Favorite Sports Moments

As the title of the slideshow suggests, these are my favorite sports moments. I've chosen one moment per sport/league. I say it that way because I have two moments for hockey (NHL and Olympics), two for football (pro and college) and two for soccer (club and national team).

Finding video of each of these moments online is a little difficult, considering that a few are more than 25 years ago, but I've managed to find videos (or at least pictures set to audio) for all of them.

Pro Football — First Game of Monday Night Football

You might be wondering why a game involving the Cleveland Browns and the New York Jets from 1970 might be a favorite moment for me. You're probably asking yourself, "Why that game?"

The reason that I chose this game, played at Cleveland's Municipal Stadium on September 21, 1970, is actually simple when I relay this important fact. The first ever MNF game was played the day I was born. Combined with the fact that that was also the birthday of Kansas City Royals founder Ewing Kauffman, I had no choice as to whether or not I would be a sports fan.

Olympic Hockey — 1980 Miracle on Ice

Fast forward almost nine-and-a-half years to February 22, 1980. The United States hockey team was preparing to face what was widely regarded as the best hockey team in the world, the Soviet Union.

How big was this upset?

Huge.

Especially when you consider that the same two teams had met at Madison Square Garden 13 days earlier, the Soviets thumping the Americans 10-3 on that occasion. It's even bigger still when you consider the Soviets were amateurs in name only, because they were technically soldiers in the Soviet Army.

More than 30 years later, hearing Al Michaels say, "Do you believe in miracles? YES!" still makes me cry.

Baseball — Royals Win 1985 World Series

The next moment on the list is my hometown Royals winning the 1985 World Series. They went to the Series for the first time in 1980, but lost to the Phillies in six games. They made the ALCS in 1984, but lost to the eventual champions, the Detroit Tigers.

1985, though, was a magical year. The Royals came back from a 3-1 deficit not once, but twice. They had also fallen behind the Toronto Blue Jays three games to one in the ALCS, only to come roaring back to win the series in seven games. The Royals were also the first team to lose the first two games of the series at home and still win the series.

Cardinals fans will probably say that they got robbed in 1985. To that I would say, as someone who has umpired baseball games, I freely admit that Don Denkinger blew that call at first base in Game 6, 12 ways from Sunday. So would Denkinger.

However, it wasn't the last play of the inning. It was the first.

The next hitter, Steve Balboni, popped up the first pitch over by the Royals dugout, but Jack Clark misjudged it and the ball fell untouched.

Balboni took this second chance and hit a single to left, putting two runners on with no outs. After a bunt by Jim Sundberg that forced Jorge Orta out at third, a wild pitch allowed the runners to advance.

Hal McRae was intentionally walked to load the bases and set up a potential game (and Series) ending double play. Dane Iorg, who helped the Cardinals win the 1982 Series against Milwaukee, then ended the game with a two-run single to right.

College Football — 1999 NCAA Division II National Championship Game

It was one of the greatest college football games ever played. The defending national champion Northwest Missouri State Bearcats trailed the Carson-Newman Eagles 44-29 with 2:41 on the clock.

Northwest managed to tie the game with ten seconds left to send it to overtime, where they won it in the fourth extra period, the final score was 58-52. ESPN declared the game an instant classic and re-broadcast the game on ESPN Classic a week later.

An interesting (and completely true) side note: I was watching this game at a sports bar in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where I had moved to continue working in radio. With about a minute left, Carson-Newman had the ball on the Northwest 24 yard line. I was talking to one of the bar's employees with a big-screen TV to my left.

I said to this guy, "I could really use a turnover right about now." I turned to the TV and on the very next play, Carson-Newman coughed up the football. And the rest, as they say, is history.

NHL Hockey — Colorado Avalanche Win 2001 Stanley Cup

I chose this moment for pro hockey for two reasons. The first is that, after living in Colorado and spending time working for an affiliate of the AVS radio network, I became a fan of the team.

The other is Ray Bourque. He spent most of his career with the Boston Bruins (almost 21 seasons) and never won a Stanley Cup. During the 1999-2000 season, Bourque requested a trade, wanting one last chance at a Cup win.

He preferred a team on the East Coast, like the Philadelphia Flyers, but Bruins GM Harry Sinden badly wanted Bourque to win a Cup before he retired. He made a deal with the Colorado Avalanche on the condition that it not be leaked to the press. Sinden told Bourque, "This may not be your first choice, but this is the team I feel is best." Evidently, Sinden knew what he was talking about.

How much respect did Bourque get in the AVS locker room? In his only full season with the AVS (2000-01), he was an assistant team captain and, when the Stanley Cup was presented to team captain Joe Sakic, Sakic simply turned around and handed it to Bourque.

Basketball — Mario's Miracle

I've been a Kansas Jayhawks fan for a very long time. I come by it naturally. My parents were at a concert at Allen Fieldhouse while my mother was pregnant with me.

The night of this game, though, I was at work behind a bar. It was in Kansas City, Missouri, but there were people there rooting for Memphis. They were probably Missouri fans just trying to irritate me because I was wearing a Kansas jersey.

As the clock wound down on the 2nd half, I was getting nervous, but I still had hope. If the Jayhawks could just get Memphis to the line, the Tigers poor free throw shooting would give Kansas a chance.

After the final buzzer, I yelled at the top of my lungs, "For those of you who doubted my Jayhawks...Rock Chalk Jayhawk, GO KU, B****!"

International Soccer — Landon Donovan Versus Algeria

Before you click to watch that video, I'll apologize for the vuvuzelas.

This moment, quite frankly, is one of the biggest moments in the history of American soccer. It's at least as big as the 1950 Miracle on Turf, the World Cup win over world power England in Brazil, if not bigger.

Thanks to two ties, the US needed to win against Algeria to have any chance of advancing to the knockout stage of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Questionable officiating had nullified multiple goals (including the potential game-winner against Slovenia in the previous match) and it seemed that the team needed a miracle to win.

Landon Donovan provided that miracle in second half stoppage time. Taking the long outlet throw from goalkeeper Tim Howard, Donovan ran up the right side and then toward the center of the field before playing the ball to Jozy Altidore. Altidore then tried to cross it to Clint Dempsey. Dempsey's shot was saved by the Algerian keeper, but Donovan had continued his run and was there to put the rebound in the back of the net.

As ESPN announcer Ian Darke said, "You could not write a script like this!"

I was watching the game at the watch party in the Power & Light District in Kansas City and the place went nuts. This is the same place where 12,000 people packed the place and ESPN had cameras for crowd reactions for the following game against Ghana.

Club Soccer — Sporting Kansas City Opens LIVESTRONG Sporting Park

The final moment I've chosen is one that is very near and dear to my heart.

I've been a fan of the Kansas City franchise in MLS since it was born. I suffered through all the jokes about the team's name the first season (the Wiz), some pretty bad seasons as the Wizards and got to share the joy of the 2000 MLS Cup and the 2004 US Open Cup. But all of those things had something missing.

They were missing a soccer-specific stadium. From 1996 until 2007, the team played at cavernous Arrowhead Stadium. The biggest crowd in franchise history was just over 30,000, but even then the stadium was more than half empty. From 2008 until 2010, the team played at too-small CommunityAmerica Ballpark.

A minor league baseball stadium, CAB was not suited for soccer, the field had to be shoe-horned in along the third base line out to right field. I was always afraid that one of our players would trip on the pitchers mound, which was just out of play.

That all changed on June 9, 2011.

LIVESTRONG Sporting Park opened that night for a game with the Chicago Fire. While the team didn't win that night, it was still an emotional evening. I went around the stadium telling my friends, "Merry Christmas." It was hard to fight back the tears during the national anthem.

But LSP has become a very hard place to play. Just ask the Colorado Rapids. For the second leg of the Eastern Conference semifinals, KC fans sold the place out. In the pouring rain. On a Wednesday.

Honorable Mention — George Brett Going Berserk

If not for the Royals winning the World Series in 1985, The Pine Tar Game might have been my favorite baseball moment.

I remember watching that game and being excited when George Brett came up in the ninth inning and homered off of Goose Gossage, just like he had in game three of the 1980 ALCS.

My excitement turned to anger when it looked like the umpires might call Brett out for the excessive pine tar on his bat. Granted, my ire was nothing compared to what Brett was experiencing when he tore out of that dugout and tried to rip umpire Tim McClelland's head from his shoulders.

As McClelland would say at a roast of Brett after his retirement, George wasn't the brightest of players. After all, McClelland was 6'6", wearing a chest protector and shin guards and carrying a bat in his hands.

The American League president at the time, Lee McPhail, upheld the Royals protest, saying that the ruling was right by the letter of the rule, but not the spirit. The Royals and Yankees played out the rest of the game on the Royals next trip to New York and the Royals ended up winning 5-4.

Okay, those are my moments. What are yours?