1) Jack Buck’s “I don’t believe what I just saw!” call of Kirk Gibson’s game-winning home run in game 1 of the 1988 world series.
2) Al Michaels: “Do you believe in miracles?” call as time ticked away in the U.S. hockey team’s improbable win over the highly-favored Soviets in the 1980 Olympics.
3) The ‘shot heard ‘round the world.’
Few calls in baseball have ever been as dramatic and immortalized as Giants play-by-play man Russ Hodges’ call of Bobby Thompson’s game-winner off Ralph Branca to win the 1951 pennant. The Giants, 13 1/2 games back in mid-August, went on one of the all-time greatest tears in sports history, winning 37 of their final 44 games to tie the Dodgers on the final day of the season to force a 3-game playoff. In game 3, after trailing 4-1 into the 9th, the Giants scored, lost a player to a broken ankle, and with runners on first and third, Ralph Branca was brought in to close out the game. He didn’t. Thompson did.
4) Havlicek stole the ball!
Boston Celtics announcer Johnny Most left behind perhaps the single most-memorable basketball radio call ever. With 5 seconds left in game 7 of the 1965 Eastern conference finals, the Celts were struggling down the stretch and had seen their lead dwindle to a single point. With the Philadelphia 76ers future hall of famer Hal Greer set to inbound in the Boston backcourt, John Havlicek lured Greer into passing to Chet Walker, one of the Sixers’ high-scoring forwards who looked open…but wasn’t. Havlicek glanced back as Greer made the pass, and the rest is history, just like Most’s electrifying call.
5) Howard Cosell calling Alvin Garrett “That little monkey.”
Perhaps the most significant factor contributing to the end of Cosell’s stint on Monday Night Football. The voice that roared and had become one of the most popular, (and most hated) sports broadcasters fired off a comment as Washington Redskins receiver Alvin Garrett broke one off, declaring, “Look at that little monkey run!” While Cosell later explained he also called his grandson ‘little monkey,’ that didn’t quite fly with the black audience. Garrett was clearly a poor choice for the moniker, and the call is one of Monday Night Football’s all-time lowlights.
6) “The Play” Cal vs. Stanford…and the band
In a college football call now remembered almost as much for the hysteria of the announcer as the action on the field, Cal trailed Stanford with only a few ticks of the clock remaining after Stanford had just scored. On the kickoff, the Bears began to lateral, and as they moved downfield, the Stanford band, prematurely taking the field in celebration, were the final obstacle to a game-winning touchdown that’s been shown on just about every college football highlight program since.
7) “Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!”
When George Foreman stepped into the ring against Smokin’ Joe Frazier in 1973, Frazier had the belt, along with the mileage put on him by Muhammed Ali in their previous bout. Howard Cosell, who by then had become the voice of boxing, has two great highlights during the course of what turned out to be a very short bout. After Foreman connects with a thunderous left, Cosell begins to tell the audience that he believes Frazier’s hurt worse than it looks, when Foreman follows up and sends Smokin’ Joe to the canvas, eliciting the now famous, “Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!” call. Frazier would go down twice more, but would survive the round, (for the worse), and make it into the second. As Cosell frantically calls the action in one of the most brutal two-round beat-downs ever, he calls attention to Angelo Dundee and fight doctor Ferdie Pacheco, who are screaming at ringside for referee Arthur Mercante to stop the fight. Foreman would batter Frazier in the corner, the ropes being the only thing holding a devastated Frazier up, until his knees buckled and he went down again. Despite four knockdowns in four minutes, incredibly, the fight continued over Dundee’s and Pacheco’s furious protestations. Frazier would go down twice more before the fight was eventually stopped. You’ll never again see that happen in the ring, nor are you likely to see the courage Frazier exhibited to continue getting up.
8) Vin Scully’s call of Mookie Wilson’s dribbler through Bill Buckner’s legs
Scully, already a broadcasting legend, rarely raised his voice, and if you listen to the bottom of the tenth of the Mets vs. Red Sox thriller, even when the Mets are down to their final strike, Scully is calm and composed. After the Mets tie the game, and Mookie Wilson fouls off pitch after pitch with a full count, Scully sounds like it’s just another day at the office. But then Mookie hits, “A slow roller up the first base line…it’s behind the bag…and it gets by Buckner!” With the Shea faithful rocking the stadium, even Scully gets caught up in the moment, as the Mets pull off one of the most improbable come-from-behind wins in World Series history. Later, Scully would add to the moment with his quote, “If a picture is worth a thousand words…you’ve seen a million.”
9) “And for the love of god will somebody come help this man?!”
Okay, maybe pro wrestling’s iffy in terms of sports, but a great call’s a great call, and there’s few better than JR (Jim Ross) calling the final moments of the Mick Foley (Cactus Jack) vs. Triple H Hell in a Cell match at No Way Out in 2000, with Foley’s career on the line. 20 feet above the ring, Cactus slams a burning 2×4 (wrapped in barbed wire no less) into Triple H’s face. As he prepares to piledrive the champion into the top of the cage, Triple H backdrops Foley over his shoulder. In one of the greatest wrestling stunts ever, Foley not only crashes through the top of the steel cage, but he drops 20 feet to the ring below, which collapses beneath him, leading to Ross crying out, “Oh my god! The cage broke! The ring broke! And Cactus Jack is broken!” Staged? Sure. But in the heat of the moment, listening to JR ham it up, you can’t help but get caught up in it, especially since you can’t always count on everything going right with a stunt, and putting yourself on the line to fall 20 feet in the *hope* that everything goes according to plan? Makes for one helluva show. Since it isn’t the easiest of clips to find, here’s the YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay3cRvo7dy8
