2009: The Games That Make You Say...

The games that make you say...

Miami @ Florida St. this decade's best opening week rivalry. A game of two not so great teams that we've seen for the last five seasons. Wow.

Back and forth for four quarters, a stud QB performance out of Miami's Jacory Harris obliterated his career high with 386 yards and a kicker side-story?

A big hit on Harris early in the fourth led to a wobbly pass that was picked off and taken to the house for a FSU lead at home with approximately nine minutes to play. From there on Harris was a stud. He went 7-9 for 122 yards and two impressive touchdowns. One of which a scrambling bomb that he put right on the money down to the 2-yard line.

Miami steals one on the road after a goal line stand which including a great defensive play by a corner on second down and a dropped game winning touchdown on fourth down.

A game I never expected to be interested in past the first couple possessions let alone until close to 1 a.m.

A game that made me jump out of my seat at least three or four times. I don't even like either team. In fact, I hate them both! I'm a Gator.

A game that made my roommate ask if they could invent a rule for a 4-point play so it could go to overtime.

The games that make you say...

Roddick vs. Federer. Federer's 19-2 lifetime against Roddick. 19-2! Federer's shut out Roddick nine times. I'll give it a shot on a early summer Sunday morning. 7-5 6-7 6-7 6-3 14-16. 14-16!

"I don't want to go to lunch anymore man."

"Dude seriously? when's this damn match going to be over!"

"...It's not dude"

And it wasn't. Honestly, while you were watching the match, it was just as great as Federer/Nadal a year ago. I couldn't get up because it each game was decisive. Roddick had to serve nine sets facing elimination. You want to talk about absolute pressure. Incredible. Unexpected. History.

The games that make you say...

Orlando at Cleveland in the Eastern Conference Finals. It's been Cleveland's year since January. Cleveland's lost two games at home all year. Cleveland actually rocked.

And the Magic decide to have their coming out party. Devastated the entire city after stealing Game One. And nearly Game Two. First let me set the stage. Cleveland as a team and as a fan-base was in total shock after Game One. Cleveland lost two home games all season (one in OT, in a game in which no starters played).

The Cavs rout the Magic in the first half of Game One. Lebron had five highlights on the top 10 including a monster block on Dwight Howard. A 15-point halftime lead was capped off by a 75-foot Mo Williams heave at the buzzer. The Q was rocking.

The Magic shoot the lights out in the second half and after two huuuge Rashard Lewis shots in the last 30 seconds the Cavs find themselves down 0-1. Uh-Oh, it's happening again.

So how do the Cav's respond? Just like we all thought. They busted Game Two wide open right off the bat...

After the Cavs manage to blow a 23-point lead and Hedo Turkeglu drills a pull-up jumper the Cav's find themselves down by 1 with one second left. I can't write what that made me say at that point. In fact, the arena was dead silent. I have never seen so many people so devastated all at once. Our season was over. Down 0-2 and going on the road. We were screwed.

Needless to say, Lebron comes off a screen and drills the biggest shot of his life. Mo Williams along with every fan in the building fell to their knees and thanked the Lord.

Absolute chaos. A complete 180 in a turn of emotions. We hugged every fan we saw until we got on the highway.

The games that make you say...

Easter Conference playoffs. The games two biggest stars giving their best performance of the season. Hockey.  

Capitals vs. Penguins on a random spring day. Caps are up 1-0 and the city is buzzing. Hockey is finally back thanks to the most electric player we've seen in 20 years. This is the first Ovechkin/Crosby playoff matchup and their rivalry is already heated. Let's face it, they don't like each other. Awesome.

Crosby strikes first and Ovechkin answers. After a Crosby goal in the second period the game is tied 2-2 with seven minutes left in the third period. So let's see what we've got here. Playoff hockey. Second round. The games two best player's and hockey's best shot at a rivalry. Tie game. Third period.

Alexander the Great rocks Marc-Andre Fleury on a slapshot to take a 3-2 lead and just two minutes later he does it again. Hats fly onto the ice for the game first hat trick. Caps are up 4-2 and the fans are wild. Crosby follows with his third goal with about a minute left to make it 4-3. It was too little too late and the Caps hold off the Pens at home.  

"Did you watch the hockey game man!?"

"...Hockey?"

This game actually put hockey back in the public eye for about a week. At least until the series was over. If the NHL can find a way to have Crosby and Ovechkin to meet every year in the playoffs they might be okay. Tim Donahue anybody? 

The games that make you say...

"I've never had so much fun on a golf course in my life," said Jim Mackay, Phil Mickelson's caddy and friend.

The 2009 Masters belonged to Angel Cabrera, but Sunday, its most prestigious moment, belonged to Tiger and Phil. This round of golf was incredible.

Tiger and Phil started the day a little too far back to really have a realistic shot at winning. It's Tiger and Phil though. No love lost. You think they aren't going to give it their all when they're paired together on the last day of the Masters.

Let's not forget how big of a rivalry this was for a few years. Sure Tiger owns Phil but Mick had his three major breakthrough while Tiger couldn't buy one. It was nice just to rekindle the rivalry for a round.

Both of these guys were unconscious from the start. Phil murdered the front-9. He shot a record tying 30 as he birdied 6 of 7 holes. He literally couldn't miss. His miracle shot on 7 through the trees, out of the woods, that stuck within tap-in range made me clear my afternoon plans.

Tiger followed with an Eagle on 8...the game was on.

All day it was crowd roar after crowd roar after crowd roar. All day. "A couple of shots could have changed this world," Mickelson's agent stated afterwards. This is golf's "fiercest" rivalry and this performance made them congratulate each other on a shot by shot basis. Tiger's caddy Stevie Williams said a couple months ago that he hated Mickelson.

These guys made fans run from hole to hole. Literally, I'm not kidding, they ran.

Tiger was lights out on the back-9 while staying close, Mickelson slowly began to remember he was Phil Mickelson (which is always entertaining) and it was time to royally screw up again. And sure enough he did when he pulled out a terrible club choice on the Par-3 12th and plunked it into the water.

Regardless, Tiger and Phil both got to -10 and within 1 of the lead by the time they got to 17. They had both done so much to get back and sadly, both figured they had to do too much to win.

I got phone calls all day from friends who have never even watched golf let alone cared. Aside from the random highlight from Tiger they hate golf. It was truly one of those are you kidding me performances by the games two best players. Think of it as Kobe and Lebron trading amazing performances at MSG back to back games, except Tiger and Phil were playing each other.

The games that make you say...

"I've got no words," Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said when asked to describe the second-longest D-1 game ever played.

Syracuse vs. Connecticut. Big East Tournament. UCONN"s looking for a No. 1 seed while Syracuse is probably off the bubble...probably. A tense regulation turned into overtime after Connecticut's smallest player laid in a loose rebound. One second left and Paul Harris's inbounds heave was deflected into Syracuse's Eric Devendorf's hands and drained it (DRRRrraiiiinnneed it) from 28 feet.

Devendorf proceeded to celebrate with the crowd on the scorer's table.

And then the two team's proceeded to play six overtimes. Six! That's an extra 30 minutes. Johnny Flynn had 34 points and 11 assists while playing 67 out of 70 minutes. Flynn wasn't that only star. Thabeet had 19, 14, and six...blocks. Paul Harris had 29 points and 22 rebounds. This game was 70 minutes of fighting by two of the best teams in the country.

Don't forget each overtime ended in dramatic fashion, too. UCONN missed an acrobatic three at the buzzer of the first overtime followed by Paul Harris's half-court prayer nearly dropping in at the end of the second.

Syracuse's Rautin's huge three with 11 seconds left capped a third overtime comeback for the Orange. And three more later it was over.

"I've never been more proud of any team I've coached."—Jim Boeheim

All of these moments have happened in 2009 and there is still about half a year left. We still have an entire college football and NFL seasons and the MLB playoffs. Let's not forget about the Pitt vs. Nova game and the crazy end to the Super Bowl. All of these moments almost make you say that '09 has been more exciting than '08.

Just think back and ask yourself what 2008 made you say...