Memorable Moments in Sports, for Me

By Bob Gaydos

Frank Shorter, left, and Bill Rodgers, racing to the finish line in the first Orange Classic.

Frank Shorter, left, and Bill Rodgers, racing to the finish line.

The Super Bowl has been lost, baseball has yet to begin. The basketball and hockey professionals are passing the time until June, when their championships will be decided. lt has snowed three Mondays in a row. It must be February, the time of year when a lot of sports fans turn their attention to another favorite pastime — talking about sports.

Forget the dropped passes and ground balls that rolled through an infielder’s legs; this is the time of year I like to remember the good stuff, the memorable stuff, the stuff that makes someone a sports fan in the first place.

I found myself wandering into such a conversation the other day. What was the best single athletic feat ever? The greatest athletic accomplishment? Too arbitrary and prone to record-book chasing, I decided. For my February reminiscence, I’m going with the moments in sports that left an indelible mark on me — the tImes when I experienced something in person or on TV and went, “Wow!,” if just to myself.

The hope here is that you readers will share your own special moments in sports so that we can have an old-fashioned Hot Stove League discussion. Mantle-Mays-Snider? Montana-Unitas-Brady? The “Immaculate Reception?” Willis Reed’s entrance? What special moments in sports are still with you?

  • I’m starting my list of most memorable moments with an effort I have often called the best single performance by any athlete — Secretariat’s 31-length victory in the Belmont Stakes in 1973. In winning the Triple Crown and dominating the best of the rest of the three-year-olds, he set a world record time for the 1 1/2 miles distance – 2 minutes 24 seconds. Awesome. Check it out on YouTube.
  • Also in the category of “can you believe it?” was a more recent display of excellence in the moment — Derek Jeter’s 3,000th hit on July 9, 2011. With all the baseball world waiting for the hit that would guarantee the Yankee captain a plaque in Cooperstown, Jeter just wanted it to not be an infield grounder that he beat out. No worry. He laced a home run into the left field seats at Yankee Stadium, trotted around the bases with a big smile on his face and proceeded to go five-for-five, including hitting the game-winning single in the eighth inning. Then there were the dives and the flips, the final hit, etc. A memorable career in toto.
  • Willie Mays, another New Yorker, of earlier vintage, was also a player who rose to the moment. I have plenty of special memories of Willie, including a day at the Polo Grounds in the 1950s when the Giants’ center fielder hit three triples in a double-header (they used to play them for the price of one game). I can’t find anything on Google to confirm this, but that’s how I remember it and I’m sticking to my memory.
  • Since this is just my personal recounting of memorable sports moments, I have never seen anyone better than Mickey Mantle at dragging a bunt past the pitcher and getting to first base before the second baseman got to the ball. Every single time.
  • When it comes to pure excellence, for me the performance by 14-year-old Nadia Comaneci at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal is in a class of its own. The tiny Romanian gymnast scored the first perfect 10 for a gymnastic event at the Olympics and added four more perfect scores that year while winning three gold medals and dazzling the world TV audience. Since the scoreboard makers didn’t think a 10 was possible, they only allowed for a 9.9. Four years later, there were updated scoreboards in Moscow.
  • The fastest I ever ran was in 1956, sprinting home six blocks from Bayonne High School, where we had been listening to the game on transistor radios, to see the final outs of the Yankees’ Don Larsen’s perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series. On our black and white TV. It’s the highest Yogi ever leapt, too, I think.
  • In 1981, the Times Herald-Record newspaper sponsored the first Orange Classic, a 10K race around the City of Middletown. It invited local hero Frank Shorter, 1972 Olympic gold medal winner and 1976 silver medal winner, and his chief rival, Bill Rodgers, Boston and New York CIty marathon champion, to headline the event. They did not fail to deliver. The two turned the corner on the final stretch of the race well ahead of the field, running neck and neck for more than a quarter mile as the crowd cheered. Shorter edged Rodgers out at the end. It was as perfect a finish as the crowd could hope for and, no, I’ve never thought Rodgers held back because it was Shorter’s hometown. A truly classic moment.
  • The Miracle on Ice. I admit it. I was swept up with the rest of the crowd chanting, “USA! USA!” when a team of American college all-stars defeated a team of Russian professionals, 4-3, in ice hockey at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. Winning the gold medal that year was almost an after-thought for the American team following that emotional upset. An unforgettable moment.
  • Finally, a purely personal moment that came far from any athletic venue. In 1973, while covering a sports-related conference in Binghamton, N.Y., I shook hands with Jackie Robinson and told him what a pleasure it was to meet him. It was more than that. It was memorable.

***

That’s it. Just a few moments that have nourished my love of sports over the years. I’d really like to hear some of yours. C’mon, folks, it’s February. The Knicks are dismal, it’s snowing and the Stanley Cup final is months away. Reminisce with me.

 rjgaydos@gmail.com

 

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7 Responses to “Memorable Moments in Sports, for Me”

  1. Bob Mullin Says:

    Thanks for the memories.

  2. John DeSanto Says:

    A great list Bob and no one can quibble with it. I wish I had been around to witness Shorter vs. Rodgers in 1981, but your description will suffice.

    My list would include many of your moments and additionally:

    + Joe Namath and the Jets upsetting the Baltimore Colts 16-7 to win Super Bowl III.

    + Bill Buckner’s gaffe which allowed the Mets to win Game 6 and, eventually, the 1986 World Series.

    + Joe Montana to Dwight Clark to win the 1982 NFC Championship Game. (“The Catch.”)

    + The “Thriller in Manilla” heavyweight championship fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.

    + The 1968 “Game of the Century” between UCLA and Houston and college basketball greats Lew Alcindor and Elvin Hayes.

    + “The Play” – The 1982 college football game between Cal and Stanford where the Stanford band stormed the field believing the game over as the Cal players lateraled the ball again and again eventually resulting in a touchdown and a slightly bent trombone.

    + And my personal favorite: “Run, Lindsay, Run…” The 1980 Georgia vs. Florida college football game in Jacksonville, Fla. Late in the game, Georgia is undefeated but trailing Florida. Here is the call from the voice of the Bulldogs, Larry Munson:

    “Florida in a stand-up five, they may or may not blitz, they won’t…

    Buck back, third down on the eight. In trouble! Got a block behind him…

    Gonna throw on the run—complete on the 25. To the 30, Lindsay Scott 35, 40, Lindsay Scott 45, 50, 45, 40 – Run, Lindsay! – 25, 20, 15, 10, 5,

    Lindsay Scott! Lindsay Scott! Lindsay Scott!! TOUCHDOWN!”

  3. Tim Shannon Says:

    Bob, you can’t leave out March 2,1962. Possibly the best athlete of all time Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in Hershey, Pa. in a game against the New York Knicks. Wilt scored 60 points or more in a game 32 times. MJ did it 5 times.

  4. BobGaydos Says:

    Tim: I did not witness that moment in Hershey, Pa. This is a list of moments I saw in person or on TV. That’s what I meant by not record-book chasing.

  5. John Bechtel Says:

    Bob: love the list, but must note the U.S. beat the Soviets 4-3 in Lake Placid. One of my all-time great Wow! moments — one of the first that I remember — Bob Beamon’s 29-foot long jump in Mexico City 1968 that broke the world record by nearly two feet and was about 2 1/2 feet better than the silver medalist’s jump. Beamon’s record stood for more than two decades.

  6. BobGaydos Says:

    Thanks for the copy edit, John. I agree on Beamon.

  7. Oliver Mackson Says:

    Thanks for the memories, Bob, especially the Shorter/Rodgers duel to the finish of the first Orange Classic. More often than not, at least one of them would show up for the race year after year from 1981 through the mid-1990s. They would tear off a seemingly effortless sub-35 10K in punishing summer heat – and then you’d see them running the course again after the race. Part of that was warming down, of course, but you could tell from their faces that they ran for the sheer enjoyment of running well into their 60s.

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