I realize there is no definitive answer to this, but I can’t wait to hear the choices.
Mine: Jim Abbot’s No Hitter vs. Cleveland, September 4, 1993.
Abbot was born without a right hand. He pitched for the University of Michigan, and was on the Olympic squad in '88. He was no slouch. But still. HE ONLY HAD ONE HAND. He held his glove in his armpit when he threw. Deftly doffed it as his motion ended to be ready to field.
The team he held hitless with one hand that day had a few names you might know:
Manny Ramirez
Jim Thome
Albert Belle
Kenny Lofton
Carlos Baerga
Hard to argue with that one (especially since he was pitching for my beloved Yankees when he did it). In fact, the only one I can think of that comes close is the Red Sox coming from a 3 games to 0 deficit to win the 2004 World Series over those same (sniff) Yankees. No other team in history had ever done that, and I can be objective enough to recognize that.
I don’t think the no-hitter is amazing as the lack of a hand has no effect on the pitch being delivered. On the other hand,(ha!) the transition from pitcher to fielder is quite a feat.
While not pro athletes, I nominate Abby and Brittany Hensel . Conjoined twin girls who share a lower body, they play volleyball,softball, swim,ride a bicycle, play basketball, drive and play the piano even though each girl controls only one side of their body.
runner pat, those girls are incredible, but I’m talking about a single accomplishment, not a life of extraordinary courage and will. Nothing taken away from them.
I was an end of the bench, bullpen catcher, a senior who only got in in the second game of double headers and he was a freshman phenom on a Michigan team that had Barry Larkin (possible HOF’er) and Scott Sabo (future NL Rookie of the Year). He came in late in relief and I was the first guy on my team (Wisconsin) to face him. I had seen a lot of good stuff, but his was from another planet. For some reason after blowing fastballs by me, he threw a changeup on a 1-2 count and I was so far ahead of it that I only had my left hand on the bat and managed a soft liner into right field.
That is the highlight of my sporting career.
Edit: Chris Sabo, not Scott. Scott played for us. He was better known as a hockey player.
Ted Williams reached base safely in 16 consecutive plate appearances. IIRC this spanned 4+ games. The record for home runs in a season has been shattered in the mean time. The record for career home runs will continue to be broken, but 16 consecutive safeties in baseball, that will never be broken.
Beamon jumped 29 feet, 2.5 inches. The previous record was 27 feet, 4.75 inches. He was the first man to pass 28 feet AND 29 feet. His main rival told him simply, “You’ve destroyed this event.” He did not just break the record, but annihilated it, setting a mark that nobody would have even conceived possible. It was roughly equivalent to a man running the 100-metre dash in 9.3 seconds, or a PGA golfer shooting a 54, or a major league hitter batting .465 in a full season. Beamon did have the advantage of jumping in MExico City, which being at high altitude makes such things easier to do (less air resistance) but it doesn’t fully explain his amazing jump. Nobody else that day came close.
It took 23 years for Beamon’s record to be broken, and it has only been bested that one time (Mike Powell, in 1991.)
My vote would be for Johnny Vander Meer’s back-to-back no-hitters for the Reds in 1938.
There have only been something like 25 pitchers in baseball history with more than one no-hitter in their careers, and I think Nolan Ryan is the only other pitcher with two no-hitters in a season. The odds against throwing them in back-to-back games seem astronomical.
Even though I don’t regard it as a true Grand Slam, Tiger Woods is still the only golfer who’s ever won 4 straight majors. He’s dominated golf to an extent that even Nicklaus in his prime didn’t, against damn good competition.
THAT is more impressive to me than anything else.
Babe Ruth’s 54 homers in 1920 (a season in which most TEAMS didn’t hit a combined 54 homers) is second.
And then Wayne Gretzky’s 212 points scored in 1981- it’s not just that he was better than everyone else, it’s HOW MUCH better he was than everyone else.
Tiger Woods, Babe Ruth and Wayne Gretzky are the three guys who stand out to me as being on a much higher plane than any of their peers.
Mario Lemieux’s five goals five different ways (Full strength, Power Play, Shorthanded, penalty shot, and empty net)…a lot of luck and circumstance contributes, I grant you. Still pretty cool.
Great wins, or performances in sports, are beautiful, showing what the determined athlete can accomplish.
But to go on, to not quit, when you know you have already lost, can’t even place, is to me even greater. The following links are to info about an athlete you may have heard of, the last place runner in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.
Someday, I think the Giants win in the last Super Bowl will make it on these lists. They were a long shot just to make the playoffs at the start of last season, while the Patriots were 16-0 and early favorites to win it all. The Giants scraped by in the playoffs, dodging bullets the whole way, while Tom Brady hit an unholy 26 out of 28 passes against Jacksonville, an extremely formidable defense. Tom Brady scoffed when Plaxico Burress predicted that the Patriots would only score 17 points… and now, he’d probably do anything to have gotten 17.
The Giants defensive line was unbelievably dominant against an offensive line that had been called the greatest ever. The game also had the best play in Superbowl history, the famous Manning-to-Tyree. Insane.
The sporting event that thrilled me the most was watching the American Winter Olympic Hockey Team take the Gold in 1980. They were a ragtag team of amateurs against professionals – especially the Soviet Union’s team. Watching each game was like a fairytale unfolding. Beating the CCCP was just wildly bizarre. Then taking the Gold was incomprehensible frosting. I couldn’t quit crying all afternoon with happiness. These were the first hockey games I had ever watched.
I’m actually annoyed about that game, because I was prepared to never watch the sport of football again. I hated, hated, hated the fact that nothing bad ever seemed to happen to the Patriots. They were the luckiest team in the past 20 years of football (not saying they weren’t extremely good, of course). The patriots had to dodge a couple of bullets of their own to go into the superbowl undefeated, against mediocre teams like the Ravens and the Eagles. The Ravens game prompted me to make a thread titled “I am officially no longer a football fan” because of the string of absolutely horrible bullshit that happened in the last 15 seconds of the game to give the Patriots the touchdown they needed to win.
Anyway, I agree that the Giants superbowl victory should go down as the greatest NFL game at the very least, and has serious contention for the thread title.
