OT - All-Time Best Games in Sports

[rats60]

Originally Posted by Huysmans

Chris, its just that in the grand scheme of hockey importance, its not up there for me, political ramifications aside.
And to be fair, for a lot of Americans, that's the ONLY hockey game they've ever seen.
You make a good point though, I'm sure the Summit Series and Paul Henderson's winning goal means nothing to you.

There is more to the usa-ussr game. It was a true amateur team vs. a great pro team. The series you posted were NHL players vs. Soviet pros. It is the greatest upset in sports history.

[darwinbulldog]

That got me thinking and looking up some things. As far as I can tell, the biggest upset in sports history, or at least since Vegas started taking action, was this one:

10/6/2007 373 STANFORD +41 -110 o57 - 110 +7500
374 USC -41 -110 u57 - 110 -14900

All of which means that Stanford was given less than a 1% chance of winning that game. It was a less important game I guess, to the extent that the outcomes of sporting events can ever be truly important, but Stanford was on the order of ten times as big an underdog against USC as the USA was against the Soviets.

If Angola had beaten the Jordan/Magic/Bird Dream Team I guess that would have been a bigger upset, but there aren't many sporting events I can recall that included a favorite with >99% chance of winning.

I can't think of any in soccer or hockey.

[Huysmans]

Originally Posted by rats60

There is more to the usa-ussr game. It was a true amateur team vs. a great pro team. The series you posted were NHL players vs. Soviet pros. It is the greatest upset in sports history.

That's exactly my point. It was amateurs.
Was it an amazing display and exhibition of the best hockey skills in the world? Hardly.
The summit series on the other hand was the first major meeting between Canada and Russia, the two world hockey powers....
So its almost impossible to quantify its importance.
Can we call the '80 victory important to the US, especially at the time? Definitely.
If you started a thread asking for the biggest game with socio-political implications....you might have something. Or a thread asking for the biggest upset in sports...then we're in agreement. But to call it one of the GREATEST games period.... it doesn't register on my list.

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by Huysmans

That's exactly my point. It was amateurs.
Was it an amazing display and exhibition of the best hockey skills in the world? Hardly.
The summit series on the other hand was the first major meeting between Canada and Russia, the two world hockey powers....
So its almost impossible to quantify its importance.
Can we call the '80 victory important to the US, especially at the time? Definitely.
If you started a thread asking for the biggest game with socio-political implications....you might have something. Or a thread asking for the biggest upset in sports...then we're in agreement. But to call it one of the GREATEST games period.... it doesn't register on my list.

Sure, you're not an American, why would it mean anything to you? The game you mention between Canada and the Soviets means exactly nothing to me...neither does any of the soccer matches listed above. Everything is relative. IMO though a game doesn't have to showcase the best skills in the world to be among the greatest games of all time. I'll take a rag tag group of amateurs shutting down some of the most skilled players in the world if only for one game. It was probably a one in a million happening (hyperbole? eh, whatever), that's why it was great, no one gave the US a chance. No one.

[chris6net]

Originally Posted by Huysmans

That's exactly my point. It was amateurs.
Was it an amazing display and exhibition of the best hockey skills in the world? Hardly.
The summit series on the other hand was the first major meeting between Canada and Russia, the two world hockey powers....
So its almost impossible to quantify its importance.
Can we call the '80 victory important to the US, especially at the time? Definitely.
If you started a thread asking for the biggest game with socio-political implications....you might have something. Or a thread asking for the biggest upset in sports...then we're in agreement. But to call it one of the GREATEST games period.... it doesn't register on my list.

If you took a poll of Americans today I think the Miracle on Ice game in 1980 would win in a landslide as the greatest game ever. It was not the Gold Medal game but based on all the factors involved especially the Cold War this game was the greatest game ever.

[rats60]

Originally Posted by Huysmans

That's exactly my point. It was amateurs.
Was it an amazing display and exhibition of the best hockey skills in the world? Hardly.
The summit series on the other hand was the first major meeting between Canada and Russia, the two world hockey powers....
So its almost impossible to quantify its importance.
Can we call the '80 victory important to the US, especially at the time? Definitely.
If you started a thread asking for the biggest game with socio-political implications....you might have something. Or a thread asking for the biggest upset in sports...then we're in agreement. But to call it one of the GREATEST games period.... it doesn't register on my list.

This is a forum for collecting cards of America's pastime. You should not be surprised America centric answers. Upsets are a part of American culture going back to defeating the English at Yorktown.

At least the usa-user hockey game had meaning, both teams were trying to win an Olympic gold medal. The summit series was just an exhibition. It doesn't even register on our radar. I don't recall the game even being on TV. The only reason I've even heard of it was an article in SI after the fact.

Preseason, regular season or exhibition games aren't even on my radar. Championships are what matter. Olympics, World Series, Super Bowl, NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Finals, NCAA Championships, ect. Great upsets make for great games. Underdogs raising their level of play makes great games. We're just going to have to agree to disagree.

[jbhofmann]

1996 Indiana High School Basketball Regional- New Castle vs Batesville

Nearly 10,000 people packed the worlds largest high school gymnasium to see David and Goliath. Batesville was the last hope of Hoosier diehards. The last chance that a small rural school could win the fabled Indiana High School Tournament. No team had done it since Milan in 1954.

I've been to World Series Games, NCAA Finals for basketball, and played football games at Clemson, The Swamp and Auburn. Nothing has compared to the electricity that was in that massive high school gym that day. The home team was outnumbered. Every non-New Castle resident was cheering hard for the 5'10" Michael Menser led Bulldogs of Batesville. He was absolutely magic that day but in the end, New Castle flung a half court shot at the buzzer and ended Cinderella's run.

I had goosebumps just writing that.

Picture of this "cathedral".