USA TODAY: Top 25 Sports Moments of last 25 years

The Mets came back because McNamara blew it with his moves. Buckner rarely played full games at first due to bad ankles. The Red Sox bullpen caved.

I do think that the '03 LCS Game 7 will go down as a one of the most compelling baseball moments of the 00 decade. However, it's still outside the top 25 in the past 25 years, IMHO.

And that just goes to show how monumental the BoSox run in '04 was. Down 0-3 to their arch rivals, then they reel off 4 in a row to win the flag, then sweep the Cards in the Series. Amazing. Just amazing.

 

I think this is obviously a top 25 list for American events. No doubt some events are noteworthy from the last 25 years internationally.

 

Your point about OJ is well taken, but let me try to contextualize it: what if Charles Barkley, or Jordan, or Barry Bonds allegedly committed a double homicide? That would be a sports story in our culture. It's a news story, but because it pertains to an athlete, particularly one of such fame, it's a sports story. And O.J. was still involved in sports. He was still doing sportscasting.

I agree about Flutie and Kirk. I disagree about Nolan Ryan. Nice achievement, but not earth-shattering by any stretch of the imagination.

The Saints' return to the Superdome was a nice moment. I almost felt bad for the Falcons that night

 

The Yankees bested the Braves only in that the Yanks actually did something with the talent they rented :laugh:

The Braves are in trouble. I think the Braves are in need of pitching. I don't think Smoltz is going to ever be the same. Lord knows what the MRI is going to show if he ever consents. Andruw is struggling terribly. They have a manager that is out of touch. You never know. They might sneak in via the Wild Card, but enjoy it while you can. They need to act now to rebuild that pitching staff for the future. All the Francouers of the world will not help if you can't pitch. (Are you listening, Wayne Krivsky?)

 

Great moment for those who are Auburn fans and those who hate Bama, but not significant nationally.

 

No remarks intended to demean are going to be allowed, whether I agree with them or not.

NASCAR is a sport, like it or not, agree with it or not. Far more people were affected by the loss of Dale Earnhardt than any Bo Jackson move. It was front page news all over America.

Auburn's spot in the 80s? They had a couple of good teams and appeared in 3 Sugars, but their conference win pct is Top 4 at best. No national significance (Only GA really did anything nationally in the 80s, with the exception of the Bama team in '89). I appreciate your support for your Tigers (as much as a Vol fan can), and I'll defend them somewhat in the face of other non SEC folks (just can't do that with that other school in your state), but let's not get delusional here.

O.J. Simpson's saga (we've been over this before) is a sports story because of his heroic status and transcendence of sports culture. It also permeated other cultural contexts. Same is true for Magic and Ashe, although I won't quibble with Ashe being less significant than Magic. Tennis was larger than it is now, and the story of this new, dreaded disease robbing us of one of the great athletes of our day transcended just the sports world. People talked about this nationally for weeks. Outside of a few southern coffee shops, who talked about Bo?

I will not defend Flutie's Hail mary. I've questioned it here. However, in the 80s the SEC was not regarded as highly as it was today. The reason so many point to that Flutie pass is you had a Heisman candidate beating a national power on the last play from a team in a major media market, the last bastion of CFB power in the media epicenter of the northeast. While the Iron Bowl was and still is, IMHO, one of the great rivalries in all of college football, it was largely only regarded as such in the South for most of recent era.

If we're going to list Auburn, we have to list the Miracle at South Bend, or Peyton's destruction of that other team in Auburn's state, or an Egg Bowl here and there.

What USA today used for some of its criterion (and I'll agree) is did this sporting event transcend the sports culture? Did people who aren't even sports fans feel an aftershock from this and discuss this with the same passion as sports fans?

 

By the way, do you give Horse Racing money to the horses? I guess the cars and horses drive themselves.

What about tennis players? Do the rackets get the money? Or golf clubs get the winnings when golfers win? Or baseball bats? Or gloves?