i'm guessing the people who were fortunate enough to see the game's REAL best moments (Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, etc.) didn't show up in the record numbers that teenagers whose lifetime merely spans the 1980s onwards did. I saw the Ripken game... um, i guess it was cool, but i'm sure it no way compared to the emotion felt during Robinson's first game (both positive and negative) what a crock!
A clutch HR by Ripken would have been a better choice. I wanted an actual play to be the best, not just some moment. I would have picked Aaron's 715th HR, considering the fact that he dealt with racial abuse and death threats during that time. Plus, it's the only play you see where fans ran onto the field, and didn't have cops beating them down.
Bull****. How was one of the things Ichiro entering the MLB? Where was Babe Ruth's called shot? How did Cal Ripken win over Mays, Aaron, Robinson, Thompson, or Gibson? They should limit the voting to people that actually know about baseball.
agree that was a horrible choice for number 1. i thought it should have been the bobby thompson homer because not only was the homer huge but there was so much that built up to it (13 game come back during season, 3rd game of 3 game playoff, trailing 4-1 in the bottom of the 9th) and it was against a hated rival. what i can't believe is that the shot heard round the world wasn't even in the Top 10!!! i mean what the hell. i was born in 1981 and i know about it. there's this little thing called tv that shows the replay of it all the time. come on people. vote for it. glad to see my favorite player nolan ryan get some 10th place love. i would've probably put jackie robinson 2nd.
I don't think everyone would have been happy with any choice. I am a huge Ripken fan, he is the reason I started watching baseball and became an Orioles fan. I think his streak meant so much because it came at a time that baseball was torn apart and it really helped to bring the sport and it's fans back together. So I thought it was a good choice. Aaron's 715th and Sammy vs Mark where close 2nd's in my book.
Ripken's streak didn't have anything to do with bringing baseball back together. People say that all the time and it just pisses me off how they can latch onto the guy's nuts. The fans will always come back regardless of what happens before or after a strike. I also love the whole "he went out with a bang" thing. Yeah, like Chan Ho Park left a 75 MPH fastball with no movement over the middle by accident. If something more deserving won it, no one would be complaining.
They should limit the voting to people that actually know about baseball. Yes, anyone who doesn't vote like me shouldn't be allowed to vote. Only my vote should count.
Uhmm....I didn't say that. And you can't say I meant it. I asked just about all of my friends, and I listened to PTI and many NY radio shows. Almost none had Cal Ripken in the top 5. For the most part it was the 5 I listed...with Pete Rose and Don Larsen added in too. Good thing Jackie Robinson's moment happened, or else half of these moments would have never happened.
I thought it was best moment, not life-time achievement. Don't get me wrong, Aaron's record took a long time, but Ripken's moment is different. Hitting a homerun is a moment, hitting number 56 is a moment, starting the game and you being on the field is not a moment because that's pretty boring in my book. That just pissed me off. I wish I knew how to vote on Aaron, because I would have done it ten thousand times to change that event tonight. Baseball officials suck. 2131 should have never been on the ballot. Go Barry Bonds.
It should have been Nolan Ryan beating the snot outta Ventura. BTW- RM95 nice signature about the "Brown out."
The Ripken streak, might have brought the Oriole fans back together... But like Rule said, I doubt that people suddenly forgot we had a strike a year earlier, just because the man who didn't know when to hang em up, finally reached the record. Sosa vs McGwire in 98, was more likely to have "brought fans together" than the Ripken thing.
I doubt that, at least on this board While I will agree that Cal`s record was impressive it certainly does not rank as #1. IMO I would have picked Big Mac`s run for the Homerun record. I have never watched a regular season so closely as the chase between Mark and Sammy........it had me on the edge of my seat every game.
But like others have said, it's not a moment, it was a season long event. To me, a moment is a single event, frozen in time, that will forever be remembered. Bobby Thompson's HR was just such a moment.
In actuality, the owners were going to use replacement players to start the 1995 season. Peter Angelos (Orioles owner) was not going to allow replacement players. Had they played, Ripken's streak would have effectively stopped once an Oriole game was played. Shortly therafter, the owners agreed to let the players play under the old CBA. While this certianly did not return fans to the game on the same scale as McGwire vs Sosa, it did lead to an earlier settlement of the 1994-1995 labor dispute. Perhaps that is what Sonny was referring to.
Exactly. Also, Carlton Fisk's home run in game 6 of the '75 World Series was a very dramatic moment and it wasn't even in the top 10! My boss and me got into an argument over whether Ripken's streak brought the fans back. He says it did, and I say no way. As NYK and kidrock said, one year was not enough time for people to forget about the strike. It was the home run race between Sosa and McGwire in '98 that brought people back to baseball. At any rate, something like this should have been voted on by sportswriters who actually covered baseball. What a novel concept! Have people who actually know what is going on with something do the voting and make the decisions!
Too bad Ripkin's kids were born on off days, or this whole "streak" business wouldn't even be a factor Did everyone hear all the fans that were booing when Kirk Gibson came out on the field? Classic...
