Has anyone attended a legendary sports event?

[Tomconroy]

I've been to one for sure. The one game playoff between the Yankees and the Red Sox in 1978. The two teams had finished the season in a dead heat tie. The division champion was to be determined in a one game playoff for the first time in 30 years.
The game happened on a perfect fall afternoon on a Monday at Fenway Park. Completely sold out, tickets were impossible. But my brother, a big Boston fan, had been prescient. He had tickets for the last games of the season and foresaw the possibility of a playoff. I think he decided to hang around the box office on Friday night just to see what happened
Sure enough, they put on sale tickets for what was then only a possibility. My brother bought a bunch for friends and family. My parents and I drove up from CT. Then as now parking in Boston was impossible to come by. We parked out in the fens somewhere. The instant we got out of the car somebody approached us to buy tickets for ten bucks a piece (above the face price). The closer we got to Fenway Park the higher the offers went. By the time we got to Fenway the offers were $125 a piece, a lot of money back then.
I remember the game pretty well. I can still see Bucky Dent's (forever affectionately known in New England as Bucky Fucking Dent) bloop hit barely make it into the net over the outfield fence
The game ended in the bottom of the ninth with the tying run on third. The Red Sox great Carl Yastrzemski came up to bat. Everyone was on their feet screaming. Unfortunately Yaz hit a ball into foul territory by third base. The game was over. The curse of the Bambino would not be laid to rest for another difficult twenty years or so.
My most vivid memory though is what happened next. The fans got out of their seats and headed to the exits. There was absolutely no sound. No one spoke a word even when they got to the streets. You could literally hear pins drop. Just utter silence, such was the deep disappointment of the Boston fans.
My father told a story. He was born in 1920 and was a lifelong Red Sox fan. He told me that growing up he would run home from school to listen to games on the radio. If he ever knew that some day tv would be invented and you could see the games live he would have died of anticipation waiting for it to happen.
It was early spring 1939. Red Sox fans all over New England were hearing rumors that the team had signed a kid who could hit like no other. Of course the kid was Ted Williams.
The Sox made there way north from Spring training in Florida. They made a stop in new Haven CT. The Red Sox general manager was hall of famer Eddie Collins and his son was captain of the Yale baseball team. Smokey Joe Wood, another Red Sox legend, was the Yale team manager. It had been arranged for the Sox to play an exhibition game against Yale. My father got a ticket.
He remembered Yale had a promising sophomore pitcher that year who started the game. He remembered before the game Lefty Grove showing the young Yalie a few things about throwing a baseball. Well, the game got underway and wouldn't you know it, the kid from Yale struck out the soon to be immortal Ted Williams three times before being relieved! In the ninth inning Williams did send a mighty blast towards the fences, only to be robbed by a spectacular catch by a Yale outfielder. The Red Sox scraped by with a one run win.
Many years later my father ran into Smokey Joe Wood's son. They got to talking and figured out they had both been at this game. My father asked, "Whatever happened to that young pitcher who struck Ted Williams out three times?"
Mr. Wood knew the answer: "Oh, he got into a fight with one of the coaches the next year and quit the team!"
Now that's the stuff of legends!

[AZSkiffyGeek]

1. Giants-Patriots Super Bowl

The ending was incredible to see in person…

[Twoflower]

2. Nope I'm a Mets fan.

[Tomconroy]

3. Ha! I remember going to games

During their first year at the old Polo grounds. Duke Snyder played for them and Marvelous Marv Throneberry. Casey Stengle managed. They were legendarily bad.
Of course one day 1969 came along and a kid named Tom Seaver. Their time will come again.

[Casady1]

4. The closest I came to attending a legendary event

was Grateful Dead 7/8/78 at Red Rocks with Werewolves of London for the 2nd encore and Terrapin/one more saturday night for the first encore. Top 5 Dead concert of all time.

[Boxerfan]

5. I watched Freddie Spencer run the oval piston Honda NR500

In the only race it ran in the USA. Laguna Seca .

For the time it was revolutionary and predicted to be the future of combustion engines. Ran well & Freddie was as always a great rider.

But too technically difficult in the real world. In reality it was just bending the rules & making a v8 with 4 cylinders.

[momta]

6. No but I was watching live on TV when...

Troy Tulowitzki turned an unassisted triple play. I remember I had the sound off, but when I saw it I turned up the sound to make sure I had seen what I thought I had seen. April 2007.

[Rastapopoulos]

7. I was at Yaz's last game

October 1983. My roomie got tickets from his dad's business. Meaningless game otherwise against a bad Indians team. Sox were out of contention and would finish in fourth place (I think). Yaz flied out in his last at bat, then when he went out to left, someone (Chico Walker?) went out to replace him. Yaz then did a lap around the park, waving at everyone. A class act all the way.

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

8. Fight night at the Joe

It was the Red Wings - Avalanche game in 1997 where multiple fights broke out. I think 9 or 10 fights broke out.

[MaryMagdaline]

9. Hail Flutie game 1984

Unfortunately, I am a Miami fan.

Also saw a no-hitter (Al Leiter) but that’s not exactly legendary.

[Ocelot II]

10. Game 7 of the 1991 World Series was awesome.

And MLB called it the second greatest game since 1960. 10 innings, Twins 1, Atlanta 0. Jack Morris pitched the whole game. Generally speaking I'm not a big sports fan and rarely go to live games, but that was great fun to watch. Also the drunk people climbing light poles in downtown Minneapolis afterwards.

[Jeebo]

16. I've still got that game on videocassette somewhere.

All seven of those games, in fact, but I'd have to really hunt for them, and I've heard videotapes deteriorate with time, so I don't know if they would play any more. I don't have a functioning VHS VCR either, although I do still have two Beta VCRs that still worked five or six years ago, the last time they were used. I'm a Braves fan and was VERY disappointed at the outcome of that Series, but I am proud that the Braves were a part of it. It was a GREAT Series. Seven games, and the home team won every game. Weird. I wish the Braves had happened to be the one who got to host four of the games. As I recall, back then, the two leagues took turns hosting four of the games, so that was just the luck of the draw.

-- Ron

[Bayard]

11. Several

Went to the Track and Field Olympic Trials in Indianapolis in 1984.
The Atlanta Olympics in 1996.
Kentucky Derby in1980.
The 1973 Indy 500 with my Dad.

[cachukis]

12. Large family gathering rental house in Narragansett, RI.

My brother had tickets to Fenway. Off and on watching the game in the living room. Long fly to the bleachers. Watched my brother catch the homer.
My father was a ref in the Greater Boston League for high school BB. The Garden rarely sold out for the Celtics. He received tickets as part of his pay. Floor seats to watch Wilt play against Russell. As Satch Sanders walked by, I asked my father if that was Wilt. "No, you'll know Wilt when he walks by."

[Jeebo]

13. I saw a no-hitter.

Phil Niekro pitched one for the Atlanta Braves against the San Diego Padres in Atlanta Fulton County Stadium on Sunday, August 5, 1973, the score was 9-0, and I was there. Yes, I am a Braves fan, and I was SO thrilled. Years later, living in Missouri, when Missouri started running a state lottery, I started keeping those numbers covered, 1-3-5-7-8-19. That's 1 for Sunday, the first day of the week on the calendar, 3 for the 3 in 1973, 5 for the fifth day of August, 7 for the 7 in 1973, 8 for August which is the eighth month, and 19 for the 19 in 1973. That state lottery started in 1986 and I am still keeping those numbers covered to this day. And yes, I do know those numbers will hit some day. I hope I will still be walking around above the ground by then.

-- Ron

[Buckeye_Democrat]

14. No, but I attended the 2015 Sugar Bowl...

... when Ohio State beat Alabama, which might've seemed legendary to some Buckeyes fans.

I was expecting a Buckeyes win that year, frustrated by their early mistakes and 21-6 deficit when they were clearly moving the ball down the field better. And it eventually resulted in a win for them.

When Alabama was ahead, the overconfidence of their fans around me was palpable. At that point in the game, they'd loudly say with broad smiles, "Pardon me!" to flout their fake manners as they'd leave their seats to shuffle in front of other spectators to get more beer and snacks. Those same "gentlemen" later had scowls with curses flowing from their mouths.

By the end, their faces were blank and they were VERY quiet as the quickly exited the stadium.

[Tomconroy]

15. My mother was at Yankee Stadium to see Babe Ruth's

Farewell to baseball. Her father took her. He had played minor league ball and was actually a friend of John McGraw.

[mopinko]

17. the ex and i had season tickets for the white sox for several years.

part of a small cabal. so, saw a lot in their championship series.
he went to more of the 'must win' games at the end of that season, but it sure was a great time.

we were at that record setting game that went 22 innings iirc. the stadium club almost ran out of beer.

we were also at the last game at the old comiskey.
we were standing on the catwalk for the fireworks, and caught several shell fragments.
he got a great pics of the show.

besides being a lifelong sox fan, he went all the time w his dad when he was younger and had lost him a couple years before.
one of the few times i ever saw him get misty.

i'm rly not a sports fan. i was raised a cubs fan, but i recovered.
you cant beat fun at the old ball park, tho.