Dave Hyde: What was your greatest day in sports? Read the answers.
Ichiro, Jason Taylor, Al Michaels share theirs
What was your best day in sports?
The simple questions provide the best answers.
Jason Taylor, Hall of Fame ex-Dolphin: “My best day in football — it changes as you go through your career. I used to say the draft. Then you realize the draft gets you in the door, but there’s so much work to do. One thing that stands out is my last game. There was a lot of focus on that game, because I’d announced my retirement. We win the game. In the victory formation, [interim coach] Todd Bowles put me as the running back. It was a great moment. Of course, I really wanted to play quarterback. I wanted to take the snap and take the knee. I was thinking about calling timeout. Then to be carried off the field was weird to me. Shula and Marino were the guys to carry off the field in Miami. Not me. I remember yelling at [teammates Paul] Soliai and Cam Wake and Kendall Langford as they’re trying to pick me up and saying, ‘Stop it, put me down.’ They’re fighting me, and I’m fighting them. We joke about that now.”
Al Michaels, TV announcer: “The 1980 Olympic hockey game [between the U.S. and Soviet Union]. It’s up on a shelf that can’t be reached for me. The backdrop of what was going on in the country, what was going on with the Soviet Union — and then to work a game like that and have a signature moment [“Do you believe in miracles?”]. I’ve been lucky enough to do
the biggest events, great World Series and great Super Bowls. Just last year was the New England comeback against Atlanta. But that hockey game is on a shelf by itself.” Ichiro Suzuki, Marlins outfielder: “All those days when I was a young boy and could feel myself getting better, day by day, at baseball. I’d play every day. And in third, fourth, fifth grade, every day I’d could just feel myself improving at the game. It was a great feeling.”
Katie Meier, University of Miami women’s
basketball coach: “My best day in basketball? I’ll tell you a stupid story. I’m the youngest of eight. Four older brothers all played sports. I was going into my senior year. My family had a limit on shoes. You could only spent $30. I knew Adidas Top Tens cost $88 — those, blue and red puffy ones. I remember calling the house hoping dad answered, not mom. He did, and I said, ‘Dad, I really want Adidas Top Tens.’ Dad said, ‘Yes.’ My brothers were so mad. I wore those Top Tens and got me a scholarship. No one had ever spent more than me on shoes — it comes up all the time at family reunions. I say it was a pretty good investment — $88 for five years at Duke. They say just the opposite. They could have got scholarships, too. That day, getting my Adidas Top Tens, that was special.” Kurt Warner, Hall of
Fame quarterback: “I started my first game in 1999 against New England, and we had a bye in Week 2. That’s when you had byes [that early]. I went back home to Cedar Falls, Iowa, where I went to school, with my wife. We were driving down the road, and I got a call that I’d been named Player of the Week after my first NFL start. It had taken me so long to get there. And I believed in my heart I could be good for a long time.
That phone call told me I had made it. I was considered the best, even if it was just for one game. I remember looking at my wife and saying, ‘We did it.’ I didn’t know if I’d play like that again. I didn’t know what was ahead. But on that one day all the work and dreams came to fruition.”
Trace Armstrong, former Dolphins defensive end: “It could have been the day I got Don Shula to read in a team meeting a list I made called, ‘The Top 10 Things That Say How Big [Dolphins tackle] Ron Heller’s Head Is.’ Shula was great. He read the list. Everyone was laughing. I remember one them was, ‘You’re not sure if you’d take $1 million or the amount of nickles that would fill Heller’s helmet.’” Marv Levy, Hall of Fame football coach: “The day I was hired in Buffalo. Just thinking of walking into the press conference that day is still an amazing memory. There were all these great people tired of going 2-14. Great owner [Ralph Wilson]. The best general manager in Bill
Polian. And all the players there — Jim Kelly, Bruce Smith, Andre Reed and down the line. I remember standing there that day thinking, ‘This is the kind of job you dream of getting.’ And it was.”
LaDainian Tomlinson, Hall of Fame running
back: “Hugging and celebrating in a locker room in Cleveland. That was the day we won our first division title with the Chargers. The first two, three years I was there, we were the bottom of the barrel. But the team grew up together. When we won in Cleveland to win the division, we knew it was the start of something. That was my best feeling in football.” Oronde Gadsden, former Dolphins receiver:
“There’s 1A and 1B. The first is my first catch in the NFL against the Colts from Dan Marino for 44 yards. Unbelievable. The next time we play the Colts, it’s third-and-10 late in the game. We need a first down to seal the win. During a timeout, [coach] Jimmy [Johnson] says to me on the sideline, ‘If they blitz two, run the hitch.’ I go, ‘All right.’ That’s been our hot read. But when we get in the huddle, Dan [Marino] says, ‘If they blitz two, run the go route.’ I’m in the middle. From the huddle to where I line up, I’m thinking, ‘What am I going to do?’ Jimmy had just cut Tyrone Wheatley for fumbling that week. But I ran the go route. The pass went for 40 yards. First down. Ball game. And I didn’t get cut.”
Tony Perez, Marlins adviser and Hall of Famer: “My first Opening Day in Cincinnati in 1964. I was 22. I’d made it to the big leagues for the first time. That was when Cincinnati opened the baseball season, and standing there, knowing I’d reached a dream, is something I don’t forget. I can’t even remember if I got a hit that day. I know in the second game I had a home run. But that first game? All I remember is how great it felt having made it there.”