Non-American Football-Corner Kick
Live in person? I saw Jacoby Ellsbury do it on ESPN 3 years ago vs. the Yankees, but it was kind of spoiled by the commentators not figuring out what was happening until he suddenly appeared in the frame, then taking several eons to show a replay.
My favorite plays:
Baseball:
-inside-the-park HR
-diving catch of a foul ball over a dugout railing or camera well
-straight steal of home. Ellsbury’s above was extra awesome because he had it stolen so badly that he actually kind of tripped and fell going into the base and it made no difference at all.
Soccer:
-the perfect cross that is launched from the wing, curls in, and lands right at a running player’s head as they blast it into the goal
-the rare beautifully clean slide tackle that dispossesses a player and leaves them wondering what happened. Like this example by Philipp Lahm (YouTube)
-goalkeepers getting an assist. I only saw it once, from Manuel Neuer during the England-Germany match in WC 2010, but it still makes me laugh 2 years later.
I almost saw one. As in, I was at the park, in the stands, watching the game…but I was paying as much attention to the guy on third as the pitcher was, and missed the part where he came down the line and actually crossed the plate.
I have seen an inside the park home run, though.
It’s a tossup which of these is my favorite. I’ll also throw in the triple-play (in any way, shape, or form).
I saw, in person, Bob Robertson (Pirate first baseman) hit a ball way into the sixth level of Three Rivers Stadium. Had eye contact with it the whole way, it just kept going and going.
Table tennis: a series of sharp cross-table forehands followed by an unexpected winner forehand down the line.
Bowling: a converted 7-10 spare.
Golf: chip-in eagle out of a sand bunker.
Baseball: Grand Salami.
American football: Safety; triple reverse, hell, just about any kind of reverse; flea flicker, fake punt.
Basketball: Dunk off an alley oop, any well-run fast break
Baseball: Suicide squeeze
Football: Since I was a kid, I always loved the ‘Go’ pattern. Just pure WR speed and a QB with a strong arm launching the ball as far as he can to be the CB and Safety.
Baseball: a 3rd Baseman’s running barehanded catch and throw all in one motion after a bunt or weakly hit ground ball. Pure beauty.
Tennis: one of those bending passing shots down the line that look like they’re going out but curl back in.
Soccer: curling free kicks. I was recently at the Brazil-Argentina game at MetLife stadium and was just behind the right side of the net to see Messi’s amazing bending goal. Perfect angle, and so much more spectacular to watch live.
American football: the fumblerooski is amazing when it works, though it is now illegal except for equally awesome variations.
Soccer: the scorpion kick, a pointless yet truly cool play.
Golf: an albatross, or double eagle if you prefer.
Basketball: I don’t know the name of it exactly, but that thing Reggie Miller used to do where he’d weave his way through defenders all over the court, never ceasing to move, and would invariably catch the ball beyond the three-point arc and bury it. (Rip Hamilton does this too.)
Hockey: Spectacular saves.
Football: An interception very near the offense’s own goal line, which is very quickly and easily run in for a touchdown. Also, I like kickoff returns for a touchdown, and clutch field-goal kicking.
Baseball: A player continuing to foul the ball off, burning out the pitcher, and finally making him pay for it with a key hit.
Team handball: A diving shot that takes the player from just outside the goal zone to inside it.
Soccer
The bicycle kick:
This goal was scored by Klaus Fischer (who was famous for his bicycle kicks) in 1977 and was voted goal of the year, goal of the decade and subsequently goal of the century.
Other than that, direct scores off corner kicks are always neat to watch, like this one by David Beckham:
Team handball
The so-called Kempa play, taken to the extreme in this spectacular goal:
Addendum to my previous post:
Klaus Fischer still can do it. Here he is, at age 60, doing his bicycle kick in front of a TV audience:
These are not stolen bases, and don’t show up in the box scores as such. In both cases the runners simply advanced to home on batted balls, and the defense failed to put them out. What’s unusual is that the runners took extra bases when they caught the defensive team napping.
Most steals of home happen on double steals - there are runners on first and third, and both runners take off on the pitch. Often the runner from third will wait for the catcher to throw before taking off. I saw this happen most recently by the Angels against the A’s on September 5th.
I guess my favorite baseball play is an outfield assist. I can appreciate it even when it goes against my team. I remember when Ichiro, in his first season with the Mariners, threw out Terrence Long of the A’s when Long tried to go from 1st to 3rd on a single to right. I think it was opening night of the 2001 season in Oakland. Ichiro’s throw really got everyone’s attention - it was the first time while playing in the U.S. that he demonstrated his great arm.
Baseball’s pace and structure allow for a lot of suspense. Most of the best plays have been called out already; the suicide squeeze, the runner tagging from 3rd on a relatively shallow fly ball, pretty much any stolen base attempt (especially home), those kinds of plays that you can watch develop with anticipation. There are, of course, spectacular plays that catch you by surprise, like a great diving catch. Most baseball fans can find appreciation even in a simple play like the ground out to the right side with a runner on 2nd and no outs.
Cricket: A legspinner bowling a right-handed batter behind their legs. It takes a phenomenal amount of technique to impart the spin needed, and it usually needs to be set up by several overs of lulling the batter into a false sense of security.
A few examples from Shane Warne here:
Rugby League and Rugby Union: A good long cutout pass. Ricky Stuart used to be wonderful at this. Out of the corner of his eye he’d notice that one of the defenders twenty metres across the field had stepped up just a touch too far out of the defensive line. Blam. Twenty metre pass and an instant later the “hole” has been exploited.
Soccer: Putting the ball to one side of a defender and running around his other side to pick it up. eg Dennis Bergkamp’s magical goal against Newcastle, which is the most sublime moment of quick thinking I’ve ever seen in any sport:
Golf: A player using the contours of the course to get the ball close to the hole with a low shot from distance. eg No link, but I remember when Sergio Garcia was still a youngster he hit a 2-iron at the Road Hole (17th) at St Andrews. The pin was at the far left of the green and Sergio hit a shot that wouldn’t have gone more than 10-12 metres high at any point in its flight. The ball landed about 30 metres short of the green, rolled up to the green, curved almost square around the famous Road Hole bunker, and ended up about a foot from the hole. That was the kind of shot only a young player with a great deal of nous could pull off. I doubt that he’d ever even try that shot now that he’s older and wiser.
I know the OP wasn’t asking for specific plays, I just provided the links and anecdotes as examples.
In 1982, Uwe Reinders scored a goal against Bayern Munich goalkeeper legend Jean-Marie Pfaff with a throw-in (Pfaff deflected the ball into his own goal):
(starting at 0:13)I’ve never heard of this being done before or after on this level of soccer.
Nope. Yogi quite obviously agrees with you.
Extremely close play. Safe or out, it’s about a millimeter either way.
In baseball, there’s something about a walk-off home run that sets it apart from any other play. The batter rounding third, his teammates waiting at the dish, flipping the batting helmet off so it doesn’t get pounded down onto his shoulders, and the touching of the plate.
Larry Walker, who had a cannon of an arm, threw out a couple of slow runners at first base, turning routine singles to right field into outs.
Barry Bonds once said a goal of his was to throw out a runner at first base from left field. I always thought that was awesome. I don’t know if he ever did, and I can’t think of any time it’s happened for anyone. I imagine it’d have to be a slow, left-handed batter, and possibly with an infield shift so that the shortstop can’t get to the ball hit in the hole.
Football: the hook-and-ladder. Only used in desperate scenarios (football places so much emphasis on ball control, that the risk/reward calculation never favors letting go of the ball). But when it works, it’s beautiful.
Baseball: I’ve heard it say that the triple is the most exciting play in baseball, and I can’t argue with that. Especially (as someone said above) if there’s an outfielder with a cannon arm and it’s really close at 3B.