It can be great fun to watch a game on TV, or to read about it after the fact. But there is something magical about attending a great sporting event. What is the best one you have seen in person?
Share why if you wish.
Asking — and answering — life's interesting questions
It can be great fun to watch a game on TV, or to read about it after the fact. But there is something magical about attending a great sporting event. What is the best one you have seen in person?
Share why if you wish.
Being a Minnesota transplant living in the Boston area, I am a fan of both the Minnesota Twins and the Boston Red Sox baseball teams. As such, I occasionally go to Fenway Park when the Twins are in town.
I did so back in 2006, and I saw what was a fairly run-of-the-mill game, a 6-0 Red Sox win. While the Sox were pretty much out of contention for the season, David Ortiz was chasing the Red Sox single season home run record. He broke the record in the first inning, and added a second home run in the sixth, sending the entire audience into a frenzy.
The whole event wasn’t that great, but the home runs were magical, with the euphoria present in the crowd of 30,000+ fans being remarkable.
But for best overall event, start to finish, I’d have to go with the 2003 NCAA Hockey Championship for Division I Women, played between Harvard and Minnesota-Duluth in Duluth.
Both teams were totally stacked with talent, each side featuring a bevy of Olympic players, among the best to ever put on the skates. The venue was, essentially, a home game for UMD, so the standing room only crowd was totally into the action.
After a see-saw first couple of periods that saw each team score three goals, the defense clamped down, and the game went to double overtime before UMD won it. Both teams played remarkable defense and offense, and, to use a cliche, it was a shame that one team had to lose.
I was covering the game for USCHO, and it was instantly obvious that I had seen one of the best-played games ever.
One of the best I attended was not a single game but a whole season in the early 1950’s when my Dad took me and my brothers to watch the Aberdeen Pheasants play in the Class C Northern League.
I remember him spoiling us with lots of peanuts and Cracker Jacks, and teaching us not to leave the game until the last out. We knew the names and positions of all the players and had our favorites. One of my favorites played shortstop – his name was Chico Espinosa. Another favorite was Tito Francona, who later played and managed in the Major Leagues.