My Top Ten Sports Memories of the Decade

Everyone has a different list and mine may be a bit out of order. But I figured as this decade comes to a close, it's a good time to go through my top 10 list of sports memories/moments from the past decade. Enjoy:

Honorable Mention. Stubhub/Craigslist and other ways I used arbitrage skills in the market. Tickets are never worth their face value. The price doesn't change based on supply and demand so the price never reflects the actual value. So in this past decade I must have manipulated the market hundreds of times to my advantage. Did I feel guilty about this? Not really. Teams and scalpers were profiting off of this and I wanted a piece of the action. Whether selling tickets for more than face value or finding great deals on unwanted tickets the day of games, I've found a way to attend more sporting events that I could ever dream of and not really paying for them. The past two years combined I've attended over 60 sporting events, something that most people in my income bracket only dream of. And without sites like Stubhub, Craigslist and others, I wouldn't have been able to. And I got to see a lot of those games with my friends which I will always remember as a special experience. As someone who earned a Masters in economics and finance, I'm glad that what I learned about arbitrage actually came into use in real life.

10. Starting this blog. All I can say is that I should have started this earlier. I've been discussing sports with my dad and my friends for years now and I wish I would have utilized an outlet like this. I really just started this as a way to post links and thoughts about sports for my friends to see, but the readership slowly grew and many of you come back day after day. It's been a pleasure and I look forward to more great things as we celebrate the one year anniversary of "No, You're a Towel" in January and continue to provide great sports coverage.

9. The Giants 2000 playoff run. It was unexpected but a lot of fun. Behind Ron Dayne and Tiki Barber's "Thunder and Lightning" the Giants finsihed 12-4 in the regular season. After a first-round bye, they beat the Eagles in a dramatic game featuring an amazing Jason Sehorn interception and in the NFC Championship Game they walloped the heavily favored Minnesota Vikings 41-0. They would lose badly in the Super Bowl that year (in a game my dad still swears Kerry Collins threw because of gambling issues), but the run was so much fun it makes the list.

8. The Rangers return to glory following the lockout. My New York Rangers were an awful team to watch for a few years. They got every star in the world but couldn't make the playoffs. Then came the lockout and with it, a very, very important salary cap. Now that the Rangers couldn't spend ridiculous amounts of money, they needed to be savvy. And although they're yet to get to the Finals, they've been in the playoffs every year since the lockout, mostly due to their goaltender, "King" Henrik Lundqvist.

7. The 2000 Yankees World Series. The season had a lot of memories from Glenallen Hill's amazing month to Jose Canseco joining the team to their almost-September collapse. But I'll remember the ALCS and World Series. The ALCS was great with David Justice leading the way including a home run off Arthur Rhodes and Michael Kay's hoarse radio call to "get your tokens ready" for the Subway Series. And then beating the crosstown Mets, whose fans thought there was no way they could be beaten by the Yankees, was great too. Luis Sojo and Jose Vizcaino had huge hits, David Cone came out of the bullpen to retire Mike Piazza, and the Todd Zeile ball hitting the top of the wall at Yankee Stadium was a huge play as the Yankees took home their 4th World Series in 5 years.

6. Broadcasting NCAA Basketball Tournament games and everything else having to do with college radio. When I went to college, I had no clue that Brandeis University had a radio station and it wasn't until my second semester that I realized that WBRS, the radio station, had a sports department. I got involved my sophomore year doing stats for basketball and baseball games and appearing as a regular on the Thursday night Double Overtime sports talk show. I slowly worked my way up in the department until I was announcing games, hosting Doubt OT, and finally became the Sports Director of the radio station my senior year. But the greatest thrill of all from the radio station had to be during my senior year when I got to broadcast Brandeis basketball's first ever NCAA tournament game. Sure it was DIII and sure it was women's hoops, but I didn't care. The team was exciting, they games were thrilling, and although they lose in the second round, I think all of us who were there that day (including Ben and Jay) will always remember that as our favorite and best broadcast. Every once in a while I turn on the MP3 of that broadcast and think about the awesome opportunity that was.

5. The three home games in the 2001 World Series. The Jeter flip play was from the ALDS and the ALCS featured them beating a Mariners team that had just set the record for regular season wins, but the World Series is what I will always remember. HBO did an unbelievable documentary called Nine Innings From Ground Zero which I would highly recommend watching. But for those who truly remember it, this was an amazing time. We were all scared shitless by the September 11th attacks and weren't sure what was coming next. The World Series was on the world's biggest stage and those three nights I will never forget. George W. Bush throwing out a perfect strike and Roger Clemens pitching an amazing game in Game 3. In Game 4, the Yankees were down 3-1 and down to their last out when Tino Martinez stepped to the plate with a man on base. Tino had been 0-9 in the series so far but he did something no one had done before and blasted a home run in that spot to tie the game at 3. In the bottom of the 10th, Derek Jeter, who was 1-15 in the series at that point had an 0-2 count but battled back to 3-2 and then hit one into the November night to send the Yankees home victorious. The next night, Scott Brosius came up with two outs, one on and a 2-0 deficit and did the exact same thing. Alfonso Soriano finished off that game as a tattered flag from The World Trade Center hung in the background. I will never forget those two nights.

4. The All-Star Game, the last game at Old Yankee Stadium and the first game at New Yankee Stadium. I was at all those and will always remember it. The All-Star game and Old Yankee Stadium finale were tickets that were found right before gametime in memorable stories that have been recounted on this blog. Ben and I were at all three (and I took my dad to the second game at the new place and returned the favor for all those sports first he gave me) and I will remember each one for different reasons. The tickets from the All-Star game and the last game at Yankee Stadium are hanging framed in my room (thank you, Sarah) as we said good-bye to the old place and welcomed in the new stadium. I will miss that feeling you got from walking out of the tunnel in the Old Stadium but the New Stadium provided many great memories this year and hopefully will for many years to come.

3. 2009 Yankees World Series run. It had been only 9 years, but it felt like way too long. We've covered it all on this blog, but from the regular season through the playoffs, from pies and belts to double steals and playoff magic, this team was special. I was at two games this playoffs: Game 2 of the ALDS with A-Rod's tying HR and Teixeira's walkoff and Game 1 of the ALCS with Sabathia pitching a gem to the chants of "CC" from the crowd. It was the perfect way to break in the new stadium and the perfect way to bookend the decade. It was especially perfect having Andy start and Mariano relieve and wrap it up at home.

2. The Giants 2007 playoff run. Most never thought they'd beat Tampa Bay in the Wild Card round but then they went into Tampa and did just that. Then many thought they'd lose to the Cowboys in Dallas but they went in there and beat them too. But the Giants were going to have to go through Brett Favre and Green Bay in a frozen Lambeau Field. There's no way they could do that...right? Well sitting in a sports bar in Atlantic City I was hopeful. Then Lawrence Tynes missed a field goal to win it in regulation...and then the Packers got the ball to start OT. A great pick led to a tough decision. Go for it or kick? Well the Giants decided to kick and I watched through the holes in my jersey as Tynes somehow made the kick of his life, sent the Giants to the Super Bowl and sent the bar into a frenzy which involved me losing my phone (then finding the phone but not the battery, before finding the battery on the sink in the bathroom--somehow). The Super Bowl was just as unlikely, going against the 16-0 Patriots, a team that had beat the Giants in Giants Stadium a few weeks back. Then Manning threw the helmet pass, just missed the outstretched arms of Asante Samuel and then found Plaxico Burress in the endzone to complete an improbable win. I watch the Super Bowl video and still wonder how the hell they pulled it off. This was a true underdog win and I think that's what made it even more memorable.

1. The Aaron Boone homerun. As a Yankee fan, I should have thought twice about going to school in the Boston area. The Red Sox-Yankees rivalry is one of the fiercest in sports and I was placing myself on the wrong side of the Connecticut border. I was a sophomore in the fall of 2003 and unaware that my Yankees could ever be beaten by the Red Sox. So on a Thursday night in October of 2003, and I headed over to a friends dorm suite to watch Game 7 of the ALCS with some Red Sox fans and some Yankee fans. A quick lead for the Red Sox left me bummed and I headed back to my dorm to watch the rest with Jay. We slowly watched as they scratched back from the deficit and jumped in the air as Jorge Posada tied the game. But we had a radio show that night in the campus center at midnight and it was getting very close to that time. So we sprinted (and I mean sprinted) to the campus center where they were showing the game on a projected screen. We had Ben, who was there already, put music on the radio as we waited for the game to end. Jay and I were standing on the second floor of the campus center when Aaron Boone stepped to the plate against Tim Wakefield. I said to Jay: "He needs to crush one here." And, sure enough, he did so. His high majestic shot went into the night and Jay and I tackled each other (with Ben looking on trying to figure out what happened). It was a night of jubilation and one of the most fun radio shows we had with callers who were at the game or watching from different locales calling to tell us about their experience. I know it may be high for a list like this, but when you go to school in Boston and had the lowest point in sports happen exactly a year later, this one stands out as the most memorable. I will always remember that night and Aaron fucking Boone.


Thanks to all of you who have been on the blog throughout the year. On behalf of Ari, Ben, Jay, Sarah and myself, I want to wish you all a Happy New Year and hope to see you on NYaT many times in 2010 as we look forward to new and exciting things.