My 10 Favorites: Part One
This is the first of two posts about my favorite things about sports. Between possible lockouts in football and basketball next year, Roger Clemens committing perjury, the Darrelle Revis holdout, and the backlash from LeBron’s relocation of his talents, it’s easy for sportswriters to be cynical and negative on a lot of fronts. Hell, it’s their job to identify the issues confronting sports and enter their opinion in the public forum for discussion. At times, however, it can be easy to forget what it is exactly that we love about sports and why we follow in the first place. So I’m taking it upon myself to first post ten of my favorite sports-related YouTube clips, and then following it up with the ten “little things” that I love about sports, underrated moments, or details that keep me forever enmeshed in the 24-hour news cycle of the American sports scene.
Without any further ado, in no particular order, my ten favorite sports-related clips, rewatchable throughout time:
1) Joe Namath being fresh with Suzy Kolber—I was actually at this game, so I had no idea this happened until I got home that night, but it doesn’t seem to get any less funny as time goes on, and unfortunately leads to me assuming Namath is in various states of intoxication whenever I see him now, including his recent appearances on Hard Knocks at Jets’ Training Camp with his shorts hiked up to his nipples:
2) Steven Gerrard’s Top 10 Goals—Even if you don’t like soccer, you can enjoy this nicely edited collection of goals by Steven Gerrard. If you’re not familiar with Gerrard, he’s the hometown-bred captain of the Liverpool Reds, one of the top teams in the English Premier League. He’s the ultimate clutch performer, and starting at goal #9, you’ll wonder “how isn’t this #1?” with each goal:
3)Robbie Fowler’s Goal Celebration—Sticking with Liverpool and videos you can enjoy even you don’t enjoy soccer, here’s Robbie Fowler, former Liverpool striker who was nicknamed “God” and was known around town for being a partier. In fact, after allegations surfaced that he was doing tons of coke, Liverpool played a derby match against crosstown rivals Everton, during which fans chanted derogatory things like calling him a “smackhead.” It’d be like if the Yankees came to Fenway immediately after A-Rod admitted to using steroids and fans started giving him the business and he ended up hitting a go-ahead home run in the ninth. But I doubt he’d have the humor/genius to celebrate like this:
4) Sick Wiffle Ball Pitcher—This is just fun to watch, especially when you imagine the time and effort this guy took to setting the camera up in his backyard and putting it online. I imagine he has an entire room in his parents’ house dedicated to wiffle ball. But still, you gotta hand it to him—he’s got some nasty stuff:
5) Bull Gets Revenge—Sticking with a different kind of “Oh Shit!” factor, here’s what happens in Mexico when a bull has ups like Dee Brown. Pajarito! PETA members, look away:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWdCRdnmopg
6) Bruins Take the Fight to MSG—But Pajarito is only the second most dangerous event involving sport and fan interactions here. In this 1970s precursor to the Brawl at the Palace at Auburn Hills, check out what happens when dumb New York Ranger fans tempt the Bruins during the roughest era of the NHL. Hopefully Milan Lucic is getting ideas:
7)COME TO PENN STATE—This video is proof of a couple things. 1) Most college football coaches are stilted and humorless 2) Their presence only makes Joe Paterno’s continued exuberance more awesome. If you knew nothing about any school in the Big Ten, who would you want to play for after watching this video?
8) RBI Baseball does 1986 World Series—And the winner for Most Creative Display of a Painful Memory goes to…Still, as much as I can be pained by an event that happened when I was two, this video is awesome. How does it not have more than 110,000 views?
9) Bush Throws First Pitch at Yankee Stadium After 9/11—I wanted something with historical significance as well as sports on this list, and even though I hate the Yankees, I have to say this does a good job of placing the viewer back in the weeks following the tragedy of 9/11. I don’t like the Yanks, and I don’t like Bush, but this video is still capable of giving chills:
10) Celtics Trifecta—Because I couldn’t possibly end this with two pro-New York videos, here is a THREESOME of awesome Celtics clips. I’d like to throw out there that I am very disappointed I couldn’t get the retirement speeches of Bob Cousy, Yaz, or Cam Neely, but these will do. I saved my favorite for last. KG celebrates his first title:
Rajon Rondo Top 10 Plays 2009-10:
annnnnd Scal Dunks!
And because I love Scal, here’s him getting a stupid question from an ignorant European reporter. That’s how you shut him up, Scal!
