best sporting events you've seen IRL
hammertime
2,389 Posts
Northwestern State beating Iowa with a 3 at the buzzer in the 1st round of the 2006 NCAA Tournament.close calls:I was at the "Miracle at Michigan" game, but I had to leave early because my friend had to be back in Toledo for a hockey game. Urgh.I also swear I was at the game where Eric Davis hit for the cycle, but that may be my imagination running away with me...I should ask my dad.
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So, you saw the gold medal game?
Or did you see the USSR game too?
1997 NCAA Championship Game- Arizona beats UK in OT. Great game...
2004- Red Sox over Angels in the ALDS game 3...David Ortiz wins the series on a walk off home run.
Pats over Colts in 2004 AFC Divisional round...One of the most dominant team performances I've ever seen.
Few other Pats-Colts tilts are memorable...
I saw Kevin McHale put up 56 against Detroit in '85.
Nine days later Bird dropped 60, but I wasn't there.
The game was good, but the Brazilian crowd was
They had to tell them to "quiet down" as they were worried the top tiers of the stadium were bouncing in a dangerous manner. It was seriously moving a good 50cm or so. Crazy
The gold medal game vs Finland, so technically that pic is wrong, I know...
I was also at the infamous Reggie-Bar game at Yankee Stadium, opening day 1978.
Saw the first Night game @ Camden Yards vs the Indians. Saw the first homer run hit in the stadium (I believe it was Mark Lewis of the Indians, but I can't confirm on google).
Saw a last second 3 pointer by Marbury when he was in Phoenix against the Sonics.
Witnessed Jose Jimenez no-hit the Diamondbacks.
Saw Opening day one year...Diamondbacks vs the Phillies.
I think that's it.
I was at the Stanford-Cal game in 1982 for The Play.
I was also at the 1989 World Series when the earthquake hit.
That arena looks like it's filled with human bananas!!!
I saw Esposito have his number (7) retired, which was when Bourque switched to 77.
1999 ALDS, Game 3. Sox down 2-0, facing elimination. Fans resuscitate "Darrr-yyllll" chant from ???86, switching it to "Jar-et." Jaret Wright loses his composure in one of the most humiliating professional sports implosions I've ever witnessed. Sox come back to utterly destroy Cleveland. Wright is emotionally scarred for life.
Some random Sox game in 2000 (or 2001?) Pedro is pitching against the Yanks. K-cards are distributed. A couple of friends and I are drunk in the bleachers. We start making paper airplanes out of K-cards. Within moments, 10,000 drunken bleacher bums are throwing paper K-card airplanes at the Yankee bullpen. Play is suspended while several dozen fans are ejected. My friends and I are not.
Also, Game 7 against St. Louis in '06 when Beltran struck out looking with them loaded in the bottom of the 9th. Even though they lost it was easily the best game I was ever at. Got to witness firsthand Endy Chavez making the greatest catch of all time (I can still see the ball landing in his glove, I was the first in my section to realize he caught it and screamed OH SHIT loud enough for the stadium to hear), and the only reason it's not recognized as so is because they lost the game.
Greatest catch of all-time (imo) was made by Kevin Mitchell
Dude cut off the head of his girlfriend's cat in a cocaine-fueled frenzy. I have to respectfully disagree.
Right? I don't think that can technically be considered a catch at all, never mind G.O.A.T.
At least that's what a coked-up Gooden said.
Snagging a 300 foot line drive bare-handed is some next level shit though.
Can't find it on youtube.
How was this not a "catch"
Huh?
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071227/SPORTS0202/712270314/1001/SPORTS
Setting it up: Southern Cal came into the game at Tiger Stadium ranked No. 1 in the nation, and LSU was ranked 20th. USC was riding an 11-game winning streak. LSU, faced with rebuilding an offensive line and replacing its all-time rushing leader, Charlie Alexander, was expected to have a so-so season in Charlie McClendon's 18th and final year as LSU's head coach, but after opening with a 44-0 win over Colorado and a 47-3 thrashing of Rice, LSU was tops in the country in total offense (483 yards per game) and No. 3 in defense (122.5 ypg). USC arguably had the best team to ever play in Tiger Stadium. They had two Heisman Trophy winners in senior tailback Charles White ('79) and sophomore tailback Marcus Allen ('81), Lombardi winner Brad Budde and future Hall of Famers in defensive back Ronnie Lott and offensive lineman Anthony Munoz. The team that suited up that night for USC had 12 All-Americans, 12 first-round draft choices and 31 players who would spend at least one season in the NFL. The Trojans, hailed by some as college football's Team of the Half-Century," were favored by two touchdowns.
What made it great: "The game was such an inspiration that, in LSU lore, it now holds the same kind of mythic quality as the Alamo does for Texans," wrote Marty Mul?? in "Game of My Life - Memorable Stories of LSU Football."
Bill Carter, former sports editor of The Alexandria Town Talk, wrote after the game: "Never in victory had LSU's football team been more gallant and more appreciated."
How close, this close: Probably less than an inch separated Tiger safety Marcus Quinn from USC's Kevin Williams, who ran past Quinn for the winning touchdown after catching an 8-yard pass from McDonald with 32 seconds left. The Trojans needed two penalties in the last six minutes to come from behind and beat an LSU team that had been in control most of the evening.
Players with key roles: White, for USC, got 185 yards on 31 carries and frequently got the Trojans out of a hole. For LSU, LeRoid Jones caught a 13-yard touchdown pass from Steve Ensminger to cap a 13-play, 60-yard drive. Jones, a third-string tailback, had come off the bench to replace Hokie Gajan and Jude Hernandez, who were injured early. Ensminger came off the bench to replaced quarterback David Woodley, who had been brilliant in LSU's first two games but had done poorly in the Tigers' first two series. Woodley later returned in the second half to give the Trojans fits with his execution of the option. Junior cornerback Chris Williams of Tioga intercepted a McDonald bomb to Williams in the end zone. Williams batted the ball up in the air, leaped for it, juggled it and snagged it while diving in the end zone. With LSU leading 12-3, Williams also missed a golden opportunity for an interception that would've almost surely resulted in a return for a touchdown. Center John Ed Bradley did a heroic job handling USC nose guard Ty Sperling and, on occasion, the talented Lott, who was often used as a linebacker on blitzes. Don Barthels kicked two field goals, from 32 and 28 yards, for LSU, which failed to convert a 2-point conversion pass after its lone touchdown.
That hurts: Leading 12-10 and having just recovered a fumble at the USC 22, the Tigers failed to capitalize. An offensive interference penalty and a delay of game penalty helped spoil a drive. The unkindest penalty came against LSU on USC's final drive. On third-and-9 at the USC 36, a Trojan lineman jumped before the snap and when McDonald intentionally threw the ball away to avoid a sack and a flag fluttered to the turf, the home crowd ??? probably the loudest Tiger Stadium had to that point ever been for a full game ??? started celebrating. But umpire Nail Gareb of the Pac-10 called a facemask penalty against LSU's Benjy Thibodeaux, whose hand brushed McDonald's helmet as he made the tackle. That erased the real possibilities for an offsides or an intentional grounding penalty and led to USC's winning score.
Last gasp: LSU had one last chance for a miracle, on the next-to-last play, when Ensminger lofted a 30-yard pass to streaking Willie Turner in the end zone, but the ball fell through Turner's hands as he tried to make the catch and stay in bounds in the back of the end zone.
Final word: "When you look at our team compared to theirs," McClendon said, "one-on-one, or even 11-on-11, the differences are obvious. But when you put a team before a crowd like tonight's, in a game like this, then that team must be measured from (the heart). When a team plays with its heart, then the measuring stick between one team and another shortens."
Other Favorites:[/b]
1981: Watching the LSU Tigers basketball team at the Superdome in New Orleans beat Arkansas then Wichita State to reach the Final 4. Rudy Macklin, Howard Carter, Ethan Martin, Greg Cook, Leonard Mitchell, Willie Sims...great team.
1981: LSU versus Tulane football at the Superdome. Both goalposts were ripped down by fans BEFORE THE GAME EVEN STARTED. Tulane went on to cream LSU 48-7. Then both goalposts were ripped down by fans AGAIN.
1982: North Carolina versus Houston, Final 4 basketball. Michael Jordan, James Worthy & Sam Perkins versus Akeem Olajuwon & Clyde Drexler, 'nuff said.
1989-1991: Texas versus Oklahoma football. During my 4 years at Texas, Peter Gardere, a dude I played against in high school, led the Horns to 4 straight wins over the Sooners...and I was at the first 3 of them at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
1990: LSU versus Houston, football. #3 versus #6, Butch Hadnot ran all over the Cougars for a 45-24 Longhorns win.
1990: LSU versus Texas, basketball. Chris Jackson scored 51, Shaquille Oneal broke the SEC record for blocked shots, and the Tigers beat the Longhorns, led by Travis Mays, Lance Blanks, and Benford Williams, by a score of 124-113 at the Houston Summit.
I've seen people in the stands do the same thing without spilling their beer, on balls that I could HEAR whizzing over my head. That's a youtube video I'd like to see, a compilation of the greatest foul ball/stray hockey puck snares of all time.
Saw a guy last year reach into the row in front of him to knock a ball away that was headed straight for a baby's face; the father was frozen since he was cradling the child. People were lining up to buy the guy a beer after that.
Swaboda 4 Life!
I was at that game too, Indianapolis right?
Best for me was the 2005 Elite 8, Illinois v. Arizona, Deron Williams, Luther Head and Co. come back from 15 down with about four to play to win in overtime.
Another memorable game was seeing the White Sox beat the Red Sox in nineteen back in the summer of '06.