I'm "borrowing" this idea from Brandon, but I'm changing it up a bit. Whether happy or heartbreaking, these are my top 10 (or 11) most memorable sorts moments witnessed live on TV or in person.

Top 5 sports moments I witnessed live in person

1. Boston Red Sox World Series Parade, Boston, MA. October 30, 2004. It took 25 years, but I finally got to see one of my teams hold a parade. Worth the wait? Most definitely.

2. Tek vs A-Rod, Red Sox vs Yankees, Fenway Park, Boston, MA. July 24, 2004. There was the pre-game festivities at Boston Billiards, the brawl and the Billy Mueller walkoff homer. But the best part was the celebration. After the game, we returned to Billiards, still singing Dirty Water and high fiving strangers. Every fifteen minutes, the TVs tuned to ESPNEWS showed highlights of the game, and each time Bill Mueller took Mariano Rivera yard, the packed bar erupted as if seeing it - again - for the first time.

3. Game 7, Conference Finals, Philadelphia Flyers vs NJ Devils, Philly, PA. May 26, 2000. Days earlier, the Flyers had led their nemesis, the NJ Devils, 3 games to 1 in the best-of-7 series. They had seemed to be on the verge of accomplishing something that had evaded them for years and on their way to the Stanley Cup Finals when, in true Philly fashion, something went wrong. The Flyers looked dismal in their game 5 and 6 losses, and all of sudden, it all came down to a Game 7. Eric Lindros, the Flyers' star center and focus of much clubhouse controversy, was slated to make his triumphant return to the ice, much to the chagrin of his teammates. At the time it was rumor and has since come to be known as fact - the players resented Lindros' attitude and desperately wanted to play the seventh game without him. Home from college for the playoffs, I arrived at the game overwrought with anticipation. The Flyers had dominated the playoffs without Lindros, and I was hoping that his presense didn't upset the chemistry in the locker room.

Patrick Elias scored for the Devils halfway through the first period to give them a 1-0 lead. 66 seconds later, just inside the Devils blueline, Scott Stevens leveled Eric Lindros, who collapsed onto the ice. It was another in a long series of concussions for Lindros, and instantly, the once-rowdy crowd was silenced. As he was taken off the ice on a stretcher, we knew the season was over. The Flyers looked lifeless after that, and went on to lose the deciding game 2-1.

Walking out of the arena with tears in my eyes, a man stopped me in the concourse. "Don't cry, sweetheart," he told me. "They'll win one soon." Five years later, I'm still waiting.

4. Philadelphia Flyers vs NY Islanders, The Spectrum, Philly, PA. January 17, 1986. It was my very first hockey game, and the Flyers lost to the Islanders 4-3 when Bryan Trottier scored the winning goal with 1 second left in regulation. Could there have been a more appropriate start to my life as a Philadelphia sports fan?

5. Donovan McNabb's 14.1 second play, Eagles vs Cowboys, Texas Stadium. November 15, 2004. Texas Stadium was full of rowdy Eagles fans that saw the Birds destroy the evil Cowboys 49-21. But the highlight of the game, and easily the most impressive football-related feat I've witnessed in person, was a pass McNabb threw on 3rd and 10 in the second quarter. After taking the snap at the 25 yard line, McNabb ducked two Cowboy defenders and rolled back to the right side of the 8-yard line. There he evaded a waiting defensive end and sprinted towards the left sideline, where he launched a bomb that hit Freddie Mitchell. From the moment the ball was snapped until it left his hand was timed by ABC at 14.1 seconds, and eventually led to an Eagles touchdown.


Top 6 sports moments I witnessed live on tv

1. Was there any question?


2. Johnny Damon's Grand Slam vs the Yankees, ALCS Game 7, October 20, 2004. The moment the ball met his bat, Red Sox fans everywhere knew that the Yankees had finally been beaten.

3. Eastern Conference Semifinals, Overtime, Game 6, Philadelphia Flyers vs Toronto Maple Leafs. May 4, 2004. As always with these two teams, it had been a gritty, grueling, exhausting series. Game 6 went into overtime and the action was fast-paced, with both teams trading scoring chances. Though the Flyers held a 3-2 lead in the best-of-7 series, it felt as though the next goal would decide the fate for the teams. It was the kind of game that made people fall in love with hockey all over again; the kind where you realize sometime during the third period that you'd been holding your breath for the last eight minutes, too nervous to breathe.

Coming off the bench, Sami Kapanen, a winger who was playing defense for the first time in his career because the Flyers' blue line was so depleted, got slammed along the boards by Darcy Tucker. He made three excruciating attempts at getting to his feet, each one a failure. As a fan, all of your greatest fears were being realized as you watched yet another Flyer struggle to get to his feet. All of a sudden, there was Keith Primeau, the Captain's C on his chest practically glowing at that point, leaning off the bench holding his stick out, attempting to guide Kapanen back to safety. Meanwhile, across the ice, Roenick was racing towards the goal. A few seconds and one wristshot later, the puck was in the net, the game was over, the series was won, and the Flyers were celebrating on the ice.

Had Kapanen been unable to get back to the bench, play would have been whistled dead and the puck never finds the back of the net. As a sea of orange and black filled center ice, ESPN cut to a shot of Keith Primeau and Sami Kapanen on the Flyers bench, their heads rested against each others' as the Captain refused to leave his wounded teammate sitting alone on the bench while he celebrated their victory. In 26 years of watching the Flyers, that is my single favorite memory.

4. A quick series of events: Pedro Martinez receiving hugs in the dugout, signaling the end of his outing, Pedro stepping onto the mound in the 8th inning, and the lead vanishing. ALCS Game 7, Red Sox vs Yankees. October 16, 2003. Will you ever forget it? No, me neither.

5. 4th and 26. NFC Division Championship Game, Philadelphia Eagles vs Green Bay Packers. Monday, January 12, 2004. No one thought this was possible. No one. But McNabb threw a bomb to Freddie Mitchell for a 28-yard 1st down on 4th and 26, which led to a David Akers field goal, sending the game into overtime. The Eagles went on to win the game, and 4th and 26 remains a magical phrase in Philly sports history.

6. Game 4, Conference Semifinals, Philadelphia Flyers vs Pittsburgh Penguins. May 4, 2000. What should have been just another early-round playoff game ended up in the history books. Two days after my twenty-first birthday, I went to a Boston bar to watch a friend's band play and the Flyers/Penguins on ESPN. We moved to a bar closer to home after regulation, and after the fourth overtime, the bars closed, forcing me to sprint home. After cutting into the remains of my orange and black birthday cake, I watched the Flyers collapse in celebration at center ice, having just won the third longest playoff game in history. The game, which went into 5 overtime periods, ended at 2:35am, seven hours after it began. Keith Primeau scored the winning goal to give the Flyers a 2-1 victory, and later went on to win the series.