The Greatest Game
It’s October, officially the greatest month for sports. Baseball is in the post season, football is in full swing, hockey is underway, and basketball is just around the corner. We here at CJS are sports fans, as you may have picked up on, so we have decided to dedicate the next few confessions to sports. The first pitch of our sports confessions was to tell us what the greatest sporting event you ever watched was. We got a good load of responses so let’s get to it so that you’ll still have time to watch Favre cry tonight.
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Lee S. Hart: I took half a day off on Thursday and proceeded to head over to Coors Field to watch the Rockies clinch a playoff spot before I went to the Pepsi center and watch the Avalanche start their season in style, after retiring number 19 to the rafters. While these were both great games and I had a lot of fun at them, they are hardly the best I have ever seen.
I can however look to these two teams for my favorite moments in all of sports. The first is when Todd Helton made the final out that sent the Rockies to the World Series for the first time. So much joy is displayed in his face and watching that just makes me smile. The other one is after the Avalanche won their second Stanley Cup and Joe Sakic’s first and only priority is getting the cup to Ray Bourque. Watching Bourque finally get to raise the cup after a long career, and Sakic demonstrating the class that made him so great, are two things that always gives me goose bumps.
As for complete games I have watched, there are two that come to mind. They also involve the Rockies and Avalanche. In August of 2007, my mom had given me vouchers for four free Rockies tickets; this was right before they went on that incredible run. I was going to use them that weekend, but nobody could go, so I thought I would get them for the last scheduled game of the season. It will either not matter and be fun, or it will be super important and be fun. It turns out it was super important. I was sitting in the stands with Dagger, Lady E, and another friend watching the Rockies play the D Bags, hoping the post season was going to happen. There were several people near us who had radios on listening to the Padres game, and we all kept a watchful eye on the out of town score board. When the “F” went up and we were all aware the Padres lost, the whole stadium erupted in cheers. Spilly would later confess he wasn’t sure what was going on and assumed Dinger was just spinning his head around. The Rockies proceeded to win their game and went on to play the Padres in a play-in game. More on that game to come.
The other game was an Avalanche vs. Red Wings game. This game was the night before my 20th birthday. This was also my first Avalanche vs. Red Wings game. The intensity in the air was fantastic. I have never been to a game between two rivalries, and I was pumped it was happening with my favorite sport. As the game was winding down it was clear the Avalanche were going to win, but just to make sure they did, Milan Hejduk, my favorite player and one of the guys I’d go gay for, scored one more goal and got the hat trick. Now I’m hopped up and ready to watch more hockey.
E Dagger: I’ve had the privilege of going to some pretty cool events live in my life. Two stand out in terms of their scope. Hart and I attended the WWE Vengeance pay-per-view in 2003, which was pretty good, although we were pretty drunk for most of it. I went to the 1998 All-Star Game at Coors Field, and although I’m happy I went, the game itself was fairly brutal to sit through. With all the pitching changes, defensive swaps, and ancillary pageantry, it clocked in at 3 hours 38 minutes rendering the entire event a more than 4 hour excursion. I love baseball as much as anyone, but geez… I’m happy to have checked WWE PPV and MLB All-Star Game off my bucket list.
Some others I enjoyed both live and on television:
o Rox/Marlins – July 4, 2008. Rox were down 13-5 at one point, and battled back to win 18-17 in one of the wildest games I’ve ever watched
o Rox/Phillies – Game 3 NLDS, 2007. The only series clinching game I’ve ever seen in person.
o Rox/D-Bags – Game 3 NLCS, 2007. I sat in the 5th row in the pouring rain, and Yorvit Torrealba took a 3-2 pitch in the 6th inning out to left for a 3-run homer to put the Rox ahead for good that day.
o Broncos/Packers – Super Bowl XXXII. Elway wins the big one and Favre cries like a bitch.
o Avs/Panthers – Stanley Cup Finals Game 2, 1996. Total domination as the Avs crushed the Panthers 8-1 as I spent the 2nd period naked in a hot tub with a girl for the first time.
But all of those games pale in comparison to Game 163 in 2007, the play-in game at Coors Field between the Rockies and Padres. While I didn’t have tickets, I did count down the minutes until the first pitch while sitting anxiously at work. A couple weeks earlier as the Rox had only won 5 or so in a row, I mentioned the Rox recent success to a friend to which she derisively said, “God, isn’t baseball over yet? It’s football season! Go Broncos!” The Rox went on to win 21 out of 22 games over the next month and appear in the World Series while the Broncos went on to finish 7-9 that year, so the joke’s on her.
Anyway, the game itself was crazy with lead changes aplenty and tons of crazy drama. Lady E was at work, so I was sending her text message updates with scores. Since it went into extra innings, she made it home in time to catch the end.
I was a complete mess. I had approximately 9 beers in my fridge at the start of the game, and because I was so wracked with nerves every time the Padres got on base, by the end of the game I had drank them all. I became unusually superstitious in the extra innings sitting in the same position in my favorite chair, smoking a cigarette while the Rox batted, and only getting new beers during commercials before the bottom of a new inning. But not even my superstitions could prevent the vortex of suck known as Jorge Julio who gave up the two-run homer to Scott Hairston in the top of the 13th. I got two text messages simultaneously from Hart and Lady E that only said, “F*ck!”
I agreed, but I texted them back: “It ain’t over yet.” I remember thinking we had a chance against Hoffman because we had been mowing down closers previous to that – Kerry Wood, Chad Cordero, and most notably, Takashi Saito. Hoffman was due, and sure enough – we lit him up like the Griswold family Christmas tree. As Jamey Carroll stood at the plate with the scored tied and Holliday on 3rd, I remember thinking, “Holy hell, we’re actually gonna do this!”
Shallow fly ball to right, Holliday tags, here comes the throw, Barrett drops the ball, the Rockies win!
I freaked out in my apartment and was bouncing around like a complete spazz. I’d never been happier for a team in my life, and all I wanted to do was immediately call Hart & Lady E and tell them, “See?! Never lose the faith!” which I may or may not have done. Regardless, that is easily my favorite game ever, and although this has been repeated many times, it bears repeating once more. If that game had been played in New York or Boston , it would go down as the greatest game of all-time. No question.
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As you will see, the game Dagger described will pop up a few more times, but before that we do have some varied choices.
Corriander: Growing up in good ol’ Montana where we don’t have any professional sports teams within a 10-12 hour drive, most of my sports memories are high school football games and going basketball games of the small, private Catholic college in town with my dad. Then once I made it to college I finally went to University of Montana football games which are some of the most fun games to go to. We have one of the top Div I-AA (or the Championship Division, since we’re the division with a playoff system that makes sense) and the best stadium in that division also. It’s fact.
But my most memorable sporting event is not a high school or college game, and actually it’s not even a game that I actually got to see. My dad has always been into baseball and we spent a lot of our summers going to see the local minor league team. For some unknown reason, my dad’s favorite baseball team is, and always has been, the Baltimore Orioles. When my little brother was 8 years old, he was the pitcher of his little league team. The Mariners were his favorite team and he was dying to see Randy Johnson and Ken Griffey Jr. play. My family took our summer vacation and made the road trip to Seattle in July 1994 to visit some family and to go to a Mariners game against the Orioles. I was just as excited as my dad and brother, since I had to tag along to all of my brother games and my dad’s fantasy baseball nights, and had my own baseball card collection. For a 13 year old girl, I knew quite a bit about baseball (I probably knew more about it then than I do now). It was also a big deal because we made this trip as a family even though my parents had been separated for a few years at this point. Anyway, we got to the stadium early so we could enjoy watching batting practice, etc. and instead of being able to go in, we found a huge line forming at the gate. We stood in line for what seemed like several hours not knowing what was going on before finally hearing the announcement that the game was cancelled which sounded something like this: “We regret to inform you that today’s Seattle Mariners baseball game has been cancelled due to problems with tiles on the Kingdome ceiling.” Yep, we were standing in line while the ceiling tiles fell off of the Kingdome roof. The Mariners didn’t play there the rest of the season, and we never did make it to see the Mariners play.
That meant my first professional baseball game experience was sitting in the Rockpile at a Rockies game a few weeks after moving to Colorado, almost 10 years later. Not bad, but it wasn’t Randy Johnson and Ken Griffey, Jr. But on a side note, I still did get super excited at a game a few years ago where I had a seat in the right outfield box at a game against the Reds where I got to watch Griffey play up close. I’m sure it would have been more exciting when I was 13, but I think I still felt a little bit of that excitement that I would have had if that game had been played in ‘94.
Gutter: To break this down a little easier I had to narrow it down to games that I have seen in person. I then narrowed it down to two games. The game clinching NLDS game where the Rockies beat the Phillies to win their first playoff series in franchise history and the Utah vs. CSU game in 2005 where CSU stopped Utah four straight times at the goal line with less than a minute to play to win the game. Although the Rockies game my be more historic, nothing can compare to the excitement of those final plays up at Hughes Stadium. The crowd was absolutely deafening, everyone was on their feet. It seemed as if on every play the entire crowd was on the field with the Rams stuffing up the line of scrimmage. After the 4th down play the entire stadium exploded, everyone was giving each other hugs and high fives, nobody was a stranger to anyone else, we were all in it together and we all celebrated together. Although there was nothing special about that particular game, (it didn’t decide a conference championship, and it wasn’t a win over a Top 10 team) it was one of the most exciting things I have ever experienced at a sporting event and a story I will be telling my kids and grand kids when they head off to Fort Collins for their freshman year at CSU.
Twodogszk: I have two and I know this is the typical Denver sports fan answer, so I will apologize now.
First one is the Super Bowl between the Denver Broncos and Green Bay Packers in 1997. This one was special because my dad and I were lucky enough to get tickets to the game from an anonymous elected official. Oh yeah, elected officials don’t get bribed (my ass). We were able to share a moment that I will never forget and the game was amazing. It was one of those back-and-forth games that you never know who is going to win until the last play.
Second great game for me was the game 4 of the Stanley Cup for the Colorado Avalanche in 1996. I remember that game vividly because it was the first time that I really remember thinking Denver and Colorado might actually win something. It was also great because the game went to three overtimes and Uwe Krupp nailed a shot from what seemed like the blue line.
Honorable mention is the San Diego Padres vs. the Colorado Rockies in 2007 for the play-in game and the Holliday slide. I would put this higher but I was watching in Spanish while hammered on tequila in Mexico. Don’t really remember that much.
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Here are some more who pick game number 163 of 2007 as their top choice, and another pick for a CSU Rams game.
Flickerbock: I can’t decide which one was better, so you get both.
The date is October 8, 2005. The location: Hughes Stadium, Fort Collins, Colorado. The Rams of Colorado State University were hosting the Utes of the University of Utah (lots of U’s). With just over 5:00 remaining in the game, Kyle Bell (I’ve got a fever. . . and the only prescription. . . is more Kyle Bell) broke off a run of 49 yards for a touchdown. The Rams were leading by 4, 21-17. Unfortunately, we all thought the Rams had scored too early. The Utes had plenty of time to get the touchdown they needed to win. The Utes drove the ball 76 yards to the Rams 4 yard line. First and goal. My heart was sinking. Fast. First down – run play for 3 yards. Second and goal at the 1. Second down – QB keeper for no gain. Third and goal at the 1. Third down – another QB keeper for no gain. Fourth and goal at the one. Fourth down – a handoff to the running back for NO GAIN!!! Game over. Rams win. Best end to a football game I have ever seen.
It is October of 2007. I just married the woman of my dreams in late September. We took a week and headed down to Riviera Maya, Mexico. On the flight back to the States, CJS regular Deuce left me a voicemail. With all the TSA crap, I obviously did not get the opportunity to check my voicemail until we landed. Before I had to shut the phone off again to get through customs, I listened to the voicemails from the past week. The last one sounded something like this: “Flick, the Rockies just tied the Padres for the NL Wild Card. They are having a play-in game tomorrow at Coors Field. I was going to get tickets. Do you want one?” Since I was gone a week, my voicemails were plentiful. By the time I got to this most recent (and by far most important) voicemail, I was at the custom area and some bastard TSA jerkwad was gruffly asking me to turn my phone off. I comply, knowing that jail time would definitely eliminate any possibility of attending the play-in game. We get through customs as fast as we can and I pull the phone out the second they allow those mobile devices. I had a missed call. Deuce. I had a voicemail. I check it and it sounded something like this: “I decided that I wasn’t going to wait any more. I knew you would want one, so I got you one.” Thankfully, this message was delivered to me remotely so I could avoid the embarrassing moment of hugging Deuce until he turned a different color – not pale. We head to the game and we have front row seats on the upper deck in right field. The rest of the story is known – Trevor Hoffman blows a save (like it was an All Star game), they play extras, Matt Holiday slides, tags (or doesn’t tag) home plate, Rockies clinch a playoff spot for the 2nd time in franchise history. And I was there at the loudest outdoor stadium I have ever been in. Incredible.
Deuce: I know what you’re thinking, here’s the Giants fan, so get ready to hear about them knocking off the undefeated Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, but you’d be wrong. The greatest game I’ve ever seen happened to be one that I was able to witness live. The 163rd Rockies game of 2007. I think part of what makes this game so special is the seemingly predestined way in which I was able to attend the game.
After attending the 162nd game of the Rockies 2007 season and enjoying that win while simultaneously watching the Padres, specifically Trevor Hoffman, blow a save in Milwaukee. I rushed home and headed over to my local King Soopers to try to obtain tickets for this game while Mrs. Deuce attempted to procure them on the computer. After waiting in line to no avail and finally getting word that King Soopers had distributed all of their allocated tickets, I headed home hoping to find out that Mrs. Deuce had more luck. No dice. She had attempted vigorously but there were no tickets showing up to be bought. She abandoned our computer upstairs and began to make dinner. After relaying my tale to her I went upstairs to turn off the computer but decided to give it one more shot at finding tickets. Low and behold 2 tickets in the third deck showed up in my cart, and the front row of the third deck no less. I was shocked to say the least.
The atmosphere at the stadium was tremendous, the Rockies were coming off their miracle run towards the playoffs, and since I had only lived in Dallas and Colorado, I wasn’t very accustomed to the excitement of playoff baseball. The stadium was rocking start to finish. I won’t recap to much of the game as I am sure most of you are familiar with it, or can look it up it’s recap on this interweb somewhere. But in 12 innings, a disallowed homerun, terrible pitching by Jorge Julio, a triple off the manual scoreboard, a shallow fly ball to right, a 2nd consecutive blown save by the All-Time save leader, and a bloody chin, the culmination of three weeks of over-the-top baseball was complete and the already raucous crowd somehow managed to amplify their decibel level and the celebration was on. The ending of this game was the single most exciting sporting moment I have ever seen in person and that is why it is the greatest game I have ever watched.
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It is clear there are a lot of Rockies fans writing into us, and Augie.maestas sums it up best with his response.
Augie.maestas: After a few days of thinking about this question, I have come tot he conclusion that all of us could say the Jordan days of the NBA were some pretty cool games to watch. As a Michigan fan, I could say watching them in the National Championship was a great game to watch (or any game in which they beat OSU). Broncos Super Bowls were fun to watch and so were the Avalanche Stanley Cup victories. Nuggets playoffs were a good time, especially being in the stands. However, the atmosphere just didn’t seem to live up to what I was expecting for a playoff game. I will say though, going to the late September Rockies games in 2007 were a blast. Living the dream with the players well sitting in the stands and watching them win that many baseball games in a row was amazing. Even those will not compare to the NLDS games 3 and 4 that I attended that year. From the parking lot all the way to the stadium, you can just feel the electricity in the air. Every person you ran into was happy to be at a Rockies playoff game. Beers were cold, seats were awesome, Rockeis Dog was delicious, and 40,000+ fans waving white towels around at Coors Field was amazing. From the lights going out before the game started to the fireworks going off after we clinched the series, it was the best sporting event I have ever witnessed and I cannot wait to have another chance to go to another Rockies baseball playoff game. Colorado has the best fans out of every state (when the team is winning). Lets go Rockies!!
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The MLB Network recent replayed the play-in game everyone mentioned, and it was just as much fun this time around. But there are many more games to watch and many more moments to wow us. But until then we always have these great ones to think about.
Up next on for our sports confessions we open up the hypothetical bag. Giving the option to redo your life and become a big time sports star what sport and which position would you play? Would you seek the glory of a starting quarterback? Could you deal with the pressure of being the closing pitcher? Would you want to be a soccer winger and be unknown in America? Whatever sports fantasy you have, we want to know about it.
We want to know more about all our readers. So don’t hold back. If you haven’t confessed, or it’s been awhile, or even if you did it last week, we want to hear from you. Don’t be shy and send us your response, along with your posting name to staff@crujonessociety.com and we’ll put them up next week.
Hart and Dagger
05 Oct 2009 CJS Staff