Top 10: Honorable Mentions
Sports (if we allow it) has this amazing capability to augment some very strong and deep emotions within us. Sure, these moments can be few and far between, but we watch on the off chance that maybe, just this once, something spectacular will happen. This is especially, and particularly, true when one of our teams is involved in the moment. These moments can encompass anything and everything from a player making a spectacular play, to a team stringing together a furious rally, to a series being brought to an awe-inspiring and authoritative end.
With that in mind, the following posts (following my heartbreaking Bottom 10 series) will focus on the top 10 moments that I have experienced as a sports fan. Today, I will highlight two moments that, while they did not make it, I feel deserve acknowledgement for the sheer level of awesomeness that they exhibited. Tune in tomorrow for 6-10, but for now enjoy this mini-preview of things to come.
Kerry Wood’s 20 K game
(May 6th, 1998, Chicago Cubs vs. Houston Astros, Wrigley Field)
Quite frankly, the only reason this isn’t in the top 10 is because I am not 100% certain that I saw this game live on WGN. 1998 was, of course, the year that Sosa and McGwire duked it out for the home run record. But there was another reason for the North Siders to be excited, and that reason was Kid K. Despite being only a rookie, Wood was already being highly touted, garnering comparisons to the great Nolan Ryan before he set a National League record for most strike outs in one game. Even though it was May and even though it was Chicago, the Houston Astros were in for the storm of the year. Wood pitched a complete game shutout, giving up only one hit and making the Astros (which, as hard as it may be for us to believe at this point, actually had a pretty good offense in those days, buoyed by Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Moises Alou and Derek Bell) look completely overmatched in every at-bat. The look on the face of each Astros’ player after a K is priceless; they are completely dumbfounded by what is happening to them. For just one sunny day in May, the Cubs got a look at what the future held in store, a future that seemed brighter than the sun in the sky.
http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=16234033
Bell vs. Kobe
(Game 5, 2006 Western Conference Semifinals, Phoenix Suns vs. Los Angeles Lakers)
Yeah, yeah, I know what you’re thinking. “But Raythar, how could you possibly have this listed as a top moment when Horry attacking Nash is a bottom one?” Well, if you find yourself asking that question, then you are probably a Lakers fan. But in the event that you are not, here are the cliff notes: Horry had no fucking grounds for doing that to Nash while Bell and Kobe had been going at it all series. Besides, we all know that Kobe has his goons (read: Vujajic and the human rectangle known as Kwame Brown) do the dirty work for him because he’s too much of a pansy to go toe to toe with someone. In any event, the Suns were staring the very real possibility of a 5 game elimination in the face, and responded by taking the series back to LA for a Game 6. Bell, clearly fed up with Kobe’s shit decided to take it to him MMA style and promptly got himself ejected and suspended. And yet, the moment is oh-so-glorious because we saw Kobe try to shrug something off like it was no big deal (even though he later acted up yet again and got himself similarly ejected) even though he had just been tossed like a rag doll to the ground on national TV. I love the Suns and I hate Kobe. Need more be said?
