Yes, there's bigger things going on in the world right now, believe me I know. But sports was still an escape for a lot of people (myself included), and the postponement/cancellation of almost every sporting event for at least the next month or so will sting a lot of people.
I saw a tweet Thursday asking what would ESPN and the others do to replace all those live events. I suggested (as did others) just open the vault. So screw it, that's what this thread is for.
Whenever I've got time, I'm going to put up a game that I feel is worthy of being watched. Could be a classic that everyone knows about, or it could be sentimental to you. Feel free to play along. A couple writers I follow on Twitter started doing the exact same thing yesterday; I even thought about posting the game they shared yesterday but I really don't feel like triggering Crewe (think 1992 Wild Card).
Today...I think I'll just go with what they posted today. The Detroit Lions one and only playoff victory since 1957, a shellacking of the emerging Dallas Cowboys. Check out Summerall and Madden when they were still coherent.
https://youtu.be/soH33XuFUk0
Oh man, this is such a great idea. I hate trying to upload from my phone, but definitely have some memories I can contribute.
Quote from: TheNorm on March 14, 2020, 10:43:32 AM
I even thought about posting the game they shared yesterday but I really don't feel like triggering Crewe (think 1992 Wild Card).
LOL! Come at me bro :D
Great idea norm
Quote from: Crewe on March 14, 2020, 01:58:45 PM
LOL! Come at me bro :D
Great idea norm
Well...I wasn't meaning to but FB and Twitter kinda reminded me that today was Jordan Poole Day, so...sorry?
2018 NCAA Tournament, Round of 32: Michigan v. Houstonhttps://youtu.be/I8EBu6ScWiQ
Was half asleep, getting ready to turn off the tv and go to bed when the end happened. Lost my voice screaming and jumping around the house, had a couple more beers and caught the second half of the replay at 3am.
THE YEAR IS 2000
In 1999, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers nearly made it to the Super Bowl but for one Bert Emmanuel catch (which was a catch) against the Rams in the NFC Championship game. The Rams won, went on to defeat the Tennessee Titans in the Super Bowl, and Kurt Warner was forever cemented in NFL history.
The Bucs were still around, though.
After that amazing championship game, the NFL had to capitalize, and naturally both teams played against each other the following season. Dec 18th, in the midst of the playoff hunt in Tampa, Florida, at Raymond James Stadium, on Monday Night Football, to be precise. The Rams knew they'd face their toughest challenge yet, the Bucs knew they wanted revenge.
It was a school night, and I stayed up late, in my room, against my mom's rules, watching the game on a volume of like 2 and trying to contain myself when Warrick Dunn pitched that ball back to Shaun King.
For your viewing pleasure:
So here's my contribution.
Mario Elle and the kiss offRockets won the title with a fantastic run in 94, the cities first pro championship (sans 60 AFL Oilers) and it was insane around here, rightfully so. This was the infamous "Choke City" campaign started by our own stupid newspaper after starting down 0-2 at home against Phoenix.
Move to 95. As a fan, you know how hard it is to repeat and all you hope for is a respectable run. Consecutive appearances would be nice, but at least get to the Conference finals.
For the second year in a row, we meet the Suns in the semi's. Barkley guaranteed a victory, saying no way the Rockets could beat them in 7.
This was a gut wrenching game and it came down to the final 10 seconds when Mario Elle backed it all up and drained a 3 with the game tied.
Free throw out and Houston was back in the Conference finals where Olajuwon embarrassed MVP David Robinson and then went on to cruise through Orlando in four, winning back to back. This was the key moment because this is the only series the Rockets were tested.
I think a lot of people dont recall just how great those Houston teams were.
Full game
ESPN highlights (Craig Kilborn, remember that guy?)
Great choices fellas, both those games were incredible. That Game 7 was a treat! As much as I love Shaq and the Admiral I still feel Olajuwon was the best center I've seen in my time. Some talent on both those squads, too. KJ absolutely balled out.
Thing I'm loving from both your posts is hearing the personal stuff on the side. Buc talking about how he had to hide watching this game since it was a school night, to Crewe talking about just how tense that game really was for anyone watching...that's the stuff. Keep 'em coming and I will too.
Quote from: TheNorm on March 19, 2020, 03:54:33 PM
Great choices fellas, both those games were incredible. That Game 7 was a treat! As much as I love Shaq and the Admiral I still feel Olajuwon was the best center I've seen in my time. Some talent on both those squads, too. KJ absolutely balled out.
Thing I'm loving from both your posts is hearing the personal stuff on the side. Buc talking about how he had to hide watching this game since it was a school night, to Crewe talking about just how tense that game really was for anyone watching...that's the stuff. Keep 'em coming and I will too.
yea thats what makes it more interesting and is the kind of thing I was shooting for with the scene it thread.
Good stuff
That reminds me, I've got a few to add to that one. Been on a Leslie Nielsen kick lately and he deserves a post there haha
Missing baseball today, so here we go. The year is 1984 and thanks to a historical 35-5 start and one hell of a baseball team, the Detroit Tigers are in the World Series against the San Diego Padres. The good guys take 3 out of the first 4 games and are poised to clinch the series at home. A city is electric and can't wait on a Sunday afternoon (yes, back in the day when baseball would play World Series games in the middle of the afternoon and you didn't have to worry about staying up until 11pm-midnight in the Eastern time zone).
Meanwhile, 11-year old me along with the family have to go to a birthday party for a friend of the family at a place called Major Magic's, which was this magical place that served pizza and had games for the kids, like Chuck E. Cheese but better. For me it was kinda cool because they had a bunch of arcade games, but at the same time, I also wanted to watch the game. Luckily their big room for the adults had a big projection screen and was showing the game below. I'd run along for a little while to play video games with the other kids at the party (and we'd also play lookout for each other while we cheated at Skee-ball), but I'd always venture back every little bit to catch the game. Luckily I was in the room when Goose Gossage waved off pitching around Kirk Gibson in the bottom of the 8th, and the room erupted. Was getting ready to run back out to play another video game (hey, I knew the score but I was still 11...and video games lol) at the top of the 9th when my dad said "you might want to stick around for this last part". Glad I did because I also got to see the room erupt in cheers, high fives, and hugs with friends and random strangers alike when the Tigers clinched the one and only World Series title I've seen my team take to this point.
But there's also more to this story. Major Magic's was in the suburbs in a place called Clinton Township, around 15 Mile & Gratiot. We lived between 8 & 9 Mile (yes, 8 Mile is a place and we all lived on both sides of it) in St. Clair Shores and slowly made our way down Gratiot to get back to the house. It was like nothing we'd ever seen before: bumper to bumper traffic on an early Sunday evening, cars honking their horns in a joyous and happy medley. New to my parents since they had only moved here in 1972 from the Philippines, and well, up until 1984 Detroit teams weren't exactly making championship appearances.
Finally make it home around 830 or so...and one of the other things I remember and loved from back in the day was a mini-series called V. Well V: The Final Battle was also scheduled to begin part 1 of 3 that night, and I was really excited to see that too. The local NBC station was still broadcasting postgame celebration coverage (this was also back in the day when Detroit infamously tended to riot after championship wins; they'd embarrassingly do this again in 1989 and 1990 when the Pistons went back-to-back before people finally talked some fucking sense into the community), but luckily jumped right to the show at 9pm. Was lucky enough that my parents would let me stay up late to watch it too. :)
Anyway, thanks for reading all this. Without further ado, I present to you Game 5 of the 1984 World Series between the San Diego Padres and the Detroit Tigers, playing in front of a sold out crowd at Tiger Stadium. Enjoy Vin Scully on the call as well.
https://youtu.be/cK6_XSf8UL8
Couple of things I want to add to this:
I really really miss Tiger Stadium. It's not just home to my earliest memory (I vaguely remember my dad carrying me out of the stadium to get into a cab, and it was raining), but also...it was just a great ballpark. Loved seeing games there.
As for Kirk Gibson...while it's typically his other clutch HR in a World Series that gets more of the press, you'll never convince me it was better than the one he hit off of Gossage. Sure I might be slightly biased, but I'll still always contend his '84 dinger was just a bit bigger.
great story norm and I know just the kind of joint you're talking about, we ha Mr. Gatti's.
I know its not legit, but I hated Dodger Gibson with every fiber of my being. All I remember were the announcers Gibson this Gibson that, Gibson Gibson Gibson. Only thing I remotely appreciated him for was beating out that cokehead Strawberry for MVP in his one good year in LA.
Keep in mind, as an Astros fan, I was bred to despise everything Dodger anyway so there's that.
March 26, 1997.
Mention that date to just about any Red Wings or Avs fan and they'll know exactly what you're talking about. There's also no way in hell I could let this day pass in this thread without mentioning it here. Let's start with a little trip down memory lane.
In the 1990s the Red Wings began their climb to become annual contenders for the Stanley Cup. One criticism (fairly or unfairly) about the team is that they were a little soft. Pushed around by the New Jersey Devils in the 1995 Stanley Cup Final, the team came back stronger in the 1995-96 season and even set a league record for points in a season. As for the Colorado Avalanche in their inaugural season after relocating from Quebec, they were a decent squad but not expected to do much until they acquired goaltender Patrick Roy from Montreal (that in and of itself is a story for another day). These two teams met in the Western Conference Final, and the Avalanche dispatched the Wings on their way to a Stanley Cup trophy. But one incident that would ignite this rivalry took place in Game 6: Avs forward Claude Lemieux hit Wings forward Kris Draper from behind into the boards with a vicious cheap shot, one that would require Draper to have his jaw wired shut for a couple months and facial surgery. Lemieux would only get suspended two games in the Finals for the incident. The Wings and their fanbase wanted blood.
Fast forward to the following season, and these two teams are on a collision course again. The first three matchups all went in the books as wins for the Avalanche, and while there were skirmishes here and there not too much happened...but the buildup to the last game of the season between the two (on March 26th) seemed to be a bit different. Beat writers acknowledged that if the Wings were to have any chance against the Avs in the playoffs, they needed to not just avenge what happened the previous season-they needed to win the game to get the proverbial monkey off their back. The stage was set for a wild night at the Joe.
As for me, I was slogging through my next to last year at Michigan but I also knew I had to see this game. I left campus for downtown in an effort to find tickets, but they were just way out of my price range. So I rang up my good friend Marcie and told her to meet back at my parents house. My brother was also a senior in high school and also had some friends over to prepare to watch what was about to unfold. :)
This game is unfortunately not found in full on youtube, so first off I'll just bring you to the flashpoint of what we were watching back in Detroit that night. Forsberg's a little bitch for going after Igor Larionov, arguably one of the classiest players out there...but he paid for it. They all did.
https://youtu.be/uXHKHT8N6eA
Crazy, right? We were all going nuts, ecstatic with what happened...but at the end of it all we were still losing the game. More fights would happen throughout the game, but nothing quite like what happened above. Fast forward to the third period, and the Wings are still down...but begin a comeback for the ages. I could say more, but you really should just watch the highlights below (it's only 15 minutes for the full game and includes clips from the fight above, but what else are you doing? LOL).
https://youtu.be/voy7FIMQj6o
I'll always contend that while winning the fight and exacting revenge on that little turtle bitch Lemieux was important, winning the game was even more important for the Wings chances in the playoffs because it showed that they could hang with them and beat them (which they did, just two months later). Having the game winner come from McCarty was just icing on the cake.
The Wings and Avalanche would combine for some more great hockey over the following seasons, and it may be the last huge blood rivalry the league has seen.
That was a great time for hockey. I must say, as a Stars fan, I sorely despised the Red Wings for a long time. Especially when they were all Russians. Hey, it's a Cold War grudge, don't judge me.
I was even for Colorado, who I hated as well, but man, hard not to pull for Detroit after that nonsense.
Sad thing is, it was a great game by talented players.
People always said how Roy got demolished by Vernon. is anyone watching the same fight I did? Roy got some great shots in and sure, he got cut up, but I thought he more than held his own, easily.
Lemiuex on the other hand. How fitting he went down with a cheap shot too right?
Wasn't it the first time they met the next year where he and McCarty dropped the gloves at the opening bell but Claude turtled?
Hated it, hated it, hated it when he came to Dallas.
This is the kinda shit I used to love in the IHL Aeros, good times.
Quote from: Crewe on March 26, 2020, 08:20:05 PM
That was a great time for hockey. I must say, as a Stars fan, I sorely despised the Red Wings for a long time. Especially when they were all Russians. Hey, it's a Cold War grudge, don't judge me.
I was even for Colorado, who I hated as well, but man, hard not to pull for Detroit after that nonsense.
Sad thing is, it was a great game by talented players.
People always said how Roy got demolished by Vernon. is anyone watching the same fight I did? Roy got some great shots in and sure, he got cut up, but I thought he more than held his own, easily.
Lemiuex on the other hand. How fitting he went down with a cheap shot too right?
Wasn't it the first time they met the next year where he and McCarty dropped the gloves at the opening bell but Claude turtled?
Hated it, hated it, hated it when he came to Dallas.
This is the kinda shit I used to love in the IHL Aeros, good times.
Oh I get it, heard that a lot-too many Russians, etc. I was a little ambivalent at first...but then I saw Fedorov play and knew I wanted more. What an untapped market...did you know in that same draft they almost landed Pavel Bure too? League mistakenly told them they couldn't though. My god Fedorov and Bure on the same squad would've been fun to watch.
Was funny, before the Wings faced off against the Flyers in the 97 Finals, I took a trip down to South Carolina to visit a friend. Had a stopover in Philly and wore my Yzerman jersey. Man, the boos I was getting there just in the airport waiting for my connection. Fun times. :D
As for Vernon and Roy...yeah Roy held his own. He also had the size advantage though, that's why a lot of people think Vernon "owned" Roy. Vernon was scrappy man...
And as for the fight between McCarty and Lemieux the following season...Lemieux actually squared and dropped the gloves first, held his own.
Jesus man Bure was amazing!
Flyers LOL I used to say Lindros was a bust, and I still defend that, because when youre called the Next One, you best put up some HOF numbers and he didnt, so, boom, in my book lol
Then what fight am I thinking of? I know they squared off straight away and Claude covered up immediately because he received a rash of shit for it
Quote from: Crewe on March 26, 2020, 09:01:48 PM
Jesus man Bure was amazing!
Flyers LOL I used to say Lindros was a bust, and I still defend that, because when youre called the Next One, you best put up some HOF numbers and he didnt, so, boom, in my book lol
Then what fight am I thinking of? I know they squared off straight away and Claude covered up immediately because he received a rash of shit for it
Well he did turtle a lot, so could be any number of them lol.
That Wings/Flyers series was great. Everyone assumed Scotty would put Konstantinov on Lindros and the Legion of Doom line, but instead he put the Lidstrom defensive pairing on that line. Totally stymied them!
One other thing I wanted to mention that I forgot: if you like hockey even just a little bit you really need to see "Russian Five", a documentary that dropped a couple years ago. Lot of really good insight and behind the scenes stuff about how the Wings ended up acquiring Fedorov, Fetisov, Kozlov, Konstantinov, and Larionov.
So in 1980, the newly christened Astro, Nolan Ryan led the team to their first NLCS vs the Phillies.
Man, did I ever love this team, still do. Unfortunately for me, I was already introduced to Houston heartbreak the prior two years with the Oiler and Steelers wars, which is a whole other post.
it seems to me, when I look back on Houston heartbreak teams, we are always against the very best, sans the 93 Bills, no offense.
But seriously, the 70's Steelers, I mean, c'mon man. Anyone else and we are top dog.
Same with the Astros vs the Phillies and Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton, Tug McGraw and Greg Luzinnski. Ok, thats not quite fair since we did have Ryan, Joe Morgan, Jose Cruz and Cesar Cedeno too. But still...
In any event, game one was the most ordinary; 3-1 Phillies in Philly.
Game 2 however, was a nail biter until Cruz and Cedeno led a charge in the tenth inning that saw the Astros score four runs and win 7-4 (Philly scored one in the bottom of tenth)
Game 3 in Houston
A zero zero tie in a true pitchers ballpark. This was baseball and this was the game I attended.
A tied best of three game series, at 0-0 here and its now in to extra innings, again?! I couldn't take much more, seriously.
And at the Dome, we were sitting close to the concourse on the third base side, close to home plate.
In the 11th, Joe Morgan led off with a triple and the roof about came off of that place, it was so loud an so great.
And then two intentional walks to get to Denny Walling. Fingers crossed...he can do almost anything but strikeout, just dont strikeout! Please please please dont strikeout.
I remember it to this day. The a soft fly to left, is it deep enough, is he going? He is, he scores! I couldn't see at all, just this sea of hands, my eardrums bursting, me jumping up and down trying to hear what happened.
Soon, I knew, the crowd reaction told me it was a SAC fly. Astros win in 11! I was almost crushed in that crowd, being hugged, mobbed by celebration.
My dad and I were at that game and it was without a doubt one of the most fun times. There's just something about dads and sons and baseball games man.
Unfortunaltely, that was the highest we would reach. Game 4. yet another extra inning game in which the Phillies pulled it out 5-3 in 10 after putting up 3 in the 8th. That hurt, that hurt bad.
Game 5. Do or die.
With a 2-2 tie in the 7th, the Astros put up 3 to take a 5-2 lead. This was awesome!
But nerve wracking. And it didnt take long either. In the eighth, the Phillies put up 5 freakin runs. Five.
Just like that, we were down 5-7 in the 8th and hope was dwindling. Such a rollercoaster of emotions, again, that wouldn't last long. In the bottom half, the Astros rely and put up two more to tie. Nothing in the 9th. Extra innings again? Are you kidding me? Thats four games in a row.
Back to back Philly doubles in the tenth gives them the 8-7 lead, Astros go down 1-2-3. End of story.
I cried man, I cried just like I did for the Oilers. But me, being a baseball player, I was really hooked in to the Astros. This was soul crushing.
So what did I do? I decided to root for Kansas City. I mean, George Brett after all, right?
Of course the Phillies swept them. And the sepsis just kept eating away at me. It wouldn't be until 1986 where we would get another crack but then those stinking foul coked up Mets. Geesh.
So here's the Walling game.
FF to about 3:28 to see Morgan's triple. Also on a bad legs nd he hobbled around in a clutch moment long before Gibson so there's that. :D
Houston has the top two spots on longest post games in MLB history and also, no other series has had four consecutive extra inning playoff games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucBPiK8bM3E
Nice to see ESPN and some of the other sports networks have jumped on this idea lol
Anyway, got hooked in to watching the Ali/Frazier trilogy on ESPN last night. I'd seen most of the second and third fights, but really hadn't seen much of the first one...damn, all three of those were incredible fights. Smokin' Joe's left hook that knocked down Ali in the 15th of the first bout would've been a KO against any other boxer, good lord. That era of heavyweights was something special.
On a side note, while I love the Rocky movies as much as anyone, why in hell did it take Philly so damn long to put up a statue of one of the great heavyweights from their hometown but they kept their Rocky statue up since basically Rocky III? I might be irrationally annoyed by this lol.
yea man, those days of boxing were the best.
I agree about Philly, but what else do you expect from such a crap city
Let me just say, f the Steelers!
This game still hurts.
This was the beginning of not knowing wtf a catch is by the NFL. they kept flip flopping, he was out of bounds and when its obvious that want the case they said well he didnt have complete control of the ball, which he certainly did.
I love the reaction of the Oiler coaches, you dont see that raw emotion much anymore from upstairs.
Quote from: Crewe on April 26, 2020, 05:46:57 PM
Let me just say, f the Steelers!
1979 AFC Championship Game
This game still hurts.
This was the beginning of not knowing wtf a catch is by the NFL. they kept flip flopping, he was out of bounds and when its obvious that want the case they said well he didnt have complete control of the ball, which he certainly did.
I love the reaction of the Oiler coaches, you dont see that raw emotion much anymore from upstairs.
So on this date back in 2004, Game Five of the NBA Finals between the heavily favored Los Angeles Lakers and the upstart Detroit Pistons took place. Almost all experts and I'm pretty sure a good portion of the people here (the ones that cared anyway) had the Lakers easily dispatching the Pistons squad. To be fair, no one could really blame them: the Lakers had star power, already won a few titles with the Shaq & Kobe combo, and had Phil Jackson (perhaps you've heard of him) as head coach. The Pistons had a collection of misfits and outcasts for their team, and a coach that liked to wander around a bit in Larry Brown.
But phenom and I knew: this team was going to surprise everyone...and they did through the first four games. If not for a miracle shot by Kobe near the end of regulation in Game 2 that sent it to OT and a Lakers win, this series probably ends in a sweep. The Pistons were just that damn dominant on defense, and those parts that some called outcasts and on their last chance (like Rasheed Wallace and Chauncey Billups) were by far the better team.
As for me, I was *supposed* to work the night of this game. I say supposed because well, there's just no way in hell I was missing this. So I called around 3:30 in the afternoon (was still working midnights then), told them I was sick which was utter bullshit and they knew it. They even called back once to make sure I wanted to call in since we were really busy at the time, and I said yep. "You know I'm going to have to write you up for this, right?" said my boss. "Okay." At least I didn't need to fake recovering at work the following night. So with all that said, I present to you Game 5.
https://youtu.be/so0UopmwdDk
Some observations: was really nice to hear Al Michaels and Doc Rivers on the call for this. This Pistons team was an absolute blast to watch; they closed out on defense, made the Lakers work for almost every bucket, and every steal or missed shot was recovered and tended to turn into two points for the good guys. Also neat to see how basketball has evolved just in the relatively short timeline; the teams combined for 30 3-points attempted which nowadays seems really low, and no team is typically winning a game shooting barely 14% from beyond the arc like the Pistons did. This Pistons team may also be the last team to win a title in the NBA without a true superstar (or superstars).
Also a little weird seeing guys like Kobe and Stuart Scott doing their thing, and NBA commish David Stern too. Still can't believe Kobe and Stu are gone.
I was no real fan of Detroit, but I, like most I imagine, had serious Laker fatigue, so I was ok with this one.
Just watched this fight again, the Hagler Hearns war.
the 70's and 80's were such great decades for fights and this one was just a street fight for the three rounds Hearns lasted.
I didnt like him and was pulling for Hagler.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmWbOw6KJ6g
While I don't appreciate the slander of Detroit's own Tommy "Motor City Cobra" Hearns ;) , that was a great fight. Marvin Hagler was a beast and the better man won that fight.
And for the record I love Tommy Hearns but he'd typically have moments where you'd go "what the f*ck are you doing???", none more obvious than the first Hearns/Leonard fight. Props to Leonard for doing what he had to do and getting the KO he needed, but if Hearns would've just boxed the last three rounds instead of going for the KO himself he cruises.
Quote from: TheNorm on December 12, 2020, 12:30:56 PM
While I don't appreciate the slander of Detroit's own Tommy "Motor City Cobra" Hearns ;) , that was a great fight. Marvin Hagler was a beast and the better man won that fight.
And for the record I love Tommy Hearns but he'd typically have moments where you'd go "what the f*ck are you doing???", none more obvious than the first Hearns/Leonard fight. Props to Leonard for doing what he had to do and getting the KO he needed, but if Hearns would've just boxed the last three rounds instead of going for the KO himself he cruises.
I agree with al of this sans the slander of my supposed slander ;-)