Best sports stuff of the 00's

[TFoA]

2008 was definitely my favorite year...in order:

February: Super Bowl XLII. Awesome.

March: NCAA Tournament was one of the best in years, & the championship game was ridiculous.

April: The Hawks take the C's the distance in the playoffs, earn some respect back after years of suckitude.

May: A horse actually had a legit chance at winning the triple crown. Of course it didn't happen, but this horse really had people thinking it'd happen. (& yeah, this is absolutely the ONLY time that I care about horse racing, which is more than most.)

June: Tiger Woods wins US Open in absolutely epic fashion; Fresno State miraculously wins College World Series.

July: Nadal beats Federer in Wimbledon in arguably the greatest Wimbledon final ever played.

August: Olympics. Michael Phelps dominates, & the Redeem Team brings the gold back home to USA Basketball.

September: NFL starts. Matt Ryan throws a touchdown on his first professional pass, begins a beautiful season for the Falcons. Lions begin their historic season.

October: Bernard Hopkins is 500 years old and not only beats Kelly Pavlik, but absolutely whups his ass in boxing. Tampa Bay Rays advance to World Series after years of being terrible, & the Phillies win a World Series in which the final game was suspended due to rain & continued later. Only time it's ever happened.

November & December: Don't remember what exactly happened, but some great football & non-conference college basketball games were definitely happening then.

2008 was the year of the decade, BY FAR.

[Spammy]

My dads old school, RMC winning the National title in basketball. I was there. It was crazy!

[infrared41]

With the decade coming to an end I thought it might be kind of cool look back and discuss the last ten years in sports. I figure we could list favorite moments, biggest stories, best games, etc. What innovations or new stuff we liked or didn't and so on... It doesn't need to be a list or anything. It's just a good conversation starter.

Just to get things rolling I'll list a few of mine;

Favorite moment: (here's a shocker) Ohio State beating Miami for the National Championship.

Great Baseball moment: (another shocker considering how much I bash them) The Red Sox coming back from 3-0 to win the pennant in 2004.

And so on...

Homer!

Yeah, I have to admit that I did enjoy that season just a little bit. Looks like I'm finally busted. I admit it, I am an Ohio State fan. Someone better tell WillMorris he was right all along. Sorry for trying to hide behind the facade of objectivity for so long guys. Can you ever forgive me?

[Viper]

Game of the decade: 2007 Fiesta Bowl (Boise State over Oklahoma)

Honorable mentions:

• Super Bowls XXXIV, XXXVI, XLII, XLIII
  
• 2006 Rose Bowl/BCS championship game (Texas over USC)
  
• (Minnesota over Maine in OT before "home" crowd at Xcel Energy Center)

Playoff series of the decade: 2004 ALCS (Red Sox over Yankees)

Honorable mentions:

• 2001 World Series (Diamondbacks over Yankees)
  
• 2004 (Lightning over Flames) and 2009 (Penguins over Red Wings) Stanley Cup Finals
  
• 2009 Mann Cup finals (Canadian Senior A box lacrosse championship; Brampton, ON over New Westminster, BC)

Play of the decade: Final play of 2007 Fiesta Bowl (Boise State's game-winning 2-point conversion)

Honorable mentions:

• Final play of Super Bowl XXXIV (Mike Jones tackling Kevin Dyson on 1-yard line)
  
• in 2005 Minnesota Class AAAA high school basketball championship game
  
• Last-second series-clinching saves in back-to-back Penguins vs. Red Wings Stanley Cup finals in '08 and '09, once by each team

Upset of the decade: Appalachian State over Michigan (2007 college football)

Honorable mentions:

• Holy Cross over Minnesota (2006 NCAA Div. I hockey West Regional semis)
  
• Y.E. Yang over Tiger Woods (2009 PGA Championship)
  
• USA over Spain (2009 Confed Cup semis)

Cinderella team of the decade: 2008 Fresno State baseball (won College World Series after barely qualifying for postseason)

Honorable mentions:

• 2006 George Mason men's basketball (reached Final Four as #11 regional seed)
  
• 2006 Edmonton Oilers (reached Stanley Cup Finals as West #8 seed and forced Game 7 vs. Carolina)
  
• 2008 Portland LumberJax (reached NLL Champion's Cup Final after 6-10 regular season and nearly forced OT vs. Buffalo)

(In-competition) Bonehead move of the decade: Zinedine Zidane, 2006 World Cup final (headbutt drawing red card in OT)

"Honorable" mentions:

• Steve Bartman, 2003 NLCS... 'nuff said.
  
• Lindsey Jacobellis, Torino 2006 women's snowboard cross final (blew needless mid-air stunt, and thus the gold medal, on last hill of the course)
  
• Saskatchewan Roughriders, 97th Grey Cup (too-many-men penalty enabling Montreal to kick game-winning FG)

Choke of the decade: New York Yankees, 2004 ALCS (lost series 4-3 after leading 3-0, including getting blown out at home in Game 7)

"Honorable" mentions:

• New England Patriots, Super Bowl XLII (got outplayed and lost after undefeated season)
  
• USA vs. Brazil, 2009 Confed Cup final (lost 3-2 after leading 2-0 at half)
  
• Tiger Woods, 2009 PGA Championship (blew comfortable 3rd-round lead)

[dfwabel]

The NFL is king so I will not mention it unless to add to others, but highlights for me are:

2000 PGA Championship: Bob May vs Tiger Woods. Two California golfers going at it. Bob was the man as a prep player there too.

2001 Australian Open: Jennifer Capriati makes her comeback.

January 3-5, 2003: This is personal as I was at the Fiesta Bowl to see Miami get jobbed, but still talk to an older couple from C-bus who sat behind me. Somehow I woke up to catch a flight to SF for the Sunday Giants/49ers game and was the initial meeting I had with Bob Ryan. He is a good man.

2003 NCAA Mens Basketball Final: 'Melo wins a title for Boeheim and Roy tells off Bonnie Bernstein on national air.

2003 MasterCard Colonial: Annika Sorenstam plays in a PGA event. I was there on Thursday and Friday and it was worse than a US open in terms of gallery.

2003 NLDS: Florida/SF Giants: Pudge was incredible in games 3 and 4.

2006: Texas beats USC in the BCS title game

2008 Wimbledon Final: Nadal beats Federer

2009 Wimbledon Final: Federer beats Roddick

[rainmaker17]

UT over USC is obviously up there.

BUT.

My all-time favorite memory was the NFC championship ('92 I think), when Dallas played San Francisco in their building. The field sucked and the game went back and forth. A true classic. When the Cowboys won I remember a lot of phone calls between friends and family, almost in disbelief. Truly a great memory.

[BadSeed84]

Easy for me

2008 World Series...the phillies win the world series! first sports championship won by a philly team in my life! (and still the only one, oh well theres 2010!)

[Saintsfan]

Top NFL moment- Tom Brady's final drive versus the Rams after the Rams had made that comeback. The Pats could have played it safe and gone into the lottery of overtime, but Bellichick and Brady pulled off something truly amazing. (Remember that Brady was in his first year as a starter at the time!)

Top soccer moment- Germany 1 England 5 in the World Cup qualifiers 2001. England completely outplayed the Germans that day. (Southampton playing in the Cup Final in 2003 is a close second!)

A couple of more Anglocentric moments

2003 Rugby World Cup final

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ5tHgET4N4&feature=related

2005 Ashes, Edgbaston Test

[Shumway]

Far and away the greatest sports moment in my life. That whole series was great, even if it was "the forgotten World Series". Thunderstix and Ralley Monkeys.

[RyanMcD29]

Since a lot of the best overall games and moments are covered, I'm gonna do a few of my favorites as a fan

-2000 MLB Playoffs

-2006 MLB Playoffs until the 9th inning of game 7 of the NLCS

-The 2004 (I think) AFC Wild Card Game where the Jets beat the Chargers in OT. Screw Doug Hall for the Divisional Playoff round, however.

-Game 4 of the 2002 NHL Eastern Conference Quarterfinals between the Islanders and Maple Leafs

-The Islanders-Devils "Easter Epic II" in 2007 where a shootout win puts the Islanders in the playoffs

-2003 NCAA Basketball Championship between Syracuse and Kansas, with "The Block" putting the icing on the cake

-2009 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship between Syracuse and Cornell. I'd say one of the top 10 plays of the year in any sport came with Kenny Nims' game tying goal with 4 seconds left

-2007 Daytona 500 as Kevin Harvick goes from 6th taking the white flag to beating Mark Martin at the line for the win

-2009 Big East Basketball Quarterfinals between Syracuse and UConn in the epic "Six Overtimes" game

-The entire 2006 Big East Basketball Tournament with G-Mac going on beast mode

-Super Bowl XLII seeing the Giants win and the Patriots lose like that

[The Imperfect]

worst moment:

Miami getting called for the worst pass interference call to send the Natl Champ Game into overtime.

And then Ohio State winning

You realize there was both a holding call and pass interference call available, the refs just decided to call pass interference. Either way it would have resulted in an Ohio State first down. BTW you're not allowed to hold a receivers facemask while the ball is still live.

[Shumway]

This was, and probably will continue to be, awesome. Kudos to the NHL for doing something right, as far as giving the fans something entertaining.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

This was, and probably will continue to be, awesome. Kudos to the NHL for doing something right, as far as giving the fans something entertaining.

That game is what forced my hand to buy an HDTV. I watched it on standard def, and knew I was missing out.

[Don]

My favorite sports moment of the decade

[Jer15]

As a sports fan in Toronto there hasn't been too much to cheer for over this decade, but a few memories for me that stuck out when this question was asked were:

The 2002 playoff run by the Leafs, more so due to the fact that the Leafs were missing alot of players due to injury and Gary Roberts stepped up and really carried that team. Sadly Carolina was just too much.

Last season's run to the OHL finals by the Battalion. Never have we had so many people show up to the games, there's never been a buzz about the team like there was last year. It was quite the team and quite the run. The Battalion dropped like flies to the Spitfires, but for the first time ever, I had hope that Brampton could actually have an entry into the memorial cup.

Another memorable moment for me was was April 27, 2008. I'll never forget Jim Veltman's last game in the NLL. He was a very special player to me for many reasons. He's a Bramptonian, a close friend of my Uncle's, the man who introduced me to box lacrosse, the leader of my favorite Toronto sports team, and for many years the best loose ball player in the NLL. He also teaches at Agincourt Collegiate. This is the only public school that would agree to come play my Christian high school's teams at the time.

[TFoA]

This was, and probably will continue to be, awesome. Kudos to the NHL for doing something right, as far as giving the fans something entertaining.

What a scene. Outdoor hockey in the snow being played by two good teams wearing beautiful uniforms. What a great idea for hockey, I love the Winter Classic.

[Seadragon76]

There have been some good moments for me as a Seattle fan.

The 2001 Mariners clinching the AL West and then the entire team were in prayer for the victims of 9/11.

The Seahawks beating Carolina in the '05 NFC Championship Game to earn their first (and only) Super Bowl trip.

Of course... There were some bad moments.

The Evil Empire defeating the M's in the 2001 ALCS (You can only imagine how sick I would of felt if the Yankees DID win in 2001 and not the Diamondbacks).

The Steelers 'Stealing' Super Bowl XL from the Seahawks.

The King of all Bastards (Clay Bennett) taking the Sonics to Oklahoma City to become the Blunder (No matter how good they are, they will always be the Blunder in my eyes. Hell, even if they win an NBA Championship, nothing will ever change my mind).

[Jamikel]

One of my favorite stories of the decade that hasn't been mentioned yet was the Saints' 2006 season. Their first year back in the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina, the Saints make a run to the NFC title game. Inspiring stuff.

[TBGKon]

This decade was great to be a Tampa-based fan:

- Buccaneers Super Bowl victory in 2002 season

- Lightning Stanley Cup victory in 2003-04 season

- Rays American League pennant in 2008 season

- USF being ranked as high as #2 in the nation in 2007, although they break my heart yearly with tough losses

[jr79]

Two football (soccer) moments I won't forget.

The end of 32 years of heartbreak, disappointment and plain bad luck:

The Miracle of Istanbul: