Next year is always our year
Literally about 90 seconds in, the crowd starts cheering. I had no idea why, because nothing was happening. I soon figured out that they were cheering for the guy who was slowly coming up to bat. It was the crowd that kept me from flipping the channel; it had to be, because all the guy at the plate did was foul off three straight pitches, very dull. But the energy from the crowd was electric, even for a ten year old kid who didn’t even know how to play baseball. Then, out of nowhere, the lanky pitcher hurls one at the batter, and Kirk Gibson crushes it out to right field. I remember Gibson pumping his fist as he rounded second base. I don’t know if I actually heard Jack Buck’s call, “I don’t believe what I just saw!!!” But at this point, the memory is there, whether I heard it or not. When you grow up in a city that doesn’t have a baseball team or a pro football team, you need moments like that to develop a true allegiance. From that day forward I have been a Dodger fan.
Also, John Stockton’s game winning three in Game 6 of the 1997 Western Conference Finals. I didn’t see this one happen. I was with about 30 other guys, all Jazz fans, listening to one guy with a Walkman and headphones paraphrasing Hot Rod Hundley’s call for the rest of the group. I remember him relaying the call to the group. “Ball inbounds to Stockton…puts up a three…(for what seemed like about ten minutes)…IT’S GOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (30 dudes screaming)
The 49ers 1994 NFC Championship against the hated Cowboys. I was raised a ‘Niner fan (and still have a soft spot in my heart for them) and I idolized Jerry Rice and Steve Young (but not as much as Montana). I was a junior in high school at the time, and I knew I was going to miss the first half of this one, so I taped the game and spent the entire second half pacing back and forth in agonizing hope and fret, trying my damndest not to hear the score until I knew it was over so that I could watch it in it’s entirety. I was rewarded. The ‘Niners jumped out to a 21-0 lead and held on. I remember literally jumping up and down when Eric Davis intercepted Troy Aikman on Dallas’s third play of the game and returned it for a touchdown. (I watched the whole first half standing up. I couldn’t sit down. We couldn’t loose to the Cowboys again. We just couldn’t) But most of all, I remember Steve Young taking a victory lap around Candlestick Park after the game, like he had finally justified himself to the fans and to Joe Montana and to the organization and to himself. That was a true story of human triumph.
And last but not least, the 1995 Skyline Eagles winning the 5A Utah State High School Football Championship
Michael Jordan hurling Bryon Russell into the fifth row before putting up that infamous game winning jumper in Game 6 of the 1998 Finals.
Skyline High School kicker Brian Alba missing a potential game winning field goal and then an extra point in overtime of the 1991 Utah 4A State Championship against Timpview. I was in eighth grade back then, and my friends and me totally idolized the local high school football players. For us, kids who were hoping to follow in their footsteps, that was the big time. Alba was a standout wide receiver, but was also an All-State kicker with a leg like a medieval catapult. He could hit from 60, easy. That ’91 Skyline team is still looked at by former players from my era like folk heroes. They were one of the greatest teams in state history, but something went awry that cold November night. The Timpview coaches iced Alba right before the final field goal attempt. Something like a 38 yarder, nothing he couldn’t handle. But back then, the high school goal posts that Alba was used to were still 24 feet apart. The Championship game was played in a college stadium, with 18 foot goalposts. Wide right. Heartbreak. That sucks just reliving it.
Every year of Arizona Cardinals football since I officially became a Cards fan back in 2000.
"He (Stockton) averaged a career double-double, with 13.1 points and 10.5 assists per game. (But anyone who watched him play knew that he was capable of scoring 20 a night if the team needed it.) He holds the NBA record for the most seasons and consecutive games played with one team, and is third in total games played, behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Robert Parish. He missed only 22 games during his career, 18 of them in one season. (Amazing!) As a point of comparison, he played in 34 games where he tallied 20 or more assists. Stockton appeared in 10 All-Star games, and was named co-MVP of the game in 1993 with Jazz teammate Karl Malone, which was held in Salt Lake City, Utah. He played with the 1992 and 1996 US Olympic basketball teams, known as Dream Team I and II, the first Olympic squads to feature NBA players, keeping the game ball from both Gold Medal games. He was selected to the All-NBA First Team twice, the All-NBA Second Team six times, the All-NBA Third Team three times, and the NBA All-Defensive Second Team five times. He was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA history in 1996" Stock also had a higher career field goal percentage than any other guard you may be thinking of comparing him to in some sort of futile atempt to thwart the “John Stockton is the greatest Point Guard ever” argument. Trying to justify my favorite athletes as in depthly as Stock would fill a novell, so I’ll just list a few guys who have influenced my love of sports over the years. Barry Sanders, Ronnie Lott, Brett Favre, Alex Rodriguez, Jerry Rice, Steve Largent, Stevie Yzerman, Peter Forsberg, Dominique Moceanu, David Justice, Ty Detmer, Mark Price, Gregg Maddox, J.J. Reddick, Steve Young, Steve Tasker, Andre Agassi, Joe Montana, Takeru Kobayashi, Karl Malone, Tiger Woods
Also, LaDainian Tomlinson. The Chargers in general I guess. This one is more recent and probably wont last I couldn’t stand Sean Merriman’s ridiculous dance every time he got a sack, (that was just as lame as that stupid “baller” move that the Giants couldn’t let go of) and have you ever heard a whinier group of clowns than Merriman and LaDainian Tomlinson? They sound like women. Tomlinson’s virtuous, pale blue, sauserlike eyes flooded with leviathan tears when the Patriots mocked Meriman’s ridiculous convulsion in last year’s playoffs. And now LDT is taking shots at the Patriots for being cheaters. Did he somehow forget that his buddy Meriman was suspended for steroid use last season? And their teammate Luis Castillo also has tested positive for ‘roids? What a hypocrite. This is the problem I have with the Chargers. They care more about their stupid dances and shaving cool designs in their hair than they do about winning. They’re like a historically bad high school team who all the sudden has a couple of good seasons. They haven’t learned how to win yet.
Baron Davis. I hate Baron Davis because he has the talent to be one of the best players in the league, but instead he is a total jake. He goes all year (or sometimes multiple years) without trying, until he decides that he wants to turn it on. I can’t abide this, but he’s nowhere near as bad as the king of Jakes…
Tracy McGrady. I have absolutely zero respect for Tracy McGrady. Zero. I remember when he was in Orlando. He was doing a pre game interview and he went out of his way to make sure that everyone watching knew how “injured” he was, and how much “pain” he was in. But he was going to man up and play anyway. What a competitor, right? What a pussy more like. (Excuse my French) I have never seen another athlete go out of his way to ensure that everyone knows how banged up they are like McGrady does. This isn’t all vitriol from one interview in Orlando, T-Mac has been doing this his whole career. Maybe I’m just spoiled from having grown up in the Stockton-Malone era, but those guys not only played every night and played HARD every night, but they would be embarrassed if anyone ever insinuated that they were actually hurting (which they were every night, especially towards the end of their careers.) Look Tracy, if your hurt, go sit down. If you’re playing, your healthy, so shut the hell up and play or get off the damn floor. Stop trying to set yourself up as a hero every time you take the floor while at the same time giving yourself an excuse when you lose.
Nicaragua
University of Utah (ESS BS)
Played football and track in high school…coached football 9-12th grade for six years…Grew up in a state without a pro baseball or football team, so I had to search out my own allegiances… My teams are: NFL-Cardinals, NBA-Jazz, MLB-Dodgers (NL)/Yankees (AL)-(Having favorite teams in each league is looked down upon by people who grow up in baseball cities, but I think it is acceptable if there is no team in one’s own state, don’t judge me!) NHL-Avalanche, NCAAF-BYU (homer)/Notre Dame, NCAABB-Gonzaga/Duke…
Is now friends with 
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