Top 7 Non Sports Plays

A list of the “top plays” in sports history would be way too difficult to pull off.  There are just way too many.  One would probably just have to list fifty in no particular order.  How could you possibly try to rank Michael Jordan’s final plays in 1998 against Kirk Gibson’s 1988 home run?  It would just be too tough to do.  Instead, this week’s Top 7 attempts to rank the “non-plays,” things that didn’t happen but would have changed things had they happened.  I’m sure I forgot plenty of these too, so apologies in advance.

7. Leon Lett

In the 27th Superbowl, the Cowboys were beating the ever-loving crap out of the Buffalo Bills.  Leon Lett picked up a fumble and started running it towards the end zone, only to have it knocked from his hands by Don Beebe as he slowed down while a yard or two away from scoring the touchdown.  Sure, it’s a “play” for Beebe, but it’s sure a non-play for Lett, and one can make the case even further for the “non-play” aspect for this one: it meant absolutely nothing.  The Cowboys were destroying them, and continued to do so until the end of the game.

6. Mike Laga

Amongst Cardinal fans of this generation, this is probably one of the top 20 most famous plays of all-time, and it was a foul ball.  In 1986, Laga hit a ball completely out of old Busch Stadium.  Back in those days, no one (except Darryl Strawberry) even considered getting the ball into the upper deck, much less out of the entire freaking stadium.  Mention Mike Laga’s name to 100 Cardinal fans, and 95 of them will immediately mention this foul ball.  Laga got a standing ovation for the ordeal, which has to rank as the one of the strangest standing ovations in St. Louis history, along with giving one to Sammy Sosa in 1998, one to Gary Gaetti after he hit a home run as a Cub, one to Larry Walker after he struck out in his first at-bat as a Cardinal, and a curtain call for Mike Matheny after hitting a solo home run in a blowout first-round playoff game.

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5. Vince Carter

During the 1997-1998 college basketball season, Carter was dunking with legendary ferociousness.  He was a great dunker because he took pride in the nastiness which he dunked, and the endless replays of his destruction on SportsCenter.  North Carolina was beating the crap out of Duke at home when Carter deflected a ball.  He threw to Ed Cota, who launched the ball way off the backboard.  Carter jumped from about midway between the free throw line and the basket, cocked it with both hands way behind his head, which was near the rim…and missed the dunk.  Dick Vitale went insane even though the dunk missed.  The crowd was in shock at what they almost witnessed and stayed that way even after the Tar Heels nailed a three-pointer two seconds later.  It may be the only time that the Top 7 ever quotes Stuart Scott, but on SportsCenter he called it “the sickest almost dunk in history.”  He is still right.

4. Ben Johnson

Steroids are not a new thing.  Canadian Johnson’s muscles had muscles when he annihilated the 100-meter dash record at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.  The announcer commented on the replay that people would study his start “for the next 50 years.”  His “50 years” comment was right, but that’s how long we’re going to have to hear about roids in sports.  He was busted three days later, and the record never happened.

3. Scott Norwood

People too young to remember “Wide Right” probably think that Norwood shanked a 25-yarder, Ray Finklel style, to blow the Bills’ chances of a Superbowl, with the way that people discuss it as if it were a gimme.  47-yard field goals at the end of Superbowls aren’t gimmes.  And since I don’t have a whole lot more to say about this particular play, those refs in the USA/Mexico soccer game on Wednesday sucked!

2. Nick Anderson

When the Orlando Magic made it to the 1995 NBA Finals, many people thought it was simply the coronation for the NBA’s “next generation.”  They had Penny Hardaway, Shaq, and Anderson was a key role player on the team.  They had just beaten the newly-returned Michael Jordan’s Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals, and Anderson was riding high after a famous play where he stole the ball from Jordan at the end of Game 1 (which pissed Jordan off so badly that he went completely insane on the league for three years).  In Game 1 of the Finals, the Magic led by three, but Anderson missed four free throws in a row.  Kenny Smith hit a three to tie the game, and the Rockets won the game in overtime.  The Magic never recovered and were swept in the series.  Anderson’s free throw percentage, usually around 70%, dropped below 40% a few years later.

1. Grady Little

Managers can make the list too!  This particular instance is probably even stranger to you if you’re a non-Sox fan and really haven’t thought about it much since it happened.  Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS.  Pedro Martinez has thrown over 100 pitched through the seventh inning, and teammates are hugging him because he did a fantastic job and they knew that his night was over.  So they thought.  Not only did Little run him out there in the 8th, but he allowed him to do the following: pop-out, double, single, double, double, tied up, before he took him out of the game.  Had the Sox not won the World Series two out of the next four years, this one would probably be stinging just as badly as Bill Buckner.  It was like Little was Lou Brown and Major League and let Eddie Harris stay in for a single, double, and a walk in the 9th before bringing in Rick Vaughn.

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