Way too many to count, but here’s a sampler:
Phil Mickelson’s birdie putt to win the Masters. For someone who’s been second, third, and fourth so many times, and was unquestionably THE biggest victim of Tigermania, and for whom there were endless doubts that seemed to grow more crushing by the day…it was incomparable.
John Elway, after so many crushing defeats and disappointments and heartaches and embarrassments and on an on, finally clinching the Broncos’ first ever Super Bowl…by taking a knee. No come from behind, no 99-yards-in-two-minutes drama; in the end, all he had to do was sit on it. That, more than anything, really showed to me how far the team had come.
Konishiki winning his third (and final) tournament title. Injury-prone for his entire career due to his crushing weight, and at best inconsistent as a result, he was able to, for one brief, shining stretch, put together three really good tournaments, culminating with this one. And flirt, ever so briefly, with yokozuna promotion.
This was taped, but I also want to include Mike Tyson’s second defeat to Evander Holyfield. What made it even more remarkable was that in the round that had the infamous ear-biting incident, he was ahead. Clearly. If he just remained patient and continued working Holyfield, rather than going triple bat feces over the “headbutts” (I counted a total of one deliberate headbutt by Holyfield, which Mills Lane called correctly), he had a chance. Just perfectly encapsulates, IMHO, everything that went wrong with Tyson after his return to the sport.
The Arizona Diamondbacks, victimized by horrendous relief pitching during the entire World Series, finding themselves down by two runs against the New York Yankees in the bottom of the ninth in game 7, up against Alphonso Soriano, who had not blown a single save the entire year…and absolutely wiping the basepaths with him.
Dominique Moceanu. Who? The little pixie, widely considered the star of the '96 women’s gymnastics team, which had built a batttleship-sized lead going into the final event of the all-around. All she has to do is land one clean vault IN TWO ATTEMPTS, and it’s locked up. So of course, she promptly delivers two ridiculous pratfalls that would’ve gotten her tossed from tryouts. (She actually performed in a few events after that, but the moment I saw this, I knew it was the beginning of the end.)
Jeff Gordon winning the inaugural Brickyard 400. This wasn’t his first big win, but to take the first ever event on a completely new track showed, beyond any shadow of doubt, that this kid was the real deal.
The nameless Red Sox pitcher who, ah, <<BLEW THE FREAKING SAVE>> in game 6 of the World Series and made any silly error that happened afterward, in my mind, meaningless. I recently saw it on ESPN, and it was an abject embarrassment (and I’ve never been a Red Sox fan in my life). To think that this nameless goat, who played THE biggest part in the Red Sox not winning the World Series, could forever escape scrutiny, is astounding. Who knows, there might be some hope for me yet. 