Best Game Ever Attended

[HD MM]

Since we've been discussing and compiling a string of lists, I figure I'd ask everyone what their most memorable live gameday experience was......

Here's mine:

1. OSU Buckeyes vs. Marshall- 9/11/04. Second game of the '04 season. This was the first OSU Football game that I've attended. The day started with a pre-game pep rally (aka Skull Session) in St. Johns Arena with a memorable speech by Jim Tressel and was followed by the OSU fight song and alma mater played by the Best Damn Band in the Land. The crowd then marched with the band across the street and into the Horseshoe. I knew I was witnessing a piece of history when standing infront of the intimidating historic stadium. As I entered and arrived a my seats, I was enthralled with the sea of scarlet and grey and soon found myself surrounded by 108,000 fans amidst chants of "O-H...I-O". The college gameday experience (especially in Columbus) was everything that I've ever dreamed about and more. All sports fans owes it to themselves to experience this once in his/her lifetime. BTW, the Bucks ended up winning that day 24-21, on a last second 55-yard field goal by Nugent. The place erupted as expected.

2. Indians vs. Yankees- 10/4/07. ALDS Game 2, aka "the Bug game". Fausto Carmona battled Andy Pettitte in an epic pitching dual. The Indians scored to go ahead in the bottom of the 11th and won 2-1.

3. Indians vs. Red Sox- 10/16/07. ALCS Game 4. Paul Byrd and Tim Wakefield pitched a shutout until the 5th when the Tribe exploded for 7 runs. The atmosphere and crowd was electric. The Indians went up 3-1 in the 7 game series. At the time, the city had premature World Series ambitions. We were 1 game away!

I could go on about past Cav's playoff games that were absolutely magical to witness or Brown's games that were super emotional, but I feel the above 3 were the most memorable and noteworthy that I've attended so far in my life......

 

[mccoyrj]

The best game I ever attended was the 1979 Sugar Bowl. It pitted #1 Penn State and Joe Paterno (in his prime) against the #2 Alabama Crimson Tide and "The Bear" (in his "godly" years).

The game was tight and went down to the final quarter with Bama leading 14-7. Penn state had a first and goal and the Tide stuffed them on fourth down at the one yardline to hang on to the lead with 6 minutes remaining.

Penn State then held Bama on three consecutive downs and forced a shank punt to the Bama 30 yardline, but the Lions had twelve men on the field giving Bama a first down. The Tide drove the ball down the field and gave it up deep in Penn State territory with only 12 seconds left.

The game ended with a Bama interception and the Tide fans went crazy in the Superdome. The Tide split the title with USC that year.

 

[BillD1984]

The best game I ever attented was not the outcome I had hoped for, but was a great (and famous) game just the same.

Oct. 2, 1978.......................Fenway Park............Bucky Dent.............Reggie Jackson...........Lou Piniella......need I say more? I was a seventh grader at the time and was able to skip school.

 

[DanLee]

Boston @ Chicago White Sox in 2006 just before the All-Star Break. Jermaine Dye hits a solo home with two outs in the 9th to tie the game at 2. 9 innings later, Tadahito Iguchi hits a double with a man on second to win the game. I think it was the 5th-6th longest game in MLB history. I was sunburnt for over a week, but it was a great game with many outstanding plays in the outfield and from the infielders. Not to mention a great pitchers duel. Both teams emptied their bullpens and eventually had to use their starting pitchers.

 

[salsadancer7]

January 4, 1981 - Oakland Raiders 14, Cleveland Browns 12 .....FROZE MY ASS OFF!! But it was THE 1st time I EVER saw my Raiders live. At haftime, 7-6 Raiders, I was REALLY thinking to myself, "GOD of mighty....it is WAY too cold!" ALL my blood and body heat came back when Mike Davis intercepted that ball in the end zone and suddenly.....I was not so cold anymore!

September 17, 1988 - Miami Hurricanes 31, Michigan Wolverines 30....."dude, come on, it'll be fun...have you ever been to a stadium that had over 100,000 in it?!" Those were THE EXACT words from my THEN girlfriend who was a graduate of "MEEEE-sheee-gan". I was one of about 4,000 Hurricanes fans in Ann Arbor.
30-17 with 7 minutes or so left....it was so noisy, I could not hear me swallowing beer when I drank. When The U's Carlos Huerta hit the game winner with about 40 seconds left to win the game, I swear that my Sunday morning mass was louder than that stadium! It was the best comeback by a team I had EVER seen!

December 6, 1998 - Miami Hurricanes 49, UCLA Bruins 45 Edggerin James ran for 299 yards and killed UCLAs chances of a national title. NOBODY expected Miami to keep up with UCLAs' potent offense. 1st time I have ever stormed the field for ANYTHING...very cool!

October 3, 2003 - Divisional Playoffs - National League - Florida Marlins 7, San Francisco Giants 6. The loudest game I have EVER been to....and I worked in the Old Barn, Old Chicago Stadium during the Michael Jordan Championship years...It was a back and forth game, Marlins with big lead, 5-1, Giants score 4 to tie in the 6th inning and finally with the game ending with a collision at the plate and Pudge holding on to the ball to end the game and preserve the win!

EVER SINGLE one of the games were ALL flukes that I was able to attend...they were litterally all last second tickets that someone "had extras".....

 

[MikeI]

In 1983, my 1st Phoenix Giants game I attended, Scott Garrelts threw a no-hitter on a hot afternoon day in Phoenix for the AAA Giants in a triple-header. 1st game had to be finished from the night before and then 2 7 inning games.

In 1991, my 1st Dodgers game I attended, Dennis Martinez threw a perfect game against the Dodgers.

In 2000 against the Giants, Rally Monkey started at a game I attended. Rally Monkeys are everywhere now. Even the local Isotopes AAA team sells them in their proshop. What a ripoff! Angels should of gotten exclusive rights.

 

[jgags6]

Chi Sox game in 04. There were 2 outs with the bases loaded the sox were down by 3. My friend was like "lets go and beat the traffic" I convinced him to stay and the next batter was Frank Thomas and he hit a grand slam to win the game!

 

[billymac]

Pirates/Cubs at Pittsburgh in 2004. Doubleheader. Both games won by walk of home runs by the Pirates. First game in 9th. Second game in 10th.

Rob Mackowiak hit walk off grand slam to win first game. Between games, they announced that his wife had given birth to their first son. Mackowiak hit 2 run homer in bottom of 9th of second game to force extra innings.

 

[SabresRule]

As a Sabre fan, I used to live in Buffalo, and I went to a few Sabres game before my family moved to Wisconsin in 1994.

The first game I went to- January 10, 1992- Buffalo routed the Oilers 8-2 as Pat LaFontaine scored a hat trick.

October 30, 1992- the night before Halloween- the Sabres CRUSHED the then-expansion Ottawa Senators by a score of 12-3.

December 31, 1992- Alexander Mogilny scored a hat trick on Sombrero night as Buffalo beat the Rangers 11-6.

But the best game I went to was on February 24, 1993, the Red Wings vs. the Sabres.

-Alexander Mogilny scored four goals to break Danny Gare's single-season team record

-LaFontaine had 5 points

-Steve Yzerman scored his 1000th point

-Sabres won 10-7.

 

[JohnL]

Buffalo Bills January 3 1993

The answer for me would be "THE COMEBACK" Game.

Buffalo Bills comeback from 32 points down to beat the Houston Oilers in Overtime.

I know a lot of people claim to have been there, but the simple fact is that even those that REALLY attended the game (I still have my ticket stub), left before the end.

I took a Mental beating from my friends to leave, to which my replies were, "I paid for the whole game, I'm staying for the whole game." To this very day I don't get any credit from them, since without me being there all of them would have left and missed that historic game's conclusion.

John

 

[sidekick]

Best Game I attended was the Los Angeles Lakers vs. the Dallas Mavericks when the Lakers came back from being down 27 points in the 4th quarter to win the game. It was December 6, 2002. They started the 4th quarter down 88-61 and won the game 105-103. It was a spectacular comeback!!!

 

[SabresRule]

Best Game I attended was the Los Angeles Lakers vs. the Dallas Mavericks when the Lakers came back from being down 27 points in the 4th quarter to win the game. It was December 6, 2002. They started the 4th quarter down 88-61 and won the game 105-103. It was a spectacular comeback!!!

Ah, yes.

The game that cost the Mavericks the #1 seed in 2003

(They tied the Spurs with a 60-22 record, but lost on a tiebreaker. Had that game gone differently, maybe the country would have been spared that boring Spurs/Nets finals).

I'm not a bitter Mavs fan (Go Jazz!), but that game immediately brought back a thought.

 

[Mr Tony]

The Valentines day massacre weekend

2/13/04 & 2/14/04 at the DECC in Duluth, MN

1st time EVER (60 years) that UMD swept Minnesota in a 4 game series..

oh the fun we had when we went to every dollar store in Duluth & Superior and got brooms...to throw them on the ice

[youtube]9S9EiO4Gqhw[/youtube]

 

[hancox]

Easy.

March 29, 1999. UConn vs Duke in the national championship game.

77-74 UConn, in what was called the "Duke Invitational" by many an irresponsible "journalist."

Had front row seats and some TV time that night

 

[Weezknight]

1) September 10, 1996 - The NEW CoreStates Center (now Wachovia Center) - World Cup of Hockey Finals Game #1 - Canada (4) USA (3) OT. The 1996 World Cup of Hockey held 3 games in Philadelphia as the first events ever held in the new CoreStates Center. This was the first game of the Finals between Canada & the US and the crowd was so loud in support of the USA you couldn't help but get goose bumps! Canada was up 3-2 with just seconds left to play when John LeClair (who was playing for the hometown Flyers at the time) put in the tying goal. I thought the place was going to crash down due to the USA/Flyers fans going absolutely nuts. Certainly Canada went on to win in Overtime, but I came to realize that day how much greater International rivalries are over Club rivalries!

2) October 20, 1993 - Veteran's Stadium (World Series Game 4) - Blue Jays (15) Philles (14). The temperature was brutally cold and it was rainy...it was more like football weather than baseball weather! I really didn't have a single horse in the race, since it was my favorite team (Blue Jays) playing against my hometown team (Phillies). I remember this game distinctly because of the weather that day and the fact that there were 29 runs scored and the game went somewhere around 4 hours.

Honorable Mentions:
3) October 6, 1993 - Veteran's Stadium (NLCS Game 1) - Phillies (4) Braves (3) - Curt Schilling strikes out the first 5 batters he faces as the Phils beat those stinkin' Braves!

4) November 18, 2007 - RFK Stadium (MLS Cup Finals) - Houston Dynamo (2) New England Revolution (1). Nothing better than seeing the Revs become the Buffalo Bills of MLS as they lose their 3rd straight MLS Cup Final (2nd in a row to the Dynamo).

 

[FlyingJ]

Super Bowl 32.....Elway doing the whirly.

 

[SabresRule]

Easy.

March 29, 1999. UConn vs Duke in the national championship game.

77-74 UConn, in what was called the "Duke Invitational" by many an irresponsible "journalist."

"Duke Invitational?"

UConn lost only twice all year, had Rip Hamilton, and had the same team that made it to the Elite 8 a year earlier.

Not excatly 1985 Villanova.

BTW,

I actually had neither UConn or Duke winning it all that year.

My pick to win the 1999 NCAA title was... get ready to laugh... Auburn.

I was drinking the Auburn kool-aid that year... ouch.

 

[HD MM]

"Duke Invitational?"

UConn lost only twice all year, had Rip Hamilton, and had the same team that made it to the Elite 8 a year earlier.

Not excatly 1985 Villanova.

BTW,

I actually had neither UConn or Duke winning it all that year.

My pick to win the 1999 NCAA title was... get ready to laugh... Auburn.

I was drinking the Auburn kool-aid that year... ouch.

I didn't realize Auburn had a basketball team!?

 

[dfergie]

The answer for me would be "THE COMEBACK" Game.

Buffalo Bills comeback from 32 points down to beat the Houston Oilers in Overtime.

I know a lot of people claim to have been there, but the simple fact is that even those that REALLY attended the game (I still have my ticket stub), left before the end.

I took a Mental beating from my friends to leave, to which my replies were, "I paid for the whole game, I'm staying for the whole game." To this very day I don't get any credit from them, since without me being there all of them would have left and missed that historic game's conclusion.

John

I would rank that as one of my best games ever watched...

 

[bobert1006]

Just one. 1995 Angels vs Mariners. One game playoff in the old Kingdome. Griffey rounding third and heading home and that great smile as he lays on home being dogpiled. All those years of frustration being wiped away. What a day!!