Friday, October 15, 2010

GO CRAZY, FOLKS!  Joe Posnanski compiles (with audio and video) the thirty-two greatest announcer calls in sports history.  TPE's favorite is #4.

20 comments:

  1. Carmichael Harold7:54 AM

    This is on the short list of my favorite things ever.  

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  2. The Pathetic Earthling8:03 AM

    You know Dumbledore's warning about the mirror of Erised?  Looking to see something other than yourself as you are?  That's me with clip #4.  

    Really glad they included the 2008 free relay.  Probably my favorite sports moment of this century for the sheer excitement of it.

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  3. Anonymous10:16 AM

    Thanks for this. Some of these I had never heard. Being a track guy, I had always heard of the Billy Mills win, but never saw or heard the call. As clippy as it was, it was stunning to see those guys sprint through what appears to be heavy traffic from lapped athletes. I'm surprised that finish wasn't protested.

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  4. Marsha11:01 AM

    And there goes my productivity for the morning. Thanks, Adam.

    Number 19 is, of course, a personal favorite, but I think I love best the ones I saw and heard when they happened - Costas on Jordan, Kirk Gibson, and perhaps most of all, Lezak's swim.

    Ditto being thrilled to hear/see the Billy Mills footage. I'm sort of a track geek too, but I've never seen that footage. Great stuff.

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  5. Joseph J. Finn11:08 AM

    This is such a good list that my only quibble is Scully's call of Koufax's perfect game is far, far too low on the list.

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  6. Well, y'all probably know that I'd be crazy about the first one listed under #10.  Of course, the quote goes out further than what Joe P. notes:  "Man, is there gonna be some property destroyed tonight!"

    Watching the Olympic swim by Lezak was one of my favorite sports moments, so I was very glad to see that one in there.  And a lot of other good ones, too.  So I was surprised to see so many really negative comments on the article itself.  Because, all in all, it was a job well done, I thought.

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  7. Meghan11:25 AM

    I still get all choked up from even reading about #1. 

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  8. heathalouise11:36 AM

    I have a soft spot for "Havlicek stole the ball!" because it's a phrase that inexplicably was uttered in my house with alarming frequency while growing. This is weird because my folks really aren't big basketball fans. I think my dad just liked to imitate Johnny Most (talk about an amazing Bahston accent).

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  9. heathalouise11:37 AM

    "growing up." Yikes, that's some bad grammar.

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  10. First thing I did was make sure the title of this post was included. Then I knew I was in good hands.

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  11. isaac_spaceman11:54 AM

    So many goosebumps this morning.

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  12. Anonymous11:58 AM

    My only complaint? This Bob Ufer call from 1979 is missing:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzezQR5CDMQ

    Go to 3 minute mark.

    --bd

    ps  - The honking is from a horn supposedly from Gen. George Patton's Jeep.

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  13. Maret1:30 PM

    Amazing list. Personally, from growing up in a Dodger household, Kirk Gibson is my number one, but all of these are spectacular and in some ways where they fall on the list doesn't even matter.

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  14. J. Bowman1:44 PM

    Several of my high school friends and I could do a decent impression of late-80's Most, and would frequently pull out a loud, gravelly version of "BIRD STEALS THE BALL OVER TO JOHNSON THE CELTICS WIN!" whenever we wanted to annoy each other (we were all Pistons fans).

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  15. bill.5:47 PM

    What? No Phil Liggett?

    I'd go with 1989's "Laurence Fignon has lost the Tour de France right on the line...he has lost the Tour de France by 8 seconds. Can you believe THAT!

    And the Phil Liggett & Paul Sherwin call of The Look: He took a look straight into the eyes of Jan Ullrich and said "well, here I go. Are you coming or not?" and the answer is NOT!

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  16. Joseph J. Finn5:48 PM

    And now, <span>10 Not So Great Announcing Moments.  Any list that takes the time to mock a certain ex-Cubs announcer is AOK by me.</span>

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  17. gtv20007:43 PM

    I remember hearing Koufax's perfect game call live as a kid in LA. I remember that we heard on the TV that he was pitching a perfect game, so we turned on the radio to listen.  Times were different then.

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  18. calliekl11:41 AM

    I could watch the free relay all day. That was such an incredible moment.

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  19. calliekl5:51 PM

    I checked this out to make sure Joe Buck's obnoxious dressing down of Randy Moss was on there. Check.

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