Last week, we had another “Question of the Week” from Mike Chamernik, and he’s back today with his latest QOTW.
Enjoy!
by Mike Chamernik
Rory McIlroy won The Masters on Sunday. It wasn’t easy — and that’s what made the finish so perfect.
After winning four majors as a young phenom, McIlroy endured a rough 11-year drought. He racked up tournament wins and trophies, but couldn’t win another major, especially The Masters, which would complete a legendary career grand slam.
McIlroy took a big lead into the final round at Augusta on Sunday. He had a wild day where he blew his lead, got it back, blew it again, got it back, and, with a chance to win, missed a five-foot putt. But, in the playoff against Justin Rose, McIlroy regrouped and hit an excellent second shot to set up a four-footer that he sank for the green jacket. When it was finally over, McIlroy became completely overwhelmed by all the emotions that had led up to that moment.
That’s what’s great about sports. It’s not just about watching incredible athleticism and skill. It’s also facing a challenge and winning in dramatic fashion.
What athlete or team had the most storybook win, championship, accomplishment or career? What made it so remarkable or unbelievable? Which of your favorite teams or athletes had the best story, and why is it meaningful to you?
How about you guys? Fire away!
Storybook win: Buster Douglas KOing Mike Tyson
Storybook championship: 2004 Red Sox (with 2016 Cubs a close second), complete with the first comeback from a 3-0 deficit in the ALCS
Storybook accomplishment: Kerry Wood’s 20 K game
Storybook career: Steph Curry-I remember him in the NCAA tournament for Davidson and was transfixed by how skilled he was.
Buster Douglas is great. Still get goosebumps when I watch him knock out Tyson
Rocky Bleier was drafted in the 16th Round (!!!) by the Steelers in 1968, then was drafted by the Army and sent to Vietnam where his foot was nearly blown off by a grenade. Initially told he may not be able to walk again, let alone run, he managed to rehab himself over years into a roster spot and won 4 Super Bowls with the Steelers, running for over 1,000 yards in 1976. I think his is an incredible story of persistence and relentlessness, and his book, “Fighting Back,” is worth checking out!
His story was also turned into a one man play that he performed and was outstanding.
Legend
To me, the most storybook championship has to be Leicester City winning the Premier League in 2015-16. In a time when the biggest, richest clubs had a stranglehold (they still do) on English soccer’s top division, Leicester were more than underdogs. They barely avoided relegation the season before, and entered the 2015-16 season with 5000/1 odds of winning the title. In a league that decides its champion over a 38 game season, as opposed to playoffs where you only need to get hot at the right time (in the NFL you just have to finish top 7 in your conference and then win up to 4 games), this feat is even more shocking. They also did it without spending absurd amounts of money to bring in star players.
The most meaningful to me (as a New Englander) are the 2004 and 2013 Boston Red Sox World Series winning teams. 2004 broke the curse, winning the Series for the first time in 86 years, and had the most incredible comeback, winning the ALCS after going down 0-3. The icing on the cake was that it was against the rival Yankees.
2013 was the year of the Boston marathon bombing, and the Red Sox were a team that the whole region could rally around. David Ortiz’s famous “Our F*** City” speech is a source of civic pride to this day.
I second this.
I still can’t comprehend how Leicester City did it. Soccer doesn’t have upsets and cinderellas like that
I can’t figure it out either, but I’m so glad it happened. That’s even more unlikely than an 8-seed winning the NBA title, and yet they did it.
My personal storybook team is Villanova winning the 1985 NCAA championship, and my storybook player is Tom Dempsey with his 63-yard field goal. He not only set a new record, he did it with half a foot, below sea level (no Mile High assistance for him), and on the final play to win the game.
I’m slow to answer this, but being Leicester born and a die hard Leicester City fan, it was quite extraordinary. And I still get people coming up to me in the street when I wear a shirt asking about it!
Best moment was sitting in UD Arena (UD ’82) watching St. Joe’s beat Depaul on a buzzer beater in the 1981 NCAA,’s
Championship, seeing the White Sox win the World Series
Ivory Coast qualifying for 2006 world cup. Halted a civil war.
Tom Brady comes back from the DeflateGate suspension, tears it up all season, engineers (with help from his defense) the greatest comeback ever, and accepts the Lombardi Trophy from the commissioner who had to bend the knee. Plus we then had two snow days in a row!
Four years later, with the world in the midst of great confusion and after one of the craziest seasons ever, Brady beats Brees, Rodgers, and Mahomes in the playoffs to get his sixth championship!
Cleveland fans don’t have a lot of these, but the Cavs coming from 3-1 down to beat the Warriors in the 2016 NBA finals was an all-time great.
And now we wait for Mike’s follow-up question, “What were the worst gut-punch, crotch-kick losses your team has suffered?” We got lotsa those!
Worst losses will be a QOTW for a rainy day. That will be a big time cathartic, trauma dumping post
OMG, please don’t make me remember the last game on Veterans Stadium.
Twins 1991 World Series win was iconic, behind two great team leaders: Kirby Puckett’s HR in Game 6 and Jack Morris’s 10-inning complete game win in Game 7!
Answering Marty’s question about gutwrenching losses, Cleveland’s 2016 collapse against the Cubs is high atop my list, given how close they came to the first WS title in my lifetime (and then some!)
2016 Cubs World Series for me (sorry Cleveland fans). The Cubs came back from down 3 games to 1 to push it to game 7. Not only that, but winning it in extras in a back-and-forth game for the ages.
Pardon the whining self-pity, but yeah, that’s one of those I referred to. Cleveland has been in only six World Series in 123 years. In the last two, we lost Game 7 in extra innings.
Now I’m all depressed.
The worst part of that whole thing for me is that if not for the late rain delay, I believe the Tribe wins. For some reason, even Mother Nature didn’t want Cleveland to finally prevail.
2019 Washington Nationals
won all road World Series games
Came back from 19-31 start after losing former #1 overall pick
Strasburg domination for entire postseason after 7 years of “shutdown debate”
Overcame having Davey Martinez as manager and the Astros cheating.
That’s a good one. (I’m a Brewers fan and STILL upset about the WC game). It was also the year after Harper left, and Bryce kinda stuck it to the Nats a bit after leaving for Philly.
The last baseball game I watched from beginning to end was the Nats’ game seven Series victory.
It’s hard to top that one, but I keep trying…
My wife and I went to see Game 7 on the scoreboard at Nats Stadium that night, probably the only way I could ever afford to go to a World Series game. Even my wife, who’s not a baseball fan, enjoyed watching the game. This coming soon after the Caps finally (FINALLY!) won the Cup in 2018.
2019 Washington Nationals
won all road World Series games
Came back from 19-31 start after losing former #1 overall pick
Strasburg domination for entire postseason after 7 years of “shutdown debate”
Overcame having Davey Martinez as manager and the Astros cheating.
1980 Olympic hockey team.
Full stop.
Excellent choice!
Dave Dravecky’s return to the mound after a cancer diagnosis the year before. The tragic end of his career the following week doesn’t diminish his inspirational comeback.
As a die-hard New York fan more often than not, my Yankees are Goliath, not David. I’ll begrudgingly concede that the 2001 D-Backs and 2004 Red Sox are some of the greatest underdog/storybook moments in baseball history, but I’ll never watch those highlights if I can help it.
However, I think that the 2007 Giants are as storybook as it gets. Not just beating what would have been the greatest team of all-time, bar none, but the road there was remarkable. Nobody had the Giants beating the Cowboys in Dallas, then they follow that up with an overtime thriller in Lambeau, in one of the coldest games in history. Then they travel to Arizona for the Super Bowl and the rest is history…
Two come to mind: Virginia men’s basketball’s 2019 national championship, which I’m sure is a story a lot of you are familiar with.
The other is Aberdeen winning the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in 1983. They beat Real Madrid in the final (link) after extra time, which is still the last time Real have lost a men’s European final. They also beat a Bayern Munich team with a bunch of famous names (Klaus Augenthaler, Paul Breitner, Uli Hoeneß, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, etc.) in the quarterfinals.
The fanbase still marks May 11 as “Gothenburg Day” after the location of the final and the team from the final is collectively referred to as the “Gothenburg Greats.” Even for what was a pretty good team in Europe at the time with a pretty good manager (Sir Alex Ferguson), that’s still considered a ridiculous achievement that absolutely could not happen today.
UVA was huge. Similar deal with the Lightning in hockey, winning a title after a historic upset the year before
I have two in different sports which are related:
UVA winning it all in basketball in 2019 after their historic loss as a 1-seed to 16-seed UMBC in 2018
and…
The Tampa Bay Lightning winning the Stanley Cup in 2020 after winning the President’s Cup (best regular season record) in 2019 but getting swept in the first round by the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Lightning coach Jon Cooper cited UVA basketball as an inspiration and wore a UVA hat in his first press conference. It also made a basketball fan out of Nikita Kucherov!
I grew up watching Syracuse basketball go down in flames in the NCAA tournament year after year–the 1996 team making the championship game was a really big deal for me as an 11 year old and I remember not really even being that sad that they lost to Kentucky in the final. But other than that run, Syracuse seemed like a perennial Sweet Sixteen team. Flash forward to the Carmelo Anthony, Gerry MacNamara, and Hakim Warrick team in 2002-03 making a dominant run to the championship game, opening a big lead in the first half, and BARELY hanging on to win it all. I was watching with a big group at a friends house–he had a drum set and guitars in his basement, and after the final buzzer he got so excited he smashed a cymbal with one of the guitars so hard it snapped the cymbal clean off the metal stand it was attached to.
MJ in 98 was the childhood bball sports dream come to life, even if he did return to the wizards later on. just a beautiful sequence to end that game 6
MJ’s entire career was storybook (it kinda inspired my question).
Cut from his HS team (yeah yeah I know the full story). Wins title at UNC, hits game winner. Goes to the Bulls, becomes a supernova, but can’t get over the hump. Improves his defense and team play, finally beats his longstanding foes (Detroit) and then pretty much never loses again, except for the baseball year.
Most memorable Master’s win:
link
Tiger Woods: “It was totally quiet except my father, who kept saying, ‘Ka-Ching, Ka-Ching’ just like a cash register”
Dan Jansen winning the gold medal for speedskating in Lillehammer 1994.
Another Winter Olympics memory for me–Jessie Diggins anchoring the US cross country ski team to a relay gold medal in 2018. My wife still watches the race from time to time to get hyped up.
For me, nothing will ever top the 1980 US Olympic Hockey team
Cagliari winning Serie A in 1970. It was hugely important in terms of social impact on the Island and the biggest underdog title win in Serie A history.
link
Giannis Antetokounmpo starting out as a street vendor in Athens, making it to the NBA, bringing his whole family out of poverty, and earning lots of NBA hardware.
Awesome answer.
Good answers, everyone!
OK, I will pick an less traveled road to an unlikely winner.
Al Unser Sr. win of the 1987 Indianapolis 500.
Start off with, the came to Indianapolis without a ride in hand, and need something (in this case, a Danny Ongais concussion) to open up a seat. Then that seat turned out to be in a 1986 March chassis that was in a Penske showroom in Nazareth, PA. And even weirds, Since Penske didn’t have anymore Chevy engines his team was running, Unser’s car has a Cosworth thrown in.
So, with that all against him, Unser managed to get to lap 177, in 3rd place, 2 laps down Mario Andretti, the leader, and a lap behind second place Roberto Guerrero. This is when reality to a back page to a Hollywood ending that no one would believe.
Andretti’s car would start to have problems, and began to slow down completely, giving Guerrero the lead. However, Unser’s earlier pit stop meant he could finish the race going flat out, while Roberto Guerrero’s would need one more stop for fuel.
On Guerrero’s stop, he would stall the car as he was pushed out of his pit stall, with Al Unser getting himself back on the lead lap, still in second place. After what seemed like forever, Guerrero’s pit crew realized they needed to get his car, and drag it back to restart the car (FYI, Indy cars have an external ignition). While this is happening, Unser flies by to take the lead. Eventually, they get Roberto Guerrero’s car up and running, and starting back to racing, just as Al Unser has now put him a lap down.
Al Unser, figuring it is a safe strategy due to the how few laps are left and no need to get into a fight, lets Roberto Guerrero pass him, putting him back on the lead lap. That is when Mario Andretti, who has been trying to nurse and fix his broken machine, see it finally give out with 8 laps to go. This not allows Guerrero to drive all the way around the track, and line up last in a line of seven other running cars. With four laps to go, the race restarted, but Al Unser held on to win his 4th Indy 500, at age 47.
That would be Al Unser Sr. last win in an Indy Car.
One other sidenote, Danny Ongais’ career is an amazing story all of it own.
I grew up a huge Marino fan, and he and Elway were always in the “best ever to not win a championship” list, so I was incredibly envious that Elway was able to get the story book finish and ride off into the sunset with consecutive championship seasons. I was sure it was Marino’s turn his last year once Elway retired, but it wasn’t meant to be.
But I’d have to agree with the early comment that practically Jordan’s entire career was storybook. What is most amazing about him was that I don’t think fans of rival teams ever hated him, questioned his greatest, or any of that. He was so great, and had such a competitive drive that he was nearly universally loved. I cannot bring my eyes to watch what the NBA is today, but in the 90s I was hooked, the eastern conference playoff especially were must see. I loved the 90s Knicks with Ewing, Starks, and Oakley, was dying for them to win the big one, and it didn’t matter how often they fell to Jordan’s Bulls, I never disliked Jordan, it was amazing to watch his excellence and a career that was obviously legendary even before it was over.
I will always remember West Virginia’s loss to eventual champion Duke in the 2010 Final Four not because of the score, but Coach Huggins’ reaction and genuine concern and heartache for the injured Da’Sean Butler. Chills!!
The Golden Bear’s 1986 Masters victory still resonates with me as well.
As a relatively young(er) Steelers fan, Bettis coming back for one more year and winning the Super Bowl in his hometown was pretty great.
1986 NFC Championship, Giants Crush 49ers, Montana knocked out of game by LT, they showed video of Montana being loaded onto an ambulance with sunglasses on…
The World Series later that year being rained out on Sunday for game 7 after the comeback game 6 by the Mets… NBC aired The Natural instead and the Mets won game 7 the next night after Oil Can Boyd was scratched by John McNamara…
Dale at Daytona 98…
As a Denver Broncos fan, their victory in Super Bowl XXXII in January 1998 will always be the storybook championship that resonates the most with me. Previously 0-4 in Super Bowls and having lost in a shocking upset to Jacksonville in the playoffs the year before, not much was expected of the Broncos, whom oddsmakers had installed as a double-digit underdog.
By winning that Super Bowl against the heavily favored Packers, the Broncos: (1) snapped the AFC’s 13-game losing streak to the NFC in the Super Bowl, helping to reintroduce parity between the conferences (2) forever changed the franchise’s and John Elway’s reputations for not being able to win on the biggest stage, (3) brought a championship to a city, region, and fanbase that had long been overlooked as a serious major league market by the national media, and (4) paved the way for several Broncos (many of whom played on that team) to eventually be inducted into Canton after having spent the first 44 years of their existence without a single Hall of Famer.
For a storybook career, the Denver Broncos fan in me says Terrell Davis, who went from an afterthought who barely made the roster as a sixth-round draft pick to becoming one of the most decorated running backs in NFL history and a two-time Super Bowl champion in the span of his injury-shortened career. The inner kid in me who grew up for several years in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, says Kurt Warner, who went from stocking groceries to scratching and clawing for a pro career in the Arena League to an eventual Super Bowl champion and two-time league MVP. It’s the stuff movies are made of – literally (link)!
The one image that will always be burned in my brain as the perfect example of this concept is Dikembe Mutombo crying on the floor with the ball after the 8-seed Nuggets upset the 1-seed Sonics, even though I was neither a Nuggets nor Sonics fan.
US Hockey “Miracle on Ice” and the 2004 Red Sox four straight in the ALCS and then sweeping the Cardinals
Jose Bautista hammers go-ahead three-run shot in ALDS Game 5.
Legendary, because the city lost faith in the Blue Jays and this bat flip heard around the world finally woke up Blue Jays fans.
Eagles winning Super Bowl LII.
I still can’t believe it.
2003 Florida Marlins
– 15.5 GB on July 20
– Game #98 with 64 games.
– – With 9 weeks left in the season.
– Defeated the Giants.
– Defeated the Cubs with being down in both game 6 & 7.
– – Kerry Wood 6 Ks, 2-2, HR, 2 RBIs in Game 7.
– Defeated the Yankees in 6 games.
– – Josh Beckett 19 Ks in 2 games.
– – Roger Clemens 5 Ks over 7 innings.
I’d say that was a pretty good comeback to win it all.
Adding to Phil’s 1973 Mets:
The 1973 Reds were 11 GB on June 30th to end up winning 99 games and the NL West and loosing to Phil’s Mets. Pete Rose hit a HR off Tom Seaver in Game 1.
Thank you Hal King.
Game 163
San Diego Padres vs Colorado Rockies 2007
As a Rockies fan, watching them almost give the game away was driving me crazy
Was ranting and raving in my living room; my wife who was trying to sleep, yells at me to “have faith” . . . and we all know how that one ended!
Back in the early 1990’s game 7 of the NLCS, bottom of the 9th with 2 out. The Braves trailed the Pirates by a run. Down to their last strike with little used backup catcher Francisco Cabrera at the plate. Many Braves fans didn’t even know who he was. Cabrera singled to left, plating Dave Justice with the tying run. But slow as a turtle Sid Bream was the runner at second. Bream rounded third and slid in under the tag by Pirates catcher Mike Lavalliere. No team had ever gone from losing to winning in the 9th inning of a game 7 before.
First, I really enjoy the wide range of memories that everyone has each week.
My list begins with USA 4, USSR 3. Wow, 45 years later it still chokes me up, and Jim Craig’s personal and on-ice heroics personified everything that made those two weeks so special.
Several have mentioned Jack Nicklaus and his incredible final-round run in the 1986 Masters, accompanied by Verne Lundquist’s, “Yes, SIR!” Jack felt like he should be knighted with that sixth win at Augusta.
My sports writing career was still in the stringer stage when in November 1986 I got to witness Barry Sanders’ incredible rushing abilities rewarded a month later with the Heisman. The following spring, I was covering a benefit basketball game played by the Bedlam gridders. Barry, about a week before the NFL Draft, was definitely the drawing card, and he didn’t disappoint. And after he made a steal just inside midcourt, he drove uncontested to the other goal – and dunked it, cleanly! Everyone watching was breathless, and we all knew that the best of Barry Sanders was on its way to Detroit – and eventually to Canton.
Quickly, two more, both during the 1989 U.S. Olympic Festival in Oklahoma City and on consecutive Sunday afternoons. In figure skating, a budding Kristi Yamaguchi entered competition as a favorite in both singles and pairs, and she won in b9oth divisions. Three years later, she was the Olympic ladies’ gold medalist. On the closing Sunday, a young local favorite named Shannon Miller emerged as the next rising star in gymnastics. She placed in third, but the seeds were planted and she grew into a seven-time Olympic medalist with two silvers in 1992 and two golds in 1996 Games in Atlanta.