Top Ten Sports Moments of the First Ten Years of 20xx

Since the first ten years of the two-oughts are drawing to completion, I figured I’d come up with a top-ten list of my favorite sports moments of the last decade.

These are completely subjective–and I won’t deny that some of my sports preferences have come into play selecting them–but I’m sure there are at least a couple in here with which everyone will agree. I have also placed limitations of no more than one per sport per level/league of play and no more than two per sport regardless of level/league of play.

So here they are, in no particular order:

1. Men’s 4×100 Freestyle Relay Final, 2008 Beijing Olympics: Michael Phelps’s quest for eight gold medals was a thrilling achievement. The 4×100 freestyle relay wasn’t the closet of race, but it was the greatest in terms of pure excitement–not for anything done by Phelps but for everything done by Jason Lezak. Lezak’s last 50m was a thing of beauty, the fastest relay split ever… and the Americans needed every last 100th second of it. I was screaming at the TV.
2. 2004 ALCS: Coming back from a 3-0 deficit in a seven game series had never been accomplished in baseball and only a couple times total in American professional sports. That alone would have been enough to qualify for this list. But add in the fact that it was the Red Sox finally toppling the Yankees after all these years and the great history of that rivalry… it’s hard to believe that anything could make Boston breaking their World Series drought an afterthought, but this series pretty much did.
3. 2008 Wimbledon Men’s Final: The 2008 Wimbledon final featured number one Roger Federer and number two Rafael Nadal, no strangers to each other in a Grand Slam final. But this one was unlike any other, a battle of epic proportions that ran 4 hours and 44 minutes, longest in Wimbledon history. Every second was absolutely gripping to the point where it almost didn’t matter for those watching who won (Nadal did).
4. 2007 Fiesta Bowl: Boise State. Hook and lateral. Statue of Liberty play. Greatest college football game. Ever (to date).
5. 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup Semifinals: The United States struggled in the Group Stage, barely squeaking by with help into the Knockout Stage. Spain, on the other hand… best in the world. It was inconceivable that the Americans could beat the Spaniards, but that is why they play the game. Easily the greatest victory for American soccer in a long, long time.
6. Men’s 100m Final, 2008 Beijing Olympics: Usain Bolt made breaking the record for world’s fastest human being seem easy. Really, really easy.
7. 2009 Big East Tournament Quarterfinal: Six (6!) overtimes. Two long-time rivals in the Connecticut Huskies and Syracuse Orange. I’m a UConn fan and I couldn’t even feel bad about the loss. Any game that goes that long… both teams left it out on the field of play. What more can you ask for? Honorable Mention: George Mason’s run to the Final Four.
8. Super Bowl XXXVI: Long before they became the big, bad Patriots, there were the big, bad St. Louis Rams. New England came into this game a huge underdog. And when St. Louis scored with under two minutes remaining, it seemed like the pundits were going to be right. A minute-and-a-half later, a legend was born in Tom Brady and Adam Vinatieri had staked his claim for the greatest clutch kicker in the NFL history.Honorable Mention: The Giants upsetting the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, but I cannot in good conscience award anything to Eli Manning.
9. 2009 Stanley Cup Final: It was looking like déjà vu all over again for the Penguins after being blown out and shut out 5-0 in Game 5. The Red Wings, dominant for so many years, simply didn’t blow big games at home, and no matter what Pittsburgh did in Game 6, Detroit had the home ice advantage. But 2008 was 2008, and this was 2009, and the young Pens stunned Detroit on home ice.
10. Greco-Roman Wresting Gold Medal Match, 2000 Sydney Olympics: Another David and Goliath story, with David starring Rulon Gardner and Goliath played by Alexander Karelin. Coming into the match, Karelin was undefeated in thirteen years of international competition… and hadn’t given up a point in six years. The rest is history.

As, now, is this article.

• August 28, 2010 -- Todd’s Tennis Takes: 2010 US Open Men’s Preview (1)
• June 29, 2010 -- Todd’s Tennis Takes: Wimbledon Men’s Quarterfinals Set – Tennis (2)
• June 17, 2010 -- Todd’s Tennis Takes: 2010 Wimbledon Preview (0)
• June 4, 2009 -- Fierce And Nerdy: Nadal 31-0 + 1 (4)
• September 1, 2010 -- Boise State TCU BCS Polls – NCAA College Football (0)