One of my personal favorites, because there’s a little schadenfreude mixed in. May 1, 1991 Rickey Henderson breaks Lou Brock’s all-time stolen base record, and proclaims that “Today I am the greatest!” Then a few hours later Nolan Ryan goes out and throws a no-hitter – his seventh! Who’s the greatest, Rickey?
For me too, and the one athlete who always stood out with fair play the most is Miro Klose, record WC scorer with 16 goals. His best example: when he unintentionally netted the ball with his hand in a Seria A game for SSC Napoli against Lazio Roma and the ref called it a valid goal (this was in 2012, before VAR), he informed the ref that his goal had been scored illegally and it was annulled. I’ve watched thousands of football games in my life, but have never seen such a thing before or after.
(sorry, could only find a link with Arabic commentary)
Derrike Cope winning the Daytona 500 in 1990. The race was not shown live in Western Washington where Cope grew up, the local CBS station showed a Seattle Sonics-Charlotte Hornets basketball game instead. The management for KIRO tv was slammed for this decision by the local racing fans and the media. Especially considering the basketball game featured two of the worst teams in the league that season. Sorry about the long post, there was a lot of back story to this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OdW-VXgMl4
1980 Winter Olympics Hockey Semi-Finals. USA vs. CCCP
Greatest backstory, Greatest inspirational game (affected a nation), Greatest sports call (The whole last minute)
I rewatch the whole game every couple of years and still get goosebumps. I saw the game “live”.
I was in boot camp that day. The cold war was still on. We beat the Soviets!! No we didn’t watch the game, my Senior Drill Instructor Gunnery Sergeant Leland Deuel came into the squadbay with the bold newspaper headlines that morning yelling, “We beat the Russian bastards!!”
I’ll always remember that day.
I’m enjoying the great stories so far.
My post: Ayrton Senna, the greatest. He could make his car dance. Especially in the rain.
Beat me to it. Yes, whenever I think about what’s good about sports, I remember these two Central Washington players carrying the injured Western Oregon hitter around the bases, so she’d get credit for the one and only home run of her playing career.
