I think the Giants three Superbowls would probably be the best that I didn’t attend personally.
In person it had to be when I took my mother to a Yankee game as a present. She had done a lot for me during my adult years (to go along with everything else she did for me, giving birth etc). So I decided to do something special for her birthday one year. She was a Yankee fan from when she was a little girl watching DiMaggio from the stands with her father. I was able to get behind the dugout seats for Don Mattingly day, when they retired his number. Best seats I ever had for a game and it was a special day. She still doesn’t know the tickets cost over $200 each.
Kirk Gibson vs. Dennis Eckersely: October 15, 1988. My absolute favorite movie at the time was The Natural and that moment was that movie come to life.
Close 2nd: Favre to Rison, 1st Quarter, Super Bowl XXXI.
3rd: The Packers/Bears “instant replay” game in 1989.
If ever the Cubs or the Brewers win the World Series, that’ll jump to No. 1.
Yeah, worse. The Braves weren’t even in that series and the Yankees had proven themselves to be the best team that money could buy the year prior. 1996 was a different matter as we were %(@!! UP BY 2 @##@@#!! GAMES, GAWD@##IT!!!
On television, it was the Gibson homerun in the '88 Series. I’ve always wanted to find the people whose brake lights are clearly visible in the background of the screen as the ball sails into the right field bleachers and ask them what they were thinking. Who the hell leaves a one-run World Series game early?!?!
In person, it would be April 12, 2005 – the Dodgers’ home opener. We were down to the Hated Ones 5-0 and 8-3 as late as the 7th inning. We got it to 8-5 in the 8th, but LA fans being what they are, most of them headed for the exits if they hadn’t already left.
Those of us remaining got to witness a great four-run rally in the bottom of the 9th, capped by a Milton Bradley single and a Giants’ error that allowed the winning run to cross the plate. I think my friend and I were at the stadium for a couple of hours afterward just partying and talking it up with other fans. It was amusing to run across people in the parking lot who had missed it because they’d left, but had tried to come back when they heard all the cheering. Suckers.
For TV, it had to be the Red Sox winning it all in 2004. I was out of town on an extended business trip and the ALCS+WS was the most exciting baseball I’ve ever seen.
For live… I don’t know. As an overall experience I really enjoyed the one heavyweight title fight that I’ve been to (Evander Holyfield vs. some tune-up guy).
I was a first semester freshman at the University of North Carolina. Tulane came to Chapel Hill to play the Tar Heels in Carmichael Auditorium. (In the pre-Deandome days, Carmichael was what Cameron Indoor Stadium wishes it could be. ) I had two seats in the absolute last row, under the tv camera platform. It was during exams, and I asked absolutely everyone I knew if they wanted to go. Everyone declined, citing studying as their excuse.
Anyway, John ‘Hot Rod’ Williams (who went on to star for several years w/ the Cleveland Cavs) was having his way with Sam Perkins, and Tulane was on the verge of upsetting the defending champs. Fortunately for the Heels, their sophomore guard led a spirited comeback to get the game down to 2 with a few seconds left. That guard? A lanky Wilmington native named Michael Jordan…Tulane has the ball out of bounds at halfcourt with 3 seconds left, loeading by 2. Jordan steals the inbounds pass, and has to throw up a 35 foot prayer at the buzzer.
Everyone stands up, and because I’m under the tv camera platform, my view is blocked, and I don’t see the shot go in. But from the way everyone threw up their arms, I figured it out.
Anyway, the Heels go on to trail in each of the first TWO overtimes before rallying to force more free basketball. In the third OT, Williams fouls out, and the Heels manage to win the game. To this day, I am convinced that shot MJ made to save the Heels was THE moment he became MICHAEL JORDAN, as opposed to just Michael Jordan, if you know what I mean.
(And don’t give me the NCAA winner from April '82, because James Worthy carried the Heels that game. MJ’s shot was clutch, but it came on the coatails of Worthy’s 28 points. The Tulane game was all Michael…)
I saw a lot of UNC games from 82 thru 86, but that game stands out in my mind as the one event I will always remember.
Oh, I should add that my favorite personal moment as a sports fan was catching my first foul ball – on the fly – on Mother’s Day last year with my mother in attendance with me. That one was special for a variety of reasons.
Being a Husker fan, I could point to 1994, 1995, 1997 national championships.
But I’ll go more recent, being a Hawaii Rainbow Warriors fan. We were 10-0 facing Boise State. Tickets were totally sold out and the state was abuzz. Then Dad (a pro sports photographer) calls. He got me sideline press credentials for the game!
Hawaii won 39-27 and I had the best seat in the house. I just had to remember to actually take pictures, rather than watch the game. For some reason, I have less pictures from the 4th quarter…
In 1988 the NCAA Men’s Final Four was played right here in Kansas City, at Kemper Arena, a little cracker box long past it’s prime even then.
Amazingly, the KU Jayhawks (#8 seed, I believe) made it to the National Championship against the big bad OU Sooners. Lawrence is only 30 miles from KC, so they were the hometown favorite. Not able to get tickets to the arena, several friends and I went to one of the local clubs to watch the game on their big screen projection TV (no plasmas or hi-def back then!!). All the bars in town were packed to the gills with people, there must have been 300 people in the club I went to.
I can’t believe that any Jayhawk fans that were in the arena had a better time or cheered louder than we did that night. The place was pandemonium when KU ended up winning 83-79, Danny (Manning) and the Miracles getting it done!
After the game fans spilled out onto the streets and hi-fived until our shoulders hurt!! I hugged more strangers that night than I can ever remember.
“Carter swung at ball three, now the two two… well hit down the left field line! Way back, aaaand, GONE! Joe Carter, with a 3-run homer! The winners, and still world champions, the Toronto Blue Jays!”
Joe Montana to Dwight Clark, January 10, 1982. It’s the only time I have ever literally leapt from my seat in response to a sporting event…
Of cousre, everyone forgets that if it weren’t for Eric Wright’s one-handed takedown of Drew Pearson a few plays later, the Cowboys would have come back to win, and nobody would remember “The Catch”.
The greatest sport event I’ve attended was the Northwestern-Michigan game in 2000, which happened on Visiting Day of my freshman year. I took my parents to the game, and we watched Northwestern pull out a hyperdramatic 54-51 win.
The final minute winning TD pass was amazing, but I think my strongest memory is right before that. Northwestern had the ball close to the goal and the star running back dropped an easy, floating touchdown pass to turn the ball over on downs. Michigan needed one first down to end the game, and the ball went to their halfback Anthony Thomas. As Thomas took the handoff, I turned my head and saw he was about to walk through a huge hole and go 80-something yards untouched for an easy touchdown. But something surprising happened: a single hand reached into that hole and stripped the ball away from Thomas. Northwestern recovered and on this second chance, they got the score.
Greatest sports moment I’ve seen on TV was Aaron Boone’s home run for the Yankees against Boston in 2003. That game was dramatic as all hell and had all the qualities of a great Yankee comeback. The fact that I inadvertently predicted Boone’s home run by talking about a home run he’d hit in a similar situation earlier in the year was a nice bonus.
I have to admit, this was a good one. I was in Montreal that day, and the locals, by and large, were pulling for the Phillies, so it was all the better.
The OP did state “something else altogether,” so I’ll mention that I arrived in Paris just after France won the World Cup in 1998. Pure bedlam. Fandom gone wild. A two- or three-week long party atmosphere. Kinda scary, but fun.
My favorite moment, however, is literary. I know many ball fans hate Don DeLillo’s Underworld, but for me, the first fifty pages or so, in the stands with Gleason, Sinatra, Hoover and Shor at the 1951 Giants-Dodgers series, is just classic stuff. Most people who’ve read the book fixate on the description of Gleason’s monumental puking act, and Sinatra’s ruined shoes, but I preferred Hoover’s morbid musings. Anyway, a great piece of writing, and I don’t care whether any of them were actually at the game that day.
The most exciting games I’ve been to in person:
-Game 4 of the 1997 World Series because it was such a thrill see my Cleveland Indians in the World Series in person, even if it was snowing at the time, and it was.
-The NFL 1988 season finale being the Browns and the Oilers. Again during a snowstorm, th Browns, behind 3rd stringer Don Strock at QB, came from behind 23-7 to beat the Oilers and clinch a playoff spot.
For me it is baseball. I need four categories +1: Best Postseason game I ever watched/was at. Best regular season game I ever watched/was at.
1. There was something extra magical about the Chris Chambliss walk-off homerun in the 1976. This was the first time in my life the Yanks made the playoffs. The Yanks and NYC fortunes had been very low. For the Yanks things were getting better, it took longer for NYC.
1x. The one game, winner take all playoff game in 1978, best known to Boston as the Bucky “f’ing” Dent Homer.
That was so exciting, as was Lou Pinella’s blind grab and Reggie’s insurance Home run that we ended up needing. I was only 12.
2. I was at game 1 of the 2000 subway series. We were up in the nosebleeds but behind home plate at least. I grew up reading about all the old baseball lore and especially the subways series of the 50s. I always hoped I would see one.
This game had it all. It was a 12 inning affair that featured great pitching, a ninth inning 42 bounce dribbler by Louie Sojo to tie the game and a clutch rally off Armando Benitez capped by a sacrifice fly by utility player Jose Vizcaino.
**3. ** The best regular season game I ever watched has to go my a small hair to Boomer Wells and his perfect game. It was perfect and there is little more to say.
David Wells (NYY) LHP, 34 120 pitches, 11 K
May 17, 1998 Minnesota Twins, 0 at New York Yankees, 4
Venue: Yankee Stadium, day game Attendance: 49,820 Time: 2:40
Caught by: Jorge Posada Umpired by: Tim McClelland
**4. ** The best regular season game I was ever at was a Friday Night, rainy, 14 inning affair against the Twins on May 17, 2002. The teams had battled back and forth. It started drizzling around the 7th. Bernie Williams hit a ninth inning Homer to send it to extra innings. Earlier in the game, someone hit a long fly that bounced off Jacque Jones’ glove and over the wall for a homer. In the 14th, the Yanks were down 12 to 9 and the Yanks managed to load the bases. I am sitting in the right field bleachers with my friends. The pitch is thrown, the skies crack open with rain as Jason connects and sends the ball in an arc just over my head. On the infinite replays, you can see the ball sail over me wearing my green breaker and Yankee hat. Wow, just wow!
One of my coworkers was there. Her husband works for the Giants. I was jealous to say the least.
That was the best Football game I ever watched.
The best one I attended was the Giants regular season victory over the Skins at the memorial game for Mr. Mara. Tiki ran at will and the defense did not allow a point. It was quite the drubbing. The final was 36-0. That was October 30, 2005.
Jim
