Why I love sports, part 2
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by user Shrubbery
Since the first Why I love sports was easily the most popular thing I've ever written I thought the penning of a sequel was apropos. So here are more reasons why I loves sports...
Why I love sports, part 2
- Willie Mays over-the-shoulder basket catch in center field
- Pete Sampras breaking down and crying in the middle of the fifth set of his quarterfinal match with Jim Courier at the Australian Open after a fan shouted, "Win this for Tim". Sampras’ coach Tim Gullikson had suffered a stroke the result of brain tumors and would pass away eight months later.
- Michael Jordan’s shot that broke Cleveland’s heart.
- The furry with which Jim Brown played football.
- The passion and intelligence exuded by Bill Russell on and off the court.
- Patrick Roy vs. Chris Osgood at center ice.
- Patrick Roy vs. Mike Vernon in the playoffs.
- Babe Ruth’s continued iconic status in American pop culture.
- Andre Agassi’s boyish enthusiasm.
- The Drive…ball on their own five, 5:00 left in the 4th quarter in the 1987 AFC Championship, Broncos left tackle Keith Bishop says, “We got ‘em right where we want ‘em.”
- The Drive, Super Bowl XXIII style…ball on their own eight, 3:00 left in the 4th, Joe Montana and Jerry Rice conducting a clinic.
- The Play…1982, Cal vs. Stanford, you know how the rest goes.
- The Catch…Montana to Clark, perhaps the most enduring image in NFL history.
- The Shot…Grant Hill heaves the ball down court to Christian Laettner who buries the game winner and the spunky Kentucky Wildcats.
- The Immaculate Reception
- The Music City Miracle…yet another reason why Bills’ fans cringe if their team makes the playoffs.
- Jim Thorpe, perhaps the greatest athlete this or any country has ever produced.
- Jordan’s 3-point-a-palooza in the ’92 NBA Finals, after hitting his sixth trey in the first half he looked straight at the announcers and gives the now famous “I have no idea” gesture…classic.
- Thank you Jack Johnson for paving the way for other African-American athletes. But for Johnson the world might have never seen Jackie Robinson shatter the color barrier.
- Kirk Gibson’s walk-off homerun off Dennis Eckersly in the 1989 World Series.
- Vince Young’s performance in the 2006 Rose Bowl.
- I reiterate Secretariat’s Belmont performance because he won the 1 ½ mile race by nearly 1/8 of a mile.
- I also reiterate Wayne Gretzky because it took him one third the games to break Gordie Howe’s NHL scoring record.
- Kerri Strug sticking a landing on one foot in the 1996 Summer Olympics.
- Bobby Orr, anything Bobby Orr, the one old school hockey player we’d all pay money to watch.
- Dr. J’s swooping, sweeping, around, from behind the backboard lay-up against the Lakers n the 1980 NBA Finals.
- Larry Bird’s feathery soft yet deadly accurate jump shot.
- Joe Carter’s walk-off homerun in Game 6 of the 1993 World Series.
- The groundswell of support for women’s sports following Team USA’s win in the 1999 Women’s World Cup…sadly, such support died nearly as fast as it began.
- Tiger’s chip shot on the 16th in the final round of 2005 The Masters.
- Roger Clemens and his take no prisoners style.
- Here’s where I wax nostalgic…Walter Payton and Arthur Ashe were taken from us far too soon. The image of Payton breaking down and sobbing before television cameras as he battled for his life belied the angry manner in which he carried the football. Arthur Ashe was different yet the same; healso showed his emotion to the camera as he fought the AIDS virus which eventually took him but he did it in the exact same manner he played tennis, quietly and gracefully. I put these men’s deaths on the list as a celebration of how they lived their respective lives and maintained their humanity under unthinkable agony.
- If you ever get the chance get a pit pass for a NASCAR or IRL event, the smell, sound, and buzz of activity is addictive.
- Tailgating at football games…nothing beats firing up the barbecue, cooking up brats, drinking beer, and bonding with perfect strangers over the immediate fortune of your team.
- Watching the World Cup Final knowing two billion other people were doing the exact same thing.
- Ozzie Smith and his god-like barehanded stab and subsequent laser to first on April 20, 1978.
- Eddie Robinson and his 56 years of coaching.
- Army vs Navy…John Feinstein chronicled this storied rivalry in his book A Civil War…at the end of the game both teams stand at mid field and salute the other, a truly stirring tradition of solidarity.
- Watching as entire cities are swept up in mania as their local rooting interest advances further in the playoffs.
- Duke vs North Carolina at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
- Yet another melancholy entry…in 1972 when the serene setting of the Munich Summer Olympics was shattered by the murder of eleven Israeli athletes ABC’s Jim McKay stayed on air for eighteen straight hours and had to make the heartrending announcement, “They’re all gone.” This is a salute to one of the last remaining grand old men of sports journalism and the dignity with which he treated the most tragic event in modern sports history. This is also a salute to those eleven Israelis who lost there lives while representing their country, may you rest in peace young men.
- Bo Kimble shooting left-handed free throws in tribute to the fallen Hank Gathers.
- I love knowing that 40 million, or nearly one third of the U.S. population at the time, tuned via radio in to listen to the match race between Seabiscuit and War Admiral in 1938.
- I loved hearing my grandpa spin yarns about how Sugar Ray Robinson was so smooth and light on his feet the soles of his shoes never touched the canvas…I miss my dear old grandpa, “Rest in peace old man, rest in peace.”
- Let me leave you with a couple last thoughts…I guess the reason I love sports is the fact grown men and women can be kids again, with all the boundless joy that accompanies. It touches the heart and lifts the soul to see people of such indomitable will and sculpted physique shrink and cry when they hold a trophy, lose a big game, or remember the fallen, oft times on national television. I once saw a Bronco game from the sidelines at Mile High in 1998 and the Nuggets vs. Lakers from courtside in 1989. I saw Magic run a fast break and Terrell Davis break the 2,000 yard barrier. Watching sports from that vantage point is frightening and eerily beautiful. To think that men that big can master control of their bodies in a fashion few can comprehend is dazzling. It’s a bit awe inspiring to think that we common folk belong to a collective that is capable of such wondrous things, capable of rifling 100mph slap shots while skating at 35mph, capable of running left and firing a 70 yard strike to a barely open receiver, capable of smashing 500 foot homeruns, capable of flipping over and kicking a soccer ball into the goal all while in mid air. We few sports obsessives are lucky to be witness to such nearly every day.
Date
Thu 09/21/06, 5:38 pm EST
