Baseball owns 9 of the Top 25, and 5 of the Top 10...
1. Red Sox Win World SeriesIt took 86 years, included insufferable losses to the hated New York Yankees and monumental gaffes seemingly replayed constantly, but the Fenway Park faithful finally danced in the streets when their beloved Boston Red Sox won the 2004 World Series in a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals. Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, Curt Schilling, et al., ended the agony that tormented Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Luis Tiant, et al. And who knows? This could be their year, too!
2. Ripken breaks recordOn Sept. 6, 1995, with President Clinton in attendance, Oriole Park at Camden Yards rocked when native son Cal Ripken Jr. broke the ironman record of 2,130 consecutive games played set by the Iron Horse, Lou Gehrig. With a home run for good measure, and a midgame romp around the field, Ripken helped restore luster to a sport torn apart by the 1994-95 players strike and subsequent owners lockout. The streak of 2.632 consecutive games played ran from May 30, 1982 to Sept. 19, 1998. Ripken enters the Hall of Fame on July 29.
5. BALCO-steroids in baseballThe celebration of ballooning home -run figures from the last decade of the 20th century into the early years of the 21st gives way to the dirty little secret of untested ballplayers taking advantage of substances boosting their natural talents. The innocence of the nation’s pastime devolves into the steroid era.
6. 1998 home run chaseIn hindsight, the world followed the mammoth marathon to immortality through rose-colored glasses. Mark McGwire, a playful giant of a man, and Sammy Sosa, whose hop out of the batter’s box signaled another long ball smacked, battled through the summer to surpass Roger Maris’ season record of 61 homers set in 1961. McGwire does it first and finishes as the leader with 70; Sosa hits 66.
10. Pete Rose bannedBaseball’s all-time hits leader (4,256) bet on the game while managing the Cincinnati Reds and accepted a lifetime ban from then-commissioner Bart Giamatti in August 1989. Rose became a pariah, reduced to autograph shows at any and all venues — except inside a major league park. The player excluded even from consideration for the Hall of Fame denied for almost 15 years that he bet on baseball, then acknowledged it in his January 2004 autobiography.
13. Kirk Gibson walk-off homerTwo outs, bottom of the ninth, man on first for the Los Angeles Dodgers, future Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley on the mound for the Oakland Athletics. Gibson, soon to be named NL MVP, is summoned to pinch-hit despite hamstring and knee problems. He works the count to 3-2. Jack Buck makes the TV call: “Gibson swings, and a fly ball to deep right field. This is gonna be a home run! Unbelievable! A home run for Gibson! And the Dodgers have won the game 5-4. I don’t believe what I just saw. I don’t believe what I just saw.” Gibson’s only at-bat of the Series sends the Dodgers on their way to winning the championship.
15. Bill Buckner errorIf only Boston relievers could have held the 5-3 advantage with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning of Game 6, the 1986 World Series would have been over and the Red Sox would have had their first title since 1918. But Calvin Schiraldi gave up three consecutive singles to make it 5-4. Bob Stanley relieved and threw a wild pitch, allowing in the tying run. Few remember all that. What is remembered: Mookie Wilson’s soft grounder down the first-base line that went underneath the glove and through the legs of sore-ankled Buckner, allowing Ray Knight to score the winning run for the New York Mets, who go on to win and take Game 7. Thus are born endless references to having a “Bill Buckner moment.”
19. Postponed by earthquakeFour minutes into ABC’s setup of Game 3 of the ’89 Bay Area World Series at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, Al Michaels interrupts analyst Tim McCarver. “I’ll tell you what, we’re having an earth---!” he says before the signal gets knocked off the air. More than 60,000 fans and the rest of the city were rocked by the 7.1 earthquake, which collapsed part of the Bay Bridge. Michaels won a News Emmy for his coverage of the earthquake, which left 67 dead and did an estimated $6 billion in property damage. The World Series resumed 10 days later, won in a sweep by Oakland.
23. ’94 World Series canceledThe most high-profile strike in professional sports, beginning Aug. 12, 1994, cost baseball fans the ultimate enjoyment to any season — but cost the sport more in lost prestige, trust and adulation. The 232-day strike over issues regarding a salary cap, spanning the 1994 and ’95 seasons, was baseball’s eighth work stoppage but the first to wipe out the postseason.
FULL STORY
Cafe Home
Fantasy Football
Fantasy Basketball
Fantasy Hockey
by bigh0rt » Mon Jun 11, 2007 2:07 pm 
