Dwight Clark's 'The Catch' has to be in there somewhere, but as a Cowboys fan I acknowledge it with more than a little distaste.

On the plus side, Roger Staubach to Drew Pearson and the 'Hail Mary' against the Vikings.

Franco Harris and his 'Immaculate Reception'.

Lance Armstrong looking back at Jan Ullrich and then torching him on L'Alp D'Huez in the 2001 Tour de France. (No catchy name for that one.)

Christian Laettner buries ____ (UConn or UK ?) with a last-second turnaround from the top of the key (after catching a full-court throw in).

Dave Henderson topping the Angels in '86 - with the Red Sox reaping what they sowed about two weeks later.

1984 Olympics - some kind of men's swimming relay. American kid held off the world's best swimmer, Michael Gross, and American took home the gold.

Rofe:

Laettner beat UK in 1992 with the turnaround from the top of the key after the full-court throw in. He beat UConn in 1990 with a last second shot from near the top of the key after a pass from the sidelines near mid-court.

Francisco Cabrera's hit and Sid Bream's slide in 1991 are also one for me. Fandom (of Duke and the Braves) will do that to you.

The Kirk Gibson homer in the '88 World Series was pretty ridiculous, too. That at bat was just crazy, with Gibson fouling off every fastball until he finally got the slider.

Not a good memory, but unforgettable--I was watching the last few minutes of the Daytona 500 so I'd have something to talk about with passerby the next day (I was in Charlotte) and saw Dale Earnhardt hit the wall. It was a remarkably unspectacular crash--which is why it killed him; the car just hit the wall and stopped--didn't flip, didn't bounce--just stopped--200 to 0 in milliseconds.

Nice concept, however I think you should restrict it to games that you witnessed in person.

Either way, my best moment was Game 6 World Series at Shea Stadium where my teenage brother and I never had any doubt that the Mets would take that game and the series.

A close second is Pedro's "Who's your daddy" game in the 2003 playoffs. The force of 55,000 fans chanting "pedro....pedro...." as he was belatedly removed from the game still echo in my mind.

Perhaps these memories have been cheapened by the 2004 WS. To be fair, I was also at Game 7 of the ALCS that year. It was the exact opposite of 1986: I knew before the game that the Yanks were going to lose. I also knew that the Yankees were really the last barrier to uphold the Curse, and that the WS was essentially a foregone conclusion.

Given that was clearly my WORST sports experience, I'm slightly surprised that you didn't include it in your list. Then again, perhaps it was just an "oversight."

- Mike

How is it possible that the word Buckner appears nowhere in that list?

Mark: I was so irate after Bob Stanley's wild pitch let in the tying run that I switched off the TV, and didn't see the Buckner play live

For me, the most memorable sports event I've seen in person is Game 4 of 2002 NLCS between the Giants and Cardinals, where Benito Santiago skied a two-run homer in the 8th inning to win it. It seemed like a pop-up the second he hit it, and then it just kept going... (yeah, yeah, I know he was probably using steroids). Also went to Game 3 of that World Series, but it was forgettable -- aside from the argument I had with the drunk guy next to me. Most bizarre play I saw live was Ruben Rivera for the Giants getting lost on the basepaths as a bunch of little league mistakes accrued, eventually resulting in a 9-4-5-6-2 putout (and yes, I was actually scoring it).

As for television, Mark Ingram's first down would also be on there somewhere, as well as Jim Leyritz's homer against Wohlers in the 96 World Series. But ahead of those would be Steve Young's last-second touchdown pass to Terrell Owens to beat the Packers early in the 1998 playoffs. That was probably magnified by the fact that I was on a ski trip, and there was a fire alarm in the hotel shortly before that happened, so I didn't even know if I was going to be able to watch the end of the game and not only did I make it back to the room in time, it ended with such a dramatic Niners win (plus I'm a huge Steve Young fan).

But the all-timer for me (and nothing else is even close) is the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals between the cup-cursed NY Rangers and the NJ Devils, won by Stephane Matteau's wraparound that somehow beat Martin Brodeur. In double sudden-death OT.

Matteau! Matteau! Matteau!

Dan,

Thanks for the link.

BTW--I am guessing we are the same age, at least by looking at your c.v. (we grauduated from college the same year).

I tried to comment the first day this was up, but comments weren't working for some reason...

S

(and Mike: limiting it to events seen in person would be very elitist thing to do, don't you think? ;)