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AJ McKenzie
  • 2 days ago
Good list, great number 1, RIP Bill Mazeroski
IG: aj_mckenzie416
Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
Transcript
00:13Welcome to Who's Number One. I'm Trey Wingo.
00:16Look, not all games are created equal.
00:19There is one game to rule them all.
00:22We speak, of course, of Game 7.
00:24Just the mention of Game 7 prompts us to face west towards sunset and bow in reverence.
00:30Game 7, after all, equals playoffs, which equals suspense, which equals the theater of the magnificent.
00:35Game 7 carries with it an unavoidable finality.
00:39I mean, there is no Game 8.
00:41Game 7 is when things get decided once and for all.
00:44Some Game 7s belong in the roll call of history.
00:48And that's what ESPN Classic voted on.
00:50The 20 best Game 7s of all time.
01:02And a ground ball, prickling, it is a better ball, gets by Buckner.
01:06The Mets will win the ball game.
01:08The Mets win.
01:09They win.
01:11By no means were we going to roll over and play dead.
01:16We felt we had a chance to win.
01:19A very good chance, in fact.
01:22The Red Sox led early in Game 7 of the 86 World Series.
01:27And as a hopper by the diving Santana.
01:30And it is 3-0 Boston.
01:32Losing 3-0 right off the bat.
01:34We're going, oh well, here we go.
01:36Come back again.
01:37We just felt, we're going to win this game.
01:39There's just the amount of time we're going to win.
01:41The key at bat in the game was Keith Hernandez up against Bruce Hurst.
01:46The winner of that battle was probably going to win the game.
01:50Fastball hit into left center field.
01:52Base hit.
01:53In comes Mazzilli.
01:55In comes Wilson.
01:573-2 Boston.
02:00In 1946 and 75, and then again in 86, in these 7th games,
02:05the Red Sox had a lead.
02:06And were not able to hold it.
02:08They went ahead on MVP Ray Knight's solo homer in the 7th
02:11and eventually won 8-5.
02:13Now the pitcher on the way.
02:15He's crooked out.
02:16Stucked out.
02:17The Mets have won the World Series.
02:20The dream has come true.
02:22Coming from behind to win this 7th ballgame.
02:2719.
02:2819.
02:30Dries to his right behind a deep aspect.
02:32He comes up firing.
02:33He's got the bucket.
02:35Unaccustomed to the rare air of the Western Conference Finals,
02:38the Sacramento Kings missed 14 of 30 free throws in Game 7 in 2002.
02:44The experienced Lakers with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal.
02:46Yes, that is even on the list because they shouldn't have been playing Game 7.
02:51Combining for 65 points, won an overtime 112-106.
02:55And I just remember different shots, missed, Christie, airball, bad shots, clanging, free throws, missed, turnovers.
03:04And it was too bad because the Kings were the better team.
03:08O'Neal with a three-pointer on the way.
03:10He hits the triple.
03:11The Lakers knew what they were doing.
03:13The Lakers were just cooler.
03:14They knew what to do down the stretch.
03:16And the Kings just couldn't hang.
03:17Chris was shooting his shot well, but down the stretch.
03:20And the overtime period came.
03:21He got tired.
03:22He wasn't able to knock it down.
03:24Zach lived by the outside shot.
03:25And then he died by the outside shot.
03:27Are you supposed to win that game where the Kings go?
03:29Yes, they were certainly there.
03:31I refuse to kill the Kings for that one because you're playing against two of the best players of all
03:36time.
03:37You played the entire season to get the important game in your building.
03:41And if you then can't pull the trigger, well, I guess you did choke.
03:45I guess I'm a little ticked off, but I also understand we should have done a better job, and they
03:49did the good job, so.
03:5118.
03:55This is just the epitome of the eight-man deep interlocking pieces, six-man off the bench.
04:03Ahead of its time, fast-break basketball.
04:07The Lakers' Frank Selby scored the last four points to force overtime in Game 7 of the 1962 Finals.
04:15Jerry West could drive on anybody in the league at that time, even though he was only 6'3 or
04:20so.
04:20He was an acrobat inside.
04:23I played every minute of the game. I was dead tired.
04:26It's hard to imagine fatigue like that, and to think you have to play five more minutes in overtime.
04:33It just didn't seem like that was going to be possible physically.
04:37We played, the Lakers were two great players in Baylor and West, and they couldn't beat us.
04:41So it took more than one or two guys to beat our bar club because we played so well together.
04:47But Red would go to one guy, and if he didn't have it, he'd go for another guy.
04:52But Boston, with Bill Russell, Sam Jones, and Frank Ramsey, combining for 80 points to prevail, 110-107.
05:00And the Celtics didn't make mistakes because they always believed in themselves.
05:12Could you get two more different styles than Magic Johnson, the Lakers, and Isaiah Thomas, and the Pistons?
05:17It's a 4-1-2.
05:18The Lakers.
05:20Game 7 by the Lakers. That shouldn't have happened.
05:23And they should have...
05:24With this glitz and glamour team, this up-tempo team.
05:27That's show power!
05:28They just dared you to try it wrong with them, and nobody could.
05:32He's going to play, Isaiah Thomas.
05:35The Pistons come in, the bad boys, and all of a sudden it's a shot clock running down to one
05:39or two seconds.
05:40The other team can't get it off. 24-second violation.
05:44Byron Scott and Bill Lane Beer had lumped each other.
05:46This team was tough. They didn't take any crap from anybody.
05:50What they couldn't overcome was a Lakers lead that reached 15 points early in the fourth quarter of Game 7
05:56of the 1988 Finals.
05:58The sprained ankle Isaiah Thomas suffered in the previous contest limited him to just 28 minutes.
06:04He probably was one of the most courageous players that we ever competed against.
06:08I can remember him having this outrageous third quarter.
06:11He sprained his ankle.
06:12There was no way he should have played in Game 7, but he did.
06:15Nothing surprising about Isaiah.
06:17I mean, like I say, he has a high tolerance for pain.
06:20A game of that magnitude, you know, he was going to play.
06:24We were both the devil in disguise.
06:28We were passionate about winning, but also good friends.
06:32And now I got to hit his guys to prove to my teammates that, hey, I'm not playing friends out
06:40here.
06:41I think it took a toll on our friendship.
06:45He was scoreless in the second half and Detroit lost 108-105.
06:49Two-on-one, the scouts got all the way.
06:52Two-on-one, the scouts got all the way.
06:53Two-on-one, the scouts got all the way.
06:5716-16.
06:58The 1960s just produced epic battles between the Celtics with Russell and any Laker team
07:06that they met in the finals.
07:08The 66th-7th game sort of symbolized the best of that period.
07:12The last basket of the game for Boston was a Russell driving two-hand dunk on a broken play.
07:17And it went up by 10 and you figured it's got to be over now.
07:19But it wasn't over.
07:21After missing 15 of their first 18 shots, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor found their stroke
07:26and the Lakers got within two.
07:27But with Bill Russell grabbing 32 boards, the Celtics held on, winning Red Auerbach's last
07:33game as a coach, 95-93, for their eighth straight title.
07:37And it got hairy, there's no question.
07:39But it wasn't a crazy final minute.
07:40Neither team could get away from each other.
07:42And that's one of the things that made those battles so great.
07:55Everybody in Toronto was convinced that they were going to beat Los Angeles for one reason.
08:07This is Toronto.
08:08This is the hockey capital.
08:10That's L.A.
08:11It's Tinseltown, and Tinseltown has no business beating any team that's from Toronto.
08:18Gretzky with McSorley 2-on-1.
08:21McSorley controls it to Gretzky.
08:22He shoots.
08:23He scores!
08:24Well, Toronto fans booed Wayne Gretzky.
08:27You don't boo the great one, the best player in the history of the sport.
08:31And they booed him in hockey's mecca.
08:34Back to Gretzky.
08:36He shoots.
08:36He scores!
08:37Wayne Gretzky does it again!
08:40Gretzky's second goal gave the Kings a 3-2 lead in Game 7 of the 1993 Campbell Conference Finals.
08:46After a goal by Wendell Clark tied it in the third period, Mike Donnelly regained the lead for L.A.
08:51Then number 99 showed again why he was known as the great one.
08:55Gretzky in the Toronto zone.
08:58Gretzky, the wraparound.
09:00Oh, it goes in!
09:01They score!
09:02Gretzky has the hat trick!
09:03My biggest thrills in hockey have come in Maple Leaf Gardens, beating Toronto in Game 7 in 93.
09:09The Los Angeles Kings are going to the Stanley Cup Finals!
09:1814-14.
09:21The 1946 World Series is on.
09:24All the folklore of the Red Sox had not materialized then, you know.
09:27They hadn't won since 1918.
09:29It was 20, it was that point, it was 28 years.
09:31But they were the team.
09:32They had dominated the American League.
09:34But as luck would have it, Game 7 was in Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.
09:38Game 7 of the 1946 World Series between the Cardinals and the Red Sox was tied in three in the
09:46eighth inning,
09:47when Harry the Hat Walker lined a hit into left center.
09:51Enos Slaughter brazenly set sail from first and kept on running, daring Boston to throw him out.
09:57The Perville throw was made to Johnny Pesky, and the folklore is that Johnny Pesky, quote, held the ball.
10:04Well, of course, Johnny Pesky was waiting for somebody to tell him what is back to the plate, where to
10:08throw it.
10:08I think Johnny got a real bad rap on being the fall guy in the World Series.
10:13I was on second, and everybody said, well, Doran should have been calling out the play.
10:17But I can't say that I did or didn't call a play, but 32, 33,000 people yelling.
10:23Johnny wouldn't have heard anybody yelling if he did.
10:26He didn't hold the ball.
10:27I don't have any doubts about that.
10:29He didn't hold the ball.
10:30Slaughter added to the Slaughter legend, or cemented it, frankly, by scoring from first.
10:35It's a great tribute to Enos Slaughter, and the fact is that it should be remembered as that
10:39much more than the idea that Johnny Pesky held the ball.
10:44The best team wins.
10:45Well, you can't say, well, because of this and that, an alibi of this and that.
10:49The Cardinals played good ball, and they beat us.
10:54Thirteen, thirteen, thirteen.
10:56Race is on. Wayne Gretzky. Gretzky moving in.
10:58Gretzky's got home, and it's taken away by Sergei Fedorov.
11:03Gretzky with St. Louis was the great guy in the wrong place at the wrong time with certainly
11:13the wrong coach.
11:15The Blues had spent so much money, made so many transactions.
11:22They made 90 transactions that season with Mike Keenan as the GM and the coach.
11:26And they built a team that they hoped, even though they weren't very good in the regular
11:29season, might make a run for it.
11:31In Game 7 of the 1996 Western Conference Semifinals, Detroit and St. Louis played 60 minutes without
11:38a score.
11:39The Red Wings weren't yet the dynasty that they became a little bit later.
11:43Down the ball.
11:44It's been 41 years since they've won a Stanley Cup.
11:48But with Iserman and some of the younger players, they knew they could be a great team.
11:56They played 20 more scoreless and were in a second overtime when a gritty little bulldog
12:02known as Stevie Wye ended.
12:04Even though Iserman was a kid compared to the other guys on the team, they made him the
12:11captain.
12:11You know, you look to Steve Iserman for clutch moments in leadership, and he certainly delivered.
12:16Iserman picks it up.
12:18Iserman moving.
12:19Blue line champs.
12:20Score!
12:21Steve Iserman!
12:22Detroit wins!
12:28It was really their first big step towards being a great team.
12:3512.
12:3612.
12:38He could get into your mind.
12:40You try to say to yourself, don't worry about Russell.
12:43You know, that's kind of impossible.
12:46He could anticipate.
12:47He could leap.
12:48He could stop you.
12:49The only kind of a ball player that Russell had trouble with was a guy like a Bob Pettit.
12:53Bob Pettit's St. Louis Hawks went to a seventh game against Boston in the 1957 NBA Finals.
12:58And he responded with 39 points.
13:01Two Celtics rookies, Bill Russell and Tom Heinsohn, combined for 56 points and 55 boards.
13:06They had great players with Bob Pettit and Cliff Hagen.
13:09And they had Slater Martin.
13:11They were a very worthy team.
13:13Pettit was the real deal.
13:156'9", good build, fluid.
13:17He was just smooth.
13:19And had a great baseline shot.
13:21Despite Pettit's effort, the Celtics won the first of 11 championships in 13 seasons.
13:25A 125-123 double overtime.
13:28There are people, Auerbach included, that will tell you that this was one of the great games ever played.
13:32And certainly one of the great seventh games.
13:3611-11.
13:42The Lakers were on the ropes and done.
13:47There were probably NBA sportswriters who were already planning their tickets, you know, for Portland in the NBA championship.
13:54You sit there and you're all ready.
13:55You have your game story written.
13:57Portland Trailblazers beat Lakers.
14:01Great teams know how to close the deal.
14:03They see the other team gagging and then they put their foot on their throat.
14:09And Portland didn't know how to do it.
14:12The Trailblazers led by 15 with 10 and a half minutes to play.
14:16But while Portland was in the midst of missing 13 straight shots, the Lakers smelled blood and went on a
14:2215-0 run.
14:24It's weird because they should have had the experience.
14:27Dallas Shrimp, we saw him, went to a finals.
14:31Pippen obviously won his championships.
14:33And then Rasheed Wallace won championships after.
14:37They should have had the experience to get rid of the Lakers.
14:45Once the lead started going down, you could feel it.
14:47You know, the whole, oh my goodness.
14:51All of a sudden, 15 points became 13.
14:54To nine.
14:57To seven.
14:58To four.
15:00The Trailblazers were just rolling over dead.
15:02They were just flopping, saying,
15:04Take me, go ahead, beat me, kick me some more.
15:06That's a game where people were saying,
15:07See, I told you, Scottie Pippen couldn't win without Michael.
15:11Here's Pippen.
15:12Unleashing a three.
15:13He was brought to that team for his experience, for his savvy in the clutch.
15:18That was a big choke job, not only on Pippen's part, but on that whole team.
15:23Yeah, Brian.
15:24To shot.
15:25The Lakers won 89-84 in the biggest fourth quarter Game 7 comeback in NBA history.
15:32Once you turn it off like the Trailblazers did, you can't turn it back on in a game like that.
15:36I don't believe what I've seen.
15:38That is one of the pure chokes of all time.
15:41Just pure.
15:41I think back and I'm trying to figure out how it happened.
15:51It was a great seven-game series.
15:54They got down to Game 7.
15:55The Celtics were ahead, and they felt that they had the game wrapped up.
15:59In Game 7 of the 1965 East Finals,
16:02Wilt Chamberlain scored six points in the last minute,
16:05including the basket with five seconds left
16:07that brought Philadelphia to within 110-109 of Boston.
16:11Wilt just came alive.
16:13He was questioning people.
16:15I mean, he just, he made Russell look like this college player.
16:19Bought by the
16:23The Celtics have a one-point lead and the ball,
16:26and it looks like it's going to be just another finish,
16:28just like all the other years.
16:29Except this time, something happened.
16:34Bill Russell took the ball to throw it inbounds,
16:37and we were all pressing at him.
16:38Russell throws the ball, and all of a sudden, the ball goes straight down.
16:41The basket at Boston Garden was held up by these guide wires.
16:47Russell takes the ball out of bounds and throws it and hits that guide wire.
16:51As we were leaving the huddle, as Russell, he said,
16:53will someone please take these goat horns that I'm sprouting off my head?
16:58Five seconds to play, which is plenty of time in the NBA.
17:01The 76ers will be putting the ball inbounds underneath their own basket
17:04with a chance to win the game.
17:05Here was the opportunity.
17:07This was it.
17:07All right, Greer is putting the ball into play.
17:10He gets it out deep, and Havlicek steals it.
17:12Over the stand, Joe.
17:14Havlicek stole the ball.
17:16It's all over.
17:17It took John Havlicek then in his third year,
17:19known as a nice player, coming off the bench,
17:21and made him a folk hero.
17:23It's all over.
17:24Johnny Havlicek is being mauled by the fans.
17:31Nine.
17:32Nine.
17:33Nine.
17:35Something always went wrong.
17:37Always for the Rangers.
17:39It looked like something was going right in 1994
17:42for the franchise that hadn't won a Stanley Cup since 1940.
17:46Late shot.
17:47He scores!
17:48As the Rangers nursed a one-goal lead
17:50into the final seconds of Game 7
17:52of the Eastern Conference Finals.
17:54It was almost a battle of attrition.
17:56Who was going to survive physically?
17:59Because they were just battling for every inch of ice.
18:03What do you think?
18:04What do you think?
18:05Stay in line by Mike Richter!
18:07Richter was at his peak.
18:09A magnificent seat!
18:10And Brodeur was probably just getting near his peak.
18:14Backhand shot, Brodeur.
18:16Before you know it,
18:16as the seconds are ticking down off that clock.
18:19Kentucky set it!
18:20Knocked way in!
18:21Shots are taken!
18:22They score!
18:23The Dodgers have tied the game!
18:25With 7.7 seconds left!
18:28How can fate do this to us?
18:30How can the hockey gods do this to us?
18:33The game is suddenly tied,
18:34and it's not over yet.
18:48It was just one of those brilliant classic calls.
18:51You can't make it up.
18:52And I think Stefan Matto should actually change his last name.
18:55Matto!
18:56Matto!
18:57Because everybody says it twice.
18:58It's kind of like Zsa Zsa or Duran Duran.
19:00It's Stefan Matto Matto for the rest of his life.
19:041940 is history!
19:08Eight.
19:09Eight.
19:09Eight.
19:12The seventh game of the 1969 NBA season,
19:16for everyone who loved Bill Russell,
19:18is the pinnacle game for him.
19:20They were old now.
19:21Most of the starters were over 30.
19:23I'd say for the people involved,
19:25Russell and Sam Jones would be playing their last game,
19:27this had to be the most satisfying victory of their entire career.
19:30One of the great long-running duels in sports history
19:33ended in Game 7 of the 1969 Finals,
19:36when Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell met for the last time.
19:40Now, within 12 points,
19:41and the Celtics sense trouble.
19:43This was the Laker team that was going to be the super team
19:46when they had traded for Wilt Chamberlain before the season.
19:48Wilt Chamberlain driving on Russell.
19:50Finally, they had the three great players together in the end,
19:53Baylor, West, and of course, Chamberlain.
19:55They were heavy favorites.
19:57Jack Kent Cooke hired the USC band to come marking in
20:00when the Lakers won the World Championship, not if.
20:03And he had balloons up in the rafters
20:05that were going to fall down on the floor when the Lakers...
20:08Like a complete moron.
20:11Like any of the Celtics needed extra motivation.
20:16The Lakers won the Championship, not if.
20:18It was the most angry I think I've ever been.
20:20I thought it was disrespectful.
20:23And as it turned out,
20:25it was the ultimate embarrassment for all of us.
20:28Chamberlain can't move, Chris.
20:29He's down there holding that knee.
20:31Wilt's knee was really paining him.
20:33It came out and he put some ice on it.
20:36So when the knee quieted down a little bit,
20:39Dipper said to me,
20:40tell the man I'm ready to go back in.
20:42And Van Brennikoff said,
20:44tell him to hell with him.
20:45We don't need him.
20:46Coach Van Brennikoff and Wilt did not get along at all.
20:51I think Van Brennikoff would have been thrilled
20:53to win a championship with Wilt sitting on the bench.
20:56Everybody in this arena knows where that ball's going
20:59when the Lakers get it.
21:00To Jerry West.
21:02Now the Lakers within four points.
21:07With the Celtics up by a point,
21:09one of the most fortunate bounces of the ball
21:11went their way on Don Nelson's shot
21:13en route to a 108-106 victory.
21:16That's bad luck.
21:17And that broke their heart
21:19and that cost them another championship.
21:21Myth now has it that it went up about 50 feet
21:24into the air or hit the ceiling.
21:25It was about an 8- or 10-foot bounce
21:27and it fell through.
21:28The luckiest, best shot of Don Nelson's career.
21:31And time has run out
21:32and the Boston Celtics have done it again.
21:35It was horrible.
21:35I really wanted to quit.
21:37I mean, I did not want to go on.
21:39It was just too painful for me.
21:44The pain's not over
21:46because 1970's coming up.
21:49Probably on the list.
21:51On the ninth, the seventh game of the World Series
21:54with a chance to win it or a chance to lose it.
21:56That's every player's dream.
21:58A deep drive to right.
22:00Ramirez on the run.
22:02Makes the catch.
22:03Tagging is a loo.
22:04Game 7 of the World Series is tied.
22:07The Marlins were the one team
22:08that people in the game didn't want to win, I think,
22:10because it was just their fifth year of existence.
22:13The Indians have been the ones waiting since 1948.
22:17The Indians are still waiting.
22:19Bobby Bonilla's seventh inning homer
22:21and Craig Council's sack fly in the ninth tied it at two.
22:24Bonilla launches one to deep right.
22:27Bonilla sends one out.
22:29Forcing extra innings in 1997.
22:32The game went into the 11th.
22:35Base is loaded.
22:36And I'm thinking to myself, oh my God.
22:38You know, all we need is a sacrifice fly here.
22:40And we're the world champions.
22:48They forced the guy out at home.
22:49Now I'm really starting to look at my car.
22:51I'm thinking, oh, my pitch, I got a double switch.
22:53I might have to do this.
22:54But manager Jim Leland didn't have to do anything
22:57thanks to Edgar Renteria.
22:58You know, he's young.
22:59Nobody expects him to do it.
23:00Nobody in the dugout is like, you know what,
23:02he's a high-priced veteran guy that should come through.
23:05Nobody put that pressure on him.
23:06The 0-1 pitch.
23:08A liner off Nagy's glove into center field.
23:11The 5-0 models have won the World Series.
23:16Just like that.
23:19Walk off RBI.
23:21And there's a reason he made that play so well, like he said.
23:30He didn't have the pressure of making the play.
23:33So if he didn't make the play, it sucks.
23:36But, you know, oh well.
23:38So if he did, he's the greatest person ever.
23:46Glanced up again, boom.
23:48It's over.
23:49All of a sudden, you're the world champion.
23:50I mean, I don't remember what I did with my card.
23:52I don't remember what happened.
23:56A team pulled together almost on the fly, and they win.
24:00And Leland just gives himself over to the moment
24:03and takes this great victory lap that even he admits was goofy.
24:06I mean, it was an unbelievable emotional swing in a matter of seconds.
24:10You know, those are the reasons why you play sports.
24:13Those once-in-a-lifetime feelings that, you know, are really indescribable.
24:16The memorable thing about the Marlins, unfortunately, is not what they did.
24:20It's what happened after.
24:22All the joy and excitement that they created was diminished
24:28by Wayne Huizinga deciding afterwards to dismantle the whole thing.
24:33Usually when owners of teams have the talent together,
24:37they do everything they can to keep it.
24:39But for them to just take a wrecking ball for the whole thing,
24:42I think it was one of the cruelest ironies that you've ever seen
24:45in the world of sports.
24:50Six.
24:51Six.
24:52Six.
24:52It was 2 a.m. on Easter Sunday morning,
24:55and there was a hockey game going on.
24:57That's Montaigne. He's in.
24:59What a save by Mason.
25:01And it wasn't a replay.
25:03No scoring in one overtime.
25:05No scoring in two overtime.
25:07No scoring in three overtime.
25:09It was the same game that started earlier that night.
25:12Gardner, six. Oh, what a save.
25:14Six hours later, they're still playing.
25:17Game seven of the 1987 Patrick Division semifinals
25:21was the game that wouldn't end.
25:22Fighting for it.
25:23After three periods, the Isles and the Caps were tied at two.
25:27They didn't know it.
25:28Go.
25:29But they'd only just begun.
25:31The Islanders by 1987 had not won a Stanley Cup in four years,
25:35but there were enough players remaining from their championship teams
25:38that what made them special still existed.
25:44He's center to Boston.
25:46Oh, what a save by Mason.
25:48The famous marathon game was one of the most frustrating that I've ever sat through.
25:54It progressively blew every deadline.
25:57Sweeping in is Francis Getty.
25:58He gets the shot, and that's grabbed by Rudy.
26:01The chances.
26:02There were so many chances on both sides.
26:05Rudy making great save after great save.
26:08Here's center.
26:09As did Mason.
26:10Oh, what a save by Mason.
26:12We will go to a point over time.
26:15The game finished so long after midnight
26:17that there was no point in writing the story anymore,
26:19and the entire press box just sat there like fans,
26:23watching the game, knowing that nobody would make their paper.
26:26How these guys can keep it up is beyond me.
26:28I think fatigue played as much a role as Pat LaFontaine did in finally winning it.
26:35Going in around the goal.
26:37Didina front shoots head of stick.
26:40Comes to the line.
26:41LaFontaine shot.
26:42He scores!
26:44LaFontaine at the blue line.
26:46Here in the fourth overtime.
26:48That was the most emotional series I've ever covered,
26:52and that was the most emotional hockey game I've ever attended.
26:58Five, five, five.
27:00Walk-off home runs are great,
27:03but to me, plays at the plate are even better.
27:06He's got three.
27:07He is safe.
27:09Graves win.
27:10Graves win.
27:11Graves win.
27:12One of my all-time favorite Game 7 moments in any sport
27:15is the 1992 National League playoffs.
27:18Pittsburgh's Stan Belinda was nursing a one-run lead in the bottom of the ninth of Game 7,
27:23and the Pirates were only one out away from their first World Series since 1979.
27:30They had won three division titles.
27:32They hadn't gotten there, and it wasn't going to happen again.
27:34The team was going to be broken up.
27:35Bonds was leaving.
27:36They had already lost for Nia and John Smiley.
27:38They knew that this was their last chance.
27:40We have now got Stan Belinda out on the mound, the winning run on second base.
27:46They are pinch-hitting Francisco Cabrera.
27:50One out away from going to the World Series.
27:55And then it's like, okay, we got a hit.
27:59We're going to win the game.
28:00And then you're like, oh, no, Sid's running.
28:03A lot of people told me that Jimmy Williams was actually trying to hold me up.
28:06I still don't know to this day.
28:07You know, one of the slowest guys in the league, probably, on his last legs.
28:14If the ball would have been right there on Michael Ball, your eyes out.
28:18Barry Bonds can't quite throw out a little dream at the plate.
28:22I am standing with the hero of the 1992 National League Championship Series.
28:28Francisco Cabrera, not only did the shock of losing the National League pennant in the wink of an eye
28:33take a little while to sink in, it took even longer to accept who had done it.
28:38It's a good question where he is now.
28:39Because, you know, as quickly as he came up, he faded away, and nobody's ever heard of him.
28:46Rave won it.
28:47We lost at an end.
28:48The rest is history.
28:51He was the turning point for the franchise.
28:53They haven't had a winning season since.
28:55It was devastating.
28:58Here in Pittsburgh, they joke with me concerning I was still out.
29:02And I just joke with them about, hey, I slowed down just to make it exciting.
29:09Four, four, four, four.
29:10Bottom of the ninth inning.
29:12Last chance for the Diamondbacks.
29:14Down two to one.
29:15Hey, look, who else would you rather have than Mariano Rivera?
29:19Protecting a one-run lead in the ninth inning.
29:23You know, I'll take Mariano into the ninth inning any time.
29:26He threw one bad cutter, and it was to second base.
29:29The bunt by Miller.
29:31Throw to second.
29:32Into center field.
29:34And it's two on with nobody out.
29:36That was a rough day.
29:38The 2001 World Series was played against the emotional backdrop of 9-11.
29:43Baseball became a welcome distraction and a temporary healing.
29:50Diamondbacks uniform.
29:55Maybe unrelated topic.
29:58In the eighth inning of game seven,
30:00Alfonso Soriano's solo homer off Arizona's Kurt Schilling broke a 1-1 time.
30:05The second he hit it, I knew it was a homerun.
30:07But it didn't hit me until the ball landed,
30:10and I'm thinking, oh, my God, I just lost the World Series.
30:12In the bottom of the eighth,
30:14Yankees manager Joe Torrey brought in his solid gold reliever,
30:17who struck out three.
30:22I think if you go in the ninth inning with a one-run lead,
30:24mowing the mound,
30:26game seven of the World Series 100 times,
30:27we're going to win 99 of them.
30:30He's money in the bank.
30:31When he takes the mound,
30:33you consider it a win.
30:34When Rivera came in with a one-run lead,
30:38I thought our chances were rather dim.
30:41In the center field, a good start for Arizona.
30:44And the 0-1 pitch,
30:46and he bunts back to the mound.
30:48There's a play at second,
30:49in the center field.
30:50Even when there were runners on base,
30:53I still felt the zone was over.
30:55And a line drive,
30:56base hit,
30:57down the right field line,
30:58the game is tied.
30:59On to third,
31:00goes Bell.
31:01And a little pooper,
31:03base hit!
31:04Diamondbacks win!
31:05They're the world champions!
31:08The Diamondbacks have unseated!
31:11The New York Yankees is a world champion!
31:18Three, three, three, three, three.
31:21Gather round, guys.
31:22I said,
31:23I got something I want to tell y'all.
31:24Y'all can jump on my back tonight.
31:25I'm carrying us tonight.
31:28It's a blast!
31:30Deep left center!
31:31Way back!
31:32Way back!
31:33The 10th count of a seventh game!
31:36I was like,
31:38it's Destin.
31:39We gotta win now.
31:40After Kirby Puckett's 11th inning homer in Game 6,
31:43Destiny took her own sweet time in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series.
31:49Minnesota's tireless Jack Morris strung together 10 innings of zeros.
31:53It's the ultimate pitching duel.
31:54It was such great baseball because every pitch mattered and everybody was into every pitch.
31:58We could be playing all night.
31:59It could be 3 o'clock in the morning and we get no more coffee to drink.
32:03And the play is to Hull.
32:04Out there!
32:06Out there!
32:07And we're still gonna be playing trying to see who can score a run in this game.
32:11Ty scored eighth inning.
32:15Lonnie Smith of the Braves is on first base.
32:18Terry Pendleton hits a double up the gap and left center field.
32:20The Twins middle infielders pretend to be running a phantom double play.
32:28Lonnie...
32:28You know, soon after this Kirby Puckett passed away...
32:35Smith gets disorganized.
32:36They got him.
32:38Only gets to third base.
32:40He should score.
32:41He doesn't.
32:42You know, it's easy for all of us to sit here and say,
32:44well, Lonnie should have scored and Lonnie shouldn't have done this and he shouldn't have done that.
32:48But the only one that was running the bases was Lonnie.
32:50And in the bottom of the tenth, pinch hitter Gene Larkin stroked the game-winner over a drawn-in outfield.
32:58Probably the brainiest play in baseball history ever to decide a world title.
33:03For drama and excitement, hard to find any better.
33:17I kept thinking, you know, we just watched the greatest game ever played in this ballpoint.
33:24That game, because it was the Sox...
33:30It was one of the greatest experiences I've gone through in my life.
33:34It was almost religious.
33:36The Rocket Pedro game seven was a baseball fan's dream.
33:44Nixon in the right center field.
33:46Roger Clemens was rocked by the Red Sox for four runs in three-plus innings in game seven of the
33:512003 ALCS.
33:54The game's in the back, because it's five to two in the eighth and Pedro's pitching.
33:58And then all this stuff starts happening.
34:01Jeter flies into right, Nixon back.
34:04On the run, it's over his head.
34:06In the center field, Jeter will come to the plate.
34:10It's a two-run game.
34:12Here comes Grady Little jogging out to the mound.
34:15Any fool ought to have been able to see that you had to yank Pedro at that moment.
34:20It was the only way you were going to hold them off.
34:23Grady Little is going to stick with his starter.
34:26Matsui gets on.
34:28Sade ends up hitting dunker in the center.
34:30Before you know it, it's a tie ballgame.
34:31And once we tied the ballgame, there was that feeling on the bench that we were going to win this
34:34game.
34:35In the bottom of the 11th, up-stepped Aaron Boone against Tim Wakefield.
34:40The only thing that worried me about Booney, he was thinking about hitting home runs all the time.
34:45He kind of struggled from the day he joined us.
34:47He was terrible in the postseason that year.
34:53But, I don't know what was wrong with Pedro.
34:56He was not supposed to be like that.
35:00You know, he's a tough kid.
35:02He's a winner.
35:03Boone wins it to deep knock.
35:06One by seven, the Yankees to the World Series.
35:09Go to the hero of game seven.
35:11That, without doubt, was the most exciting game I have ever been involved in.
35:16We're sitting over there tonight, and it wasn't looking good, and Derek told me the ghosts will show up eventually,
35:22and they did.
35:29I, as a Yankee fan, felt that it was my birthright to win a pennant in the World Series every
35:38year.
35:38It was the Yankees.
35:40We knew that it was not going to be easy to win that game.
35:44It's 2-1 pitch to Nelson.
35:45A swing and a bounce!
35:47A seat to right field!
35:48Way back!
35:49Hey!
35:50It's a full run!
35:50Over there!
35:51People talk about the great games.
35:53The history of the World Series.
35:55There was no better game, no more dramatic game, than the seventh game of the 1960 Series.
36:11That three-run homer by Barra gave the Yankees a 5-4 lead in the sixth inning.
36:16They added two more runs in the eighth, and then fate intervened in the form of a bad bounce ground.
36:22Swing and a ground ball, hit right toward the shortstop.
36:23Oh, and hit Kubek in the face!
36:25It hit him in the face, and Kubek has been hurt, and all hands are safe.
36:30After the Pirates closed the gap to 7-6, Kyle Smith homered to give the Pirates the lead.
36:36I have a lead!
36:37I have a lead!
36:41Smitty hitting the home run, putting us two runs ahead, and all I could think of was, well, we got
36:46him now.
36:47But then, that burn Yankees came back and tied us.
36:50The first batter the Yankees, Ralph Terry, faced in the bottom of the ninth was a man named Matt.
36:55I went to the bench, and I was just sitting there, and I didn't know I was up.
36:59Somebody, oh, Maz, you're the hitter.
37:00I forgot I was on deck.
37:02And the first pitch was high, and Maz was a notorious highball hitter, well-known even as a 24-year
37:09-old.
37:09I wasn't trying to be any hero or hit the ball out of the ballpark.
37:13I wasn't even in my mind.
37:15And I called the wrong pitch.
37:17I called a slider.
37:21The slider forgot to slide.
37:23Here's a play, and a high-fly ball going deep to us, but they do it!
37:26Back to the wall, don't die, it is!
37:29Oh, there's a corner on the pile of players!
37:33Mazurowski hit the ball over Yogi Berra's head and left it.
37:35I don't know it was on.
37:40Eventually, Mazurowski knows it's gone, and he takes his hat off and starts, like, swinging his arms, like...
37:49like some cowboy.
37:53And the Pittsburgh Pirates had won this thing.
37:55I couldn't believe it!
37:57Just about the time I hit second base, I'd look down the left field line, and there's that umpire giving
38:02it this.
38:03So I'd pick up my speed a little bit to get to the home plate and make sure I touch
38:07home plate.
38:09Next thing I know, I'm up in the clubhouse, and, uh, you have to report it all around me, and
38:16I missed out on a champagne.
38:20You ask me, it's remembered as one of the dark moments in baseball history.
38:24What? Baseball?
38:25So what really makes a memorable game?
38:29That was a great David vs. Goliath upset.
38:33And they won the next two years.
38:36They won two years earlier.
38:40A dynasty loses one championship, and this is how they act.
38:48This is why these big market, big, big dynasty teams and fans don't deserve what they get.
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