Greatest Game Ever

[NC_Uconn_Fan]

My top 3
99 UCONN over Duke
91 SB 25, Giants over Bills
08 SB 42, Giants over Pats

 

[TRUCONN76]

The NCAA national championships are without doubt great games, but before them was one of the greatest games I ever attended which was the quarter finals of the 1988 NIT tournament played at the Field House in Storrs, the last big game ever played there. I believe the capacity was 4800 and 6200 fans were somehow squeezed in. The noise level was something I had never experienced before or after that game. It was impossible to hear what the person next to you was saying. UCONN was 4 and 12 in the Big East and 14 and 13 overall that year and probably the last selection for the NIT. Behind the energy of the crowd that night which literally shook the dust off the rafters of the field house creating an eerie mist like atmosphere inside, Cliff Robinson played perhaps the best game of his UCONN career leading the huskies to a win over Virginia Commonwealth.

Uconn of course went on to win the NIT that year with Phil Gamble having his greatest game in the final with the iconic photo of him and Jeff King sitting on the backboard at MSG .

 

[CL82]

1978 Stanley Cup Playoffs game 4. Boston is down 2 games to 1 and needed to win at home to stay in it.

End of the 1st 1-1,
End of the 2nd Habs up 2-1
In a wild third Guy Lafleur scores early to put the Bruins down 3-1. Bruins come back to score two to force OT. Bruins win in OT and tie the series. Boston was crazy afterward. People in the streets yelling. You'd think they won it all. Ultimately, the Habs won the championship but it was a great game.

 

[mussels]

Maybe not greatest game ever but still deserves mention -1996 Big East Final. #3 UConn led by Ray Allen vs #6 Hoya's led by Allen Iverson. Garden had a heavyweight fight electric atmosphere before the game even started.

Hoyas up 46-42 at the half, and extended it to 74-63 with 4:46 left. Husky's scored the final 12 points in the game culminating in Ray Allen's game winner with 13.6 left. UConn wins 75-74 . Garden was going wild all game and it was deafening that last UConn Run.

 

[businesslawyer]

No love for the Redsox come from behind wins versus Yankees (ie the evil empire) in 2004? Maybe game 4, 5 or 6?

Whether you're a Yankees fan or a Red Sox fan, the best and most dramatic game they ever played was the Bucky Dent game. Because of how great those two teams were that year and the story behind the Yankee comeback in the regular season. But objectively there were better and more dramatic baseball games. Bobby Thomson's home run. Bill Mazeroski's home run. Kirk Gibson's home run.

I don't know how you compare the best game in different sports.

 

[alphasigko]

Boxing’s not a game but the Thriller in Manila is right up there. If they hadn’t stopped it both Ali and Smokin Joe would’ve died in that ring. And if it was a 20 round fight, that’s just what would’ve happened. Brutal.

Reading "Ghosts of Manilla" right now... Great read!

 

[storrsroars]

I'm going to go with Mets vs Astros, game 6, 1986. Mets knew they had to win because they weren't beating Mike Scott in game 7. Astros scored 3 in 1st inning and it stayed 3-0 until Mets tied in top of 9th. Mets scored in 14th inning, Astros tied it. Mets scored 3 in 16th inning, Astros scored 2 with winning run on base when Orosco got the final K.

I think that was actually a more exciting - and exhausting - game than game 6 in the WS vs Sox.

I'll also note that the entire 1986 baseball postseason was the most fantastic of any in history.

 

[NEforceUConn]

Whether you're a Yankees fan or a Red Sox fan, the best and most dramatic game they ever played was the Bucky Dent game. Because of how great those two teams were that year and the story behind the Yankee comeback in the regular season. But objectively there were better and more dramatic baseball games. Bobby Thomson's home run. Bill Mazeroski's home run. Kirk Gibson's home run.

I don't know how you compare the best game in different sports.

You must be a Yankee fan. Red Sox down by a run (series 3-0 Yankees) with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th and they come back against the greatest reliever of all time?

 

[businesslawyer]

You must be a Yankee fan. Red Sox down by a run (series 3-0 Yankees) with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th and they come back against the greatest reliever of all time?

I admit to being a Yankees fan. But the Red Sox won that game and were down 3-1 with no reasonable chance of coming back. I don't think that compares to a single elimination playoff.

 

[Scoe]

You must be a Yankee fan. Red Sox down by a run (series 3-0 Yankees) with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th and they come back against the greatest reliever of all time?

Bitter Yankee fan here, dont care to ever watch that game lol, but no doubt a classic game with a bit of devine intervention, the Tony Clark double that wouldve scored Ruben Sierra had it not been a ground rule double. There were a ton of classic games that year, another was the Jeter dive into the stands game essentially ending the Nomar era in Boston.

 

[nomar]

Rangers-Devils ‘94 Game 7 ECF was a dandy

 

[August_West]

Rangers-Devils ‘94 Game 7 ECF was a dandy

Was there. Incredible

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Most entertaining games is different from greatest, greatest includes materiality along with a compelling and thrilling game experience.

Miracle on Ice win

Game 6 of the 1975 World Series

NC State over Houston, 1983 final

Patriots comeback over Falcons, 2017 Superbowl. The 2001 win over the Rams and the game saving interception against Seahawks, also great.

That's a very nice list.

 

[Zissou]

Narrowing to just college hoops:
1. 1985 Nova Georgetown
2. 1983 NC State Houston
3. 2016 Nova UNC

 

[HuskyHawk]

I admit to being a Yankees fan. But the Red Sox won that game and were down 3-1 with no reasonable chance of coming back. I don't think that compares to a single elimination playoff.

I erased the Bucky Dent HR game from my memory. But those two 1978 teams were juggernauts and probably did a lot to prompt expansion of the playoffs. Shame they couldn’t play a 7 game World Series.

Fisk waving the ball fair still stands out to me at the top, but you are right that Gibson’s more or less one handed homer was epic. Baseball has provided a lot of great moments. The lack of a time limit leads to lots of late drama

 

[2PointGuards]

Game 7 of the 1960 World Series. Pirates beat Yankees on a Mazeroski walk off. Final score is 10-9; no one strikes out in the whole game.

 

[uconnbill]

1. Giants 1986 Super Bowl ....Many years of terrible teams and play came to an end with LT, Simms, and the rest of the team.
2. UConn 1999 National Championship beating the evil Duke who had kick UConn out a decade earlier in the Final 8. This was payback.
3. Boston Bruins Bobby Orr scoring the winning goal, in OT to win the Stanley Cup.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Is oko

I erased the Bucky Dent HR game from my memory. But those two 1978 teams were juggernauts and probably did a lot to prompt expansion of the playoffs. Shame they couldn’t play a 7 game World Series.

Fisk waving the ball fair still stands out to me at the top, but you are right that Gibson’s more or less one handed homer was epic. Baseball has provided a lot of great moments. The lack of a time limit leads to lots of late drama

Watched the Bucky Dent home run from the right field bleachers, and it was obvious it was gone at the point of contact. A few years ago, I digitized a slide carousel and noted a single photo from those seats at that game, a few innings earlier.

In 1975, I got right field bleacher seats via ticket lottery for Games 1 & 2. In the 6th or 7th inni g of game 2,my college roommate came and got me to follow him to prime seats 8 rows back from home plate. His brother-in-law was Monte Irving's assistant in Bowie Kuhn's Office of the MLB Commissioner.

The Sox were on their way to a 2-0 lead when manager Darrell Johnson pulled Bill Lee for Dick Drago in the 9th inning. Lee's disappoibted objections were overruled. I screamed. I groaned. My heart sank. The prior season, I'd lived in Boston, saw half the home games from the bleachers, and went back to college with the Sox in first place by 7 games;they did not play in the post season.

When Lee came out, I knew the Sox would lose the Series. Fisk's home run, thrilling as it was, represented a miraculous temporary digging out of a hole they shouldn't have ever been in. The following season I found myself rooting for the Reds over the Yankees, and watched Games 1&2 at Riverfront Stadium, courtesy of roomie's BiL. I most remember terrific ice sculptures surrounded by unlimited shrimp at elaborate buffets in the parking garage, walking over a Roebling-designed bridge to our cylindrical hotel in Covington, KY, and Bowie Kuhn famously wearing a sweater as he waved off criticism of a night game scheduled for play in chilly autumn air.

My 1986 story is even more wrenching because I'd spent the entire season rooting for the Mets while I lived in Suffolk County Long Island and my local cable company stopped carrying WSBK that year. After the epic win against the Astros (mentioned elsewhere in this thread), I went back to CT and told my father I was a Mets fan this time around. He gave me a skeptical, arched-eyebrow look that instantly consigned me to cheering for Boston, agonizing over Buckner's error, and having utter certainty in a Game 7 loss, irrespective of an early lead that had all of my co-workers and townspeople anxious that the Mets would lose.

I think it was after a later post-season meltdown by Calvin Schiraldi that I was so beaten down that I functionally stopped watching baseball except for tbe post-season, which usually didn't have Red Sox.

As my lack of interest solidified, I was too fearful after the Yankees were up 3-0 to watch the 2004 comeback, except for the extra innings and the late rallies. By then, the World Series sweep was pure anti-climax that robbed me of the joy I wished for since the mid-1960s when I go my first clock radio with a sleep timer.

Nearly a decade later, a friend gave me a deeply discounted DVD of the 2004 season, and I got to see a professionally produced accounting of what I'd missed. Loss aversion killed my fandom, and baseball is now simply a beautiful game that I watch starting in October, mostly to see great defense and whether there's an exciting and dramatic matchup.

I'm too tired to edit this. My hope is that the typos and autocorrect are amusing.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

1. Giants 1986 Super Bowl ....Many years of terrible teams and play came to an end with LT, Simms, and the rest of the team.
2. UConn 1999 National Championship beating the evil Duke who had kick UConn out a decade earlier in the Final 8. This was payback.
3. Boston Bruins Bobby Orr scoring the winning goal, in OT to win the Stanley Cup.

I've rolled my eyes and been critical of many posts by you. Not here. Thank you.

 

[Travelman6]

The only correct response is 77-74.

 

[Viet Vet]

"Harvard Beats Yale 29-29"

 

[NEforceUConn]

Maybe top 15

Nov 2009. UConn 33 ND 30

All time record: UConn 1 ND 0

 

[Improviser]

The last hurrah.

If you're an optimist, maybe the next to last hurrah.

 

[Mr. French]

Bills - Oilers comeback game 1993
Bills - Raiders AFC champ 1990 51-3 blowout
UConn 1999 77-74
UConn victories (3) over UK from 2010-2014
UConn-Duke 2004 semis.
Tom Glavine 1995 shutout 1-hitter for the Braves only chip during a monster run where they should have had 3-4.
Sabres - Stars 1999 game 6, 3OT Brett Hull “no goal” that stole a Sabres/Hasek Cup.
FSU National Championship game in 2014, GWTD to Benjamin from Winston.

Those are personal favs but also qualify as great/historic games for many reasons.

 

[Yardigan]

Giants 17 Pats 14