Greatest Moments

1 OCTOBER 15, 1988    Game 1, 1988 World Series.

    For most of Game 1, hobbled Dodger outfielder Kirk Gibson was in the trainer's room, sitting in a tub of ice. It didn't appear as if Gibson, the NL MVP and only major star in the Dodgers lineup, would play in the Series.
   The much-favored Oakland Athletics led 4-3 in the ninth, thanks to grand slam from Jose Canseco, their own MVP winner. (Canseco hit 42 homers in 1988; the entire Dodger lineup hit 41).
   Oakland relief ace Dennis Eckersley, trying to protect the lead, retired the first two Dodgers in the bottom of the ninth. Then Eckersley, who walked only 11 batters all season in compiling 45 saves, issued a pass to pinch-hitter Mike Davis. Out of the dugout limped Gibson, batting for Alejandro Pena. Gibson battled the almost invincible Eckersley to a full count. Eck wanted to throw a fastball, but acquiesced to catcher Ron Hassey, who signaled for a slider.
     Gibson was looking for the backdoor slider, and reached for it - using virtually one hand, he drove it over the right-field wall to give the Dodgers a stunning 5-4 victory. As Gibson pumped his arms rounding the bases, Dodger Stadium simply exploded. It is still the only Series game ever decided on a come-from-behind home run.
   It was Gibson's only at-bat of the Series, but the underdogs were so inspired that they routed the heavily favored A's in five games without him.

2 OCTOBER 3, 1951    The Shot Heard Around the World

   It was a story written with all the ingredients that Americans love so much - a lovable underdog, an ordinary man rising to meet an extraordinary challenge, the greatest and most improbable comeback in team sports history - and of course some last minute dramatics.

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3 SEPTEMBER 28, 1972    Henderson's Game-Winner

   Any Canadian who is old enough can probably tell you exactly where he was and what he was doing on September 28, 1972, when Paul Henderson scored the 6-5 goal at 19:26 of the final period.

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4 DECEMBER 23, 1972     The Immaculate Reception

     The Pittsburgh Steelers were the team of the 1970s, winning four Super Bowl titles and repeating twice as champs in the decade. But from 1933 to 1971, the Steelers (actually the Pirates for their first seven seasons) were as downtrodden a franchise as you could imagine: in those 39 years they appeared in exactly one postseason game - a 21-0 loss to the hated cross-state Eagles in 1947.

     The Steelers transformation from also-ran to dynasty began with one fortuitous ricochet, a play so improbable that it has since been nicknamed the "Immaculate Reception."

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5 OCTOBER 1, 1932     The Called Shot

   But for the controversy surrounding it, this would be higher - in fact, it would probably be #1. It's a story that seems larger than life, concerning baseball's greatest legend, in baseball's premier ballpark, in sports' biggest showcase. It has all the markings of a tall tale, yet almost seven decades later, the argument still rages: Did Babe Ruth call his shot, pointing to center-field before homering into the Wrigley Fields bleachers in Game 3 of the World Series?

     Personally, I believe that he did after a fashion ... but read on and decide for yourself.

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6 MAY 25, 1935     Jesse Owens Sets 4 Records

   Most sports analysts will tell you about Jesse Owens winning 4 gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Sports analysts will make the point that Owens flew in the face of the Fuhrer, rebutting notions of Aryan supremacy.

   Owens did nothing of the kind: Nazi ideology was based on a notion of a moral and spiritual superiority, not the kind of purely physical prowess that Owens demonstrated. All the hype about shaming Hitler is a little exaggerated; while thoroughly satisfying in a symbolic, politically correct sense, I doubt that it mattered to die-hard Nazis, who believed that blacks (and Jews) were morally or intellectually inferior to Aryans, that a black man could run faster or jump higher.

   Not only did Owens' performance fail to make any kind of ideological headway (except among Western propagandists), but few sports analysts will tell you that Owens and Ralph Metcalf were last minute substitutes for Sam Stoller and Marty Glickman, the only Jews on the U.S. track team. (Reportedly, the Nazis went to the Americans and requested that they not run a team with Jews on it, so that the Nazis would save face at home).

   The political overtones of his four-medal performance at the Berlin Olympics in 1936 are undeniably huge, but those medals are somewhat tainted by the last-minute switch.

   On the other hand, from the point of view of pure athleticism, Owens greatest achievement came about a year earlier. On one afternoon, on May 25, 1935, Ohio State sophomore Owens set 3 world records and tied another. At 3:15 pm, he ran the 100-yard dash in 9.4 seconds, to tie the world record; at 3:25 pm, his only long jump went 26-8 1/4, a world record that would last 25 years; at 3:34 pm, he ran the 220-yard dash in 20.3 seconds, another world record; and at 4:00 pm his 22.6-seconds performance in the 220-yard low hurdles was the first time anyone broke 23 seconds in the event.

7 MAY 6, 1954     The Four-Minute Mile

   This isn't so much a moment of pure athletic success as it is a demonstration that when an athlete or team overcomes some psychological or physical barrier, suddenly others are confident that the barrier no longer exists. Before Englishman Roger Bannister ran a mile in under 4 minutes in 1954, the feat was widely believed to be physically impossible. By the end of 1957, 16 other runners had also broken the four-minute mile. Bannister's run is more impressive still when you consider that he had to contend with a 15 mph crosswind during the race and gusts of 25 mph.

8 MAY 8, 1970     Game 7, 1970 NBA Finals

   After sitting out part of Game 5 and all of Game 6 with a torn muscle in his right leg, Knicks' star center and captain Willis Reed wasn't sure if he could play Game 7. In Game 6, Wilt Chamberlain's 45 points and 27 rebounds enabled the Lakers to tie the series at 3-3.
   When the teams took the floor for pre-game warmups, Reed was not with his New York teammates. But just moments before tip-off, he limped through the tunnel and onto the court - a bedlam ensued at the Garden the likes of which the old arena didn't see again until the 1994 Stanley Cup playoff finals. Reed lined up against Chamberlain for the opening tap and scored the Knicks' first two baskets of the game.
   Those would prove to be his only points, but his presence alone was enough to inspire the Knicks to a 113-99 victory, and the franchise's first NBA Championship. The game was really decided by halftime, when the Knicks were up 69-42, but in a sense it really over the moment Reed stepped onto the court and brought the house down.
   Overshadowed by Reed's emotion-charged effort was one of the great playoff performances in NBA history by Knicks' guard Walt Frazier, who had 36 points and 19 assists.

9 OCTOBER 18, 1968   Beamon's Long Jump Record

   Records are supposed to be broken by the tiniest of calibrations - a millisecond here, a centimeter there - not by demolition. Then there's Bob Beamon's long jump in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, where the evolutionary, minute progress of human excellence took a quantum leap.
   The 22-year-old long jumper sped 19 strides down the runway, took off, ascended to a height of six feet, and finally landed an incomprehensible 29 feet, 2½ inches later. That leap not only made Beamon the first man to jump 29 feet, but it also made him the first man to jump 28 feet.
   Soviet jumper Igor Ter-Ovanesyan had the previous record of 27 feet, 4¾ inches, tied with Ralph Boston; Jesse Owens had set a record of 26-8¼ in 1935 that had held up for 25 years. From 1960 to 1967, the record was broken or tied eight times by Boston or Ter-Ovanesyan - yet it had climbed just 8½ inches. In one jump, Beamon stretched the record by an incredible one foot, 9¾ inches. It was a record Beamon would keep for almost 23 years, until Mike Powell hit 29-4½ on Aug. 30, 1991 at Tokyo.

10 JUNE 9, 1973    Secretariat Wins Triple Crown

   His owners called him Big Red: only four other horses oppose Secretariat, the 1-10 favorite. Secretariat rushed to the lead, but was soon challenged by Sham, who had finished second to Secretariat in both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness

   The two horses raced the half mile in 46 1/5, a suicide pace for a mile-and-a-half race. But then Secretariat, with Ron Turcotte aboard, began pulling away, and ran the mile in a stunning 1:34 1/5. The chestnut colt reached the mile and a quarter in 1:59, faster than he ran in setting the Kentucky Derby record (which still stands today).

   Then, racing not against other horses but against something within him, he finished the last quarter in an astonishing 25 seconds and won by an amazing 31 lengths over Twice a Prince.

   In winning the Triple Crown before a crowd of 69,138, Secretariat set a world record of 2:24, breaking Gallant Man's Belmont mark by an incredible 2 3/5 seconds. Secretariat was the first horse since Citation - 25 years ago - to win the Triple Crown.

11 JANUARY 11, 1987    "The Drive"

   Quarterback John Elway has led the Broncos back from defeat many times, but his performance in the 1986 AFC championship game against the Browns tops the list of his heroics.

   Any given Sunday ... a legend is born, or a city will lay in ruins.

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12 APRIL 8, 1974            Aaron hits #715

   Alphabetically, the first name in The Baseball Encyclopedia is "Aaron, Hank." And on April 8, 1974, he became the leading man of baseball, cracking through Babe Ruth's most insurmountable record of all.

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13 JANUARY 10, 1982        "The Catch"

   Dwight Clark's leaping, stretching, fingertip reception at Candlestick Park wasn't just a catch - it is "The Catch," one of the most replayed touchdown plays in NFL history. But as remarkable as the play was, there was a lot of drama that surrounded it.

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14   JUNE 11, 1950    Ben Hogan Wins U.S. Open

   I was strongly tempted to include three moments on my list - Lance Armstrong's victory at the 1999 Tour De France after surviving testicular cancer; Mario Lemieux winning the NHL scoring title in 1996, after surviving Hodgkin's disease; and this one.

   Each of these moments epitomize the kind of courage and determination in the face of unimaginable adversity that sports is all about. These moments are arguably more like tales of personal triumph, not great sports moments; nevertheless, at the risk of being overly sentimental, I think this one merits inclusion as a legitimate top-20 moment in sports history.

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15   MAY 5, 1969    Game 7, 1969 NBA Finals

   The 1968-69 Celtics were considered by many to be too old to win yet another title, and a 48-34 regular season and fourth place finish in the East did nothing to dissuade this opinion. But Boston came on strong in the postseason, beating Philadelphia and New York to once again move into the NBA Finals.

   Their opponent was the Los Angeles Lakers, and with Wilt Chamberlain at center; the Lakers had lost to the Celtics in six previous Finals matchups, but this was the first time when they had - by consensus - the better team.

   The rivals battled to a seventh game, which took place in Los Angeles, where Laker team officials had positioned thousands of balloons in nets near the ceiling of the Forum in anticipation of their first championship since the team moved to California a decade earlier. But that celebration was not to be. It was a tightly fought game that came down to the final seconds, when the Celtics' Don Nelson put up a jumper.

   The shot hit the back of the rim and took the ultimate shooter's bounce - it hopped several feet into the air and then nestled into the net, to give Boston a 108-106 victory. It was the Celtics' 11th title in 13 years, and it marked the end of pro basketball's greatest dynasty.

16 JANUARY 8, 1999      The Music City Miracle

   Tennessee had the best wild card record ever (13-3), and, as four-point favorites at home, they were hardly expected to win this way, but in a measure of revenge for "The Comeback," they stunned the Buffalo Bills with the wildest finish in wild card history, thanks to a play that they drew up in the dirt.

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17 AUGUST 6, 1926   The Young Woman and the Sea

   A lot of great female athletes have registered remarkable accomplishments against other women - Babe Didrikson, Martina Navratilova, Billie Jean King, Mary Lou Retton, and Steffi Graf. In a sense, then, their accomplishments are tainted by soft competition - that is, they just didn't succeed against the same kind of competitive field that men have had to breach.

   But what Gertrude Eberle did, she did on terms that no man could deny. At the time, the longest swimming event for women in the Olympics was just 400 m - the idea of a lady enduring the 21-mile English Channel crossing was laughable. Five men had done it (officially), but all had used the breast stroke; that Ederle was going to use the front crawl, a stroke considered too strenuous for a distance swim, made her achievement that much more far-fetched.

   Lloyd's of London made her a 7-1 underdog. Twice during the swim, her trainer, aboard the tugboat that accompanied Ederle, suggested to the 19-year-old swimmer that she give up her quest. During the last few hours, she had to buck a rough sea, the tide running strongly against her and a stinging spray in her face. Finally, a favorable current swept her to Kingsdown Beach in England.
   Not only was she the first woman to swim it, but she crossed in one hour and 52 minutes faster than any man had ever swam it. She started in the morning at Cape Gris-Nez, France, and finished in Kingsdown, 14 hours and 31 minutes in the water. She swam 35 miles in rough water to complete the 21-mile crossing.
   Ederle's crossing challenged perceptions of female athletes and inspired countless women to take up various sports; more than anyone except for Babe Didrikson, she had a profound effect on women's sports. But more than that, she succeeded against long odds on a geneder-neutral playing field.

18 JUNE 14, 1998    Game 6, 1998 NBA Finals

   With Chicago trailing 86-83 in the final minute, in Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals, you just knew that Michael Jordan would be the pivotal figure in the game. And indeed, everyone in the Delta Center - Utah Jazz coaches and players included - knew the ball would end up in his hands. And in one brief, devastating burst of brilliance at the end of Game 6, Jordan secured another championship for the Bulls - a repeat three-peat, if you will.

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19 NOVEMBER 23, 1984    Boston College 47, Miami 45

   In retrospect, Miami's problem was that they scored too efficiently. The touchdown that put them ahead 45-41 came with 28 seconds to play, and BC Eagles quarterback Doug Flutie needed just 6 seconds to become a college legend.

   With his team down and time running out, Flutie had the ball on his own 48. He called for "Flood Tip" - BC's version of "everyone go deep." The little, 5'9 3/4" quarterback scrambled back and to his right, giving four receivers time to reach the end zone. From his own 37-yard line, he plants his left foot and lets it fly, 64 yards in the air ... in the rain, into the teeth of a fierce wind, into a crowd of players ... and somehow found Gerard Phelan in the end zone. Flutie won the Heisman, BC won a Cotton Bowl bid over the defending national champions, and poor Bernie Kosar of Miami threw for 447 yards and no one noticed.

   Earlier in the game, Flutie had become the first to ever pass for more than 10,000 yards in a major-college career. Until today, no two college quarterbacks had ever surpassed 300 yards apiece in one game. Flutie finished with 472 yards.

20 NOVEMBER 20, 1982       Cal 25, Stanford 20

   Of all the millions of plays that have taken place in football history, just one is known as "The Play." It was so wacky and wonderful, so out of the ordinary, that it needs no other name.

   But what if Stanford trombonist Gary Tyrrell had made the tackle?

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