Best Days In Your Life As A Sports Fan

[Red Comet]

We have a thread about the worst days in your life as a sports fan. How about the best? I'll start off with mine:

 

Mizzou beating Kansas in the 2007 Border War Game. Held at Arrowhead Stadium, #2 Kansas vs. #4 Missouri, College Gameday plus a raucous crowd. 

 

Best ending ever: 

 

Dante Hall ripping the most ridiculous punt return I've ever seen in 2003. Beat the Broncos and I got my first kiss at 13 from a very drunk woman. Feels good man. 

 

Edit: And I found the video of it!: 

 

 

The Royals winning the World Series in 2015.

 

And, this highlight to cap one of the best games of baseball I've ever seen: 

 

 

So, what are your favorites?

 

April 5, 2020 EDIT: The Chiefs winning Super Bowl LIV and the day we can all go back to watching sports after this nonsense is over.

Edited April 5, 2020 by Red Comet

[TBGKon]

- Watching the Rays clinch a spot in the World Series against the Red Sox in 2008.  I only saw it on TV but it was a great feeling.

- USF football in 2007 and their climb to #2 in the country.  That game @ Auburn was unreal going to OT.  I was at the West Virginia at USF game the week after and I have NEVER heard Raymond James Stadium so loud.  I could barely hear myself talk.  The season didnt end the way is started but it was a fun ride.

[Sport]

Mine is lame because it's a first round win, but when the Blue Jackets won Game 4 and swept the Lightning last year it ended a personal playoff losing streak shared between my 3 favorite teams that extended to the 1995 NLDS. 16 straight losses. It was starting to get to the point where I didn't know if it was possible for these teams to beat anyone in the playoffs. Finally got to see one of my teams end someone else's season and know what it feels like to advance to a second round. Most importantly it ended 19 years of being the league's doormat expansion franchise. It was the best feeling to see them get over the hump for the first time. I doubt any future playoff series wins short of a stanley cup victory will ever bring that same high. 

[tp49]

Mine is the day Charles Wang sold the New York Islanders to Scott Malkin and John Ledecky.  1a is the day Malkin dispatched Garth Snow to the dumpster behind the Nassau Coliseum and hired Lou Lamoriello.  1b is the day Lamoriello brought in Barry Trotz.  I've been lucky enough to see all the teams but one that I root for win titles but this sequence of events which brought the Islander franchise back to respectability ranks as the best.

[DnBronc]

Jan. 25, 1998: Broncos (and the AFC) finally get off the schneid. It felt great.

 

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

The first was the day of the Chambliss home run in 1976 that ended the Lean Years and gave the Yankees their first pennant in my lifetime. That was the first and only time I felt pure elation to that degree.

 

The next was the day the victory in 1977 World Series restored the Yankees to their proper place.  On that day I felt that I might burst with pride.

 

And then, in the most magical year of all, 1978, there was the day of the win against the scum of Boston in the one-game playoff to cap the Comeback, followed by the day of the completion of yet another comeback, this one in the World Series, to vanquish the historic enemies the Dodgers.  This inspired shivers of awe at the manifest greatness embodied by these giants.

 

There is no way for me to rank these moments in what was a truly wonderous period; they're all tied for first place.  [Edit: after a bit of thought, occasioned by periodic reminders of this thread, I have changed my mind. I now see that the greatest moment for me was the pennant-winning Chambliss home run of 1976. Of course the winning of the World Series the following two years was glorious; but no single moment touches me as much as the Shot Heard Round the World II. I am reminded of this by the tears that tend to come upon my viewing of that clip, and my hearing Phil Rizzuto shout "The Yankees win the pennant!"]

 

I was so lucky to experience these events; and I was the perfect age to appreciate them: old enough to possess a contextualising knowledge of history, yet young enough to be profoundly influenced. 

 

I sure enjoyed some good moments as an adult, such as the Yankees' next World Championship in 1996 that marked my retirement as a follower of current baseball, and the full-circle feeling of Chelsea's two championships in 2004 and 2005 that welcomed me into my new role as a soccer fan.  Then there was Chelsea's 2012 Champions League win and also three more league titles, as well as the Nets' two glorious runs to the Finals in 2002 and 2003.  But nothing matches the joyful feelings inspired by the moments described above, just as there is no sadness that could touch the despair that accompanied my worst moment.  Such extraordinary depth of passion as stirred by sports is, for me, a function of childhood.

[AustinFromBoston]

2004 ALCS - Humiliating your greatest rival in a historic fashion that had never been done before, that was special. 

2004 World Series - Do I really need to say anything? Ending the curse that has plagued the Red Sox for nearly a century. 

 

Super Bowl XXXVI - The one that started everything, and the last time anyone from outside New England actually wanted the Patriots to win.

 

1998 Daytona 500 - Dale Earnhardt finally winning the race he never could, and seeing pit crew of nearly every team walk out to congratulate him is something that we will never see again. 

 

Super Bowl XLIX - Mainly for that Malcom Butler INT

 

Super Bowl LI - I remember at halftime  telling my dad "If anyone can come back from this, it's Brady & Belichick". 

[Shumway]

Easily my #1 answer....

 

 

But both of these resulted in me shouting, then pacing around my living room.

 

 

 

[IceCap]

 

[Jer15]

For me, @Ice_Cap, that's a close second to this:

 

 

[TrueYankee26]

Yankees 90s dynasty & 2009

[Dalcowboyfan92]

August 2nd, 1997; the day that made me a Ricky Rudd fan for life. I was sort of cheering for him from late 1996 to this point, because I loved the bright orange Tide ride, and me being a fan kind of forced my parents to start using the products on his race car. But this was my first vivid sports memory. It's what also helped me to become a NASCAR fan in the first place.

 

 

[Red Wolf]

1. Cubs win the mother :censored:ing World Series! Nothing compares to this. I didn't realize what I was getting into following in my father's footsteps to be a Cubs fan until it was too late. That game 7 lasted what felt like three days, and I was so hyped up by that victory that I couldn't properly sleep for about a week.

 

2. Arkansas State football finally stops being embarrassing. In 2011, under the leadership of famous charlatan Hugh Freeze, A-State finally wins the Sun Belt (without a later retcon by the NCAA or anything!), and does so at Middle Tennessee who had historically beaten the piss out of us at their place no matter the records. They sucked that year, and A-State acted like they were going to choke it away in the first half before blowing them away in the second. There was this awesome party atmosphere for A-State fans on a field that had previously been a house of horrors, and damn that felt great.

 

3. Arkansas State murders ULM and Middle Tennessee in 2012. 2012 is by far my favorite form of Arkansas State football. Though they won fewer games than the 2011 team, I think the 2012 team under Gus Malzahn was superior by the end of the season. Gus wishes he had Ryan Aplin at Auburn right now. ULM beat Arkansas in 2012, so it meant that much more to see the stadium filled up on a freaking Thursday night in November as the Red Wolves killed the Warhawks.

 

The finale against Middle Tennessee, which was a de facto conference championship game was even better. Middle had a really good season and even beat Georgia Tech that year. Whoever won that game would be the undisputed Sun Belt champions. Arkansas State won 45-0 as they sent Middle off to the allegedly greener pastures of Conference USA (spoilers: less green than expected).

[PittsburghSucks]

 

 

[BC985]

Attending Game 7 of the 2011 World Series. I was standing in line to enter Busch Stadium for Game 4 of the NLCS (the Brewers won) when I got the email inviting me to purchase World Series tickets. By this time, they were fairly picked over by season ticket holders and previous rounds of invitations. I wanted to take my dad to a World Series game, and the only game I could afford 2 tickets to was Game 7. I texted my dad and told him to hope for a wild ride if the Cards won the pennant not knowing what lied ahead in Game 6 and David Freese's heroics. Watching your team win a championship in-person is an incredible experience. If you ever have the chance, buy the tickets.

 

 

[Red Wolf]

15 minutes ago, Brandon9485 said:

Attending Game 7 of the 2011 World Series. I was standing in line to enter Busch Stadium for Game 4 of the NLCS (the Brewers won) when I got the email inviting me to purchase World Series tickets. By this time, they were fairly picked over by season ticket holders and previous rounds of invitations. I wanted to take my dad to a World Series game, and the only game I could afford 2 tickets to was Game 7. I texted my dad and told him to hope for a wild ride if the Cards won the pennant not knowing what lied ahead in Game 6 and David Freese's heroics. Watching your team win a championship in-person is an incredible experience. If you ever have the chance, buy the tickets.

 

 

 

I hate the Cardinals with all of my heart, but I love this story. I remember listening on the radio in the parking lot of Walmart after work (I live in Arkansas, deal with it) during game 6 when the Rangers blew it. I was so annoyed as I bought whatever groceries I needed knowing that the freaking Cardinals were destined for another title. It's bad enough in Central Arkansas, but I was up in Jonesboro at the time where the Cards are a big enough deal that the caravan comes through there and makes me regret my decisions in life.

[kiwi_canadian]

97th Grey Cup: The "Too Many Men on the Field" penalty... Remember scaring the hell out of the 2 Japanese exchange students who had fallen asleep during the game after they had just flown in the day before.

 

 

 

2002 Olympic Gold Medal game Canada vs. USA: The crowd singing Oh Canada with about a minute left and Bob Cole commentating the game.

 

2010 Gold Medal Game: The golden Goal.

 

2019 MLR Championship Game Seattle Seawolves vs. San Diego Legion. The Seawolves have one of the best mauls in the game and it was what won it for them in the final play.

 

 

[Seadragon76]

Super Bowl 48.... Nothing more needs to be said.

 

Okay. Even though it was eight years after the fiasco that was Super Bowl XL, there were still sour feelings about that game. Hell, I still harbor sour feelings about it to this day. Yet, this game made me happy. It wasn't just a win for the Seahawks, it was a win for the entire region. It was validation for all the years of being a fan of a team that was middling at best.

 

It wasn't just a win... it was a total beat down of a former division rival. It was a defensive clinic.

[Red Wolf]

4 minutes ago, Seadragon76 said:

Super Bowl 48.... Nothing more needs to be said.

 

I HAVE MORE TO SAY! This game made me sad, and I drove to Missouri to get extra alcohol because Arkansas doesn't allow alcohol sales on Sunday (sort of). I didn't work Monday, so it was fine, just like it was fine when the Broncos won a couple years later and I didn't work that Monday either.

[NorthStar74]

Well the best day for me as a sport fan was Sunday November 24, 2019 when my beloved Winnipeg Blue Bombers finally ended a 29 year drought and brought home the Grey Cup in a 33-12 beating of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.. I was hooting and yelling at the tv the whole time and grinning so hard, saying thank you god for the Bombers winning at last and get the Grey Cup back after so long. I did remember the last time the Bombers won the Cup was in 1990 and I watched the game on tv as well.. so finally the long drought is over with.. woo still smiling after this...