Best game you have ever watched?

[csura999]

There probably has been topics like this, but I decided to start one. If this is a problem, I apologize to you guys here.

I generally stick with watching just MLB, NCAA football, and the NFL so I'll single it out to just those three sports.

MLB - I got into MLB around 2007, so I will have to go with the 2011 World Series Game 6 with the Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals. Hands down, the best game I have ever watched as a baseball fan. David Freese's walk-off HR in the 11th was just an amazing way to end the game and sent it to Game 7.

NFL - There are so many games I can list here... but I always loved Super Bowl XXXVIII (38) between the New England Patriots and the Carolina Panthers. That was a great, back-and-forth game. I was pulling pretty hard for the Panthers to win, but the Pats would ultimately prevail and become a dynasty come time.

NCAA football - Hmm, I'd probably go with the 2006 Rose Bowl with USC and Texas. Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart V.S. Vince Young, that 4th and 5 run from Young to score the go ahead touchdown is forever burnt into my memory. Both teams stayed 1 and 2 the whole year too until after the Rose Bowl if I recall correctly.

What are your guy's favorite games?

[Brass]

Game 7 of the 2011 Eastern Conference Finals between the Boston Bruins and the Tampa Bay Lightning.

[Mac the Knife]

By "best" I'm going to infer "most exciting to watch." Otherwise the homer in me kicks in a bit...

MLB - One I watched in person at Three Rivers Stadium, a relatively meaningless summer game in my teens between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Los Angeles Dodgers. In nine trips to the plate the Dodgers slowly and methodically built up a six run lead... only to see it evaporate in the bottom of the 9th without any individual batter (from a truly forgettable, cocaine-era Pirates lineup) getting more than a double. I, and more than likely the other six people in attendance, were thrilled.

NFL - Super Bowl XXIII, but primarily because of the company I was with at the game: my grandfather, who had at one time lived a few doors down from Paul Brown, and my next door neighbor, who was a die-hard 49ers fan. With virtually every play, I saw the thrill and agony of its outcome merely by looking one seat to my left or right.

NHL - I can honestly say I've never watched an NHL game that I'd put head-and-shoulders above any other in terms of excitement. Not that they're boring; there's just not one that sticks out to the level of being superlative.

NBA - The final game of the 1984 NBA Finals. My interest in the NBA has gradually but steadily drifted down to zero since.

NCAA FB - 2003 Fiesta Bowl. The last game at any level where I watched and felt my pulse quicken.

[OnWis97]

In Person

• MLB: 2009 Game 163 (Tigers at Twins). Went 12 innings and from about the 7th inning on every pitch was a nailbiter.
  
• NCAA Hockey: 2011 National title Game. UMD won in OT. Very exciting
  
• I have others but mostly just exciting regular season games involving my teams
  

On TV

• MLB: Several games during the 1991 and 2001 World Series...I'll say 1991 Game 7
  
• NFL: The Bills playoff comeback over the Oilers.
  
• NCAAF: The Boise State Fiesta Bowl win
  
• NCAAB (Homer Alert): 2000 regional final--Wisconsin over Purdue
  
• NCAAH (Homer Alert, though this WAS an exciting game): 2006 national title game. Wisconsin 2 to 1 over BC included a barrage of shots over the 10 seconds or so.
  

[Billy B]

Illinois vs Arizona in the 2005 Elite Eight. Still can't believe that comeback.

[RyanMcD29]

This is pretty tough

MLB: 2011 World Series Game 6 (I did not watch the 97 or 01 walkoffs or 03 Game 7 of the ALCS to the end or Games 4 or 5 of the 04 ALCS so)

NCAAF: Boise State Fiesta Bowl

NCAAB: 2009 Syracuse-UConn at the Garden and the 2008/2010 National Championship Games

NHL: On a count so many games go HAM in the playoffs, I've lost count

NFL: Super Bowl XLII or the 49ers-Saints playoff game last year. Another tough one considering the Super Bowl's usually lived up to the hype recently after that Bucs-Raiders dud

[sportstar1212]

Game 7 in the Bruins-Leafs series this year. The Bruins comeback was one for the ages.

[pittsburghsports16]

Homer picks:

MLB - [July 12, 2008] - Pirates are down 10 - 4 in the bottom of the 8th, then a 2-run HR by Jason Bay makes it 10 - 6. In the bottom of the 9th, Nate McLouth hits a 3-run HR to bring the Bucs within 1 run. They still needed to manufacture a run, and that they did, sending it into extras. The score remains tied in the bottom of the 10th, and the first batter, Jason Michaels, hits a walk-off HR in the bottom of the 10th to win it 11 - 10.This was back when the Pirates were still basement dwellers, so a game like this was like winning the WS.

NFL - This could be any of the games throughout the 2005 Steelers season, the 2008-09 Superbowl, or a handful of other games. In 2004, rookie Ben Roethlisberger promised retiring Jerome Bettis a Superbowl the next year after their tough loss to the Patriots in the 2004 AFC Championship (my first year as a sports fan was in 2004, and that was actually the Steelers first loss in their 15-1 season.) Bettis decided to come back the next year since Superbowl XL would be played in his hometown of Detroit. After starting the 2005 season 7-5, their hopes were suddenly in jeopardy. They needed to win the last 4 games just to make the playoffs as the AFC's 6th seed, and no 6th seed had ever even reached the Superbowl. They did just that, went on the beat the Bengals, Colts (in another just incredible game), and the Broncos all on the road to make it to the Superbowl. All year, it was just about getting their for "The Bus", Jerome Bettis. In a controversial Superbowl, Bettis got the ring that had eluded him his entire career. Also, Bill Cowher finally got his ring after chasing it through many difficult losses (1994 AFC Championship, Superbowl XXX, 1997 AFC Championship, 2001 AFC Championship, and the aforementioned 2004 AFC Championship). What an amazing year that I will never forget. The story sometimes gets lost in the fact that Superbowl XL was very shady.

The game I'm choosing is the 2004 AFC Divisional Playoff Game. Doug Brien (Jets placekicker) misses two late field goals that would have won the game and ended the Steelers memorable 15-1 regular season. The Steelers would go on to win 20 -17 in OT.

NHL - [2009 Stanley Cup Finals Game 7] - One year after being defeated by a stronger Detroit Red Wings team at home in Game 6 by one goal, the Penguins were one win away from history in Game 7. Mario Lemieux sends the players a text before the game to, "play without fear, and I'll meet you in centre ice". Maxime Talbot (miss that guy) scored the only 2 Penguins goals to put them up 2-1. In the final seconds, Marc-Andre Fleury makes a great save to ward off the Red Wings and win the Stanley Cup. I was happier for Mario than anyone else.

Normal Picks:

MLB - (See original posters choice) That was a great game. There's been plenty of others, but that was amazing.

NHL - Watching Steve Yzerman's double OT goal.

NFL - Plenty of memorable games here. I'd choose Superbowl XLII when the Giants knocked off the undefeated Patriots.

[CS85]

Most of these are homer picks, so whatever:

Blackhawks/Bruins 2013 Final Game 6: You can probably guess why.

Cubs/Yankees, 2003: The first time the Yankees had played in Wrigley in ages, and Roger Clemens was looking for his 300th win. The place was jam packed, the atmosphere was perfect baseball conditions. Kerry Wood pitched one of the best games of his career, but Clemens was playing well despite being sick. He left the game in the 7th, 1 pitch later Eric Karros belted a shot out of the ballpark to deny Clemens the win. Wrigley Field was absolutely insane, easily the most intense regular season game at that park I've ever seen.

Had to be said, but the Red Sox/Yankees 2004, game 4. That comeback sparked everything and led to one of the greatest comebacks in sports history. We may never see baseball be so entertaining again.

Arizona/Illinois, 2005 NCAA tournament: The Wildcats were dominating. Countless TVs were turned off across my homestate that night as Arizona was up 15 with less than 4 minutes to go, but then it happened: The threes began falling like rain. Illinois began the most incredible tide-changing momentum shift i've ever seen in basketball, forcing piles of turnovers and ultimately tying it up with seconds left to go to overtime. It didn't stop there, and the three-ball just wasn't missing. Illinois won 90-89, and it's a damned shame that team didn't win the title, as North Carolina had a 6'9" 300 lb mongoloid playing center. Sean May, you piece of crap.

Bears/Browns, 2001: Down 21-7 to Tim Couch's Browns with 2 minutes to go, the Bears were looking at a surefire loss. Shane Matthews came in and orchestrated a business-like drive that paid off in a late touchdown with 28 seconds left to play, and special teams was called upon to come through. The onside kick miraculously paid off, and the Bears recovered just past midfield. You could feel the remaining crowd begin to buzz. One timeout, 24 ticks to go, down 21-14. The Bears offense was composed of a lot of journeymen and middle-of-the-road talent, and they needed a miracle. Two short-yardage plays and a timeout later, the Bears had one chance to heave it up from the Cleveland 33 yard line. Matthews heaves it up in a last second hail mary, and James Allen caught the jump ball, we're tied!! The first Browns possession in overtime it was like a mirror image of the week before: Mike Brown gets a pick and screams into the end zone for the winning score. It was a totally surreal moment.

[marble21]

14th May 2012

At 90 minutes Manchester City were 2-1 down to QPR. Manchester United were to be Premier League champions.

At 93 minutes Manchester City were level 2-2.Manchester United were to be Premier League Champions.

Then this happened:

Manchester City won their first top tier league title since 1968.

I know that I will never see a more exciting finale to a Premier League season in my lifetime.

[speedy]

Game 7 in the Bruins-Leafs series this year. The Bruins comeback was one for the ages.

I have to disagree, it was a lackluster game for 58 minutes. The comeback might be the best single game comeback ever, given the circumstances, but the game as a whole kind of sucked.

Pick your poison with this years Final, they were all incredible games.

Game 1 of the 2004 World Series was one for the ages. That's if you like offense, and incredulous plays by Manny Ramirez in left.

2010 Group C game, USA vs Algeria. Just the pure rush the American's put on all game and to finally get it in the waning seconds, I'll never forget that.

The 2011 BCS Championship Game is pretty up there for me too.

[FGM13]

2011 Vanier Cup.

[Kramerica Industries]

Cubs/Yankees, 2003: The first time the Yankees had played in Wrigley in ages, and Roger Clemens was looking for his 300th win. The place was jam packed, the atmosphere was perfect baseball conditions. Kerry Wood pitched one of the best games of his career, but Clemens was playing well despite being sick. He left the game in the 7th, 1 pitch later Eric Karros belted a shot out of the ballpark to deny Clemens the win. Wrigley Field was absolutely insane, easily the most intense regular season game at that park I've ever seen.

You know, that would've been a great World Series that year. Just another reason to thoroughly hate Josh Beckett.

--

Submissions

MLB - September 28, 2011. I'm going to have to slightly cheat here, because one does not go without the other. Yankees at Rays, and Red Sox at Orioles, the Rays and Sox tied at 90-71 going into the final day of the season after the Red Sox nine game lead from 26 days prior had disappeared, giving the division away to the Yankees long beforehand and a 1-6 tailspin against the Rays directly helping the Rays back into the fold. Red Sox were full desperate, starting ace Jon Lester on three days' rest, while the Rays had David Price going. For Price, his start was an unmitigated disaster, punctuated by giving up a 3-2, two out, grand slam to Mark Teixeira, plunging the Rays to a 5-0 deficit in the 3rd inning, and ultimately giving up two more HRs, consecutively, to Tex and Andruw Jones. The Rays were down 7-0 from then until the 8th, and famously the cameras caught large swaths of Rays fans departing Tropicana Field, hopeful only now for a positive result at Camden Yards. Thanks to a fortuitous balk call and Dustin Pedroia, the Red Sox had scraped their way to a 3-2 lead through six innings of gritty pitching from Lester, and then the skies opened up and sent the Red Sox into a rain delay.

The score in St. Petersburg was still 7-0 at the time, and all American League eyes now shifted fully back to the Trop, due to the rain delay only. The Yankees, who had nothing on the line in this game, were not about to use their best relief pitchers, knowing their ALDS series against Detroit was set to begin on Friday back in the Bronx. In comes Boone Logan, who promptly loads the bases with no outs. Logan gives way to Luis Ayala, who promptly walked the first batter he faced. After a pair of sac flies bring the Rays within 7-3, Evan Longoria sent a first pitch fastball deep into the LF seats, and suddenly the Red Sox, who looked to be sitting pretty with a late inning lead and the Rays in a deep hole, saw their prospects considerably more precarious. That said, Ayala finished the 8th, gave way to Cory Wade in the 9th, who got the first two outs in pretty routine fashion. The Rays were down to their last chance, and they summoned none other than Dan Johnson, a classic MLB journeyman but also a purveyor of some the most clutch moments from the Rays Division-winning campaigns in 2008 and 2010. Falling into a 2-2 count, Cory Wade through a changeup that broke just into Johnson's swing, and he lined it directly down the line, off the foul pole, just over the indented wall in right field, to improbably cap the Rays comeback. The Yankees had not blown a 7-0 lead in the 8th inning or later in a ballgame since 1953. The Red Sox and Orioles soon returned from their rain delay, completely apropos after the Rays had stunned every baseball fan on the planet as it was.The Red Sox would not be able to add on to their lead for the next three innings despite a bevy of opportunities, and the Rays were not able to scratch any runs in the next two innings against Scott Proctor. Then, in a roughly 15 minute window late in the evening and turning into the early minutes of the next day, we would see yet another 180 spin that would leave baseball fans spinning again.

Alfredo Aceves bridged the 7th and 8th innings to Jonathan Papelbon, who would promptly strike out the first two batters he faced in the 9th, bringing the Red Sox to one out away from securing, at a minimum, another ball game. Concurrent to this, the Yankees had a 1st and 3rd, 0 out situation in the 12th. And, as earlier, when things were looking up for the Red Sox, the ultimate reality would be entirely upside down. Chris Davis (before he became what he is now) laced a double down the RF line. Nolan Reimold ripped a line drive into RCF, splitting Jacoby Ellsbury and J.D. Drew and settling in as a ground rule double. Robert Andino hit a line drive into LF that a sliding Carl Crawford was not able to handle (a play remarkably similar to one that he also flubbed a few days earlier against the Yankees). Boom, boom, boom, Orioles rally with two outs and defeat the Red Sox 4-3. Meanwhile, Greg Golson committed a major baserunning blunder that ended up eliminating the baserunner at 3rd for the Yankees, and the Rays escaped the inning with the tie still intact. Yet another improbability in a month, and especially a night, that was absolutely chock full of them. The news of the Red Sox defeat was confirmed with B.J. Upton at the plate, with a crowd eruption and cowbell frenzy unleashed. With the full knowledge that the Yankees would not be using their best relievers, as well as most of the Yankee starters having already departed, there was now a sense of full-on inevitability that the Rays were destined to finish off the comeback without needing a Game 163. Sure enough, the next batter, Evan Longoria, hit a line drive down the LF line that was almost the mirror opposite of Dan Johnson's earlier blast. It landed in the little indentation in the LF corner, what is now known as "162 Landing" just over the short wall, and sent the Rays to the playoffs. The ending of the Red Sox game and the Rays game was about three to five minutes apart.

--

MLB had the so-called "brilliant" idea of trying to create drama like this every season now, with their new wild card format. Of course, it's pretty common knowledge that organic drama, like two teams somehow having the same record after 161 baseball games, is pretty rare and this rarity is what helps fuel the drama. And, so, by trying to create this drama on a yearly basis, ironically, MLB has killed the potential of a night like 9/28/2011 happening again, under the current CBA arrangements. As such, the surreal magic of 9/28/2011 is going to have to suffice for the indefinite future. Frankly, that's good enough for me. I would've been absolutely blown away by that night even if I didn't root for an AL East team, or live in an AL East market. The fact that I did, on both counts? I'll hope that the Yankees never blow another 7-0, 8th inning lead again in my lifetime, but the one time they did, they chose the perfect time for it. I still get shivers thinking back to that night, and thinking back to my reactions in real-time. I didn't even mention another amazing game that night, the 13 inning Phillies/Braves game that I also kept pretty solid tabs on. A game which sealed an identical fate to the Braves as what happened to the Red Sox. Alas for the Braves and the National League that night, their fine drama couldn't hold a candle to the magic that happened on the American League circut that night.

Hats off, baseball. You reached the zenith that night.

[DustDevil61]

I'll start with a homer pick:

1997 NBA Western Conference Finals, Game 6

I remember being 11 years old, sitting as still as possible, watching this, with my brother and cousin as this happened.

[ADW77]

I'm going to include a very strange one here, since it wasn't all that exciting unless you're a Nuggets fan.

The 2009 Western Conference first round, Game 4 against the New Orleans Hornets. I remember just being in awe the whole time because it got out of hand real fast. It was like watching a video game to an extent, just to see how badly the Hornets were going to get beat. It's not the same feeling as a great comeback or a real close win, but the feeling is awesome either way. The Nuggets set several NBA playoff records with their 58 point shellacking of the Hornets, in the playoffs, on the road. Too bad that's the closest the Nuggets have ever come to a championship and it doesn't look too bright in the near future either.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXJUGcjrJn0

[Magnus]

2011 NLL Championship. A back-and-forth affair with my team coming out on top, 8-7. The 2003 championship was also mind-bogglingly good.

And just because of the rarity of a 7 seed having home advantage, Game 5 of the 2010 East Final (Stanley Cup Playoffs).

[alxy8s]

I can't help but be a homer. Other teams' games just don't have much staying power with me.

NBA - Game 3 of the 2006 Finals or Game 6 of this year's Finals.

MLB - Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS. Bartman!

NCAAF - 2007 Auburn @ Georgia. The blackout becomes the blowout.

NFL - 2006 Falcons @ Saints. Reopening of the Superdome.

[njmeadowlanders]

It's certainly not the best from an importance or historical standpoint or anything, obviously there are amazing moments, incredible comebacks, in playoff games, championship games, and whatnot.

I've been to NFL playoff games, the NBA finals, World Series, countless other games. That being said, I'm going to go a different route, a game I happened to be at:

Devils 1 Rangers 0 in a shootout, January 12, 2010.

Brodeur had 51 saves, Lundqvist had 45. There were breakaways, some robbery by the goalies, big hits, very crisply played. Not a lot of penalties, no stupid fights, it was nuts. It was the most shots in a game in NHL history without a goal (96, shattered the then-record of 75).

In terms of the actual game itself--how it was played start to finish--no context of how important it was, who was playing in it etc., it was fantastic.

[4_tattoos]

NFL: Rams vs Titans Super Bowl game. NCAAFB: Boise State vs Oklahoma Fiesta Bowl. MLB: Yankees vs Nationals Father's Day 2006. NCAABB: Butler vs Duke Championship Game.

[GriffinM6]

NFL- Super Bowl XLIII: As a diehard Steelers fan, this game was crazy. I about pissed myself when Larry Fitzgerald got that touchdown right before the 2 minutes warning, but I couldn't have seen a more clutch drive by Roethlisberger, and of course Holmes' game winning catch with 35 ticks left.

NCAA- This may surprise you, but as a Miami fan, I'd say that 2012 vs NC State was the best college football game I've seen. It was back n' forth, and it seemed like the game would never end. That is... until Stephen Morris threw a bomb to the sophomore Phillip Dorsett for the game-winning TD with 19 seconds left.