Ten Favorite Sports Moments

Kevin Drum did his, and because my students stood me up this evening (how they explain all the penalty charges to their parents I don't know) here's my list of the ten greatest sports moments I've watched live:

10. George Foreman vs. Michael Moorer. (1994) Why do you have a George Foreman grill? This is why. George Foreman was behind on all the cards in the ninth round, but knew that all he needed was one clean shot. He got that clean shot when Moorer blundered into a solid right from Foreman that, well, it reversed his direction, then dropped him to the floor. Moorer was out, and as I recall, he stayed out for quite some time.

9. Jimmy Connors vs. Patrick McEnroe. 1991 U.S. Open (2nd or 3rd round). This was the defining match of an incredible run at the U.S. Open for Connors that ended against the King of Bland, Jim Courier. Connors played what had to be the most improbable match I've ever seen, including a sequence when he lobbed two or three overhead smashes in a row back at McEnroe from the wall behind the baseline. He went on to win the point.

8. Venus Williams vs. Lindsey Davenport. July 3rd, 2005. Wimbledon Finals. I'd been up all night revising a screenplay, when I remembered that the women's match would start at 6am. I thought it would run an hour, an hour-and-a-half at most, so I stayed up. It went on for another thrilling hour and twenty-five minutes as Venus kept coming back from what looked like certain death to survive tripe match point in the second, a tiebreaker, and a break point in the third, to finish Davenport 9-7 in the final set and take the All England Championship.

7. Chicago Bears vs. New England Patriots. Super Bowl XX. It wasn't much of a game to look at, but it was the crowning achievement of one of the greatest football teams ever assembled. They also whipped the Patriots, a team I've grown to detest. Whenever I see footage of Dent sacking Tony Eason, I pretend it's Tom Brady. Open the gates!

6. Kirk Gibson Homers: You've all seen it. It's a gorgeous play. Songs will be sung of it. Epics will be written. All of that.

5. Raiders vs. Broncos. Veterans Day, 2002. With the Raiders at 4-4 facing the 6-2 Broncos at Mile High, I feared the worst. When I left work, I turned on the radio and the announcer said that Jerry Rice had been tackled on the 7, but he didn't say which 7. I couldn't move until Gannon floated a pass to Rice in the end zone to put Oakland in the lead and answer my question. From there, or at least, from thereabouts, Gannon completed twenty passes in a row, (nearly beating Joe Montana's record) to rip Shanahan's Broncos 35-10. Another highlight worthy of framing: Rod Woodson's 96-yard interception return. This victory set the Raiders up for a run to the AFC Title. (Rumor has it there was another game after that, but I don't seem to recall it.)

4. 1984 NBA Finals. Celtics vs. Lakers. This was the first of three epic finals battles between Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. The Celtics ended up taking the series 4-3, but it was a war to the final buzzer. It think I was visiting my grandmother in Pacific Palisades that summer, and wherever I'd been all day, I always made sure I was back for the games to cheer on the Celtics with my dad.

3. Buster Douglas knocks out Mike Tyson, Feb 11th 1990. There was something about that night that told me it would be Tyson's last night as champion. Tyson never seemed able to cope with Douglas's jab, which rendered him incapable of landing his usual array of vicious inside punches. The accumlation of blows from Douglas closed Tyson's eye, and ultimately took him out. Tyson was never the same.

2. San Francisco 49ers vs. Cincinnati Bengals. Super Bowl XXIII. As much as I loved watching the 49ers dismantle the Broncos (and believe me I loved it), this was the greatest of them all. That final drive is deservedly legendary, and unlike a certain NFL quarterback who will remain Brady, Joe Montana didn't need the refs to grease the skids for him.

1. LA Raiders vs. the Patomac Drainage Basin Indigenous Persons. We whipped their asses. My favorite moment was Marcus Allen's amazing 71 yard run to the end zone in the third quarter. Not even the great Bo Jackson could quite match it. (He performed a similar move against the Bengals, ran 90 yards, but some safety brought him down at the five.)

I know. I stretched the definition of a moment quite a bit in some cases. (The 1984 Playoffs are a blur, and the NBA website doesn't have a page showing highlights. I think I can safely assume that Bird, Magic, Kareem, and McHale made some spectacular moves over the course of those games.)