Your Mount Rushmore of Detroit/Michigan Sports Moments

[Motor City Sonics]

Hi there.   Only rule is that a moment can't be a whole season.   It's got to be a play or maybe a game.   

 

I am absolutely positive I will think of 10 more after I hit SUBMIT TOPIC   I have 4 and then 50 honorable mentions. 

So, in no particular order

 

Kirk Gibson's Game 5 Home Run in 1984.    A lot of people think that was a walk-off or that it gave us the lead.   I know almost all of you know the team was leading 5-4.   That HR just clinched it.  It was the first Detroit championship in my memory (I was 3 in 1968)

Vinnie Johnson :00.7    (Because I can't remember one single moment from their first title the year before).  I was living in Florida at the time, so not around a bunch of Piston fans.    But I was watching with my roommate and the Pistons were losing that game by something like 7 points with less than 2 minutes and they called a timeout and I said "they're gonna win this thing tonight".  There was just something about the look on their faces during that timeout.  

Red Wings vs. Avs    March 26, 1997.     REVENGE!   Not only did McCarty destroy Lemieux, he scored the winner on OT.  That was the night the Wings really won the Stanley Cup.   There was no stopping them after that.   

Magglio's Walk-Off Pennant-Clinching game.     After 19 years of pretty dismal baseball, all the disappointment went poof in one moment.   All he needed was a single, but where's the drama in that?  

 

 

[romad1]

22 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Hi there.   Only rule is that a moment can't be a whole season.   It's got to be a play or maybe a game.   

 

I am absolutely positive I will think of 10 more after I hit SUBMIT TOPIC   I have 4 and then 50 honorable mentions. 

So, in no particular order

 

Kirk Gibson's Game 5 Home Run in 1984.    A lot of people think that was a walk-off or that it gave us the lead.   I know almost all of you know the team was leading 5-4.   That HR just clinched it.  It was the first Detroit championship in my memory (I was 3 in 1968)

Vinnie Johnson :00.7    (Because I can't remember one single moment from their first title the year before).  I was living in Florida at the time, so not around a bunch of Piston fans.    But I was watching with my roommate and the Pistons were losing that game by something like 7 points with less than 2 minutes and they called a timeout and I said "they're gonna win this thing tonight".  There was just something about the look on their faces during that timeout.  

Red Wings vs. Avs    March 26, 1997.     REVENGE!   Not only did McCarty destroy Lemieux, he scored the winner on OT.  That was the night the Wings really won the Stanley Cup.   There was no stopping them after that.   

Magglio's Walk-Off Pennant-Clinching game.     After 19 years of pretty dismal baseball, all the disappointment went poof in one moment.   All he needed was a single, but where's the drama in that?  

 

 

Two more. 

Rose Bowl 2023 Michigan season.  Finally breaking through in the CFP and defeating Nick Saben to the point where he decided he could no longer compete with modern CFB players who expected to be paid (playing for his opponents). 

Amon Ra St. Brown secures 4th down catch to secure Detroit Lions first playoff win since 1991

[oblong]

I'm focusing on moments, not events, like a team winning or whatever.

 

Yzemran lifting the cup in '97.  The actual moment of him lifting it over his head, with his missing tooth.  If someone else had done it it later on, even Lidstrom, it wouldn't have meant as much.

Kenny Rogers walking off the mound in the 2006 ALDS.  Everybody was mad the team blew the lead for the division and we got "stuck" with the reincarnation of the '27 Yankees.  Got smoked in game 1, game 2 had a rainout when nobody told our SP there was a delay.  Stole game 2.  Kenny just mows this team down all game, yelling for the ball.  The opposite of Fidrych in a way.   Only a year earlier he was the only player booed at the ASG because of both what he did to the cameraman and because many thought he took Bonderman's spot on the team.

So yeah, this is when we realized we can beat this team in the playoffs and when Comerica Park came alive for the first time ever.  There's regular season excitement and there's postseason excitement.  The energy in those 2 games was never topped in a game I've been at since.   And this is the moment it started.  20 years of Tigers angst bottled up and released at that moment.   After that success was expected.

 

 

[LaceyLou]

For me, it was Trammell's second home run in game 4 of the '84 World Series. I ended up falling out of my chair, with the chair on top of me. 

[romad1]

I think there is an Aiden Hutchinsen moment coming that will live in Detroit Sports history like that of Gibby's HR in Game 5.  A lot of the same variables:  Local boy.  Crazy athlete.  Championship draught finally quenched. 

[RandyMarsh]

Yzermans OT goal against STL and Tayshaun's block come to mind as well. 

Also another one that I really love was just the finish to the Lions/jets loser go home game in 97. Seeing how the team and fans responded after the emotional Reggie Brown incident waa something I will always remember. Topped off by Barry securing 2k yards and the playoff berth with the 53 yd run. The place was just electric.

[Motown Bombers]

I got one from each sport.

1) Kerby Joseph intercepts Rodgers to effectively end the Packers season. This was the moment I knew this Lions team was different and that they have arrived.

 

2) Yzerman's OT goal in game 7 against St Louis. Series clinchers are always good. BTW, I miss Gary Thorne calling hockey games.

 

3) Ordonez ALCS walkoff. This was a magical season that came out of nowhere. Heading into the playoffs, it looked like the magic had worn off only to be turned on again.

 

4) Prince block shot in the Eastern Conference Finals. A complete turning point in the serious. The Pistons could have lost that game and went down 0-2 in the series. 

 

[GalagaGuy]

1.  Gibby's home run

2.  Yzerman's double OT goal

3.  Magglio's home run

4.  Michigan stopping Alabama in OT

Edited Tuesday at 01:38 AM by GalagaGuy

[Mr.TaterSalad]

So I have two Mt. Rushmore's. One is of my favorite moments in sports and one is the all the bad moments, blunders, stupidity, and SOL.

Favorite Mt. Rushmore . . .

1. Michigan wins the National Championship in 1997 and the iconic picture of Charles Woodson with the rose in his mouth. I was a kid then and my dad and I were fist bumping and high fiving when Michigan won the Rose Bowl.

2. Red Wings win the Cup in 2008. Went to Joe Vision for Game 6 when we beat Pittsburgh that year and what a time we had. I had just turned 21 that year too.

3. Magglio's walkoff home run during the 2006 ALCS. The call on this one from Thom Brennaman is great too.

4. Lions beating the Rams for their first playoff win in 32 years. I had never witnessed a playoff win as I was like 4 years old the last time they won a playoff game. I still have beer stains on the siding on the porch awning from us spraying beer all over each other.

 

Edited Tuesday at 02:33 PM by Mr.TaterSalad

[RandyMarsh]

I was about to say Woodson's big plays in that game as well. Even though I'm older now thus have been a fan longer that 97 Championship meant so much more to me than this past one