When did sports transport you ... or crush you?

Uh, I can't remember how he did it but one of our local kids broke both of his wrists about 6 weeks ago when he supposedly punched the floor with both hands...

 

Crush me:

A) 1982, I'm 11, Long Beach Little League, I'm shortstop for the Mets. Bottom of the 6th inning, we're ahead 3-2. Other team loads the bases with 2 outs. Guy hits a routine grounder to me and I field it but panic — try to gun down the guy at home instead of stepping on 2nd base for the final out. My throw sails past the catcher and the tying and winning runs score. I cry on the way home.

B) 1985, NCLS, Ozzie Smith first left-handed home run, ever, off Niedenfuer. Jack Clark mash job in the next game, off Niedenfuer. It took me 2 weeks to get over it.

C) 1993 Stanley Cup. Habs steal series from Kings. Waited my whole life for this one moment.

D) The day Georgia Frontiere broke my heart and moved the L.A. Rams to St. Louis. Sundays from August to February just ain't the same.

Transport:

A) 1982, I'm 11, Long Beach Little League. Still the shortstop. Same scenario as above, we're ahead by a run in the top of the 6th this time. Other team loads the bases with 2 outs. A lefty steps to the plate and I'm thinking, "Cool, he's a lefty and won't it the ball my way." Donnie the pitcher throws a fastball and the batter is late but rips a screaming liner my way. Oh. Shit. I close my eyes, raise my glove out of fear more than instinct and feel the ball explode into it; so hard that it forced my hand to clench the glove shut. I open my eyes and everyone on my team is sprinting my way. The big fat coach lifts me over his shoulders. I ask him if I can keep the ball and he said no. Oh well. The best part was afterward because it was the one and only time I've bonded with my dad, who stutters and rarely talks. But he shook my hand and smiled and said something like "Good catch." He took me and my 2 brothers to Pioneer Chicken to celebrate. Only recently did I figure something out about that moment. My dad grew up loving the Dodgers from the day they moved from Brooklyn to LA. His was the era that said "Winner winner, chicken dinner." It sounds corny, but him taking me out to our family's favorite fast-food chicken joint was his paternal way of saying "Way to go, my boy." So, in the same season I went from goat to greatest player of all time — for one measley game, anyway.

B) 1987, I'm a junior at Millikan High and we have a JV soccer game at Warren High in Downey. Grew up playing my whole life, but for the most part, I suck. But I work hard and never miss a practice so the coach rewards me with a start at center striker. Late in the 1st half we're linking passes on a rush into Downey territory and the right winger sends a pass into the mixer. The goalie breaks from his line. I charge even harder for the ball. We meet in the middle of the box and I get my right foot on the ball just before the keeper arrives, redirect it between his legs and into the net. I was in 7th heaven. My first and only high school goal. What a shit-eating grin I had. "Songbird," the coach yelled, "get over yourself — it's only one goal." But it was the only goal of the game.

C) Todd Marinovich driving USC 91 yards in the final 2 minutes at Wazzu for a TD, and then the Trojans make the 2-pointer for an 18-17 win. Maybe the most thrilling football drive I've ever watched. Ronald Reagan watched the game, too, and called the locker room afterward to congratulate Marinovich.

D) Kirk Gibson. 1988.

 

Transports me: 84 Cubs
Crush me: 84 Cubs

 

Right there with ya, outofplace.

I'll never forget the 2001 AFC title game, either. The Steelers made Super Bowl plans beforehand and with Brady out, could anyone blame them? Then the special teams and fucking Kordell Stewart blew it.

Personally, I've got to with football, senior year. I played receiver and matador/defensive back. Barely saw the field -- I had just six varsity catches to my credit -- but that didn't matter much.

We snuck into the playoffs, upset the top-ranked team in Class AAAA and were a lucky ass late field goal from the WPIAL semifinals. Or essentially, experienced the highest of highs and lowest of lows in barely a week's time.

 

First the crushing moments: What Angola said... damn Edgar Martinez. And the Yankees in 2004 - it was a clear message and no coincidence that later that year, George Bush was reelected and the tsunami killed 200,000 people.

Transporting moments:

1. April 3, 1988. The New Jersey Devils have never made the playoffs in their first five years. They start the season well, but go through a rough patch and, although the team is improved, they still are on the outside looking in. Sean Burke comes from the Canadian Olympic team, and the Devils close the season by winning seven and tying one in their final eight games. The last game is the most thrilling. Three teams, the Penguins and the facist New York Rangers have a chance to get the fourth and final Patrick Division playoff position. Pittsburgh loses and the Rangers win. The Devils end regulation tied with the Chicago Black Hawks. They are tied with the Rangers in the standings with the tie, but they need to win because the Rangers have more wins or more goals. With about 2:15 left, John MacLean takes a pass from Cirella and scores the winning goal, the only time a team has made the Stanley Cup Playoffs by winning an overtime goal. I screamed for a minute, and then called friends to scream our joy.

1996 World Series... Game Four... Yankees are losing 6-0, and my wife, who doesn't understand the mania, wants to go shopping at Target... she gets discouraged. I didn't want to go, but say I will if I can bring my radio that gets the TV sound. Part of the antenna broke, but I was still able to listen to the Yankees comeback. Even though it was in southern California, there were a couple of Target employees who were rooting for the Yankees.

 

Transport:

1994 Rose Bowl. It capped off a season that most Badgers fans thought would never come. It's easy to think of Wisconsin as a perennial Top 25 team, but from the mid 1960s until the early 1990s (with the exception of the Dave McClain era), UW was the football equivalent of Northwestern or Indiana. And when Wayne Cook blundered by scrambling, ensuring that UCLA would have no time to run another play (they were inside the UW 20 at the time), I remember cheering like there was no tomorrow.

 

Personal crush.

When I was in Peewee hockey (12 & 13) I thought I was the best goalie not playing in the NHL. Fast hands, great double pad stack, moved like a cat.

Played goal for the city rep team that kicked ass in our TriCounty league. We played against a lot of smaller towns but as Double J will attest, those farm boys can play mean hockey.

I think I had 5 or 6 shutouts in a 25 or 30 game season and our team won the championship two years in a row.

At the end of the second year, our coach signed us up for a AAA tournament against teams in the Toronto Hockey League.

We thought we were hot shit but we played three games and lost something like 10-1, 12-5 and 7-0.

There were shots over the glove hand, over the pads, and I found out I was slow as molasses laterally.

The following year I played left wing and scored maybe 6 goals in the season.

Gave up hockey after a year of Midget until intramural university hockey where I went back to playing net. I still sucked.

 

Oh for crying out loud. Are Yankees fans seriously complaining of crushing moments?

Transport: 1995 Mariners, winning playoff game with Angels as Randy Johnson points to the roof of the Dome, and then Edgar freaking Martinez beating the Yankees, with Junior sliding across the plate.

Crush: 1995 Mariners. Definitely was crying along with Joey Cora.

 

Sirs, Madames,

My little cousin in London, England, was born parapalegic. At age 10 he was at the opening of a pool for handicapped kids. Prince Philip was there for the ribbon cutting. After the ribbon was snapped, Phil looked around and asked an official how the children enter the water.

Said my cousin: "You just chuck us in."

YHS, etc

 

Ugh. What a crush-me game that was.

I was at that game. First WS game I ever attended and -- despite the crush-me, as a huge, huge, huge Braves fan -- it was still an awesome experience. Had seats in the upper deck behind the scoreboard in center field at old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Amongst all the NY fans, so we heard plenty of dueling-banjo chants in the stands up there: ("LET'S! GO! YANK-EES!" followed by boos and the Tomahawk Chop chant -- back, you know, when they used to do it. And back when it used to intimidate the fuck out of opponents.)

Me and my dad snuck down to the box seats between home and third in the seventh inning. We were about 15 rows back when Wohlers threw that goddamn slider, and from our vantage point, Andruw looked thiiiiis close to snagging it out in left field. ... We were still 15 rows back when Klesko lost that 10-foot-high "pop-up" in the lights at first base in the 10th inning.

That game absolutely changed the course of baseball history for the next decade. The Braves could have been the dynasty everybody hoped they were going to be. Instead, they haven't won a World Series game since.

Fuck.

Had to bring that up, didn't ya? 8)

 

My fondest sports memories from growing up...

1. Games 6-7 of the 1985 World Series...
2. Joe Montana to Dwight Clark in the NFC Championship game...
3. Joe Montana to John Taylor in the Super Bowl...

My worst sports memories from growing up...

1. Roger Craig's fumble and Matt Bahr's field goal in the NFC Championship game

Nothing else is even close... I was just fucking devastated...

I covered the UCLA-Missouri game (the Tyus Edney shot) as a student reporter. It was great practice to keep your cool when you're working...