My G-g-g-g-g-eneration

Following the amazing Wimbledon finale on Sunday, we, as most sports fans, thought amongst ourselves about whether it was the best tennis match ever played. Hell, for that matter, was it the greatest sporting event this year? Or maybe even this decade? Which, naturally, led us to thinking about all the great players and events we’ve been blessed enough to see within our lifetime (an average of 27 years for the 4 of us here). Our parents had Willie Mays’ catch over his shoulder, Bob Beamon shattering the long jump record, Namath following up his guarantee of a win despite being an 18 point dog, and Ali standing flexed over the huddled mass that was Smokin Joe as Cosell chanted “Down Goes Frazier”, among others. Well, we’ve had a pretty good run as well.

Being born in 1980, it doesn’t really seem fair to include anything before maybe ‘85 as having been in ‘our generation’, as we don’t really remember back that far (the only thing Stamos remembers before ‘86 was the very first thing that happened to him in elementary school- L’il Mos walked into his classroom for the first time, and saw another boy (who later became one of his best friends) playing with a puzzle. L’il Mos asked if he could join. He was denied.) So, with that caveat, here’s a list of 10 great moments, not necessarily in any particular order….or are they?

1. 4/13/97: Tiger Woods wins Masters with an 18 under score, besting the field by 12 strokes, as a 21 year old, thus positioning himself as the future greatest of all time.

2. 10/15/89: The Great One surpasses Gordie Howe for the all-time NHL scoring record. Man, Gretzky was awesome.

3. 3/28/92: As much as we loathe Dook, it’s impossible not to put Christian Laettner’s one dribble, turn around shot from the free throw extended to beat Kentucky and win the east regional final.

4. 9/08/98: This one has lost some luster, but Mark McGwire hitting his 62nd HR was beyond belief, especially as he and Sosa were battling the same way Maris and Mantle had in ‘61. And while he went on to his 70 that season, the 62nd was the prize. You could argue that this season saved baseball. That said, you could also argue that it doomed baseball.

5. 5/1/91: Nolan Ryan tosses his record 7th no-hitter. This record, along with Cy Young’s win record, and likely Dimaggio’s 56-game hit streak are the only records in baseball that will never, ever be broken.

6. 6/14/98: Jordan’s shot over the Jazz to win a 3rd straight NBA title, and the 6th in 8 years. Just awesome.

7. 4/13/86: The Golden Bear shows he’s still got it, winning the Masters at 46 years old. Seems strange to have two golf things on here, but we love golf. Hell, wouldn’t be tough to include this years US Open either.

8. 9/6/1995: Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrig’s record of 2,130 consecutive games played. This record was once on the same level as those mentioned alongside Ryan’s 7th no-hitter: the untouchables. But here was Ripken, Jr, one of the most celebrated and beloved players since Gehrig himself, breaking the record and hitting his 3rd hone run in as many games while doing it. His victory lap around the outfield wall was one for the ages.

9. 7/19/96: Muhammad Ali may have been more of a figure for our parents’ generation, but we all konw who he is. He embodies that outspoken, badass cockiness we all wish we had, but don’t because we can’t back it up like old Cassius Clay. His fighting days may have been behind him, but for our generation, his moment came when he lit the torch for the Atlanta olympics. While Parkinson’s had robbed him of his quick and steady hands, his eyes still shone of that confidence.

10. 3/3/83: So we said we weren’t going to inlucde anything before 1985. We lied. We’re NCSU fans, and this is greatest moment in the history of NCSU. Dereck Whittenburg launches an 80 foot airball right into the hands of Lo Charles who casually drops the ball in the basket and ends the chances for Phi Slamma Jamma. Jimmy V running around with no direction looking for someone to hug is probably the greatest moment ever captured on film.

As we said, this list is far from all-inclusive. In fact, it represents just the 10 that came to mind first, so surely we missed some that are more dear to some of you out there (Brahkowski, for example, is already fuming we left off Black Jesus’ game when working over USC for the title a couple years back). Holla

Tagged as: Christian Laettner, Dale Earnhardt, Jack Nicklaus, Jim Valvano, Mark McGwire, Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Nolan Ryan, Tiger Woods