the friday five: having a moment

Okay, I was inspired this week by Independence Day, but I wasn’t quite sure where to go with it. I thought about my favorite moments in American sports history, but that’s too wide a category, so I then went to my favorite moments in American sports movie history, but there wasn’t quite enough there …

Call this one a mash-up, I guess, as I share

Five of My Favorite Real/Fictional Sports Moments

[*Warning: Spoilers—of old movies—ahead!*]

1. Rocky knocking out Clubber Lang

Let’s start with some fiction!

Being a kid of the ’70s-’80s, I loved the original trilogy of Rocky movies, and saw all three in the theater. So many great and memorable scenes throughout—the “Gonna Fly Now” training sequence in the original film essentially gave birth to the film montage, and inspired thousands of people to run up the 72 stone steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (which, yes, I did on one visit).

Although some may say it was the most commercial of the trilogy, Rocky III was one of my all-time favorites, probably because I was an impressionable teenager when it came out—I still remember getting pumped up to exercise by “Eye of the Tiger.” I also remember how that song came on the radio right after I asked my buddy Milo if I should go talk to a girl at the beach—it cinched my decision and provided a soundtrack as I confidently strode across the hot sand. (She said no. “Gonna crash and burn now …”)

Anyway, lots of great moments in the film (“He’s just a man, Rock. Just a man … Be *more* man than him!”), although for any true Rocky fan, the best part is the final fight. I love the whole sequence of the final round; I’ve come to realize the real key to it is around the 1:48 mark of this clip when the orchestral music sort of completely changes, going from high soaring strings to reverberating low woodwinds, which marks Rocky’s final comeback.

I know the franchise has had high and low moments, but that entire last round is a terrific film-making sequence.

2. Do You Believe In Miracles?

Now to real life.

For any of you reading this who were too young to remember this shining moment in American athletic history—heck, American history—I can’t explain what an impact the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team defeating the U.S.S.R. team had on the entire nation. I know it’s hard to believe today, but in the late 1970s, the U.S.A. was in a down spot. Between Richard Nixon’s resignation, high inflation, the energy crisis, the Iran hostage crisis and disco, the eagle was flying slow and the flag was flying low, to paraphrase Charlie Daniels.

The USSR was still together and was still a big, bad empire at this time, and nothing personified that more than their heralded and undefeated national hockey team. The Soviets had exploited a loophole in the Olympic rules that allowed them to put a team of veteran players on the ice—their players “served in the military,” which preserved their amateur status but also allowed them to be paid indirectly. Push come to shove, they were actually excellent, seasoned pros. Team USA, on the other hand, were a bunch of true amateur college kids, and heavy underdogs in the Olympic tournament.

The Olympics were a big deal in 1980 because they were in the U.S. at Lake Placid, New York, and because there wasn’t much else to get excited about. I saw every game (no football or baseball on at that time), and I’ll never forget watching the historic game against the Russians in my bedroom—I was afraid to leave for fear of jinxing them. Clearly, it worked, so you’re welcome, America!

Trivia bonus: Although it certainly felt like it, this game wasn’t for the gold medal, but to get into the gold medal game. It was certainly a bit anticlimactic after this, but the U.S. beat Finland 4-2 to win the gold.

3. Secretariat Winning the Belmont Stakes

This may be the single greatest athletic performance of all time. Period.

I know most people aren’t horse-racing fans, but what Secretariat did in the biggest race of his career—the contest to be the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years—is nothing short of staggering. Not only does he blow away the field by 30-something lengths—which included Sham, a horse that had actually given him close races in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness—but he destroys the records for that race and that distance by more than 2 seconds (a huge amount of time in horse racing), setting marks that still stand today. Actually, he was getting faster as the race went on. Un-fracking-believeable.

It’d be like winning the Super Bowl by the score 100 to 0. It was that dominant.

I especially love that as “Big Red” starts pulling away, you can hear the buzz in the crowd as they realize they are witnessing something for the ages. No matter how many times I watch this, I always get goosebumps at the 2:27 mark when Secretariat passes the American flag and you can hear the absolute shock and awe in announcer Chic Anderson’s voice as he exclaims, “He is moving like a tremendous machine!”

Amazing.

4. Position of the Crane

I remember when I saw The Karate Kid in the theater—how at the end of the final match against Johnny, when Daniel strikes that pose, it was one of those moments when I literally slid to the front of my seat, grabbed the person next to me and was like, “IT’S THE POSITION OF THE CRANE!!”

The thing that really sells it is the little nod by Mr. Miyagi at the :53 mark. And by the way his head snaps back, I’m pretty damn sure William Zabka really gets kicked in the face in that scene.

5. Roy Hobbs’ Game-Winning Home Run

The climax of my all-time favorite movie, The Natural, still gets me choked up, even though I’ve probably seen it about 100 times, and it’s been parodied probably 1,000 times. The home run into the lights, the shower of sparks, the slow-motion rounding of the bases …

Everyone who has every picked up a baseball bat wants to hit the game-winning home run, and after everything that happens to Roy Hobbs, it’s even more poignant. I remember I went to see this with a few of my friends in the theater, and I noticed a few of them were crying like little girls by the end—or I think we were. I couldn’t see them because  … uh, it was dusty in there. Yeah.

Anyway, this movie is so well made and the cast so amazing—Robert Redford, Glenn Close, Robert Duvall, Darren McGavin, Kim Basinger, Richard Farnsworth, Wilford Brimley. I also love the staggering attention to detail, from the gloves being left on the field (which is what they did in the early part of the 20th century) to the flashbulbs that need to be changed with cloths.

But of course, the real key to this scene is the music—the score was written by Randy Newman, and doesn’t feature any lyrics about short people or having toy friends. It’s been used so many times and in so many ways, it may lose its impact for some. But not for me—it still gives me chills every time I hear it.