USA over Russia has to be number 1. It doesnt have to do as much with the game itself as what it did for the country and the times we were in. The economy was in the craper, gas lines were forever long, hostages in Iran, a boycott of the summer games loming and a general down mood in the country. It united the country as a whole and gave people something to be happy about. Plus the one thing different from that game versus all the others you mention is that 99% of the population was happy with the outcome. While all of the other games you mention were great games and in some cases better from a pure sports persepective, in those games there were an equal number of people who were disappointed with the outcome as were happy about the outcome (or in some cases many people didnt care).

Paul, you are right to a point. There is no way that USA/USSR is the greatest game ever. It was a good game though, from an underdog winning standpoint. I think the Cold War analogy is overplayed emmensely.

Just curious where you would put Game 6 of the 2003 World Series with Josh Beckett pitching a shoutout against the Yankees on three days rest to win it for the Florida Marlins

A bunch of college kids beat the greatest team in the world and you say it is over-rated? This same Russian team beat the snot out of NHL teams that same year. This college team put together months before at an annual payroll of zilch. I can understand how a Yankee fan wouldn't recognize how putting together an all-star team with a payroll three times the club your playing would cheapen a win but you have to recognize how when the little league all stars get together and beat the NY Yankees - it's never over-rated.

I would put Beckett's perfomance under the "nobody really cared" category.

I love when people try to rile me up with it. Let me tell you something for the 100th time. I didn't care. We really didn't care.

Sure, we would've liked to have won. Sure we would've liked it if Aaron Boone got a run home with the bases loaded and one out in Game 4, if Jeff Weaver could have gotten anyone out, if David Wells could have even shown up for Game 5.

By all accounts the energy at the Stadium for our home games was subdued. Why? We didn't care.

Not that we didn't care at all, but that game was on a Saturday night and, when it it was over, me and a friend headed over to a friend's birthday party at another bar and we kinda all said, "yeah, it sucked" and went about the night having a good time.

2001 hurt a lot worse. 1995 hurt even more. Hell, Sandy Alomar's eyes-closed home run against Mariano in 1997 hurt more. Bring those games up, you dumb-asses.

Do you agree with King George that Tampa should forfeit the first game of yesterday's double header?

Eh, probably not. I guess the Yanks are saying the Rays did not do everything in their power to get to the game on time. The Yanks were left holding the bag here, too. They had to take care of the fans already there (with free food and drinks) and not there, allowing them to trade tickets to another game. Gone was a homefield advantage that an unweary crowd of 45,000 brings to the table.

People are asking, Would the Yanks have asked for a forfeit if they weren't in a tight race? And I ask, Would the Devil Rays have made a better effort to make the game and not risk forfeit if they'd been involved in their own tight race?

But I don't want a forfeit. As long as the Rays played fair -- again, would they have been there if it was them 2 1/2 games up? -- you can't really ask for it in this case. Just go out and beat them like they did Monday night.

Six good starts from our pitchers since the 22-0 game. Five went seven innings and one went six. None got creamed, and the team is 4-2 since. If not for Kevin Brown's stupidity, you might say things are looking pretty good.

the game (and series) in '95 you briefly mentioned was the most memorable for me. with the m's, seahawks, and sonics bringing home a total of zero championships since i was born (and only one total...), edgar bringing griffey home against the yanks stands out in my mind more than any sports memory i have. it's still hard to believe they came back from a 2-0 series deficit.

Tough choices- but limited ones. There are some games/series left off that list that I would have put on there, but I'm not an editor at ESPN, either.

I think the point is well made about how everyone was rooting for the US in the '80 Olympics. Even if we can't remember the individual players on the team, we remember how it felt to watch them win- and 24 years later, that win is still just as sweet to all of us.

I'd have to go with '91 WS as #2, if only because my father and brother, longtime Braves fans, can't mention the Braves without bringing up that game.

I see in the final results that the "Aaron Boone Game" was ranked 20 by ESPN "experts" and 17 by site users.

I thought that game had absolutely everything. Decades of history that weighed a ton on the potential outcome, an tense-as-can-be series culminating in a winner-take-all finale, an improbable comeback, threats and escapes in the final innings, and a game-winning HR. What morwe could you possibly want.

And yet Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals was a better game? No f-ing way.

Interesting to note that experts placed 1982 Cal-Stanford at No. 25 while the fans had it at No. 2. A moment does not make a better game. The Gibson HR game being above the Boone Game 7 in both polls is ridiculous.

That is absurd. Game 1 of the 1988 World Series meant nothing (the Dodgers scouts had a lot more to do with their win than Gibson's shot did), while Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS was awesome. Rooting for the Sox, I was struck by how bad they wanted it, yet, the "spoiled" fans at New York were absolutely INSANE at that game. Pedro-Clemens, Giambi's 2 shots, Ortiz's homer that looked like it was gonna put it away, Jeter's clutch double, Bernie's single, Grady Little's boneheaded move to keep Pedro in, Posada's 2-run bloop shot, and, of course, Aaron Boone's shot. I think it's #3, behind the Miracle on Ice and Game 7 of the 1991 World Series, where Jack Morris was only Jesus in a Twins uni, and the Braves were a scrappy overachiever, not the soulless corporate team we've had to endure the last 7 or 8 years (this year's team is MUCH CLOSER to the 1991 team in excitement than any team since the 1995 team).

Tyler,

Dennis Eckersley was unhittable. He was by far the most dominant closer in the game in 1988. And the Athletics were heavily heavily favored to win that series. To have a guy who could barely walk hit a pinch-hit walkoff home run off of the most dominant closer in the league... unbelievable. It broke the A's, and propelled the Dodgers on to the World Series victory.

I'm not trying to discount Game 7 last year, but just because this game happened 16 years ago doesn't mean it wasn't awesome. I think they probably gave it more value because it was in the World Series too, instead of the LCS.

And what about the rest of the game, the part nobody remembers?

That's the argument against Dodgers-A's Game 1 being ranked a better game than Game 7 of the ALCS last year.

We we long, long remember the Sox being up 4-0 and 5-2, being 5 outs away, Grady letting Pedro remain in the game, Posada's game-tying double, Rivera's three clutch innings in relief, Boone's HR and the pandemonium that followed.

While that game did pretty much shellshock the A's, the Dodgers had Orel Hershiser going at least 2 of the next 6 games, probably 3, so the Dodgers could very easily have won the series in 6 or 7. Now, I was 2 when the game happened, but I can vaguely remember Jose Canseco's grand slam in the 2nd that seemed to stun the Dodgers. Honestly, that's the only memory I have from that game, besides Gibson's walk-off shot.

Hey Paul....I think you missed one. What about the Miami vs Ohio St national title game? I have no love for either team and I still think its the best game I ever saw.

No doubt that was an incredible game. I saw the whole thing in a bar — Mo's Carribean on the Upper East Side — and couldn't imagine what fans of both teams were going through in that overtime.

Similar to the Pats upsetting the Rams a few years back, only this one had a back-and-forth overtime.

Dangit. You had to put a 25 year limit on it so I wouldn't bring up Bucky Dent, didn't you?

The UM-Ohio St. game is the best college football game I have ever seen. Unfortunately it was marred by a phantom call, as seems to be the case in a lot of memorable games.

Even though you claim to not have cared whether your team won the World Series or not (yeah, sure.) since they beat Boston.... you still have to give some credit to Beckett and the Fish for doing what noone else has been able to do in many many years...... shut down the Yanks to win a series on their home field. The Yanks are almost unstoppable in the postseason.... and they are unstoppable at home in the postseason... or, they WERE.

Don't worry... after the Yanks lose their division the last week of the season, the Fish will ride their WildCard wave right into the series again and beat Boston.

My questoin about the Josh Beckett game wasn't ment to rile you up, I was just curious about what you thought of it. I do think it sad you don't recognize what the Marlins accomplished because you "didn't care" about the World Series that year. I wonder if you wouldn't have cared if the Yankees had won another World Series, Im sure you and your friend would have left Yankee Stadium saying "That was a good game. Im glad the Yankees won another World Series. Hey, lets go get a beer." Your attitude is a big reason why people dislike Yankee fan, they make so much of what the Yankees have done and piss on anything another teams has accomplished.

Um, name me one time, just once, when I "piss on anything another teams has accomplished" (your grammar, not mine)? Because I wasn't on the verge of suicide meant that I failed to respect the Marlins?

The Marlins played great. They, too, played a mentally exhausting LCS. They deserve their title. No excuses, no sour grapes. But it wasn't as hard a loss to take as the 1995 ALDS, 1997 ALDS or the 2001 World Series.

People post anti-Yankees crap here all the time here, and I can only shake my head when they think that bringing up the Marlins or the 2003 season in general is going to upset me. Hell, I'd ge through it all over again. Ask a Red Sox fan the same. Every single person I've spoken to who was in Boston on the night of Game 7 saw people cry. You can't say the same about New Yorkers after the World Series.

And if my "attitude is a big reason why people dislike Yankee fan" (again, your grammar, not mine), and if it bothers you so much, then find another mostly tongue-in-cheek site that unabashedly supports the Yanks.