from Amazon
Monday, June 16, 2008
The Greatest Play Ever
Joe Posnanski has his criteria:
- in a hugely important game
- more than brilliant … it has to be utterly unrepeatable.
- decide the game
His focus was on football, to which these three criteria make the most sense. Anyway, in my lifetime for MLB, and sticking to the above rules, I guess it would be Kirk Gibson v Eck. But baseball is really about the build-up of drama, not that single event that really marks football. In basketball these rules wouldn’t even make sense. In hockey, these rules would only make sense in an OT game, and the goalie can never win here.
What rules can you make up for baseball? First, I’d call it the Greatest Moment ever, since that’s what baseball is about, not a single play. The first criteria is fine, and the third criteria would be “impact the game hugely” (basically, a high WPA play, or a series of such plays). The second criteria would be “I don’t believe what I just saw”. Kibson/Eck still qualify, but now you have the 8th inning of Cubs/Marlins and Pedro/Little game added in (again, in my lifetime). Carlton Fisk, but that was just a bit before my time. 9th inning of 1986 Game 6.
In hockey, I’d keep the first criteria, and the new second criteria ("I don’t believe what I just saw") and the third criteria would be ("back-and-forth action, where each team was about to take a huge lead or win the game; or a play that you can relive knowing that you’ll never see such a play again"). So, the Rangers/Islanders Game 5 would be one such game (1984). The Gretzky/Lemieux Canada Cup 1987 winning goal. I’m not happy with that third criteria, since it lets you bring in the 1972 Summit Series, but not the 1980 Miracle on Ice.