1 - 2003 NLCS Game 2 - obvious reasons.

2 - 2011 ECF Game 1 vs. Heat - Gibson with 2 poster shots. Domination of LeBron. He'll never win anything.

3 - 2003 Cubs vs. Pitt Doubleheader Clincher - Cubs win something at home for the first time in billion years. That was a party.

4 - Bulls vs. Hawks in the 2nd run - Jordan went for 47, Rodman had 30 rebounds.

5 - Cubs vs. Phillies, August 1, 2004 - Cubs were going for it again. They just traded for Nomar Garciaparra who was making his debut. And Greg Maddux was going for his 300th win. My brother and I scalped $600 worth of behind the dugouts seats to watch Kent Mercker get the victory an inning after Maddux came out of the game.

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You know me like that.

I was at 1 and 3 and they're my top 2. Nobody expected them to clinch till the next day. I don't even have the next 3 after those two events.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

ok i'm not ranking these in any sort of order from 1-5, i'm just trying to remember 5 that are worthy of this title:

1) that michael jordan charity game that ended up being "the last game at Chicago Stadium" where jordan kissed the bull @ center-court at the end and all that. my dad fortunately had a job at washington/halsted or something when they announced tickets just went on sale so we were able to do that.

2) mark prior's MLB debut vs the pirates @ wrigley on some random weeknight in 2002. that crowd was so !!! that i couldn't help but refer to it as "cubbie pride night" for years to come.

3) bears vs vikings MNF during the 1 year favre was a viking. the bears were sub-.500 while the vikings were 13-2 or something IIRC, and the bears led for most-to-all of the game b4 favre pulled off a 4th quarter comeback to send it to overtime where cutler found aromashodu in the endzone and it was fucking GLORIOUS --- and btw from my experiences vikings fans are far and away the worst fans in the NFL because they're always starting shit and mugging for attention and generally trying to be the biggest assholes they can be.

4) bears vs seahawks playoff game in 2010 (problems with lines/security had me miss the early/ish-1Q cutler-2-olsen TD but hey that was a very solid playoff win (over a 7-9 team) and all was good in the world.)

5) toss up between technically seeing david price's MLB debut @ old yankee stadium in sept 2008 (the rays fought back enough to whittle down a 5+ run lead all game to a save opportunity so seeing the mariano rivera entrance was !!!) and just a random kerry wood start vs the diamondbacks in 1998. kerry wood was truly "a thing" in 1998.

honorable mentions = prior vs javier vazquez in the cubs' home-opening series of 2003 (prior 9IP 0ER 12K, vazquez 7IP 2ER 14K), or that expos @ wsox game in 2002 where vladimir guerrero crushed a rather vaginal keith foulke first pitch "get me over fastball" so hard/far you swore it ended up hitting a robert taylor home. and ofc that lil 3 game LAA @ CLE series at miller park in the first week or 2 during uhhh.... 2007-08? = sitting with my feet up on dugouts for 3 days in a row for $10/game. that was awesome.

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I don't have any where a Chicago team won.

I saw Brett Favre repeatedly destroy the Bears in the mid 90's
Saw the Royals clinch
Kerry Wood's last Opening Day start
Derrick Rose getting the MVP trophy and the Bulls losing by 30
Gilbert Arenas hitting a buzzer beater in the playoffs
Jon Garland taking a no hitter or perfect game into the 8th
Kirk Hinrich blowing a game against the Wiz

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Honorable mention to -

Jordan vs. Grant Hill for the first time at the UC when Jordan was fully back. They played before when Jordan just came back. Grant Hill was the first "next Jordan". This was the first game with Jordan at full strength at the UC. Jordan dropped 53 on him. I think Hill had about 15.

Tiger winning the PGA at Medinah was cool.

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You know me like that.

Special honorable mention to -

Ooh, how could I forget this one.

September 1993 - White Sox vs. Mariners - JORR's partner and I felt like catching a game and Monday nights were $5 tickets for the Sox game so we decided to grab a few in early September. Turns out it was a clincher game. We were in the RF bleachers when Bo Jackson hit a popup to the SS that just kept going up and up and continued to go. We had the perfect angle from RF. I saw the SS drift back and back into short LF. The ball kept going in the stands. I've been to hundreds of baseball games. It was the damndest hit I've ever seen in my life. Never seen anything like it.

Sox win. We all celebrated. It was before I learned I was supposed to hate the White Sox. Being from the Hardcore American South, I always thought we'd root for each other. Silly hick, I was.

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You know me like that.

oh shit as i try to sit here and think up more games i've done live i can also remember:

- dec 4 2010: bulls vs rockets. rockets were up 2 with like ~10-15 secs left and thus derrick rose had to take it all the way upcourt b4 eventually drilling a 3 right in kevin martin's face as time expired to give the bulls the win. for the life of me i'll never understand why houston didn't just foul him right away and force him to shoot 2 free throws and then worst case scenario is a tie game where you can use a timeout to inbounds at half-court with time for the last shot.

- bears vs chargers november 2011: it was one of those late-afternoon AFC shootouts between rivers and cutler and this time cutler and the bears pulled away in the 2H to win like 38-24 or something and give me real hope that the 2011 bears had a chance. of course i get home hours later and pop on the CSFMB to find out cutler fractured his thumb and thus the caleb hanie era and a future tebowing was coming (read: the season was over)

- i was at the cubs game where the ambulance came on to the field to take hee seop choi away. quite probably the last time "HEE SEOP CHOI! HEE SEOP CHOI!" was chanted at wrigley.

- finally, some random 2:20pm friday start vs the Reds @ wrigley in april 2004 where the cubs were down 8-7 going into B9 and back to back HRs from sosa/alou tied/won it. that was slick.

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Wasn't that a national Saturday afternoon game against the Yankees with Kerry Wood against Clemens? That was a hard ticket to get.

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You know me like that.

2007 - Bears/Saints NFC Championship - shoutout to RR and WZ

199? - first baseball game I ever went to, the Hawk nailed a Cardinal at the plate to win the game - Busch Stadium

199? - Jim Bullinger hit a bomb on the first MLB pitch he ever saw

2006 - Devin Hester returned 2 kickoffs for touchdowns in St. Louis

Last, any number of Cub games, but one of my good friends was at "The Sandberg Game", so I'll give him a shout here.

Also, as a 16-year-old, I went with buddies to Urlacher's rookie camp in Platteville and he sat down and shot the shit with us for a good half hour. I think he enjoyed the chance to talk to kids. He wasn't nearly as salty as when he got older.

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Cubs v Cardinals, NLDS Game 3 last year was great.

I've been to several Hawks playoff games in the past several years...including two during the 2013 playoffs. No Finals games though.

I was at the AJ / Michael Barrett fight. That was a riot.

I saw the Cubs Sox game in (2002? 2003?) when Carlos Lee hit a huge game tying home run and then Jose Valentin hit the game winning home run and did the airplane thing around the bases.

Uhh...I saw Jannero Pargo's 34 point game at the United Center...right when he first joined the Bulls and went off. That probably doesn't count though. lol.

Trying to remember what else.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

uhhhh i think you're right about the yankees part, but i'm pretty sure it was a thursday/friday game because I went with my "baseball uncle" and he tends to go for value/deals with his tickets, which means that it's mostly weekday day-games earlier or later in the season. i definitely remember going to cubs vs yankees at wrigley and all the "1927" stuff in the programs/scorecards, but if i were to bet on it i'd say that it was a weekday game and not a weekend game.

IIRC this was back b4 internet/"modern" ticketing was the norm and my uncle used to go out to wrigley the first day single game tickets went on sale every year (in feb/march?) and got in line to buy his tickets for the year. that's probably how he got the hot tickets; he was always there early. as the years rolled on i think they started giving ppl waiting/showing-up a #'d ticket and then they'd do a raffle and start selling tickets at whatever # they drew, as they hoped to discourage people from camping out for days like they were trying to get the new iphone or something. eventually the internet got involved and now i think he still physically shows up every year but it's not as "for sure" as it used to be.

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It was definitely the Saturday afternoon national game with Wood/Clemens that Choi got hurt.

Your uncle must have decided to treat you.

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You know me like that.

It was a Saturday game. Karros with a big hit? I was there for that game too. The air went out of the place.

Come to think of it, I basically lived at Wrigley that year. Which is funny, since I lived an hour and a half away.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

well it's not like there's any difference in price between weekdays/weekends in the same series, but idk if they had started their gold/silver/bronze-pricing-tiers for all the series throughout the year. if you wanted to see colorado do a series in april/early-may it's way cheaper than [especially vs token AL opponent] in june/july/august. hell, don't they now have platinum or "elite" tiers so that way even the "cheaper" games are technically "gold" or "silver" ??

but yeah i reckon it was one of those things like "wouldn't it be cool to see the yankees in wrigley field?" maybe even despite possible higher-tier upcharges. nowadays the best value is having someone who's able to get a couple "senior citizen" tickets on those certain (early season) dates so you can end up sitting in the 120s for $8/each (that was awesome for the natinals series in the first week of may =)

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I was at the same game, about 25 rows behind first base. It was the damndest hit I've ever seen. Watching the SS and then the LF come in on it at first, stop and then turn around was an amazing moment. And that was before they pulled the fences in at the park on top of it.

I asked him about it when my son was at one of his events and he just laughed.

Edit: Should I mention game 1 of the 1993 season. Cubbies vs. Braves. Maddox on the mound and dominating...the Coo. And that it was frigid made laughing at Cub fans even sweeter.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Games 2, 3, and 4 of the 2005 World Series.

Game 3 of the 1994 Eastern Semis vs. the Knicks. Was working the game and everyone went nuts when Kukoc won the game.

1995 Northwestern vs. Notre Dame. Unreal when the Cats won.

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Was working at that game as well.

That fall was electric at Comiskey. Until Jordan retired at game 1 of the ALCS.

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Wednesday Oct. 8th, 2003, Prior vs. Penny...
Sammy killed one into center. Our Alex Gonzalez hit a couple too. But that Sammy blast... wow. Might the the loudest thing I've ever heard.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Dude, that's crazy. I remember it. Mike Remlinger struck out Piazza (?) in a big moment with a changeup away.

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No Bartman game attendees?

1. Bears at Browns. First time at First Energy. Tailgate was a blast and Cutler threw 2 picks (including 1 pick six). Browns only lost by 7.
2. Saw Hideo Nomo with the Dodgers throw a no-hitter through 7 versus the Brewers.
3. July 4th Cubs game last year Bryant hit 2 HRs and then postgame fireworks at Wrigley. Just a really cool event.
4. I was at the game Arrieta pitched against the Cards in the playoffs where we hit 50 home runs.

We're getting down on the list but I saw Rich Bordi take a 1-hit shutout through 8.2 innings until Juan Samuel hit a HR to tie it 1-1.

Can't remember who won since my Dad wanted to leave to beat traffic.

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You know me like that.

1. 2002 Masters, Saturday & Sunday.

2. Nothing else comes close or belongs in the team photo with Augusta.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

August 18, 1978 1st Cub game. Reds beat Cubs but Kingman hits a HR. The love affair is officially cemented.

August 14, 1982 Cubs beat Giants 8-4. Lucky enough to see Fergie, on his 2nd tour with the Cubs, throw 7 awesome innings. My final Cub game with my Dad, who would die a year later.

January 18, 1998 Jordan v Barkley

February 20, 2002 Jalen Rose 1st game as a Bull. I know...but my soon to be wife is a Knicks fan so I figured WTH.

Not sure of the date but I was in the bleachers when Spike Lee was filming the Levi's commercial at Wrigley.

the AJ / Barrett fight game

Double OT Hawks / Canucks game 6 in the 2011 playoffs

Game 1 Red Wings vs Preds in the 2004 playoffs.

Last regular season Bears game before the reno. Traylor's runback ended right in front of us.

Calder Cup finals Game 6 2008.

#1 is 2005 Game 2 by a longshot
#2 was a SIU @ Butler basketball game when both were ranked in the top #20... awesome stadium and electric atmosphere.

I also had a string of Sox games as a kid where I think it was four or five games in a row that a fight broke out. On the field. With the teams, no fans.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

I went to Dan Hampton's last home game. That was pretty cool. They lost but I always loved Hampton until he started talking for a living.

I was 19 and we were in a group outing. The kid next to me was in my class and snuck in a fifth of Jim Beam and was going to town. I didn't that think was right so I stuck with my Coca-Cola.

For vindication, he did end up in jail eventually. But he had more fun that day.

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You know me like that.

I went to Buehrle's 1st no-hitter, last minute. 27 up, 27 down. Walked Sosa, and picked him off 1st base.

1) Last Game at Comiskey

2) 1983 All-Star Game--When I was 12, I won a ticket in a Chicago Tribune contest for poor kids. Dave Winfield paid for 50 of us to go. My friends and the kids at the caddyshack were jealous. There were about ten white kids there; the rest were black. I was sitting next to one black kid and I was thinking, "Man, this kid smells weird," and maybe a fourteenth of a second later, he says to me, "Man, you smell weird." Then he added, "Not bad, though." Most of us didn't know how to act, and two of the kids had seizures on the way home because they were so overwhelmed. I was too shy to say anything.

Our hosts from the Tribune were fat North Side fucking doofuses with walrus mustaches and square serial killer glasses. As the AL began kicking ass, one of the fat fucking losers said to me, "Why are you pulling for the American League?" Previously, I had thought North Siders were either rich or gay; I didn't realize they had fat losers up there, too.

Fred Lynn hit a grand slam--I can still picture it. Great game. The place was rockin'. The Sox had started playing well a month earlier and would cruise in the second half. Kittle had an infield hit and we went nuts. The next morning, my brother and I hitchhiked to caddying, and the guy who picked us up talked to us about the All-Star Game. It was still a big deal then.

3) Illinois 23, Colorado 22. 1990. Memorial Stadium.

4) Andy Kauffman buzzer beater against Iowa. February, 1993, in Assembly Hall.

5) 1985 State AA Basketball Championship.

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I watched that game in Champaign--turned out to be an awful night--but that part was fun. Still not sure how that ball made it out of there.

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