by Marc Aronson
IN 1869, THERE WAS only one all-professional baseball team in the world, the Cincinnati Redstockings, and their record proved it. Officially, the team only went 57-0 that year, but that was because the captain didn’t count the 20 or so other games it won against teams that were not in the National Association. The streak kept going in 1870 until it reached 130 wins (81 against Association teams). But on June 14, the Brooklyn Atlantics won 8-7 in extra innings—about as big an upset as you can get.
SOMETIMES AN UPSET is so upsetting the loser does not agree to accept the result. Take the finals of the 1972 Olympic Gold Medal basketball game between the United States and the Soviet Union. America had never lost an Olympic basketball game, but the Soviets led throughout the final game, until, with three seconds left, the Americans went up 50-49. One second left. But wait, the Soviets claim they had asked for time and did not get it. No ref agrees. But, somehow, the clock is changed; now there are three seconds left. Game starts again. Soviets fail to score. America wins.
Or not. The Soviets again demand their three seconds. Finally with three new seconds, a pass, a shot, a score—the Soviet Union goes up 51-50, defeats the Americans, and wins the gold medal. The American team protests and, to this day, refuses to accept their second-place silver medals.
BEST INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE
BALL GAMES
SPORTSFAN A: The Lakers were sure to lose the sixth game of the 1980 NBA finals to the 76ers. L.A.’s best player, six-time most valuable player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, was injured and could not play. They had no center to replace him. So the 6-foot-9 rookie Erwin “Magic” Johnson, normally a tall guard, became a small center—and dominated the game. Magic earned his nickname, scoring 42 points, grabbing 15 rebounds, and handing out 7 assists. Single-handedly, Magic made sure L.A. won the game and took the series.
SPORTSFAN B: Good game for Magic, good game. Too bad he scored so few points—compared with Wilt. On the night of March 2, 1962, Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors scored 100 points against the New York Knicks. One zero zero. And if you think maybe he just got lucky for one night, that year, he averaged 50 points and 25 rebounds a game. That is just about double what anyone scores or rebounds in the NBA today. Wilt was unstoppable.
SPORTSFAN A: Yeah, Wilt scored a lot, but he also took 63 shots in a meaningless game. His whole team spent the second half feeding him the ball, so he could get to triple digits. In the 1973 NCAA Finals, Bill Walton had it harder.
UCLA needed to win to take their seventh consecutive crown, and to complete an undefeated year. Walton made sure they did, shooting an astonishing 21-22 from the floor, and ensuring another championship. He missed one shot and three foul shots. Otherwise, for that one night, he was not merely great, he was perfect.
SPORTSFAN B: Come on, very tall men scoring points is not headline news. Physicist Robert Adair says that one of the hardest feats in all sports is to hit a rapidly moving sphere with a cylindrical bat. Which brings me to Reggie Jackson in the 1977 World Series. The Dodgers had won game five, but at least Reggie hit a home run in his last at bat.
Game six was back in New York, at Yankee Stadium. Reggie walked his first time up. Then he hit three consecutive home runs—on the first pitch to him in the bottom of the fourth, another on the first pitch he saw in the fifth, and a third, again on the first pitch, in the eighth. Four home runs in a row, three in one game, one pitch after another. Impossible, but true. The Yankees took the game and the series.
Six families have had more than one member drafted in the first round of the NFL draft: Ed and Brad Budde; Billy Cannon and Billy Cannon Jr.; Dub and Bert Jones; Steve and Keith DeLong; and then there are the Mannings: Archie was second pick in the 1971 draft, Peyton the first pick in 1998, and Eli was the first pick in 2004.
SPORTSFAN A: And then we have the Boston College versus Miami football game on Thanksgiving Day of 1984. It was not a bowl game, but the whole country was off that day, at home, eating turkey and watching the game. With just 28 seconds left, Miami capped an amazing 90-yard drive with a touchdown, giving it a 45-41 lead. BC’s 5-foot-9 quarterback, one determined Doug Flutie, completed two passes to get to midfield. Then, with ten seconds left in the game, he sent all his receivers long and threw the ball 60 yards downfield, right into the waiting arms of Gerry Phelan—touchdown, BC! A desperation heave is called a Hail Mary, and Flutie’s pass is the Hail Mary of all Hail Marys.
EXTREME SPORTS
WE ASKED STEVE CAVE, the skateboard guide for About.com, for his top five moments in skateboarding history and his top five tricks to know. Take it away, Steve:
Top Five Moments
The Zephyr team shows up at the 1975 Del Mar skateboarding competition and changes skateboarding forever. Before this moment, most people saw skateboarding as a hobby, something lighthearted. The Zephyr team was made of outcasts and punks who rode low and hard, with a lot of attitude.
In 1978, Alan “Ollie” Gelfand invents the ollie, the foundation of almost all technical skateboarding tricks. Rodney Mullen later tweaks the trick and creates the flatland ollie.
Stacey Peralta and George Powell form the Bones Brigade, the first video skateboarding team and the strongest skateboarding team ever assembled (including Tony Hawk, Rodney Mullen, Lance Mountain, and Steve Caballero).
In 1983, Tony Hawk is the first to land the frontside 540 in competition. Two years later he premieres the 720. Then, in the 1999 X-Games, with the clock ticking he tries once, twice, five times, ten times—by now time has run out—but on his 11th try, he nails a 900—two and a half spins in the air. No one had ever done that in competition, and whether anyone had ever done it at all is matter of dispute and legend.
(Now fans are hoping that the carrot-topped Shaun White—who was trained by Tony Hawk and is as good at snowboarding as skateboarding—will land the 1080, three complete rotations. Shaun took gold in the 2007 Skateboard Vert—no 1080, but still, a nice shiny medal.)
In 2004, Danny Way gets 79 feet in the air—not only taking gold in the first-ever X-Games Big Air contest, but setting a new world record. The next year he’s sure to lose, after fracturing his ankle while trying to become the first person in history to leap over the Great Wall of China without an engine. But his fourth jump, a 360 frontside and a floating, arms spread “Christ Air,” ends the suspense—Danny is golden.
Top Five Moves
1) The ollie is where you slap the tail of your skateboard on the ground and at the same time jump up into the air. It looks like you’re jumping, with the board stuck to the soles of your shoes. It takes a lot of practice, but if you can’t ollie, you’ll be stuck to the ground unless you ride the half pipe, which skateboarders and BMX bikers call vert.
2) The manual is a sort of skateboarding wheelie—you balance on your back wheels while rolling along. It’s a lot harder than it looks, but the manual is perfect for mixing in with other tricks. After learning to manual, you can learn to nose manual.
3) The shuvit is where you jump a little into the air (not an ollie, just a jump), and you spin the board around underneath you before you land. It looks cool, and is actually pretty easy. Once you can shuvit, you can learn to pop shuvit, where you add an ollie into the mix for more air.
4) Kickflips are a high ollie, but while you are in the air you kick the board with your foot and flip it over completely, back to the wheels facing the ground before you land on it. Learn to kickflip, and you can branch off to heelflips and pressure flips. Stick with it, and you’ll be able to pull off a tre flip (360 flip).
5) For a 50-50 grind, skating along, either ollie up onto a rail or ride off onto the edge of a curb or ledge, grinding along on your trucks instead of your wheels. It’s the easiest grind to learn, but once you have it dialed in you can go for 5-Os, Crooks, and eventually board slides (for more about these and other moves, check out www.skateboard.about.com).
BMX BEST
James Stewart Jr. may be old—22 is getting up there—but he is really, really good a
t motocross. How’s this: He tried out his first race when he was just four; won more amateur titles than anyone before him; was rookie of the year in 2002 when he turned pro; and was the youngest National Champion in motocross history. They don’t call him the Tiger Woods of Motocross for nothing.
TREASURE
BURIED AND OTHERWISE
THE MONEY PIT OF OAK ISLAND
NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA
Two hundred years ago, a strange pit was discovered on Oak Island. Those who dug into it found that it was a shaft with layers of planks and logs and underground passages. In the years since, hundreds of men and their companies have tried to dig the pit all the way to the bottom. But at different levels the pit floods with water or collapses in on itself. Despite digging the pit and the surrounding area down to more than 200 feet with modern cranes, no one has been able to find exactly what the pit contains.
RMS REPUBLIC
ATLANTIC OCEAN
In 1909, this ocean liner collided with another ship some 50 miles off the coast of Massachusetts. Six people were killed in the accident, but everyone else was rescued before the Republic sank. After it went down, rumors spread that the ship had been carrying gold worth nearly $5 billion (in today’s dollars). Treasure hunters finally located the wreck of the ship in 1981, lying upright 270 feet underwater. While numerous divers have attempted to recover the alleged treasure, so far, no one has succeeded.
CAPTAIN KIDD’S TREASURE
LONG ISLAND SOUND, NEW YORK AND CONNECTICUT
In 1699, Captain William Kidd buried $30,000 worth of treasure (worth a cool million today) on Gardiners Island off the eastern tip of New York’s Long Island. As he was sailing up to Boston to be tried as a pirate, he had to unload his loot, which consisted of gold, silver, coins, and jewels. Kidd paid the island’s owner for her trouble, and then went to Boston. But during the trial, the government forced the landowner, Mrs. Gardiner, to hand over the treasure for use as evidence during the trial. Kidd is also alleged to have buried additional treasure on various islands off the coast of Connecticut. Kidd never revealed any other locations where he might have hidden his stolen goods, and he was eventually hanged for his crimes. To this day, the treasure at Gardiners Island is the only instance of a pirate’s actual buried treasure ever being found.
LONG ISLAND’S SHIPWRECK VALLEY
LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK
On the south shore of Long Island, just a few miles from New York City, more than 400 ships have met their doom from wicked weather and fast-moving currents over the past 300 years. There may be thousands more that have yet to be discovered. With all of those ships sunk into the dark, cold, and fast water of the Atlantic Ocean, it’s been estimated that there may be billions of dollars worth of treasure just waiting … .
THE TOMB OF TUT
THE VALLEY OF THE KINGS, EGYPT
The Valley of the Kings, an area in Egypt where the ancients buried their pharaohs in gold coffins and majestic tombs, was thoroughly explored by 1912. There was nothing left to be found—or so thought many archaeologists. An explorer named Howard Carter didn’t believe it; from years of research, he was certain that there must be many more. So he spent 15 years searching for the legendary tomb of Nebkheperure Tutankhamen, known as King Tut. In 1922, digging in a previously excavated area, Carter came upon some steps leading to an undiscovered and secret chamber. He managed to dig a small hole in its doorway, and peered in with the light from a candle. Eager to know what he had found, his fellow archaeologists asked Carter if he could see anything in the darkness. “Yes,” he replied. “Wonderful things.” When he finally opened the chamber door, Carter uncovered one of the best-preserved tombs in all of Egypt. King Tut’s final resting place had been undisturbed for over 3,000 years and was full of ancient treasures—boats, toys, hunting equipment, vases, lamps, and containers for his internal organs—many of them made from gold.
LOST DUTCHMAN MINE
APACHE JUNCTION, ARIZONA
Digging for gold in the 1850s, prospector Jacob Waltz (a German mistakenly identified as Dutch) allegedly dug into a significant vein of gold in the Superstition Mountains outside of Phoenix. When he headed into town to claim his new find, he was attacked by strangers and gravely wounded. Jacob made it to a doctor and told him about the mine before dying. But he left no actual map or directions. Since then, people who have looked for the gold mine have a way of ending up dead or disappearing forever. It’s said that the mine is cursed, or at least protected by someone who wants it to stay hidden forever.
WONDERS OF WORLD
TWENTY CENTURIES AGO, Greek scholars made a list of the greatest construction projects ever. Here’s a quick tour of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Fig. A
GREAT PYRAMID OF GIZA, EGYPT, AROUND 2500 B.C. (Fig. A)
More than two million stones, each weighing about as much as a small car, are stacked in four triangles whose points meet nearly 500 feet up into the sky. Scholars estimate that it took 100,000 laborers—mostly slaves from conquered lands—20 years to build the Great Pyramid. They built it so well that it is the only Wonder still standing. For more than 4,000 years, it was the tallest building in the world. In fact, the Great Pyramid was already old by the time the ancient Greeks got around to making this list.
HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON, IRAQ, 600 B.C.
King Nebuchadnezzar II lived with his queen in the rugged desert outside of Baghdad. When she asked to take a walk through parks and waterfalls, he supposedly built her a mountainside palace with 100-foot-high terraces that supported trees and plants. No one is quite sure what happened to this glorious creation, and it may have been abandoned over time and simply left to ruin.
TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS, TURKEY, 600-300 B.C. (Fig. B)
As big as a football field and as tall as a five-story building (according to some), this temple was built by ancient Greeks to honor Artemis, the goddess of the hunt (the Romans called her Diana). Of course, no one is quite sure exactly how big it was because a band of invading Goths destroyed it in A.D. 262.
Fig. B
Fig. C
STATUE OF ZEUS AT OLYMPIA, GREECE, 500 B.C. (Fig. C)
Using ivory and gold, the sculptor Phidias created a 40-foot-high statue of Zeus seated on his throne as a monument to the Olympic Games. Despite its huge size, the statue eventually disappeared off the earth. Many historians believe that a fire consumed it.
MAUSOLEUM OF MAUSSOLLOS, HALICARNASSUS, TURKEY, 353 B.C.
When King Maussollos died, his wife brought sculptors and designers from Greece to work on his tomb. They decorated the marble building with life-size statues of lions, horses, chariots, and soldiers. An earthquake destroyed Maussollos’s tomb, and scavengers used the crumbled pieces for other buildings. The beauty of the site lives on in ancient writings, and this wonder has also lasted in one unique way: The word “mausoleum” comes from it.
COLOSSUS OF RHODES, GREEK ISLAND OF RHODES, 280 B.C. (Fig. D)
Imagine sailing into a harbor through two giant legs. Legend has it that ancient Greek workers crafted a bronze statue of Helios, the god of the sun, so tall that it stood with one foot on either side of Rhodes harbor. Colossus guarded the harbor for more than 50 years until an earthquake knocked him down in 224 B.C. Later scholars believed he stood 105 feet tall.
Fig. D
LIGHTHOUSE OF ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT, 280 B.C.
Alexandria was one of the busiest ports in the ancient world, so not just any lighthouse would do. Alexandria’s was over 400 feet tall and the keeper always kept a massive fire lit at its top. Storms and earthquakes constantly battered this wonder, which finally fell into the sea during the 1400s.
Sometime around 300 B.C. a Greek explorer named Pytheas sailed from the Mediterranean Sea toward the north. He passed around England—and using his knowledge of the stars, and a kind of sundial, he estimated its size almost as well as we can today with sophisticated instruments. Then he sailed onward through ice and slush, which he reported “binds
all together, and can be traveled neither on foot nor by boat.” Making his way even in days of nearly total darkness, he probably reached Iceland. And then, having noted all he saw, he sailed back. At the time, many believed he made up the story of his travels. But his descriptions were both specific and accurate.
MA: Maybe I’d feel differently if I saw them, but the Seven Wonders sound like a lot of large buildings to me. A real ancient wonder: the Antikythera mechanism—a kind of computer for predicting the movements of planets and stars that the Greeks built around 100 B.C. That was amazing.
OF THESE SEVEN WONDERS, only the pyramids are still standing. Since then, the American Society of Civil Engineers has compiled a list of Seven Wonders of the Modern World, the greatest building achievements of the 20th century.