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Have You Ever Witnessed In-person a Historical Event?
Here’s mine. It’s June 1998 and my beloved Utah Jazz are one game from elimination in the NBA finals. We have a one-point lead and the ball with 30 seconds to go. The ball is passed to Karl Malone; but with less than 20 seconds to go, Michael Jordan sneaks in and strips the ball from Malone.
I lean over to my wife and say, “We are toast.” Jordan takes the ball down, jukes Bryon Russell left and nails “the shot” from the left arc. My seat position was down the court, directly behind Jordan. The shot was dead on line and nothing but net.
The Bulls win the title. And Jordan retired. I was going to be able to tell my grandchildren that I saw the great Jordan’s last NBA shot, a shot that won the Bulls another title. Then he came out of retirement for an entirely forgettable period with the Wizards.
Even so, I saw that shot in person. [Start the video below at about 2:45 and go to 4:25. Near the end you’ll see the shot exactly as I saw it.]
It still makes me sick to my stomach. Stockton and Malone are two of the greatest players never to win a title. And there’s only one reason they failed: it’s name is Michael Jordan.
Have you witnessed a great event? Tell us about it.
Published in General
When I was living in CA my brother called me one morning to ask if I felt like going to game one of the 1988 World Series in Dodger Stadium that day. As a Yank fan, I was somewhat underwhelmed but agreed thinking “Why not?”
I accidentally witnessed one of the greatest plays in the history of the game: Kirk Gibson’s game winning home run 1988 World Series.
I was front and center on Labor Day 2000 at Naperville North High School when George W. Bush leaned over and whispered to Dick Cheney that Adam Clymer was an a**h***. I promise you the crowd noise was so great that nobody heard it except for the sound tech.
The assertion was much derided, but never denied that I know of.
THIS TIMES 1000. NEVER FORGET.
Casey, Bob Prince?
I was witness to the losingest Dodgers home game in the history of the Los Angeles Dodgers. And it was to the giants.
Oh, I forgot one. Myself comming in second to last in the 1986 Pittsburgh Marathon (see Do You Believe In Guardian Angels a month back on Ricochet)
My brother, my best friend, and I saw a Philadelphia 76ers-San Francisco Warriors basketball game in 1966 or so, can’t remember exactly when. I had told my friend who had never seen an NBA game, that he was in for a treat, because Wilt Chamberlain was playing. I talked up all of Wilt’s great records and his amazing talents. We went to the game. Wilt did not take a single shot.
In the summer of 1967 I was driving north on the New Jersey turnpike toward New Brunswick when I saw on the southbound side a motorcade of four motorcycles across all four lanes and four vehicles, some of which were limousines, all flying hood flags, followed by several more ranks of motorcycles. Turned out it was Russian Premier Alexi Kosygin on his way from New York to Glassboro, NJ to meet with Lyndon Johnson for an impromptu summit meeting. The traffic behind the motorcade went on forever.
Luke, I was at a Pirate double header sometime in the sixties. They played the Dodgers. The starting pitchers for the Dodgers were Koufax and Drysdale. The Pirates won both. It took 16 innings for the second game. I can’t remember who pitched first. I do remember Roberto Clemente fouling off about 20 pitches and wearing out Drysdale. He finally doubled and they pulled Drysdale. That was at Forbes Field, good days for baseball in the Bergh.
Cool. You are a lucky man.
When I grew up I hated the Dodgers, and especially Koufax and Drysdale. I was a Giants fan, especially of Marichal, Mays, and McCovey. My best friend never ceased to needle when the Dodgers, more often than not, beat my Giants.
In retrospect, I would have loved to see any of them play.
I need to take my son to see the Maz wall. For you outsiders, every October a group gathers at the still preserved Forbes Field wall segment where that ball sailed into history to listen to the complete game broadcast in real time. It started with one guy for his own amusement. Over the years is grown into a bit of a thing.
That’s pretty good stuff.
The best double header I have ever known anyone to attend was the one my late grandmother was forced to go to during her honeymoon in NYC in 1920. She’d never attended a baseball game in her life but saw Babe Ruth hit two home runs- one in each game. Talk about beginner’s luck …
FYI The Babe’s final knock came at Forbes Field.
My son and I shared a similar experience. We saw a double header between the Phillies and the Marlins in July, 1998. The first game went 12 innings and was won by the Phillies by a home run in the bottom of the 12th. The 2nd game had this crazy box score, also 12 innings. Look at what happened in extra innings. Most exciting baseball game ever. Best double header ever.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 R H E
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Marlins 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 6 17 1
Phillies 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 1 2 7 9 0
The Phillies catcher, Mark Parent, caught all 24 innings. I don’t know when, if ever, something like that has occurred.
Tabula Rasa, I would ride my Honda 90 Motorbike to the game with a date on the back. I would pull it up onto the grass next to the park. I think bleacher seats were about .75 cents. That might be high. Hot dogs were a quarter,same as a beer. Great nights. Recalling all these things reminds me what a life I have had. My nickname was lucky and I was and still am.
MWTA, talk about a 24 inning jock rash.
Can’t say that I have, but here are a few things a degree or two from me:
Bowe Bergdahl supposedly was a member of our church denomination. We had been praying for him for some time, including the very Sunday before his release. We didn’t know any unfortunate details, but I did see something to that effect mentioned by someone on his FB page. It turned out his parents were members at one in Idaho, but Bowe had never been a communicate member, apparently.
My church had a former pastor who died in that 1979 plane crash in Chicago, which is still to this day the highest death toll in a plane crash on our soil.
Perhaps you remember in 1997 the murder of a little girl in a casino bathroom in Primm, NV? The perpetrator was about to graduate from my high school (I was a sophomore). His friend who he went there with rode my bus.
This reminds me of my other claim to fame. In 1974-75 I was in my last year at the University of Utah law school. That year there was a freshman student named Ted Bundy. He was arrested the following summer. I didn’t know him, and had never said a word to him, but I certainly recognized him (there were less than 500 students in the law school).
So I may have bumped into Ted Bundy in the hall, though it cannot be positively confirmed.
The Bastrop Fire of 2011, the Fort Wayne Flood of …81?….The Winter of 78…the defeat of the pro-abortion lobby at the Texas Capital two years ago that paved the way for the downfall and humiliation of Wendy Davis…Dizzy Gillespie’s last performance in Indiana…Pope John Paul II’s visit to Vienna….the retirements of several medievalists whose names I could drop and whose work shaped the field for a generation….the very first International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds
This reminds me of my other claim to fame. In 1974-75 I was in my last year at the University of Utah law school. That year there was a freshman student named Ted Bundy. He was arrested the following summer. I didn’t know him, and had never said a word to him, but I certainly recognized him (there were less than 500 students in the law school).
So I may have bumped into Ted Bundy in the hall, though it cannot be positively confirmed.
I nearly rented his old apartment on like first or second avenue. They wouldn’t take cats, though. A co-worker of my mom was nearly kidnapped by him–he had her in his vw and she barely escaped.
The bar for “Historic” has slid down a bit as this thread has gone on, so:
This famous murderer was my regular HS wrestling partner. Led to the Serious Youth Offender Act:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=VdpKVYzuM8TFogS2r4CAAQ&url=http://www.deseretnews.com/article/511184/MOHI-BLAMES-TRIAD-CENTER-KILLING-ON-STUPIDITY.html%3Fpg%3Dall&ved=0CB8QFjAA&usg=AFQjCNEyL60NmTjO32FAwIrtiXFnN2gztQ&sig2=oLrz4_WiMom2bPgFEgauTQ
Also, I spent a couple days in the search for Elizabeth Smart. Which I would not do again–searches are a very low-yield process. At least I can say I was not in any of the several search parties that walked right past her.
In 1989 I followed the Iron Curtain as it came tumbling down. Along the way from its northern tip on the Baltic to its terminus at Trieste on the Adriatic, I saw workers tear down the barbed wire, roll it up and truck it away. I walked with villagers across the German-German frontier that had been sealed for 40 years and into the arms of villagers on the other side. In a divided village I sat with an elderly West German border guard in his hut when two young East German guards came over to make his acquaintance. It was a breathtaking trip, 10 days during which I experienced ordinary citizens grabbing history in both hands while the politicians raced to keep up with them.
Two military coups in Thailand, but that is nothing special since we average about one every four years.
More impressively, I was in attendance at the concert that marked the founding of the African Union in Johannesburg in 2002. I was actually caught on South African television dancing very badly to the sweet sounds of Hugh Masekela. Not to stereotype or anything, but pretty much everyone else in the crowd knew how to groove.
Just last month I was intimately involved with the 150th anniversary commemoration of the Lincoln assassination. Not nearly as noteworthy as the original event of course, but it’s all I’ve got.
Over on the coulda-been-but-wasn’t end of the spectrum, Mr. Charlotte’s and my first date was a Brewers-Cardinals game at County Stadium in 1998. We were both hoping to see some (performance-enhanced) firepower from Mark McGwire. He went 0-for-5 with four strikeouts. Just goes to show that you can chemically enhance your performance all you want but you still have to be able to hit the curve ball.
(Sorry Tabula, bit of a thread-jack, there.)
Hopefully one of those games was Game 6 of the Finals in 2013. Best 76 seconds in recent hockey memory!
I sat on the 50 yard line of John Elway’s last come-back game.
It was against the Kansas City Chiefs and it was a glorious day.
I was in Beirut in 1989, while we still had hostages there and not long before the Taif Agreement was signed. And despite my Arabic first name, I’m as Celtic looking as they come. It was a freakish experience, but then I’m no adrenaline junkie. I daresay it would have been a regular day at the office for a foreign correspondent. :)
I was at that game. (I was at most games – that was back when I was still in 75-80 games/season mode)
I remember I had friends from Madison that could only make it to one game of the series, and picked the one where McGwire didn’t play. Can still seem him sitting in his seat when they announced the line-ups, saying “What? He’s not [COC] playing?”
Magnificent.
You had to be hard core to go to April and early-May games at County Stadium. Brrrrr.
New York, January 1963. The Mona Lisa at the Met. “Walk in silence, turn, appreciate it, then move on
” — instructions given to our grammar school class.
New York, August 15, 1965. Beatles at Shea Stadium. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Chicago, August 26-29, 1968. Got an early preview of how the Democrats would run a police state. “The policeman isn’t there to create disorder, the policeman is there to preserve disorder.” – Mayor R.J. Daley
Atlanta, April 8, 1974. Hank Aaron’s #715. I lived in New York at the time and bought tickets months in advance. The way I see it, he is still the all-time home run champion.
Atlanta, October 28, 1995. Braves win World Series on a one-hit shutout.
Hollywood, late summer, 2003. Live-to-film recording of the Frasier episode “The Doctor is Out” which aired September 30. Brilliant writing, direction, and performances, including guest star Patrick Stewart.