Champions League semifinals, 2019. Tottenham Hotspur on the road against Ajax in Amsterdam, needing to outscore them by 3 in the second half to advance to the final…and they did it!! All 3 goals from Lucas Moura, the last very late in stoppage time. I have never been that exhilarated about the end of a sporting event in my life.
Since then, the game has been known as the Miracle of Amsterdam, and only in looking for that Youtube video did I realize that there’s apparently some religious thing of the same name…
I gather that you’re not a football (soccer) fan. Trust me, Miro Klose is one of the best strikers of all time. He doesn’t only hold the WC scoring record, but also is the most successful scorer for the national German team with 71 goals. A legend, and a decent and modest human being. I love that guy.
Magic Johnson plays 42 minutes in game 2 of the 1988 NBA championship series despite suffering from flu-related diarrhea. Given the risks - on national TV, no less! - truly a champion demonstration of sphincter control (I’m sure the medical treatment he received before the game helped, too).
Mike Henson’s “perfect wave”. A ride so long that it couldn’t be captured on a single roll of film. (starting at 1:20 in this clip from Endless Summer.
Ali may have had greater fights (e.g. Frazier, Foreman), but his second fight with Liston resulted in one of the most iconic sports images of all time.
1985, when even Cardinal fans felt sorry for Tom Niedenfuer.
Vin Scully’s classic line: “You would think the fates would be a little kinder to one man in such a short amount of time.”
In the lead-up to the 1956 Olympics the Australian National Athletics Championships featured the world record holder (3:58) John Landy. Midway through the race there was contact between the front runners and Ron Clarke (then world junior champion and later to break 17 world records) fell. Landy was behind the incident but needed to hurdle the prone Clarke and in doing so spiked him. Landy stopped, went back to check on Clarke before rejoining the race at Clarke’s urging some distance (and 6-7 seconds) behind the pack.
Landy made up the distance and went on to win the race in 4:04
Cope got lucky in that Dale Earnhardt, the leader in the final laps, lost a tire on the very last lap when he ran over some debris. Earnhardt had fresh tires too, while Cope did not.
This is almost 10 minutes long but it’s worth it. Really, it has everything, drama, courage, as well as commentary by the best sports broadcaster ever. We were at LAX to pick up a friend and watched this from a bar on the concourse with about a million screaming Angelinos. (Seems like only yesterday.)
My Kirk Gibson submission is from the 1984 World Series, Tigers vs. Padres. The Tigers are up 5-4 in the eighth inning. Gibson comes up with two men on and one out against Goose Gossage. Everyone assumes Gibson will be intentionally walked. But Gossage is certain he can strike Gibson out, so he talks his manager, Dick Williams, into letting him pitch to him.
Gibson’s manager, Sparky Anderson, can’t believe it. He is shown in the dugout yelling “He don’t wanna walk you!” and gleefully giving Gibson the “hit away” signal.
A team filled with slap-hitting, baserunning-savvy, risk-taking average Joes, the Royals came into 2015 with a big chip on their shoulder after being 90 feet away from tying it up in the 9th inning of Game 7 the year before. They went on to post the best record in the AL. They spent the playoffs fighting off elimination at every turn. As the Mets started building a little bit of momentum in Game 5, Eric Hosmer and 3rd base coach Mike Jirschele had noticed that Mets firstbaseman Lucas Duda was having issues throwing from first. When the time came, they took advantage of a risky opportunity.
Australia won its very first Winter Olympics gold medal when speed skater Steven Bradbury, who had been a consistent fifth out of five the entire race, and entered the final lap as a fairly distant fifth, came back to win when the four guys in front of him all wiped out on the final lap. It really must be seen to believed.
Game 7. The two greatest words in sports. The Nationals and Astros had come in, each of them taking three games so far on the opponent’s home field. Each team starts a former Cy Young winner in this winner-take-all game.
The Nats complete their destiny and finish the fight as the greatest comeback team of all-time with Howie Kendrick’s home-run clank off the foul pole to win our first World Series.
I wasn’t born yet at the time, so…would it be like, from a Chinese perspective, like as if China had beaten Team USA in basketball at the 2008 Beijing Olympics?
Or like, Russia today beating some hypothetical team of NFL All-Star American football players in a game of football?
(starting at 1:20 in this clip from Endless Summer.
