What was your most excited moment in sports?
What was your most excited moment in sports?
Fireworks, with Joe Carter on the screen being mobbed by his Blue Jays teammates when he crossed the plate after hitting his 1993 World Series winning home run in Toronto's Skydome.
In my case, it was in 1993. I had seasons tickets for 4 seats behind home plate half-way up the ground level in Toronto's Skydome for the Blue Jays baseball games from the time the franchise started. Best seats in the house and very expensive so I shared them with my brother, my wife's best friend and a neighbour who was also a good friend. When the tickets for the season arrived, we would meet and split them up by choosing games one-by-one, going around the table, and then made deals for pairs of tickets in some cases, sometimes even singles, so we each ended up with the games and teams we wanted to watch - sometimes 4 seats, sometimes 2, once in while just 1. The Yankee games were the most in demand.
In 1993 we met again to split up the American League Championship Series tickets, and the Jays having won that we met yet again to split up the World Series tickets. Included in my share I ended up with 2 tickets for the 6th game, and my wife and my son sat in those seats. However, when it looked like the 6th game could possibly be the winner, I begged my fellow director/officer of Variety Club of Ontario who was on the Board of Directors of Labbat's Brewries (a major sponsor of the Blue Jays) for a ticket, and he was able to get me one high up in the stands on the first base line.
I was sitting among many fans whom I didn't know, but everyone was excited as the game progressed. It was a great game, but in the bottom of the 9th we were losing to the Phillies, who were leading 6 to 5. We did get Paul Molitor and another player on 1st and 2nd, but there were 2 out when Joe Carter came to the plate. If he doesn't get a hit (or at least a walk leaving it up to another), the Phillies win the series. Joe got the hit, a 3-run homer, and we watched that line drive clear the left field wall, ending up in the stands. If I never before knew what the word "pandemonium" meant, I experienced it then. The woman next to me, whom I didn't know, grabbed me and hugged me as we were both jumping up and down screaming. That moment is one that to this day and for the rest of my life I will relive over and over, whenever I think of baseball.
Watch it on the video on this page.
What was YOUR most excited moment in sports? It could be one that you watched, or one you participated in.
Tags
Who is online
622 visitors
That was MY most excited moment in sports. What was yours?
Buzz, I'm laughing so hard I can barely type. Seeing the 1993 date on your most memorable game gave me a clue that explained an inside baseball joke that I had missed.
In 1994, the movie Major League II was released. This was about the return of the fictional Cleveland Indians team. At the beginning, the announcer (portrayed by then Milwaukee Brewers announcer Bob Eucker) says that the year before, the Indians had won the division from the Yankees and then lost in the ALCS to the White Sox, who went on to win the series (in real life, of course, that was the year that the Blue Jays won it). Then Eucker went on with his punch line, which I completely missed until just a few minutes ago. He said, "What can you say about those White Sox folks, except, at least they're not from Canada. It was only now that I realize that the team that actually won that series actually WAS from Canada. Eucker was a master at that kind of humor but a lot of people, including me, who didn't know as much about baseball as he did, usually missed the joke.
I've watched Major League II at least 3 times (most recently just before the Cubs/Cleveland series) and I never noticed that.
In fact, now I want to watch it again to look for that. I have always said that it doesn't bore me to watch a movie more than once, because there are bound to be things I missed the first time.
It comes right at the beginning of the movie (when he was still drinking bottled water on the air instead of the Jack Daniels he started consuming later).
The Major League movies are funny no matter how many times you see them. Do you have the DVD's? In the special features of the original Major League DVD that I have they tell about many of the things that went into making the movie. Among them is that the game scenes look like real ball games because they were. They filmed those scenes at real games in Baltimore before the game started. The fans fell into the right mood and waved lots of Cleveland signs while cheering wildly. There was also a scene from an alternate ending where the team owner confessed to the manager that she had been faking the evil witch routine all the time, using that to inspire the players by giving them something to pull them together (at least they were all in agreement that they hated her guts). They tried that ending at test viewings and found that the audience preferred that she stay the bad guy, so they redid it that way.
I think that last year the Cleveland Indians made a fatal mistake. They should have put Charlie Sheen in his Wild One Indians uniform to throw out the ceremonial first pitch, playing the Wild One music. (He was willing to do it, in fact wanted to do it.) I truly believe it was a Karmic step to take, a symbolic one, that I am sure would have changed the eventual outcome. However, I did want the Cubs to win it anyway.
The Astros switched Pitchers right before Konerko came up and the anticipation built throughout the delay. As soon as he hit it, there was an explosion of energy in the crowd.
This was also cool, when it became clear the greatest team in NFL history was going to it's first Super Bowl.
I have two, Billy Mills pulling off what is considered by many the biggest upset in track and field Olympics history. Gold Medal 10,000 meters.
The other would be the ''Miracle on Ice'' the 1980 Olympic Gold in Hockey. The majority of all the players were from Minnesota.
I watched the Mills race video years ago. To this day I can hear Dick Bank sceaming "Look at Mills! Look at Mills!". I can't believe he was fired for doing that.
"American television viewers were able to hear the surprise and drama as NBC expert analyst Dick Bank [6] screamed "Look at Mills! Look at Mills!" over the more sedate play-by-play announcer Bud Palmer , who seemed to miss what was unfolding. [7] For bringing that drama to the coverage, Bank was fired." (Wikipedia)
The NBC Executives should have been tarred and feathered for firing Banks, for his making that particular TV broadcast one of the most memorable and exciting moments in sports history. They probably would have fired Walter Cronkite for crying "Oh, the humanity" when the Hindenburg crashed.
I completely agree Buzz. Banks really made the race when the announcer missed the whole darn thing.
I don't know how to insert it properly, but this is the final minute of the USA/USSR hockey game in 1980. I was laying on the floor watching it at my aunt and uncles house in Bowstring, Minnesota.
Dexter Fowler led off Game 7 of last year's World Series with a home run. It was the first time in the history of major league baseball that the leadoff batter in a Game 7 hit a home run.
This was the signal that it would be a game for the ages.
Very close John. Yours was the first play of the game and mine was the last (and the reaction of everyone there).
I can't choose. The Red Wings winning their first cup in 42 years in 1997 is first, because the last time they had won was the year before I was born and I was a fan all of my life, even when other hockey fans jeered and called them the Detroit Dead Things through the bad years. Being able to say "I told you so!" was only sweet for less then a week when in a terrible car accident when players Vladimir Konstantinov, Slava Fetisov and Trainer Sergei Mnatsakanov were badly injured. Fetisov was able to return to play. Mnatsakanov never fully recovered. However one of the greatest careers in the history of the sport was ended when Vladimir Konstantinov was permanently and severely disabled.
That brings me to the moment that ties with the first. The Red Wings repeating, by winning the Stanley Cup again the following season and bringing Vladimir Konstantinov out onto the ice to celebrate with them. I freely admit I was in tears. All of the 1998 season the Red Wings wore the patch "Believe" in both English and Russian on their uniforms for inspiration. The Red Wings also talked the NHL into allowing Konstantinov's name to be engraved on the Cup for that season also.
Stevie Y. Skating with the Cup for the first (but not last) time.
The Red Wings raise the 1997/98 Cup banner at "The Joe" with Konstantinov and Mnatsakanov present.
Randy,
My daughter says that hers is the last time they won it in 2008 (she was only 6 in 1997, so her big interest then was a Barbie Play House). In 2008, she was a Junior in high school and found it memorable because her English teacher was a total Wings fan. When they won, she decided that no one would get any homework for the rest of the school year. Since the end of the school year was only about three weeks away, I wouldn't think it would be that big a deal.
For baseball, she chose the same game that John and I did (what can I say, her mother grew up in Kenosha and she's way too young to remember the '68 Tigers).
The '68 Tigers were monsters! They brought a whole city of all races back together Just when they needed it the most. They even did a documentary about it. My late Bother-in-law's father pitched for the Mud Hens for awhile back in the late 1940's (he was our town Barber (one chair and everyone waited)) and he got some tickets for one of the home games of the Series. He and my dad went. Everyone was so excited in our town that you could hear the games walking down any street and our teacher brought a TV in for us to watch.
Oh and no matter what anyone else says, I am the biggest Al Kaline fan who ever lived. lol!
No question that Kaline was great for a lot more years than just '68. On the other hand, not too many baseball cities have a pitcher who talks to the ball between pitches and hand grooms the mound while he's playing. Lots of people, including my parents, thought that Fydrich was just some kind of weirdo, but could he ever throw that ball. The hitters were so distracted by his antics that they just couldn't think of what might be coming next. Would he make the ball do an Immelman turn as it crossed the plate??? I certainly wouldn't have put it past him
Seems to me that the Russians have interfered with the NHL. Why no hearings? LOL
Seriously, I believe most Canadians (including me, a Maple Leafs fan) considered the Red Wings' Canadian Gordie Howe to be the greatest hockey player of all time, until Gretzsky.
A little story about Gordie. He would drive from Detroit to Toronto, and when he crossed the Detroit/Windsor border, the Canadian Customs and Immigration officials all knew him, and like all Canadians deeply respected and admired him. They would just lean in the window and ask "Playing in Toronto tonight, Gordie?" and wave him on. NOBODY would have DARED to search his car or open the trunk. If the trunk had been loaded with 500 lbs of cocaine nobody would have known, or even cared.
Seriously, I believe most Canadians (including me, a Maple Leafs fan) considered the Red Wings' Canadian Gordie Howe to be the greatest hockey player of all time, until Gretzsky.
I can agree with that as far as the NHL goes. He was fantastic! However I think that, if you figure in all international hockey players, I have to go with the Valadinator. He was already a legend of the game when he came to Detroit. I couldn't believe it when we signed him.
They would just lean in the window and ask "Playing in Toronto tonight, Gordie?" and wave him on. NOBODY would have DARED to search his car or open the trunk. If the trunk had been loaded with 500 lbs of cocaine nobody would have known, or even cared.
And if he had been Bob Probert, he probably would have!
Even though Probert was a Canadian, I doubt that he had the admiration and respect that Howe had, and besides, he was caught by the American officials on the American side of the tunnel, not by the Canadian Customs and Immigration Officials. He must already have had the reputation as a drug user to have been strip-searched.
He did. And as an enforcer in the game. After he died it was revealed that he had suffered brain injury from all of his fighting in hockey.
My Mets winning the World Series in 1986!!
I can recall the excitement in New York when the Rangers won the Stanley Cup in 1994 (after 54 years without). The cameras zeroed in on the team owner's wife in tears. A headline in a NY paper then read "What curse?"
My uncle, who used to be a banker in NYC, got my brother and I a ball signed by all of the 69 Amazin' Mets.
Every body is going to say, "Who????" at this. BUT, in 1972, my high school was at the state championship for basketball and Doran Maddox shot from the center of the opposing team's line and made a final basket. It wiped out the huge Louisville school we were playing, and dumbfounded all of us. We won the championship!
Doran Maddox was a really good player and a lovely person. He deserved all the accolades he received. I was there, with the Pep Band.
So, for me, this was the most exciting moment.
I can just imagine what it was like to watch that ball in the air, all the way - holding your breath.
Exactly! I nearly fainted! So did the other team-- Male High School. There were people crying in the aisles... But our boys did their best. It was a miracle shot!
There is a follow-up story to the Carter Blue Jay 1993 win. The day after, the team had a fan appreciation day and the Skydome stands were full. Of course I was there. The team and its coaches and manager were gathered on the mound with a microphone and cameras to project on the huge screen, and Joe Carter spoke, saying "Last year we did it for Cito (Cito Gaston, team manager) and this time we did it for Paul." (Paul Molitor, an exceptionally deserving player, who had just joined the team after 14 years with the Milwuakee Brewers - but had never won a World Series Ring. The team did it so Paul could get his ring.) It was Molitor, not Carter, who was named the Series MVP, and deservedly so. Molitor has since been inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
Dear Friend Buzz: This is a proud Papa moment.
My son played Center for his High School basketball team.
With less than one second on the clock, he tipped in a rebo0nd and took his team to the regional finals in our state.
To him at the time, it was just another play.
What said after the game he now understands.
For just a few minutes, fans of both teams, everyone in the basketball arena stood up and cheered.
When does that happen?
If we are lucky, only and even once in a lifetime.
I will never forget it.
Enoch.
"For just a few minutes, fans of both teams, everyone in the basketball arena stood up and cheered.
When does that happen?"
It happens when fans are true fans of the sport, and not just fans of the home team. A similar story I recall from Toronto's Skydome, is when an opposing team pitcher had a NO-HIT game against the home Toronto Blue Jays. All of the attending crowd filling the stands stood and cheered and applauded, at the end of the game, refusing to leave until the winning pitcher came out of the dressing room and tipped his hat to the crowd. I can imagine that his manager said to him: "Now, THOSE are baseball fans."
Any of Robert Horry's buzzer-beating three pointers during play-offs.
I had no idea who Robert Horry was, but then I never became a basketball fan. It was only during my last years in Toronto that NBA basketball came to Toronto, the team being the Raptors. However, I have now checked out Horry and seen that he was an amazing clutch scorer to win games and series.
I bet this was this young lady's most exciting moment in sports!
HOLY SHIT!!!!
DAMN!
Is it possible that baseball was actually invented in ancient China?
I have 2 favorite moments in sports, though they are both deeply personal. My last year playing football (Pop Warner), I was the 2nd string fullback, I ran an off tackle slant, but the hole was plugged so I went around the end and ran 73 yards for my one an only touchdown.
My youngest stepchild, Sarah, was a whiz at just about all sports. I was out at a travel softball tournament outside Cleveland when my daughter dumped a home run over the right field fence, just as my friend Dennis (who used to be a member here) walked up (Our first 'in person' meeting).
Of course, anytime watching my daughter play softball was always poetry in motion to me. She made it all look simple and had a joy for the game, for the sake of the game.
Since I'm not a sports fan, I find any game to be more interesting and exciting if I know some of the players... Know them personally, I mean. Then, I have a more vested interest.
BTW, my friend Dennis, Dowser? His last name is Tressa.
Hah! I thought you had meant Dennis P. McCann.
Dennis is still in Turkey (Izmir Region) and just had heart surgery and is doing well. His wife, Fatma and I have been staying in touch and she's been posting updates on Facebook.
Dowser, I haven't heard much from our friend of late-he was not doing very well with an illness he had last we spoke.
I thought he was dead. A few years ago I saw an obituary of a Dennis P. McCann of Chicago, and I thought it was him, because I couldn't get to read the whole thing so no clues for identification. I wonder how he views the changes in Turkey (Political/Religious) more recently. He had posted some great photo essays of sights in Turkey. Next time you contact his wife, please ask her to tell him Buzz of the Orient sends his regards and hopes he has a fast and complete recovery.
Oh no! I know he has had some problems, but I hoped he was feeling better! Such a sweetheart he is! Please keep me posted if you hear anything!
Sorry to hear of Dennis McCann's heart surgery! Hope he is recovering well!
Please, next time you see him, give him my love! I love Dennis Tressa, in fact, the whole family does!
I went over to Newsvine to leave a comment on that one story, then looked into my history. Look what I found, Dowser:
We had so much fun at the VineMeet! I remember that picture of the 2 of you-- in fact, it's on my computer! YAY!!!
Being avid boxing fan this is another of my ''most exciting moments''....1957 Sugar Ray Robinson at 37 years old in a rematch with Gene Fulmer who he had lost his middleweight title to 4 months earlier.
The Sugar mans' perfect left hook and Fulmer was KO'd.
Ohhhh He knew how to box. My father me a little, and I was able to transfer some of that into a good wrestling record.
The Brown Bomber was our favorite, Gotta go back to the 30s for that.
Ohhhh He knew how to box. My father me a little, and I was able to transfer some of that into a good wrestling record.
The Brown Bomber was our favorite, Gotta go back to the 30s for that.
Actually I have 2 that are tied.
1. I am heavy into motor sports. In fact, I am associated with 4 ANDRA National Pro Stock Championships and 2 Australian APBA flying kilo world records. My most exciting moment in motor sports was when Bill Elliott blistered the field in the 1985 Daytona 500. A lot of rules were thrown against the Fords as a result of his success in 85. Later on I got insight on how they had such speed. It had to do with a fella named Larry Widmer, the "Old One".
2. This is actually a downer for me, but was so friggen exciting at the time. Although I live in the D.C. area I have always been a Cowboys fan since I was a little kid (I am 61 now). IIRC it was a Monday night football game between the Cowboys and Redskins. If it was not last play of the game, it was still the last chance for the Cowboys to take the lead before game ended.
Walt Garrison made a fake block, drifted out in front of the guard caught the ball from Staubach at the 1 and Kenny Houston stopped him cold in his tracks.
My heart was pounding.
To be honest, of all those professional things I have been involved with, I am more happy from the results of a good "mate" Perth, Australia with his street car. DOT exhaust, DOT tires, pump fuel from the petrol station down the street, 4,000 lbs.
He drives to the track, not fiddling around, runs 9.90s at 135 mph and drives home. We are stepping it up.
Here is a vid of one of his runs:
Brad had the white '67 XT Falcon dusting a Morano in a heads up run.