Dave Dravecky was a pitcher for the San Francisco Giants in the late 1980’s. He was diagnosed with a malignant tumor in his pitching arm. They surgically removed all kinds of muscle tissue from his arm, but somehow he made it back into the major leagues and pitched very well in his first game back. However, in his second game back, his arm broke while throwing a pitch, his career was over, and he later had to have the arm amputated.
Last game of the 195? season, the Yankees, after teasingly allowing the Senators to tie for first place with one game left, are going to win in the tenth inning after tying it in the top of the ninth. However, in the bottom of the ninth, even after Joe Hardy is turned back into fat fifty-something Joe Boyd while rounding third base, he still manages to evade the tag at the plate after somehow chugging home.
Maybe, but Kerrigan’s aggregate scores were actually higher than Baiul’s. Medal placement, though, was determined by ordinal rank and by that measure they were even, each skater being favored by four judges while the ninth (German) judge had them even. The tiebreaker that determined the medals was that the German judge rated Baiul higher in presentation (familiarly, “artistic impression”) while Kerrigan got the nod in technical merit.
Here is a fun exercise: the other eight judges were from the UK, Poland, Czech Republic, Ukraine, China, USA, Japan, and Canada. Who favored which skater?
Partial clue, if you are stuck:Poland had recently attempted to join NATO but was rebuffed.
Answers:For Baiul: Poland, Czech Republic, Ukraine, China. For Kerrigan: UK, USA, Japan, Canada.
1994 Shell Caribbean Cup (Soccer) match between Grenada and Barbados
Storyline: Try to kick the ball into the other team’s goal.
What happened: Try to kick the ball into your own goal.
1980 in Lake Placid, NY. The location of the Winter Olympics that year.
Storyline: The dominant USSR ice hockey team, who had recently demolished the US team in an exhibition match, were the clear choice to win the gold. The US men, a bunch of college guys, really didn’t have a chance.
What Happened: The US won in a hard fought game. It became a symbol for many Americans and is one of the most famous sports calls in the country by Al Michaels. The final 15 seconds ((here) make my skin chill every time I hear it.
The game was made into a (surprisingly good) movie.
Besides being off by four years, Korea and USA got to the semis and quarters respectively, incredible performances from sides who had the lowest expectations coming into the tournament.
Also, I know I’m going against the grain here, but I wouldn’t characterize Korea’s win over Italy “undeserved”. Maybe the game against Spain, but not against Italy.
-Chris
Which,in itself, did not win the gold for the USA.They still had to beat Finland.
I get to be the first to mention Rulon Gardner in the 2000 Olympics? Alexander Karelin hadn’t lost a match in 13 years, the stunned look on everyone’s faces at the medal ceremony shows how far off script things went.
The Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show.
Actually, 1988 Olympic Figure Skating – the winter games wouldn’t go to the non-multiple-of-four even years until 1994.
The game is only seriously played in a tiny fraction of the globe - to have a WC is stretching the definition, to put it mildly. Creative selection rules and scheduling was required to avoid farcical scorelines. And then the icing on the top: Australia had been for some time the dominant power, and will be for some time more, but somehow they contrived to lose the final, thus rendering the whole exercise completely pointless.
Great stories, thanks all! Thanks too for the correction on the World Cup year (I always get these mixed up).
I had the '01 World Series and the Patriots/Giants Super Bowl in mind, I just had trouble putting my thoughts into words (those were emotional times for me). Actually, what stunned me about that Super Bowl wasn’t that it was a huge upset. Those happen. What totally blew me away was that afterward, there was virtually no debate whatsoever. I figured that the merit of 18-1 vs. 17-0 alone would last for weeks, let alone the merits of a 16-game vs a 14-game regular season. Nothing! If something like this happened in college football, can you imagine anywhere near this level of apathy?
Troy McClure - Remember, I’m including seemingly foregone conclusions in the discussion (hence Tyson vs. Douglas, which would’ve been just another ho-hum title defense had Tyson won). Remember, too, that this has been going on for 86 years, during which the Red Sox had championship-caliber teams that fell an inch short over and over. (The '86 squad blew a 3-run lead before the Bucker Error AND the game 7 after. That’s how bad it was.) This thing was just about immortal, and it looked like it would take something truly cataclysmic to put an end to it. So what happens? A stolen base. And just like that, the almighty monster drops dead and is never heard from again. Trust me, no one could’ve seen that coming.
Green Eyed Stranger - Mmm, I dunno. What everyone seems to have forgotten was how Gardner won: A fluky new rule that had never been instituted before in which Gardner lucked out and got a point. This made a huge difference; he could now play pure defense for the remainder of the match, something no one had ever had the luxury of against Karelin before. I don’t doubt that it was a great win, but Karelin just plain got shafted by the new rule, and from that point the outcome was never really in doubt. Had Gardner pinned Karelin, this would definitely qualify.
And now, three of my personal favorites:
UFC 3
Storyline: Will Royce Gracie continue his ironclad dominance of early American MMA? Will Ken Shamrock turn the tables, get his long-awaited revenge, and assert himself as a force in this event? Or will a new phenom pull of a spectacular upset over one of them and start a brand new rivalry? It all comes to a head in the climactic bone-chilling final!
What happened: Man, talk about a day that will live in infamy…
- Gracie gets run through the wringer against the surprisingly game Kimo Leopoldo.
- Gracie wins, but he’s so drained at the end that he has to drop out of his semifinal match against Harold Howard.
- Unfortunately, his family doesn’t realize how bad his condition is until he’s already walked down the aisle and entered the ring. Meaning that the match is on no matter what. Meaning that Gracie just got his first MMA loss in a fight he didn’t even start.
- Oh yeah, Harold Howard just got a free pass to the final. The only consolation is that everyone expects him to get demolished by Ken Shamrock. Not the most satisfying result, but there are worse things than Shamrock dominating a tournament.
- Except that Shamrock drops out (because now he can’t face Gracie). So now Howard is up against the second alternate, some no-name amateur named Steve Jennum.
- Whom he loses to, making him and UFC look even more pathetic.
- Oh, BTW, Steve Jennum is UFC champion after winning one match.
UFC 5
Storyline: Since everyone wants Gracie vs. Shamrock, why not just give it to ‘em straight? Yes, the rivals finally meet again in…the SUPERFIGHT! Meanwhile, budding MMA star Dan “The Beast” Severn is gunning for the title, but he’ll have a major challenge in the semifinal against Oleg Taktarov, who has not been defeated in 10 years.
So far so good: Shamrock reveals details about his planned strategy. Gracie says he’s ready. Severn, man, he was born ready.
Oh no: Scant days before the tournament, word goes out that for the first time, there will be time limits. This completely messes up both Shamrock and Gracie’s strategies, and because there are still no judges, time expiring means…gulp…a draw. And Taktarov has a nagging knee injury.
What happened: Disaster. Shamrock and Gracie (despite a lot of effort on Gracie’s part) prove completely unable to beat the other and fight to a stunningly boring draw. A hampered Taktarov is unable to get anything going against Severn and is beaten bloody before the ref calls it. The final isn’t much better, with Severn quickly asserting his dominance over Dave Beneteau and smothering him out.
UFC 11
Storyline: Marc Coleman! David “Tank Abbott” Abbott! Opposite brackets…er, but this isn’t going to be anything like UFC 3, because these guys are good! The disciplined wrestler vs. the free-swinging brawler!
Oh no: Maybe Abbott’s knee was bothering him more than he let on. Maybe he really was unprepared for an alternate as he claimed. Maybe he was just afraid of the damage to his reputation (and selling power) should he get demolished by Coleman. What’s undeniable is that he did next to nothing against Scott Ferozzo and lost a one-sided decision. Making things worse, Ferozzo immediately dropped out due to exhaustion, leaving the final in the hands of the second alternate. Unpleasant memories of Steve Jennum immediately resurfaced…
What happened: …only to be replaced by something even worse. The second alternate withdrew (officially injured, possibly scared, we’ll never know), leaving Coleman with NO OPPONENT FOR THE FINAL. Nothing in the rules covered this situation; ultimately, the organizers decided to just give Coleman the title. Less than three years after someone won took the tournament with only one win, Coleman would take UFC 11 with only two.
I loved every minute of these tournaments. “No rules” indeed. 
Not way up there in magnitude, but since it’s happening now, I’ll mention the 2009 Tour de France. Lance Armstrong, multiple former winner, un-retires to compete again one more time at age 38, joining a team that already has the pre-race favorite to win the Tour (Contador). By the middle stages, Lance and Contador are third and first, barely separated in overall time.
But Lance’s dramatic comeback ends in more of a whimper as he’s dropped in a stage while Contador establishes a near-insurmountable lead.
And, come to think of it the 2006 Tour might be another story. Floyd Landis has a comfortable lead midway and only needs to hang on to win his first Tour (overcoming the anti-American bias on the Tour in the wake of Lance’s domination). But he has a disasterous day, getting dropped by the pack and ending up so far behind that he’s completely written off. The next day, in arguably one of the greatest single-day accomplishments of riding ever, he pulls away from the pack all by himself (with nobody to draft behind) and not only stays in front but pulls away so much that he puts himself back in the lead and holds on to win the Tour. The film’s victory montage is rudely interrupted by the public release of a blood test showing positive for testosterone, and he’s eventually stripped of his title (even though doping with testosterone during the race isn’t believed to be effective; it’s only thought useful during training).
1991 Orange Bowl. The University of Colorado, on the verge of a national championship made possible by being granted five downs on a must-score drive a few weeks earlier, chooses to punt in the direction of Notre Dame’s Raghib Ismail, the best kick returner in the nation. Ismail returns the kick 91 years for what seems to be a game-winning, championship-denying TD. However, ND is flagged for clipping, and granted another chance, Colorado kicks the ball away from Ismail and holds on to a 10-9 win.
I remember the first UFC, when they had Jim Brown doing commentary for no discernable reason, and how they were really trying to hype the different styles and the no-holds-barred nature of the whole thing. They made you feel like the Kumite from Bloodsport was about to happen in real life. The first match, between a savate guy and a sumo wrestler, was such an odd contrast of fighting styles, almost as if the promoters had been inspired by Street Fighter 2. The anticipation and excitement was immense. How would the fight between these warriors play out?
As it happened, the fight lasted 26 seconds before the savate guy kicked the sumo guy in the face and shattered some of his teeth. It seemed like everything just ground to a halt at that point. The sumo guy looked confused, as if he had no expectation that this was even a possibility. He went to his corner, and the commentators weren’t even sure if the fight was over or not, which it was. All the hype and anticipation, only to have it end in under a minute with everyone shocked at how quickly and violently it had ended and not sure how things were supposed to proceed.
Man, I love watching that clip–it never gets old!!
I remember watching Running Brave when I was a kid. The end of the race was exciting in the movie, but it’s got nothing on the real deal!
Setting: 2007 Formula 1 World Championship
Principal: Lewis Hamilton
Story: Hamilton, the first black F1 driver and driving in his first F1 season alongside defending world champion Fernando Alonso at MacLaren Mercedes, finishes the first 9 races on the podium, including two wins. Winning a further 2 races and starting 6 races from pole position, he went into the final race in Brazil 4 points clear of Alonso and a further 3 ahead of former MacLaren, now Ferrari, driver Kimi Raikonnen (who had already won 5 races). His MacLaren car had been supremely reliable throughout the season, giving him points finishes in every race except the previous race in China, where his retirement was more down to driver error than car problems.
Worst case scenario to ensure the championship was that he needed to finish on the podium, and surely he had the car to become not only the first black world champion but also the first rookie world champion?
Reality: Hamilton suffered mechanical problems for the first time in the season, as a gearbox problem dropped him from pole down to 18th place very early in the race. After resetting the onboard computer, and thus the gearbox, and with the two Ferraris leading the race from Alonso in 3rd, he could still take the Championship by climbing all the way back to 5th place. He only managed 7th by the end of the race, and Raikonnen’s win gave him enough points to leapfrog Hamilton and take the championship by just 1 point.
Hamilton did go on to win the championship in 2008, but the story wasn’t quite what it would have been the year before.
I saw that one too, Moidalize. The really weird thing about that ending was that there was no provision for it whatsoever. Nothing in the rules at the time said anything about “injury stoppage” or “technical knockout”. In the very first American MMA match ever, the authorities that were simply decided right then that they didn’t want Teila Tuli to suffer undue punishment.
This wouldn’t be the last time a ruling was made on the spot, nor was it even the most famous case. In the Gracie-Shamrock superfight, the match was originally slated for a 30-minute time limit. In the final minute, John McCarthy completely out of the blue says “You’re in your overtime, guys.” The announcers then said that a 5-minute overtime had been added to the match, the simple possibilty of which there hadn’t been a word of before. Then, in the 35th minute, a new order goes out for one more minute added to the match. This minute expires like all the others, but McCarthy for some reason lets it drag on for 6 more seconds. Total time: 36:06, the longest match in UFC history, which was extended past its scheduled limit three times.
And speaking of McCarthy, I’m not sure how he knew that the way to deal with the gate accidentally opening was to either call for a restart or temporarily stop the action, depending on the situation, but this definitely was not covered by the rules either.
A weird start for a weird league, that’s all it was.
Oh, since I already mentioned women’s figure skating, here’s an even better one.
2006 Olympic women’s figure skating final, long program
Storyline: Will it be the beloved Cinderella who’s won everything but Olympic gold, Michelle Kwan? Or the pouty but elegant favorite Irina Slutskaya? Co-starring Sasha Cohen as the unlikely dark horse.
Development/omen: Seemingly out of nowhere, Sara Hughes comes up with a spectacular routine, the best long program so far. However, she’s had a lot of ground to make up. With just two skaters to go, the ball’s in Kwan’s court, and all she needs is a solid routine with no stumbles to cruise to the gold.
What happened: Fall! With the finish line in sight, Kwan goes down! So here’s the new situation… If Irina Slutskaya finishes ahead of Kwan but behind Hughes…no higher, no lower…the result is a three way tie, which, using the long program result as tiebreaker, gives Hughes the gold. If Slutskaya wins the long program, the gold is hers. If the unthinkable happens and Slutskaya crashes and burns, Kwan back-doors her way to her lifelong dream. All of this is seemingly a fait accompli, however, as Slutskaya is phenomenal in the clutch and knows exactly what’s at stake…
And then what happened: …and then goes on to turn in the most lackluster, unimpressive, pedestrian performance anyone’s seen from her ever, which the commentators rip to shreds from start to finish (think about that for a moment). She finishes exactly where she needs for the three-way tie and Hughes rock(y)ing the skating world.
Bonus points for the headline a newspaper used for this, “AMERICAN BEATS KWAN” 
, which is messed up on about 5 or 6 levels.
This is a rough transcript of my house during those final moments:
My girlfriend: Honey, don’t worry, Notre Dame’s still got a chance.
Me: No, because Colorado would be crazy to kick it to Rocket. (Ismail’s nickname.) They’ll just kick it out of bounds.
Announcer: There’s the snap and the punt if off. Ismail’s got it, he turns the corner and he’s off to the races…
Me: (SCREAMING, HAPPY & EXCITED): GOOOOOO ROCKET
Announcer: Notre Dame Wins! Notre Dame wins! Oh, wait a second, there’s a flag on the play. Looks like clipping against the Irish.
ME: (SCREAMING, ANGRY & UPSET) <numerous expletives deleted>
2002 season college football national championship. Miami (FL) was favored over The Ohio State Buckeyes by…a lot. Willis McGahee and Kellen Winslow Jr. were handing out flyers pre-game inviting everyone to their victory party. Nobody told the Buckeyes, who had been winning games by the skin of their teeth all year, and made this game no exception, winning in a thrilling triple-OT that many people consider the best college football game in recent memory…outside of…
2007, Fiesta Bowl. Upstart, non-BCS Boise State against college football powerhouse Oklahoma. Boise State is leading Oklahoma by 18 points in the 3rd quarter, and it appears everything is going their way. Those of us who know college football realize it’s only a matter of time before Oklahoma comes back, and of course they do. Boise State goes down by 7 twice, coming back to tie it up both times. Boise State throws a pick that is returned for a go-ahead TD for Oklahoma with a minute remaining. Game over, right? Nope. Boise State scores on a hook-and-lateral on 4th and a mile with barely any time left on the clock. The game goes into OT, Adrian Peterson takes the first play of OT in for a TD, and everyone thinks “Oh well, Boise really tried hard.” Again, nobody told this to Boise State. The Broncos tie it on 4th down and GO FOR TWO, where Ian Johnson scores the conversion on a crazy Statue of Liberty play, jumps into the screaming crowd, then finds his cheerleader girlfriend and proposes to her. If Hollywood wrote this script, it would have been laughed at for being too impossible and cliched. Best college football game ever, bar none.