Welcome to “The Big Three-Oh!” I’m turning 30 at the end of July and to celebrate, I am counting down my best/favorite sports moments in my lifetime. If you missed the kickoff post, check it out for the background for the series. Today’s going to be pretty quick since I recently did a podcast on the topic and the athlete of day isn’t one I have too much of a connection to…
#18 — Magwire & Sosa in the 1998 Home Run Chase
I referenced a lot of my feelings about the 1998 Baseball Season in the podcast Emily and I did covering the ‘Long Gone Summer’ 30 for 30 on the podcast. The chase itself is one of my first “season-long narratives” I remember being invested about as my whole family loves baseball and my mom’s side of my family are huge Cubs fans.
I do remember watching McGwire’s 62nd homer live. We had just moved to Berwyn and were huddled around the TV while trying to eat dinner when it happened. I was excited to see the record actually get broken even though we wanted Sammy Sosa and the Cubs to be the more successful team (which is what happened, by the way). Overall, the nastalgia of the memory and that season propelled it to this spot. Doing a podcast on it a month ago, certainly helps with that as well. Although it doesn’t help for the length of this post. Go listen to that podcast for my full thoughts and feelings surrounding it.
Today’s Instagram Athlete
Nine years ago to count down the days until my 21st birthday, I posted a picture of athletes wearing the cooresponding number of day left to Facebook. While I did not have an Instagram account back in 2011, I have one now so I’ll be revisiting this idea in conjuncture with Top 30 Sports Moments. FOLLOW MY INSTAGRAM SO YOU DON’T MISS IT
I referenced it at the top but I don’t really have a connection to Peyton Manning. I picked him nine years ago as well mainly because the Flyers had just traded Mike Richards (who wore #18) and there weren’t any other Philly athletes who wore the number. There have really been any notable ones since. Seriously, Shake Milton and Josh McCown are the current athletes unless until Didi Gregorius plays a game for the Phillies and their impacts on my life remain to be seen. Frankly, I wish I could’ve found a deep cut to pull out but Peyton is probably the greatest athlete to wear the number in pro sports history.
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