My contribution to the greatest sports moments meme

Earlier this month, Steven Taylor of PoliBlog provided his anwer to the “Ten Unforgetable Sports Moments that You Actually Saw (not ones you saw later on tape)” meme. Kevin Drum offered his as well. More specifically, it’s events you saw live, be it in person or on television. Taylor puts together a pretty good list, but he betrays his youth — most of his examples are in the last ten years. Here are my answers — and remember, the key adjective is “unforgettable,” not “greatest”:

10) The Fumble (1978). The New York Giants had a regular-season game wrapped up against the Philadelphia Eagles. Then QB Joe Pisarcik was told to hand the ball off to Larry Csonka instead of downing it himself. Herman Edwards (now the coach of the New York Jets) caught the fumble and went on to score, propelling the Eagles into the playoffs. Because of this play, in part, my father still cannot watch the Giants live. 9) The Pass (1985). Doug Flutie’s 60 yeard heave to Gerald Phelan in the closing seconds of a regular season game against Miami on Thanksgiving Day. It capped an extraordinary display of offense by both teams. 8) The Tackle (1999). The Tennessee Titans’ Steve McNair, on the last play of scrimmage in Super Bowl, completes a pass to Kevin Dyson at the Rams’ one yard line. Mike Jones makes the game-saving tackle as Dyson tries in vain to break the plane of the end zone. 7) Mark Ingram’s catch (1990). Super Bowl XXV, third quarter, down by two, third and 13 at the Buffalo 32. Ingram catches a two yard pass, breaks four tackles, and gets the first down. The Giants take the lead on that drive, which was the longest in Super Bowl history. 6) The Dunk (1983). Houston’s Phi Slamma Jamma was supposed to destroy N.C. State in the 1983 NCAA tournament final. Lo and behold, an airball + Lorenzo Charles = Jim Valvano running around the court like a maniac. 5) Joe Theisman’s last play (1985). Monday Night Football’s introduction of it’s “super-slo-mo” instand replay coincided with Lawrence Taylor sacking Theisman into the back of Leonard Marshall (I think). Immediately after the play ended, Taylor started gesticulating wildly to the Redskins bench for their trainer. ABC showed why — the images of Theisman’s leg breaking must have been replayed in super slo mo at least ten times before play resumed. I have no memory of who won that game, but I’ll always remember Theisman’s shin bending in the most unnatural way. 4) Michael Jordan’s final minute as a Bull (1998). Strong drive to the basket for a lay-up. A steal of Karl Malone under the Bulls’ basket. A a 20-footer with 5.2 seconds left, nothing but net. Having seen the final shot replay numerous times, I’m still not sure if Byron Russell fell down because Jordan faked him out or if there was a push. 3) The fourth set tie-breaker (1979). The British despised John McEnroe before his first final against Bjorn Borg. After the tiebreaker in the fourth set — in which McEnroe fought off five match points — the relationship turned more into a love-hate one. With the big serves in today’s tennis, I’m not sure this match will ever be equalled. 2) Back to Foulke (2004). Until Foulke caught that ball, I wasn’t completely convinced that the Red Sox were actually going to win the World Series (The NESN DVD, interestingly enough, shows that Foulke almost didn’t hold onto the ball). The moment he caught it, I stopped caring about 1978, 1986, etc…. 1) David Ortiz’s final at-bat, ALCS, Game 5 (2004). Sure, Ortiz hit more dramatic homers, but his at-bat against Loiza led to the walk-off hit than ended the greatest game of the 2004 postseason, and perhaps the greatest game ever in baseball. Loiza hada lousy 2004 season, but he pitched well that night, and Ortiz fought off five straight nasty cut fastballs before he finally muscled the game-winning single. The end of this game is #1 for another reason — my wife finally got it. Until Game 5, Erika thought my Red Sox fandom was a particularly extreme aberrational aspect of my behavior. Fox’s coverage of the extra innings — in which there were plenty of shots of fans on both sides gnawing at anything to try to keep some semblance of emotional control — convinced my lovely wife that this was a regional epidemic, and hardly unique to me.

That’s it — feel free to add yours. [Where the hell is the Miracle on Ice? You saw that, right?–ed. Oh, I saw it, but no one outside of the ice rink saw it live. ABC showed the game tape-delayed. And thank God there was no World Wide Web back then, because it would have been too tempting to find out who had won beforehand. As it was, my parents turned off all the radios and TVs in the house to ensure ignorance.]