Sunday, July 13, 2008

Best Sporting Events I've Attended...

This will be an interactive blog - post the top 5 sporting events you have attended. They can be for historical reasons, personal rooting interest, etc. Whatever you consider the best stuff you have seen. Here's mine...

5) 2008 NBA Playoffs - May 2, 2008 Boston Celtics (100) @ Atlanta Hawks (103) Game 6, Phillips Arena - The Hawks force a Game 7 back in Boston by winning their 3rd home game of the series. Down 32-20 after the 1st quarter, Atlanta comes back by becoming the aggressor and shooting an astounding 47 free throws. The Hawks beat the eventual World Champs that night with Boston shooting 46.3% from the field and committing only 9 turnovers. This game was the beginning of the Ray Allen shooting slump.

4) Men's Olympic Track and Field - July 1996 - Turner Field, Atlanta, GA. Watched 200m qualifying for men - saw Michael Johnson run at the Olympics he set the world record with a 19.32 (record still stands).

3) Master's Golf Tournament - April 8, 1995 (Saturday) - Augusta National - Tiger Woods made the cut in his 1st major tournament while playing as an amateur. Watched Tiger in the morning and then made it over to Amen Corner to watch the leaders (Crenshaw won that year, Love III was 2nd).

2) World Series - October 23, 1991 - Minnesota Twins @ Atlanta Braves - John Smoltz was lights out and for once in the early 90's the Braves won a World Series game that Jack Morris started. Final was 3-2 with Jerry Willard hitting a walk-off sac fly scoring Mark Lemke, who tripled with 1 out in the 9th.

1) November 16, 2002 - Jordan-Hare Stadium, Auburn AL - UGA 24 AU 21- With the SEC East title on the line, David Greene found Michael Johnson in the corner of the end zone on a 4th and 16 prayer to send the Dawgs to the GA Dome for their 1st appearance in the SEC Championship Game.

Just missed the cut:

- May 8 1994 - NBA Playoffs Atlanta Hawks 102 Miami Heat 91 - Game 5 clincher at the Omni - Kevin Willis had 24 Pts and 12 rbs and Mookie Blaylock dished out 18 assists.

- September 22, 2002 - Atlanta Falcons 30 Cincinnati Bengals 3 - Sunday Night Football - Pat Kerney recovered a fumble in the end zone and Mike Vick put on quite a show.

- September 2, 1998 - Houston Astros @ Atlanta Braves - Dad and I watched Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux duel with both pitchers in the middle of their prime. We were able to follow McGwire's chase too as he hit 2 that night to give him 58.

- March 11, 2001 - Duke 79 UNC 53 - ACC Tournament Final, GA Dome - Wasn't much of a game, but it was still Duke vs UNC and I am not waiting in line/paying to watch them play in their home arena's.

- December 2003 - Campbell 94 McEachern 92 - Campbell High School, Smyrna, GA - Yes, I do have a HS basketball game on my list. Josh Smith had 40 points and fellow future 1st round pick Morris Almond had 20+ as well in the best played HS game I have ever seen. Along with the 2 future NBA players, at least 10 players on the court that night went on to play college ball. Justin Gwyn was fouled with just less than 2 seconds left in the 4th quarter and hit 2 free throws to ice the victory. Almond's potential game winning 3 rimmed out at the buzzer.

- September 6, 1992 - Atlanta Falcons 20 NY Jets 17 - The 1st game ever played in the GA Dome was won by the home team. Michael Haynes caught 2 TD passes from Chris Miller.

- March 28, 2004 - Duke 66 Xavier 63 - Elite 8/Regional Final - Georgia Dome - Wasn't even planning on going to this one - was downtown watching GT beat Kansas to get to San Antonio and ran into a Texas fan that thought the Horns would be in this game and bought a ticket from him for $10 to sit right behind the Duke band.

- September 21-23 1999 - Atlanta Braves sweep NY Mets, Turner Field - Chipper had 4 hits in the series - 2 in Game 1 and 1 each in Games 2 and 3. Every hit was a HR and Chip locked up the MVP that series (yes, I did go to each game).

Finally, I also have a top 5 (excluding the game listed above) of just UGA football games.

5) August 30, 2003 - UGA 30 Clemson 0 - Hottest day ever with a few key linemen suspended was never in doubt. Cries for Tommy Bowden's head filled Death Valley and UGA emptied the bench early in the 2nd half.

4) December, 2002 - SEC Championship Game - UGA 30 Arkansas 3 - Musa Smith scored early and this one was never close as Mark Richt won a SEC title in his 2nd year on the job.

3) January 1, 2003 - Sugar Bowl - UGA 26 Florida St 13 - Capped off a 13-1 season and #3 final ranking by destroying the ACC Champions. Bruce Thornton had a 73 yard INT return for a TD. Noles fans complained they lost because they didn't have Chris Rix, but whenever he played they always talked about how bad he was????

2) October 30, 2004 - UGA 31 Florida 24 - Ended a 6 game winning streak UF had in the series - Danny Ware ran for 103 yards and Leonard Pope had 2 TD catches.

1) 2006 Chick-Fil-A Bowl - UGA 31 Virginia Tech 24 - After getting man-handled in the 1st half and falling behind 21-3, everything went right for UGA in the 2nd half as they dominated both sides of the ball and got the win. Capped off a season that ended with 3 straight victories over ranked opponents (Auburn, GT, VT).

Post away!!!

3 comments:

Beezbo said...

5. Braves 6, Red Sox 3 (12 innings) 7/2/04
Nick Green hit a sac fly to tie it up in the 10th and then hit a walk-off, 3-run homer to win it. Extra special since this Boston team ended up winning it all and it was fun seeing their bandwagon fans upset.

4. Georgia Tech 28, Clemson 24, 9/11/04
AKA Calvin Johnson's breakout game: 8 catches, 127 yards, 3 TDs, including 2 in the last 2 minutes for the comeback win. Also fun to see the entire Clemson campus upset.

2./3. Hawks vs Celtics, Games 3 and 6, 2008
Can't decide which one I liked more. Game 3 was awesome because it was unexpected. Game 6 was awesome because that "Sev-en!" chant while walking out of Philips still gives me chills.

1. Falcons 47, Rams 17, 2004 Divisional Playoffs
Vick and Dunn ran wild and Brady Smith ate Marc Bulger alive with a safety that produced the loudest noise I've ever heard in the Dome.

Honorable mention:
-Francoeur's 1st game
-Falcons vs Saints from '05 with Vick-to-Crumpler in the last minute for the comeback win
-the Falcons vs Bengals Sunday Night game you mentioned (plus we got Vick bobbleheads)
-LSU over UGA in the SEC Championship (got to see the nat'l champs in person)
-several events from the '96 Olympics (track & field, baseball, handball, kayaking)
-Thrashers 5-4 in shootout over Buffalo from this past year (only because we sat in the last row and hit our hands on the walls while chanting "Let's go Thrash-ers!" for 2 hours)
-Thrashers 5-4 in OT over Islanders from '07 (Ilya walk-off, but more importantly, I played sumo hockey on the ice during the 1st intermission)
-GSU over Troy...Herman Favors sinks 2 FTs with 0.0 on the clock
-GSU over UCF... same season, this time Trello Galloway jumps over 5 people for a tip-in at the buzzer for the win.
-GSU over UGA from '02... undercard: Brad Holland vs Ezra Williams

Anonymous said...

1. Panthers 10, Falcons 3, 12/24/06. I got to see Chris Weinke win his first game in five years in the NFL and kill the Falcons' shot at the playoffs. I saw DeAngelo Williams and DeShaun Foster get 50 first downs on direct snaps on every 3rd down. And even better, my Christmas Eve was ruined...greatest day of my life

Rob said...

5. Atlanta Knights
sometime between 1994-1995
First ever live hockey game I ever attended. The Knights were known for fighting and they did plenty of it the game that I went to. We sat blue line on the glass and a Knights player was checked into the glass so hard that the glass cracked right in front of us.

4. Hawks 102 Boston 93
4/28/2008
Couldn't believe it when the highlight factory proved that the game 3 win wasn't a fluke. The loudest I had ever heard Philips arena including game 6!!

3. UF 84 OH ST 75
4/3/2007
First and only final championship game that I've ever seen in any sport. Oden didn't have much for the likes of our boy Horford or Noah. Best of all I won the tickets along with a complimentary 2 night stay at the Ritz Carlton courtesy of Polaris Industries.


2. UGA 31 UF 24
10/30/2004
Third "cocktail party" that I went to in a row. First and only out of six tries that I went to that UGA won. I remember Pollack coming down to the corner of the endzone after the game and blowing up in celebration. Ben Martin maneuvered the greates dissapearing act that I've ever witnessed. I saw him briefly Thursday night for a friendly poker game and didn't see him again until Sunday afternoon about 1 1/2 minutes before we left. NO ONE really knows where he was the whole weekend!!

1. UGA 21 Tennessee 10
10/7/2000
Georgia had lost its previous 9 attempts to defeat the volunteers. They won handidly in Athens and the fans rushed the field (including me) and tore down the goal posts. Several hours later one of the goal posts was seen in downtown Athens being carried from Boarshead to Washington st.