Best sports pictures of the decade

[infrared41]

27 minutes ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

In 2013-14, Liverpool led the Premier League for most of the season, looking to win their first league title since 1990, and their first in the Premier League era.  With three games to go in the season, Liverpool hosted Chelsea with a lead of five points over them and six over Manchester City (who had a game in hand). 

 

In first-half stoppage time of a scoreless match, Liverpool defender Mamadou Sakho played a square ball to legend Steven Gerrard in Liverpool's own half.  Gerrard then made a famous slip on the wet turf, which allowed Chelsea's Demba Ba to seize the loose ball, and to charge in and score the game's first goal.

 

Chelsea won the match 2-0, and Manchester City won their match that same day, reducing Liverpool's leads over those teams to two and three points, respectively.  But the slip gave City the upper hand, as, even if Liverpool were to win both of their remaining matches, City would take the title by winning all of their remaining matches and finishing with the same number of points, because City had the better goal difference.  

The next weekend City won as expected, but LIverpool could only draw. Chelsea drew as well; so Liverpool had a lead of only one point over City (who still had a game in hand) and two over Chelsea. City then won their game in hand, a midweek encounter, to move ahead of Liverpool by two and Chelsea by four.  And that's how they finished, as all three teams won on the season's final weekend.

 

While Chelsea's failure to take the title that year was disappointing, Liverpool's choke was satisfying in its own right.  And, if Chelsea cannot win, then I didn't mind the title going to Man City, for whom I have enormous respect.

 

This is the moment of the slip, with Ba's reaction.

 

All this time I thought the saying was "a picture is worth a thousand words." Turns out it's actually "a picture should be described by a thousand words."

Who knew?

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

14 minutes ago, infrared41 said:

All this time I thought the saying was "a picture is worth a thousand words." Turns out it's actually "a picture should be described by a thousand words."

Who knew?

 

Actually a by thousand words and another picture!  

Believe it or not, I originally intended just to put up the picture of Gerrard kneeling.  But then it occurred to me that most people reading the board would not know what that is just by looking at it, so I decided to add some set-up.

[BBTV]

This one doesn't require any words:

 

[UnclearInitial]

 

 

 

 

 

[LAWeaver]

[dont care]

20 minutes ago, mr.nascar13 said:

 

 

 

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 Gotta include this

[infrared41]

6 hours ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

Actually a by thousand words and another picture!  

Believe it or not, I originally intended just to put up the picture of Gerrard kneeling.  But then it occurred to me that most people reading the board would not know what that is just by looking at it, so I decided to add some set-up.

 

I was just goofing around. But since we're here...

 

If a picture needs that much of a set up, odds are that it doesn't belong on a list of the "best sports pictures of the decade." Great shots don't need much, if any, explanation. It's about the art, not the content - in my opinion. Then there's this, one of your "pictures" is clearly captured from a video. Or it was taken by a terrible photographer. Photos by terrible photographers probably shouldn't be on this list either. Especially when said photo is as blurry and out of focus as the one in question. 

 

Anyway, simply posting the kneeling shot without explanation would have been a fine choice. That picture doesn't need any explanation. Even someone who loathes soccer as much as I do immediately gets what was going on in that shot. Knowing the teams, the circumstances, etc., would have done exactly nothing to enhance that picture for me. The shot itself said all that needed to be said - in my opinion. Art, right? 

[tBBP]

So I don't know if this thread is "Best Sports Pictures of the Decade" or "Favorite Sports Pictures of the Decade" (or maybe just "Pictures That [insertposterhere] Really Really Likes of the Decade")--whatever the case, four pages in and no inclusion of THIS?

 

 

Because we ALL know what happened next...

[SFGiants58]

2 hours ago, mr.nascar13 said:

 

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WARNING: This image might be disturbing.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[sportsfan7]

[infrared41]

3 hours ago, Buc said:

So I don't know if this thread is "Best Sports Pictures of the Decade" or "Favorite Sports Pictures of the Decade" (or maybe just "Pictures That [insertposterhere] Really Really Likes of the Decade")--

 

I asked the same question, my friend. No one answered me, but best I can tell, it's "Pictures That [insertposterhere] Really Really Likes of the Decade" and BBTV posting some funny pictures. This thread has very little to do with The Best Sports Pictures of the Decade. 

[habsfan1]

Here's some better quality shots...

 

 

 

 

Spoiler

 

[Shumway]

8 minutes ago, infrared41 said:

 

I asked the same question, my friend. No one answered me, but best I can tell, it's "Pictures That [insertposterhere] Really Really Likes of the Decade" and BBTV posting some funny pictures. This thread has very little to do with The Best Sports Pictures of the Decade. 

 

Clearly you're not referring to streaking Gritty, are you?

[habsfan1]

22 minutes ago, infrared41 said:

I asked the same question, my friend. No one answered me, but best I can tell, it's "Pictures That [insertposterhere] Really Really Likes of the Decade" and BBTV posting some funny pictures. This thread has very little to do with The Best Sports Pictures of the Decade. 

 

When I started the thread, I posted my personal favorite pics of the decade that do have enough photographic quality, that they could be considered great pics for a couple reasons. That's how I define it to the best of my ability.

[Ridleylash]

People post the Caps, but c'mon, no love for the defending Champions 52 years in the making?

[SFGiants58]

1 hour ago, infrared41 said:

 

I asked the same question, my friend. No one answered me, but best I can tell, it's "Pictures That [insertposterhere] Really Really Likes of the Decade" and BBTV posting some funny pictures. This thread has very little to do with The Best Sports Pictures of the Decade. 

There’s also the idea that it’s “most memorable,” “most infamous,” “most personally important,” and “most hilarious.” We certainly have infamous (fatal crash photos, Sandusky, Pistorius, and Hernandez), meme material (Brady on the ground, PTSD Joe Thornton, the riot kiss, and Sherman’s horror face), and athletes hanging out together.

 

These threads are pretty nebulous, which is what makes them fun.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

5 hours ago, infrared41 said:

If a picture needs that much of a set up, odds are that it doesn't belong on a list of the "best sports pictures of the decade.

 

If you follow the Premier League, it needs no set-up. In a forum devoted to English football, it would have received none.

 

But, while I know that some people here follow that sport, I doubted that there were enough such people to make the picture broadly comprehensible. For someone who is not up on the Premier League, the photo would be as mysterious as the picture of a Blue Jays player is to me. (That picture could have used some set-up, as we do not "all" know what happened next, @Buc , old chap.)

 

5 hours ago, infrared41 said:

Then there's this, one of your "pictures" is clearly captured from a video.

 

Yes, it was. But that wasn't meant to be the "best picture" in question; that was just part of the set-up. (But please note that that screencap was published exactly as is by a newspaper.)

 

The iconic picture is Gerrard kneeling in a Y.A. Tittle position. As I have already mentioned, my first instinct was to post that shot alone, with no set-up at all. But I played the scenario out in my mind, and I could imagine someone responding "I don't know what that is", to which I would have replied with the description. So I cut out the middle-man.

[infrared41]

12 hours ago, SFGiants58 said:

There’s also the idea that it’s “most memorable,” “most infamous,” “most personally important,” and “most hilarious.” We certainly have infamous (fatal crash photos, Sandusky, Pistorius, and Hernandez), meme material (Brady on the ground, PTSD Joe Thornton, the riot kiss, and Sherman’s horror face), and athletes hanging out together.

 

That's all fine, but some of us clicked on this thread looking for great sports photos and we got nut shots and memes. 

 

Oh, and stop being so damned agreeable about everything. 

[infrared41]

12 hours ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

If you follow the Premier League, it needs no set-up. In a forum devoted to English football, it would have received none.

 

But, while I know that some people here follow that sport, I doubted that there were enough such people to make the picture broadly comprehensible. For someone who is not up on the Premier League, the photo would be as mysterious as the picture of a Blue Jays player is to me. (That picture could have used some set-up, as we do not "all" know what happened next, @Buc , old chap.)

 

 

Yes, it was. But that wasn't meant to be the "best picture" in question; that was just part of the set-up. (But please note that that screencap was published exactly as is by a newspaper.)

 

The iconic picture is Gerrard kneeling in a Y.A. Tittle position. As I have already mentioned, my first instinct was to post that shot alone, with no set-up at all. But I played the scenario out in my mind, and I could imagine someone responding "I don't know what that is", to which I would have replied with the description. So I cut out the middle-man.

 

I don't follow the Premier League and I understood the shot. Bad thing happened to this guy in some soccer game. Do we really need more context than that to appreciate the picture? I think the same thing applies to the shot of the "Blue Jays player." Good thing happened in a Blue Jays game. I get what you were going for, but this isn't the "let's all learn sports history through photos" thread (but it might as well be.) This thread is supposed to be about sports photos (except it really isn't.) If we're here just to appreciate the art (even though we clearly aren't here for the art) we don't really need to know that much about the circumstances in the photo. But that's just me. 

 

Anyway, the entirely too nice @SFGiants58 has pointed out that I'm just being a buzzkill so I'll tone down being a photography snob. Perhaps this photo is more in the spirit of the thread. I'm pretty sure it needs no set up. 

 

[MJWalker45]

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